My ultramarathon ambition is to run a 'not real' one

Not the St Swithun's Way, but with similar views (hopefully)

I am planning on running an ultramarathon at the end of September. I'll go the length of the St Swithun's trail, in the inaugural St Swithun's Way Ultramarathon. Sounds flash, eh? Well, get this: the event is one of the most exclusive ultras in the world – in fact there will be only one entrant: me.

Yes, as things stand, I will be taking on the entire 34 miles of the trail on my own. So to call it an organised event is only true to the extent that I will have to pack a bag with water and food – and a couple of maps – then find my way to the start line. There will be nobody to wave me off and, if I am lucky, my wife and children will be the only ones at the end to greet me at the end. Which begs the question: Why? Why spend what will probably be a good six or more hours running for no real purpose?

Here's why:

The Edmund Hillary rationale

The first person to conquer Everest said people climb mountains "for the hell of it". But apart from the "because it's there" argument, this run is achievable. There are other trails near where I live which are up to 100 miles long, but as I have never run more than 27 (after a slight wrong turn during a trail marathon) to attempt a solo run of a 100 miles – or even 50 – is a little ambitious. Around 34 miles will be quite enough, for this year at least.

It sounds fun

It will obviously be hard and I am not going to feel great in some parts of it. But after interviewing Jez Bragg, the ultra-runner who recently completed a 1800-mile traverse of New Zealand, as well as listening to various runners talk about their runs on the Talkultra podcast, the way they talked about what it is like to spend time inside their own heads, through the highs and lows of a long run, intrigued me.

Jez told me after he got back from New Zealand: “Racing is never the most enjoyable part of my running. I have always enjoyed the long training runs more, just because you can go as far as you like, whenever you like. I enjoyed being on my own.”

And on the solitude of running with only your own thoughts for company, he added: “I had all that time to think about things and spend time in my own head. When you run with somebody else, you feel – whether it is actually true or not – that you don't have your own rhythm.

“You go out, have thoughts, then have other thoughts in reaction to those first ones and in the end you have worked a lot of things out. It is quite remarkable, how much you can work out while you are out for a few hours on a run.”

Of course the St Swithun's trail is not nearly as far as most of Jez's daily output - and it is also a fraction of what many runners on the Talkultra podcast achieve in a week's training, but, as I said above, it is a start.

It is not an arbitrary distance 

This is not a plotted loop or point-to-point which measures 26.2 miles, 50km, or 50 miles. The run will be 34 miles long because that is how long the trail is from beginning to end. That makes it interesting for me, because it is not an artificially plotted route - it is just how long it is.

I am middle-aged 

I'll be honest, when you start to put a 4 at the front of your age, you start to question your own mortality. And doing a stupidly long run is preferable to all parties than buying a sports car or having an affair.

To show off 

Well, isn't that part of the reason why most of us toe the line in running races? We tell people it is about challenging ourselves, or keeping fit or being in control of our own bodies, but there is an element of being able to tell people 'I ran for six hours for no apparent reason yesterday' that drives me to run long distances.

Cash

Proper ultramarathons are too bloody expensive.