This year sees the 13th edition of South Downs Way 100.
And it’s now the fifth stop of the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors Series.
The event has an incredible history – it’s 100 miles of trails with 13,000 feet of climb and descent.
Runners have 30 hours to complete the route.
You can watch all the action unfold thanks to the embedded livestream below, which will have English language commentary.
It all begins with a mass start at 6am local time on Saturday 8 June.
Live GPS tracking is available here. And you can find the live leaderboard via this link.
South Downs Way 100
start list
500 runners from 25 countries will toe the line on what will be the fifth stop of the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors Series.
The race has always attracted the best of British trail and ultrarunners, but with a new partnership through the World Trail Majors the race opens up to a global audience for the first time.
Read about some of the leading contenders in our analysis below…
Notable runners
Route
The route heads along the chalk ridgeway, starting just outside of Winchester, the capital city of Saxon England, and goes due east until the trail ends in Eastbourne.
It’s 100 miles of incredible trails with 13,000 feet of climb and descent. Runners have 30 hours to complete the route, with 13 check points along the way,
The South Downs tower over Southern England, providing runners awe-inspiring views north across the Weald and south across the coast and the Channel.
Analysis
As you’d expect there are strong fields for both the women and men. Thanks to organisers Centurion Running for the following runner snapshots…
Nicole Bitter is a multiple time top ten finisher at Western States and a former winner of the Black Canyons 100km. This year she’s already won three races, including Rocky Raccoon 50.
Karen Benway is another US-based runner. She has three top ten finishes at the competitive Vermont 100 miler to her name, was fifth at Tahoe Rim Trail 100 mile in 2023 and has a host of other top 10 and podium finishes at US ultras.
Cat Simpson was second at this race last year and is a two time finisher of this race and a GB 24hr team runner.
Alex Coomber, Sophie Bennett and Anna Drake are other big contenders and have wins racked up already in 2024.
For the men, Dan Lawson has an incredible ultrarunning CV. Some highlights include World V50 100 mile record holder, winner of Ultrabalaton, Ultra Trail Gobi, third at Badwater, second at Spartathlon and more.
South African Tiaan Erwee is a past winner of the Summer Spine and fourth at Tor Des Geants.
Jez Bragg is a past winner at UTMB and has a best of third at Western States. He was at the pinnacle of the sport globally for many years and has one of the deepest running records going.
Geoff Cheshire has been a stones throw from nailing this race twice – coming unstuck literally in the final few miles, and he is hungry to get it right this third time.
Record times
In 2014 an astonishing run from Mark Perkins set a men’s course record of 14:03, a time which hasn’t been bettered since.
At that time, Mark was at the vanguard of the UK scene, running 12 hours for 100 miles on the track and 13 hours for the win at Berlin 100, before 14 hours here put him on an untouchable pedestal. In fact nobody has come with 25 minutes of Mark’s time since.
The women’s course record was initially owned by Jean Beaumont in 16:56, a Kiwi runner who had had a lot of success on more mountainous 100 milers. That stood until 2022 when Bethan Male lowered it to 16:49 in what remains the course record today.
Past winners
Tab 2 content.
![Courtney Dauwalter at Transgrancanaria 2024 which started at midnight local time [Photo credit: The Adventure Bakery / The North Face Transgrancanaria]](https://run247.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Courtney-Dauwalter-Transgrancanaria-912x720.jpg)
![Courtney Dauwalter Transgrancanaria win [Photo credit: The Adventure Bakery / The North Face Transgrancanaria]](https://run247.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Courtney-Dauwalter-Transgrancanaria-win-912x721.jpg)
