17 Jan Scream if you wanna go faster – the numbers behind Kallum Pritchard’s incredible Country to Capital course record
Every Saturday morning, thousands upon thousands of people up and down the country and, these days, throughout the world line up to take on what has become the most famous 5km race around.
And although the institution that is parkrun will call down merry hell on those who dares say it has anything in common with ‘a race,’ many of those on that start line will have a sub-20 minute run on their mind.
It’s a highly competitive aim. Completing 5km in under 20 minutes requires you to run at four minutes per kilometre or 6.26 minutes per mile. That’s going some by most people’s measures.
Which is why the figures achieved by Kallum Pritchard in winning this year’s Country to Capital Ultra in a new record time are so phenomenal.
Kallum, who even told me he was surprised how fast he’d managed to run as he was recovering from illness, completed the 43-mile course in four hours, 45 minutes and 17 seconds. That’s a pace of 6.38 minutes per mile, barely ‘slower’ than that required to complete a sub-20 5km and over FOURTEEN times the distance of a parkrun.
Let’s go further and look at the pace that the great Eliud Kipchoge clocked up when completing his epic one hour 59-minute marathon challenge in 2019. In completing that run, Kipchoge – one of the greatest distance runners of all time – was running a barely believable 4:34 minute miles.
Obviously, that is considerably faster than Kallum managed at Country to Capital, but there are a few things to bear in mind. Although the second half of Country to Capital is a relatively flat canal section it is still not the brilliantly flat city tarmac Kipchoge enjoyed in Vienna. Furthermore, the first half of our course was lumpy, bumpy and frosty when Kallum powered through it on January 4.
On top of that, Kipchoge was supported by a team of pacemakers who kept him on track, and had nothing more than a race vest to wear him down. Kallum was already three minutes ahead of second placed Stephen Marks when he reached our first Country to Capital checkpoint in just over 48 minutes, and ran the rest of the race on his own. He also completed it wearing a WAA ‘What An Adventure’ carrier shirt, a very cool piece of running kit but one that was weighed down by all of the mandatory kit needed to complete an ultra race.
And, of course, while Eluid was putting his feet up after 26.2 miles, Kallum’s race continued for another 17.
Before we get too carried away, no-one is suggesting Kallum Pritchard’s fantastic Country to Capital achievement compares to a sub-two hour marathon, but the stats do cast some light on just how quick he was flying along our course.
Delving a bit deeper, his Strava page shows Kallum, who also won last year’s race, completed his first mile in six minutes 30 seconds, and his last in 6:20. How’s that for consistent? At no point did he go slower than eight minutes and 15 seconds for a mile, and his quickest was 5:53. That would get you round parkrun in just over 17 minutes.
As any good marshal might say… ‘Nice pace!’
Think you can go faster? We welcome runners of all pacers at our events, but if you are feeling speedy and fancy a crack at Kallum’s record, then our 2026 race takes place on Saturday, January 10 and you can enter here: https://www.gobeyondchallenge.com/ultra-marathons/country-to-capital-ultra/