My Dream Goa A: Under 21h30 (not achievable so I am not going aim for it
My Dream Goal B:Under 22h (miracle would need to happen, not aiming for it)
My Realistic Goal A: Under 22h30
My Realistic Goal B: Under 23h?
My Realistic Goal C: beat my SDW100 PB under 23h20

Am I delusional? Am I too bold?

I don’t think so. Here is how I worked it out?

My SDW 100 finish time in 2022 was 23h20. It was my first 100 miler that I completed after three failed attempts at North Downs Way 100. From 1 Jan 2022 to SDW100 I ran 1,479 and climbed 25,131m. This year I ran 1,179 km and climbed a total of 20,214m.

It’s 20% less. However, in 2022 I did nothing but easy miles. This year I split my training into 3 different blocks: Vo2 Max, Tempo and Endurance. For the first time in years, I did some speed work. At the beginning it felt very hard and for a recording asthmatic, it felt like I was going to die and collapse from lack of oxygen. Luckily, after a few weeks, that feeling was gone and I felt I was in control even when I was breathing hard. Somehow I got used to it and became comfortable with being out of breath and feeling my lungs trying to leave my chest.

I also have three years of experience of running ultras under my belt. Last year I completed a double grand slam by running four 50 milers and four 100 milers organised by Centurion Events. Thames Path 100 and Autumn 100 I finished in around 22h52. However, those are flat courses. South Downs Way 100 has much more elevation gain.

I went to last year's results and found someone who completed the race under 22h30 and was the slowest at the first aid station.
Henry Jeffreys finished in position 114th, but was at the QECP aid station 259th. The slowest person to reach this aid station and finish under 22h30. It means that his pacing was spot on.

Results taken from Centurion Running 2025 results page

I then fed his results and my 2022 and 2025 results to chat GPT. AI calculated for me how far off my 2022 time was from his time. Up until Botolphs I have been very close to his splits but between Botphols and Alfriston I lost 56 minutes. After Alfriston I was 9 minutes faster than him. In 2022, between Washington and Southease I had countless stops because of my GI issues and it really slowed me down. I haven’t had many GI issues in the last couple of years. I can only assume that I will not lose as much time as in 2022 and the chance of finishing under 22h30 is real.

I will have the SDW route loaded on my watch so there will be no wrong turns. Also, I will know very quickly if I am on the right path or not. Last year, in a couple of instances I wasn’t sure if I was going in the right direction or not and I spent loads of time looking at the tracker on my phone to figure this out.

Taking this all into account, I believe that my A goal is pretty much feasible. With good fuelling and conservative pacing I will be able to match Henry’s pace and finish under 22h30. However, there is still a chance that my raw speed is not the same as in 2022. Before running SDW100 I completed NDW 50 and as part of the training I completed NDW 50 too. In 2022, I finished it in 10h07 and this year I finished it in 10h52. This year I ran it one week after running 50k in Gozo for 8 hours so I think I carried tiredness into my NDW50 so I was not able to match my 2022 time. For this reason, I gave up my under 21h30 goal. I think this would have been too ambitious and would lead me to blow up too quickly and jeopardize my SDW 100 PB all together. I don’t want to risk it so 22h30 seems like a reasonable compromise.

I will keep you posted.

South Downs Way 100 Pacing Strategy

Bozena Klapinska