12 Dec Country to Capital 2025 – The 17th edition of our ultra running season curtain raiser is almost here
Santa may be getting his sleigh ready to drop in on all those ‘nice’ children who’ve been good in 2024, but he’s not the only one preparing for a major all-day event.
As the big man gets ready for his Christmas Eve adventure, runners throughout the country – indeed, the world – are already getting ready for the ultra-season curtain raiser.
Country to Capital will return for its seventeenth edition on Saturday, January 4. This 43-mile race has taken place every year since 2009, even beating the Covid cancellations of 2020 to put on a later-in-the-year event.
Starting at Wendover’s Shoulder of Mutton Pub, the run travels across the Buckinghamshire countryside, through the well-heeled streets of Denham and along the Grand Union Canal before finishing at the Stowe Centre next to the Little Venice Canal in London.
This is generally a sell-out event, with nearly 400 runners taking on extreme wind and rain last year. The first 17-or-so miles are normally muddy, while the rest of the race is a long shoot along the canal prompting many of those at the front of the field to take in a trainer change somewhere in between those two stages.
The 2024 event was won by Kallum Pritchard in a time of five hours, one minute and 29 seconds, while England and Great Britain 100km runner, Caroline Turner, was the first woman home.
Country to Capital is also the first race in our Go Beyond Challenge Grand Slam, a challenge which takes in four epic ultra races, 180 miles and a host of hills, trails, mud, canals and glory.
Ho, ho, ho! Merry Ultramas!