Thoughts before setting off.. the Sussex Lap

Hi! I'm Joe.

Some thoughts before setting off on Sussex Lap in July - let's talk about training. 2026 has been going pretty well running wise. I had made a decision to enter as many big races as I could, test myself and enjoy the experience.

January started with my first ever UTMB race in Cornwall, the 50k Arc of Attrition. Setting off down the cobbled streets of St Ives with drizzle and the smell of cornish pasties wafting through the air, the route turned to sand dunes and ankle deep mud over a hilly route that hugged the northern clifftops. I pushed hard up the final climb trying to keep under six hours and ended up a minute over with 6hrs 01 - but I was happy to finish and get my first UTMB stones.

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In March I ran the Steyning Stinger 30k, my local trail race which has become something of an annual pilgrimage for myself and my mate Baz, mostly for the post-race breakfast and hash browns served at the grammar school HQ. This year it was cold and foggy on the tops, but I knew where I was going and everything completely clicked pace-wise - all went perfectly and I took 20 minutes off my previous year's time, pushing my UTMB index above 500 for the distance.

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After 15 years of speculatively trying every year to get into the London Marathon ballot, in 2026 I finally got lucky! On a warm morning in April, I walked into Blackheath Park to join 50,000+ other runners and hearing the iconic music of the festival of running I've watched on TV every year since I was a kid.

After the first few miles, once all the different start waves merge in, the density of people and sheer relentless volume grabs hold of you and never lets up for the rest of the race. London turns up en masse for this marathon - the pubs are open early and running through Deptford, Greenwich and Bermondsey you really feel the crowds in a way I've never experienced before - 5/6 people deep the whole way, lining the streets cheering, pints and banners in hand, pub bands, makeshift PAs and samba groups flooding your senses as you focus on sticking with your pacemaker (and wondering whether Daddy Pig running next to you is actually Harry Styles in disguise). I had to take a video of crossing Tower Bridge to prove it happened, after which the second half of the race starts to feel a bit real in your legs and you navigate the winding bends, bands and run-through showers at Canary Wharf, the road throwing you back out the way you came past Tower Gateway and the never ending riverbank that finally finally takes you to the corner of Big Ben and you know you're almost there.

I crossed the line in 3hrs 54 to be met with the buzz that Sebastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha had finally broken the mythical 2 hour marathon - an unforgettable race and historic day to have been part of.

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After this came my second UTMB race, the Ultra Trail Snowdonia 50k in May. This was always going to be a big step up for me in distance and elevation - nothing on the south coast can be called a mountain, yet this course involved 3400m+ of ups and downs.

The first descent from Snowdon to Pen-y-Pass was slippery and jagged, I had expected to walk most of the uphill but the terrain was too technical for me to feel comfortable running any of it and I came into the first checkpoint later than expected. I caught up a few miles in a lower muddy cross country section, but then the second climb of the day back up Snowdon began - and it was a cold, exposed, foggy scramble with hands getting numb, caught in low clouds with hidden drops either side of a ridge. Reaching the summit was a slow hike, I was freezing, spirits were low with no way to warm up. I ate what I could and tried to push on with the descent to the next checkpoint aid station, but again the terrain was too rocky and technical and my fear of falling meant I could get no speed up to make up for lost time.

Coming into the aid station at 32k, I could still run but I knew I had a decision to make - I could possibly make the next checkpoint but I was moving too slowly over this ground to finish the race. I wasn't enjoying myself, I was sure this wasn't just a temporary phase that would pass and I was spending too much energy worrying about picking up an injury. I sat on a bench in the barn, swapped out cold wet layers, had a sandwich and gave it five minutes to be sure - but I was done. I handed in my first ever race DNF, put on a fleece and joined a surprisingly cheerful group of others who had made the same choice to wait for a shuttle bus.

Runners are a positive bunch who always have stories, strategies and dreams to talk about - I was proud to be one of them that day, on the bus back off the mountain, in the pubs and restaurants of Llanberis on the finish line that night, congratulating those who found their way back in darkness and their perspectives on the experience we shared. It's another story in the bank, a lesson learned and you fight another day.

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I had entered the Montane Summer Spine race on the Pennine Way in June, but the Snowdonia DNF made me think twice about my preparedness to run another long technical course. With the plans for Sussex Lap taking shape in my head, I decided to pull out of the Spine race, stay local and channel my energies into a July attempt at this instead.

So that's the 2026 race calendar so far - three finishes, one DNF and one did not start. And here we are! It's halfway through June, the temptation to stay up late watching World Cup matches is real and I am planning the day to day itinerary of Sussex Lap with one eye on news of impending heatwaves. Next week I plan to run the Mid Sussex Link North to South as part of training to check my fitness levels, so will write a further post about how that goes once I've done it.