Wendover Woods 50 2024 Preview

The eighth edition of the Wendover Woods 50 kicks off this coming Saturday 9th November at 0930. After a summer edition in 2023 where it formed part of our our Wendover Woods Weekender - the race returns to it's traditional place in the calendar, as the regular season finale. It always feels like a party because of that, but also because of the looped nature of the course, with runners returning to our base in Trig Point Field four times to join in the fun, before crossing the line to finish at the end of their fifth, 10 mile lap.

Conditions in November in the woods are good for the time of year on the whole because they drain so well - the chalk ridge running off steeply in all directions. Individual sections can get muddy but right now the course is in good shape and if heavy rain steers clear from now until after race day, there will be some fast times but that is all relative, as the course boasts 10,000 feet of climb and descent making it one of the hilliest races in the southern part of the country. The 15 hour cut off is 2 hours longer than any other 50 miler we host.

This year we have a field of 300 and what as always looks to be some good racing at the front both races. Here is a look at the likely leading contenders. 

Fi Pascall on route to a course record win in 8:33 back in 2022

WOMEN

Holly Stables: Holly is our long standing North Downs Way 50 record holder. The ex-GB Marathoner with a best of 2:37, has now been running ultras for over a decade and in that time has taken wins at the Autumn 100, Ultravasan, Cotswold Way Century and many shorter events. 7th at Comrades, two top ten finishes at CCC - she has done brilliantly internationally too. This year she came home second at the Arc 50 back in January and has raced plenty of shorter events too cracking 3 hours at Manchester Marathon and more recently running 84 minutes for the half at Amsterdam. 

Michelle Attridge: Michelle is our 2024 50 mile Grand Slam leader having won the South Downs Way 50 back in April and followed that up with a second at the North Downs Way 50 in May. She’s raced several times internationally in between times and done well in all. She finished third at the Chiltern Wonderland 50 in September, dropping back from the lead in the closing stages, but that still gives her a healthy margin in the overall slam standings over 69 minutes over second place Ally Whitlock.

Michelle at the CW50 in September

Ally Whitlock: Currently second behind Michelle in the Grand Slam table with a third, a fourth and a ninth so far this year. She also finished third at the NDW100 in what has been quite the year of racing. Previously she’s finished many of our races in the top ten and on the podium in more recent years including the Autumn 100, Winter Downs 200 and Wendover Woods 100.

Sophie Power: SheRaces founder and Team GB international Sophie, returns to this event for the second time, having finished third here in 2022. In the interim, she has gone from strength to strength with two sensational 24hr performances in 2023 in particular, a 235km at Crawley and then a 227km top 20 finish at the World Championships in Taipei. She has scores of superb performances to her name over the 15 years, but most notably for us she was one of the pioneering few who finished the first ever Thames Path in 2012, in truly atrocioius conditions back when it was held in early March!

Helen Moss: Helen finished second at the South Downs Way 50 this year under 8 hours, dropped a little further back in the Grand Slam standings with an 11th at the NDW50 in May but then turned it back around with a fifth place at the Chiltern Wonderland 50. She is a previous winner of the Chiltern Challenge with XNRG and the Downslink Ultra.  

Becky Pearson: Becky is enjoying a fantastic 2024 with a fourth at the SDW50 and a seventh at the SDW100 already this year. 

MEN

Alastair Courtney: Fresh off of the back of a win at the Chiltern Wonderland 50. Alastair is having quite the year with us. Third at the Hundred Hills 50km in a super competitive field, he went on to win the South Downs Way 50 in 6:27 and took second at the North Downs Way 50 in 6:38. He leads the men’s Grand Slam 50 mile table. 

Matt Hammerton: Matt set the Wendover Woods Night 50km course record in 2022 when he ran a storming 4:27 to win by over half an hour. That record was lowered by GB International Joe Turner in 2023, but only by 3 minutes. This year Matt finished fourth at the SDW100 in 15:04.

Pete Windross: Known by all at Centurion for being one of the most consistent performers over many years. With wins at the SDW100 and TP100, as well as several Grand Slam 100 mile finishes - Pete rarely steps down to 50 miles so it's good to see him racing here. This year so far he's taken a third at the SDW100 in 14:48 and a seventh at the TP100, both of which were his seventh finishes at each event.

Tim Bradley: Fifth here in 2022, Time went on to become our 2023 South Downs Way 100 champion. He also won the Spine Challenger North that year. This year he ran home 35th at Lavaredo in a solid international field. 

Tim Bradley on route to winning the SDW100

Sam Downing: Second at the Arc 50 last year and the second fastest all time on that course. Has a string of other top tens including the Arc of Attrition, Dartmoor in a Day 50km, Serpent Trail 50km and the Classic Quarter.

Mike Jones: Mike was the founder of the Ultra Trail Snowdonia and is the man behind the Apex Running events. But as an athlete he achieved great success, becoming a winner at Lakeland 100 in both 2016 and 2017. After some years out dealing with a few issues it was great to see him back nearer the top of his game as he took sixth at the same event again this year. 

Tom Hedges: Tom was second at last years Chiltern Wonderland 50, previously finished fourth at the Night 50km version of this event and won the Humanity Direct Chiltern Ultra held in the same area, this year. 

Mark Potts: Mark finished fifth at the Chiltern Wonderland 50 in September. His real home ground is the Pennine Way though, having finished second at both the Spine Summer and Spine Winter full, as well as having previously taken the victory at the Spine Summer Challenger. 

Sam Harper: Sam was second at Race to the Stones in 2023 and third at the North Downs Way 50 in 2022.

Iain Ward: Winner over the past year at both the Norfolk 100km and Peddars Way ultra, both quite different in profile to Wendover of course! 

Follow the race live via the link here or on the homepage available later this week.