Is this the craziest race in England?

In Portsmouth, athletes are preparing for a historic first in the UK: an entirely clandestine marathon.

The race takes runners deep into Portsdown Hill, into the former Royal Navy bunkers used to track the progress of Allied troops on D-Day.

This is the idea of ​​Sussex Trail Events – known for their original races – inspired by the German Kristallmarathon, organized in a disused salt mine.

They have previously held races in other unlikely locations, including prisons, a pier and a multi-storey car park. So, is this their craziest ride yet?

“It’s up there,” said Jay McCardle, who started Sussex Trail Events in 2012 with fellow running enthusiasts Danny Cunnett and Chris Ette.

“But because it was a one-off and it’s quite difficult to get multi-storey parking, I think it’s actually the one people are talking about the most.”

The now legendary race, in 2017, involved 60 people running laps of a disused car park in their home town of Worthing, West Sussex.

Ultra runner Mark Johnston, who has completed 248 marathons in total, is the only person to have run all of Jay, Danny and Chris’ unconventional events.

“They could have a race in a phone booth and I would come,” he said.

“You can run around the city center every day, but it’s a privilege to be able to run through prisons, parking lots and museums.

“It’s exciting.”

Mark, from Brighton, said the most surreal event was Night at the Museum in December 2023, when participants took laps inside the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset.

“One minute you were running through the trenches in the dark with all the noise and screaming, then the next minute they were playing Christmas music,” he said.

Laura Watts, another ultra athlete, agreed that “the Tank Museum was the craziest.”

“My Garmin wasn’t working there, so I had no idea how far it was, but it was great,” she said.

“There was so much to look at that I wanted to stop and look at all the floats.”

Laura, from Bognor Regis, is the only woman to have run the infamous Badwater Ultra in Death Valley three times.

But after taking part in races around the world, she says none have been as silly or strange as running on Southend Pier or around a museum.

“I love this extreme, crazy side of things,” she said.

“I don’t know how they come up with some of these races – it’s just brilliant.

“I think Southend Pier is one of my favorites – you can see people and there’s lots to look at – it went really quickly.”

The Portsdown bunkers, known as UGHQ, were built beneath Fort Southwick in 1942, but now host military-themed combat games.

Runners will complete 90 laps of the tunnel system, including 20-meter sections that may require some taller participants to duck.

“The lights will be different colors to add to the sensory deprivation,” Jay said.

“One of the tunnels is not lit at all, so they have to wear bicycle helmets and headlamps.”

Mark said: “You’ll be laughing all the time.

“If I wasn’t 5’9, it would be tricky. Some guys are 6’1, so it’ll be a little different for them.”

The most recent event at Dorchester Prison, on November 2, consisted of two 26.2-mile runs around the disused Victorian prison – the second of which took place in the dark.

David Andrewartha from Hayle, Cornwall, completed the day race in around four hours and 24 minutes, while wearing an orange mankini.

The course consisted of 55 laps involving hundreds of steps up and down narrow metal staircases, which prompted David to rethink his training strategy.

“I live on a plantation that has steps, so I did 200 repetitions of those steps for an hour and a half every other day,” he said.

Mark, who completed the day and night races, admitted it was “tough”.

“It got pretty disgusting at the end,” he said.

Organizers also ran a 5k in flip-flops, a treadmill marathon and another on a 400m grass school track.

They’re already planning for next year and have put out a call to fans of quirky races for suggestions – offering useful examples like “a roundabout, a building, a football pitch, a track”.

They insist any mention of events at Greggs or Tesco was just a joke, although it can be difficult to know where they draw the line.

Chris Ette, who now lives in Dorset, said: “We’re just looking for dark areas and fun places to run that would be totally different for runners, would give them a whole new experience.

“We have a lot of other ideas. We’re always looking for new venues and always asking riders for ideas and trying to make them happen.”

When asked if the trio ran sensible races, he laughed.

“No, actually, it’s not.”