My First 100-Mile Ultramarathon: South Downs Way 100 in 22:43:38

Somewhere between the aid stations of the South Downs Way 100, I ran out of water. I was carrying a hydration pack, and in hindsight it was the wrong call — I would choose a front soft-flask vest every time now. That is the kind of lesson a hundred miles teaches you: not in a spreadsheet, but out on the course with the next permitted supply point still miles away.

I finished in 22:43:38 — starting at six on Saturday morning, 8 June 2024, and reaching the end at 04:43 on Sunday. My bib was 561, and the official result places me 126th overall. But the number is the end of the story, not the story.

Getting to the start line

For this race I hired a running coach, and we kept updating the plan against what my Garmin actually recorded rather than following a static spreadsheet. Preparation and tapering were built around that feedback, with training on the steep hills near Lake Viverone in Italy. I had never run a hundred miles before.

The night section

The part that stays with me is the dark. Navigating at night over loose, rough stones demands a different kind of attention — every footfall is a small decision, and the course stops feeling like a path and starts feeling like a negotiation. By the end my Garmin was down to about 3% battery, which is not a margin I would recommend to anyone.

The warmest part of the whole experience was the other runners. The company out there was consistently positive, and it mattered. A hundred miles is long enough that the people around you become part of how you get through it.

What I said just after the finish

Shortly after the race I recorded a video of roughly 36 minutes about the experience: South Downs Way 100: My First 100-Mile Ultramarathon Experience. The firsthand details above come from that recording, made in June 2024 while the race was fresh — video memories age badly, so I wanted them written down.

One correction to my own memory: in the video I say the finish was roughly "22 hours 45 minutes". The official tracker records 22:43:38, and that is the figure this site uses. The video is an approximate recollection; the record below is the record. Nothing here is a promise that my preparation would work for anyone else — it is a description of what I did, not a prescription.

The official record

The official tracker is the reference used here — search my name or bib 561 for the Finish status and full row. Other databases may display a slightly different figure; I use 22:43:38 consistently because that is the event-tracker time. The placing is the overall event result, not an age-group ranking or a ranking across editions.

Official result and checkpoint chronology — South Downs Way 100 2024.

The recorded start is 06:00:00 on 8 June and the finish 04:43:38 on 9 June; the elapsed result includes the entire interval, not moving time alone. Dividing the nominal 100-mile distance by that duration gives a whole-event average of about 4.4 miles an hour — a calculation from the advertised distance, not a measured GPS pace, and a poor instruction for how to run the next hill.

These selected tracker entries show the race extending through the day and into the night. A checkpoint reading does not reveal what happened between timing points — my physical condition, or how much of an interval was spent stopped. Treating those readings as a training schedule would attach a precision the evidence does not support.

Six months later: Winter Downs 200

In December 2024 I completed Winter Downs 200 in 69:14:32, 18th overall. The nominal distance doubled; the elapsed duration was a little over three times my South Downs Way 100 time. That is an instructive comparison about scale, not a verdict on performance — different events, different seasons. Read the Winter Downs 200 report for what changes in gear and support when one long day becomes three.

The earlier stories behind this finish

The result belongs to a longer history of running. My first Chicago marathon diary is the starting point. Four marathons in four weeks explores repeated race commitments; preparing for a 42-mile ultramarathon covers an earlier move beyond marathon distance. The endurance hub keeps the verified results and original diaries together.