New Races for 2026
As we announced last year we have a new race coming in late 2026, it will be a winter race on the St Edmund Way. A trail run of around 80 miles with regular indoor checkpoints. Tracking, medical support and well stocked Checkpoints approximately 15 miles apart. Starting December 5th 2026
We are still at the early stages of planning and as we finalise details over the next couple of months we will add more detail to the event page.
Entries are open with big discounts for early entry.
St Edmund Way Ultra
Thetford 24 hour.
We are also currently starting to plan a traditional 24 hour race in Thetford Forest in early or late Summer. We are just conforming dates and permissions with the Team at Thetford.
It will be mostly on the same route as the Backyard course so around 4 miles per lap, starting on a Saturday at 12pm and finishing Sunday 12pm. There will be a 6 and 12 hour version and it will be open to Solo Runners, Pairs and teams of up to 4 runners with trophies for Male, Female and Mixed Pairs/Teams. Camping onsite
Once we have a date agreed with the park we will add the event to the calendar.
Trail Team
We are also to continue building a " Trail Team " of volunteers to check our routes during the year and just before races. With all the events we do and the other activities such as Challenge First Aid and my expedition work we need volunteers to help us manage the routes. Routes have been split into sections and you will get substantial discounts of the race you check the route of and our other races if you help us out. Please see the Trail Team section of the website for more info and how to get involved. We have started getting volunteers for these roles which is great to see.
https://www.challenge-running.com/contents/3257-trail-team
Thetford and Suffolk Backyard Festivals
for 2026 our Thetford and Suffolk Backyards have changed names to become Backyard Festivals where we will offer several entry options, full event, 12 hour and 6 hour races. This will give those of us new to backyards or those with more modest targets a lower price point for the event. You will automatically be DNF at your max hours and also can not continue past your hours. See individual race info.
Currently we are over half full for the SBYU, we have allocated 300 places for the full event and 100 each for the 6 and 12 hour events.
Get your entry in soon.
Price Rises - Sorry!
Unfortunately we have to increase the cost of events this year, we have tried to keep prices similar over the last couple of years amid rising costs by making T-Shirts and other merchandise optional items but unfortunately we now need to review all our event prices from now.
Over the next few days to a couple of weeks we will be adding 5-10% to all our event costs to cover the recent increases in costs to put the events on. T-Shirts, Medals, Bus Hire, Insurance and Venue costs have all increased dramatically over the last year or two and if we don't increase the entry fees there will not be any events to run in 2027.
As an example at the Thames ring events, venue costs have increased by over £1,000 alone last year!
We still hope you see our events as value for money with all of them still well under £2 per mile including great support and trackers etc.
We will still be doing early bird dynamic pricing where the 1st group of people to enter get a great discount and the sooner you enter the cheaper it is.
If you are quick you may get an entry at the current price before we change it!
Policies Update
We have updated our policies with reference to Pregnancy Deferrals, Transfer and deferral cut off times and a change to the cost of deferring or transferring your place
Have a read here
Bearded God AI bot
You will notice a little bearded face pop up on our race pages, it's an AI bot to help you find info on the pages. Things like start times, entry info, and rules etc. If you can't see the info on the race page then ask the Bearded AI god and see what he says, if he can't help there is an option to message us through his pop up. As we get questions we keep adding to his possible FAQ's. At the moment it's only on the event pages and questions should be about that event or general event rules and info.
Let us know what you think of the AI bot?
