This year’s Druids Challenge started on Friday 11th November and finished on Sunday 13th November. First for the men was Julien Laurent with 12.16.31 and first for the women was Sarah Hill with 12.43.10. She also came 4th overall.
Druids is one of the absolute favourites of the ultra running calendar in the UK. It is 135km and takes you from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Swindon in Wiltshire over 3 days, with 2 over night stops in Watlington and Wantage. It has one qualifying UTMB point.
Runners love it and we get consistently good reviews for it as you can see from this one by Jazsanalli:
“The Druids Challenge runs across the Ridgeway which is well marked with fingerposts and National Trust acorn signs, and with the easy to read route card as well it’s pretty difficult to get lost. There are plenty of challenges in there – exposed terrain, hills, scree and lots of wind and rain – but the distances each day are manageable and there are well stocked checkpoints to refuel along the way. The evenings usually involve bedding down in a hall with all the other runners, and it’s a lot of fun – like camping but with a little bit less mud 🙂 Being immersed in the experience with 150 other people for three days is the cherry on the cake for me, and there are often guest speakers talking about their experiences of ultra runnign and the MDS as well. I’m still buzzing from this year and already can’t wait to sign up for the next one”
It is also a great training run for some of the other big multi stage races like Marathon des Sables. Quite a few of the MDS2017 UK crew took part including John Samuelson and Cher MassiveEast.
See more here.
