Start List

Our selection of the best, fastest, toughest, quirkiest and most enjoyable UK races this month

January races. Come on now, put one in the diary and welcome the new year in style

Tyndrum 24

Get munching on some carrots because you’re going to need outstanding night vision for this one. Daylight doesn’t last very long in the depths of a Scottish winter, so for this 24-hour race (12- and six-hour options also available), with 8km laps, you’ll need to be comfortable with rocky and hilly terrain, and only a headlamp (and your aforementioned Bugs Bunny vision) to guide you. You can also form a team with another 24-hour runner for some much-needed emotional support. Tyndrum Lower, Perthshire, January 18, wayoutside.co.uk

Gloucester Marathon

Here’s a small and friendly marathon to get 2020 off to a good start – and, as a bonus, it’s traffic-free and largely flat. You’ll run four laps of the main course, which are sandwiched between a couple of laps in Quedgeley and a mile section at the other end. There are half-marathon and 50km options, too. Hot showers are available when you’re done, and you may very well need one. Quedgeley, Gloucester, January 19, gloucestermarathon.co.uk

Carlisle Resolution Run 5K & 10K

This is a good, old-fashioned road race to help shake off those winter cobwebs. It follows mostly flat country roads to the south of

Carlisle and loops back around to end in front of the grandstand at Carlisle Racecourse. This is a good opportunity to check your 5K or 10K time and see just how much damage those deliciously evil mince pies have done over the past month. Carlisle, Cumbria, January 19, sportinaction.co.uk

Hangover 10K

There’s a medal for all finishers of this race, but we all know that the real reward for crossing the line is smugly knowing that you belted out 6.2 miles on New Year’s Day morning while everyone else was asleep/still partying/having a guilty fry-up with a thumping headache. It’s a fast and flat course, so usually we’d say there’s no reason not to post a decent time…but you can have a pass just this once. Kewstoke, Bristol, January 1, westonac.co.uk

Blade Runner Ultra Marathon Series – Winter

You know it’s a serious event when there are checkpoints where you must sign in and be assessed to ensure you’re in good-enough shape to continue. A look at the details and suddenly it all makes sense: 50km and 2,200m of ascent. You’ll (hopefully) make it to the top of Pen-y-Fan twice over the course of this run – once soon after the start and once not long before you finish. All the better for taking in the glorious Brecon Beacon views, if you can lift your head. Libanus, Brecon, January 11, thefandancerace.com

Fowlmead Chocathon

Six full hours of either eating chocolate or running sounds like a bit too much of a good thing. But some absolute genius has discovered that when you combine the two, the time can fly by in a blissful whirlwind of consuming and burning calories in the most delicious and fun way possible. You can eat as much •

chocolate as you like while running as many laps of the 7km course as you want. So, one half-hearted lap at a suspiciously slow pace, followed by six hours of chocolate…

Deal, Kent, January 11, saxon-shore.com

The Gravesend Floodlit 10K and 5K Series

The Gravesend Cyclopark will be lit up for this evening event – either four laps of the park for the 10K or two for the 5K. The course is all asphalt, with only a couple of small undulations, and from a quick look at the results from previous years, it looks like a fast race, but not an intimidatingly blistering one. A good event to make sure you’re in decent form when spring rolls around. Gravesend, Kent, January 30, nice-work.org.uk

Peddars Way Ultra

Reckon Norfolk is flat and boring? Do this 48-miler and see if you can say that at the end. It starts near the Suffolk border and heads north to the coast, undulating all the way. You’ll have covered several hundred muddy metres of ascent by the end, powered by some hot soup at the mile-26 checkpoint. The finish is at the village hall in Kirkgate and you’re

Beyond The Far Side

This event, which takes you through the Wiltshire countryside, along the edge of Salisbury Plain, throws down an interesting challenge: complete 24 laps in 24 hours and not only will you get your entry fee refunded, you’ll also get free entry to next year’s event (although it’s a moot point whether this is an incentive or not). Be warned, though: that means running almost 205km and 6,218m of ascent. Happily, there are less-terrifying options to choose from: an ‘ordinary’ 24-hour event, as well as a 12-hour, a six-hour and a 10K. There will be bountiful aid stations with endless fuel, including vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options. The bean hotpot always goes down a storm, we’re told. Westbury, Wiltshire, January 17-18, crookedtrackswiltshire.co.uk promised a mammoth baked potato as a reward for your magnificent, exhausting efforts. Knettishall, Suffolk, January 25, positivestepspt.co.uk

Kielder Winter 10 Trail Run

Kielder Forest Park has a plethora of outstanding outdoor activities to choose from at the best of times, and this run really showcases the best of what the park has to offer. Kielder Castle is the start, finish and halfway(-ish) point of a route that includes a draining ascent up Ravenshill, crosses under the spectacular Kielder Viaduct along the River North Tyne and then loops up over the viaduct, following the old railway tracks until a quick downhill to the finish, where warm food and a log fire await you at the castle. Hexham, Northumberland, January 4, highterrainevents.co.uk

Wirral Way Winter 10K

There’s nothing quite like a fresh, bracing sea breeze on a crisp winter’s morning, eh? You’ll have exactly that for every step of this race. It starts at Wirral Country Park and heads north along the coast as far as West Kirby before turning back. If you start to flag before the end, remember that there will be cake at the finish line and the person in front of you will probably try to eat it all, so you’d best overtake them. Thurstaston, Wirral, 4 January, time2runevents.co.uk

New Year’s Day Awakener

It is eminently sensible to have a race on this particular morning start and end at a pub – the truly dedicated could go there the night before in preparation for the 11:30am start. The establishment in question is The Red Lion, just north of Rochdale, and the route is a hilly and scenic mixed terrain 5K that includes two laps of the Brownhouse Wham Reservoir. Rochdale, Lancashire, 1 January, bookitzone.com

Central Lancs Half Marathon

Now in its 11th year, this no-nonsense half marathon explores the Lancashire countryside west of Preston. There are enough small hills to keep things interesting as the route winds through the delightful-sounding villages of Catforth, Eaves, Inskip, Wharles and Treales. As with many of these winter events, hot food is promised at the finish line. Proper order. Preston, Lancashire, 5 January, fyldecoastrunners.com

Farnborough Half Marathon

If you’ve kept up your fitness over Christmas (in which case, good on you but also: stop making the rest of us look bad, please), this is an excellent early opportunity to test out your speed endurance. It’s the first sizable half of the year, with a 2,500-strong field and a flat, looped course that starts and finishes under the famous Farnborough airship hangar.

Hampshire, January 26, 209events.com