On Saturday, Elly Blake, of Newport & District Running Club, took part in an epic challenge: the Goring Gap 80km ultramarathon. Starting and finishing in Mapledurham, near Reading, Berkshire, the route takes runners into Reading itself, before they head north-west along the river Thames almost all the way to Abingdon, where, after 45km of running, they head back along the river, via a slightly different route, back to the finish. 

Elly on one of many shoe changes!

Along the way, runners must check in at various checkpoints, at places such as Shillingford, Wallingford and Goring, and a strictly enforced cut-off time means that some runners have to drop out of the race if they are below a certain pace. Elly finished in a time of 13 hours, 56 minutes, 33 seconds, and said the day afterwards: “Great event at Goring Gap 80km yesterday. I was the final one inside the cut-off time of 14 hours by just 2 minutes. I made several shoe changes to try and avoid blisters!”

Elly showing off the amazing scenery at the race!