Written by James Belton

2 years ago when I was training for my first marathon (Eryri) I hit a bit of a barrier. All my training was being done on the streets around Stockport and Manchester, and I really wasn’t enjoying it. At one point I actually promised myself not to do anything like this again, but that all went out of the window after crossing the finish line of that race. In order to get more enjoyment from running I started looking for trail marathons and one that appeared in the search results was the Giants Head Marathon. Unfortunately the dates didn’t really work due to other races I was looking at doing but it meant that I’d now heard of White Star Running and, most importantly, had seen the types of races they were putting on.

The Ox races are a series of races (Half marathon, Marathon and Ultramarathon) all held on the same day at the Rushmore Estate in Wiltshire. Having had my first crack at an ultra last year (and failing to finish it) I had decided to have a go at the 35(ish) mile Ox ultra….partly (mostly) because the medals looked cool. After a far from ideal build up to the race due to various injuries and niggles I was a bit apprehensive when it came to setting off on what turned out to be a 6hr drive in bank holiday traffic from Manchester to Wiltshire. Since the middle of March I had only managed one run over 10k due to ITBS. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea….especially since I’d also signed up to do the 11k Dark Ox night race the night before as “a bit of a warm up”. Having finally arrived and set up the tent we were quickly caught up in the friendly atmosphere on site. A few hours later and we were lining up at the start line of the Dark Ox, and a little under an hour later I was back. Medal number one of the weekend had been bagged.

6.30am arrived all too soon, having seemingly forgotten my plan of running the Dark Ox gently and saving my legs for the main event. After a short race briefing by Andy we were off and into the woods of the estate. What had started off as a foggy morning was now really warm and as we emerged from the woods onto the top of the first proper hill we were greeted by beautiful views across the countryside. I seemed to have fallen into a group of runners that, although not running together, were around each other for the bulk of the day. The miles were ticking by and before I knew it we were at 13 miles. At this point I was surprised to see one of the other ultra runners heading towards us. It turns out he was actually about 5 miles ahead of us as there was a loop from 13 miles to 18. I filled my water bottles and set off on the loop, returning back to the water station around an hour later, by which point they were running low on supplies as all the marathon runners had now caught up having set off only an hour after us. I took half a bottle of water and set off again. After one more downhill section that took us into very picturesque little village there was about 15km of gradual uphill and I was starting to get pretty thirsty. Unfortunately a few of the water stations along this section appeared to be running low of water as well. Thankfully the weather felt like it had cooled down and there was a bit of a breeze but a number of other runners appeared to be struggling a bit. At this point my ITBS was starting to make itself known, especially on the down-hills, but I was chuffed to have made it this far without any pain. With some mental arithmetic I worked out that there was only about 5km left.......this is where the wording of the advertised race distance (35-ish miles) becomes relevant. We came into the water station that we were expecting to be at the foot of the final hill only to be told that there was around 3 miles left and it turns out that the bulk of this was uphill. White Star Running have what they call the “Lovestation” at their races. The idea of this is that you stop off and have a bit of cake, a hug and a drink….of cider. This is a stroke of genius and I could have stayed there for hours. By this point the campsite was now in view so we were near the end. Karen (Lovestation lady) referred to the remainder of the route as a “slight undulation”, which actually meant “bit of downhill before a short but steep uphill” and over the line to another awesome medal, more cider, pizzas and the party atmosphere.

I crossed the line in 7hrs and 20mins. Slower than I had hoped for but was still happy considering the lack of training in build up to the race and the extra couple of miles. In reality, the course profile makes the route look hillier than it is. I think my legs would probably have struggled a bit if it was a whole lot steeper so it was actually quite a relief.

White Star Running really know how to put on a great event. The marshalls are all brilliant and everything about the weekend was just a little bit quirky.   I’ll defin