Chiltern Way Ultra 214k - in context

I'm competing in an Ultra Marathon over this bank holiday weekend.

The Chiltern Way Ultra 214k is a non-stop 214km/133 mile endurance race around the Chiltern Hills (some clues in the name).

In this 'little' adventure I'll run through 4 counties although it'll actually cross 6 county borders.

Starting in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, I'll cross through south Bucks and follow that with a little spin through Oxfordshire. Then it's back via the middle of Buckinghamshire to briefly pass into Herts again. Then I've got to head on up to Bedfordshire, where I'll do a little lap of Luton before making my way back down into Herts and back into Hemel Hempstead.

Oh, and as I mentioned it is in the Chiltern Hills, so there is around 4,000 metres of climbing to also factor in. And I've only got a maximum time limit of 42 hours to complete this mammoth task.

To put that into context - this is the equivalent of trying to complete 5 marathons back-to-back while also running up and down Ben Nevis 3 times.

It's going to be tough. In fact, so far in the 3 years it has been running there have only been 3 different people to have completed the race.

You can follow my progress live here.