With weather that would have had Noah diving for his ark the order of the day(s) in the run up to this year’s Country to Capital Ultra Marathon, it was with some trepidation as well as excitement that nearly 400 runners lined up outside Wendover’s Shoulder of Mutton pub on Saturday.

For those who don’t know, the Country to Capital is a 43-mile race that slaloms it’s way across the Buckinghamshire countryside, taking in the well-heeled streets of Denham and heading along the sometimes-maligned Grand Union Canal before finishing at the Stowe Centre next to the Little Venice Canal in old London Town.

If people didn’t know it already, Saturday will have taught them that the first 17-or-so miles are muddy, And where they are not muddy, they are very muddy. The rest of the race is a long shoot down by the canal, prompting many of those at the front of the field to undergo a well-timed pit stop/trainer change somewhere in between those two stages.

But I digress. The point of today’s post is to celebrate all our runners who took on and completed this challenging, ultra curtain raiser for the running year.

It was a privilege to see so many exhausted, but happy faces crossing the line having pushed themselves to their absolute limit and achieving things they never thought they would.

Everyone who took part was an absolute champion and we salute you all.