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Tunnel Ultra: The mind-bending 200-mile ultra-marathon in the dark

By Justin GouldingBBC Sport

Last updated on 1 minute ago1 minute ago.From the section [108]Sport
BBC Sport Insight banner Mike Raffan "You run from one end to the
other, turn around a traffic cone, come back again, and just keep
going" - Tunnel finisher Mike Raffan sums up the race

How do you like to spend your weekend off?

Do you put your feet up in front of the TV? Maybe shopping is your way
to unwind? Perhaps you're a bit more adventurous and enjoy a stroll in
the countryside?

That doesn't quite cut it for some people, who choose to run a 200-mile
ultra-marathon in a disused railway tunnel instead.

The Tunnel Ultra is a race like no other. It's easy to find longer
events. Some even involve repeating the same loop for days on end. But
nowhere else can you take part in a race so twisted that you spend more
than two days in darkness doing a one-mile shuttle run 200 times, or so
punishing that one runner went temporarily blind - then thanked the
race organiser for the privilege.

No outside support is permitted, headphones are banned and runners are
not allowed to run side by side. Oh, and there is a strict time limit
of 55 hours.

The [109]Tunnel website describes it as "a mind-bending test of extreme
endurance and sensory deprivation". It is more health warning than
marketing slogan.

"I could be sat on the sofa watching Strictly with the wife and kids.
Or do I want to be in a dripping tunnel, tired and miserable, knowing
I've got work on Monday?" Guy Bettinson, a 45-year-old programme
manager from Cumbria who won the Tunnel in 2020, wonders out loud. "I'd
rather waste my weekend putting myself through misery."

"It's so pointless. You're not getting from A to B, which makes it such
a massive mental challenge," says Andy Persson, another finisher that
year. "If you can push your mind further than you think is possible,
it's quite empowering."

Christian Mauduit, a French software engineer who won the 2021 edition,
says: "I'm chasing that internal adventure - that meeting with myself.
It's like a little kid - they want to see how close they can come to
the fire. I'm still that little kid."

Bettinson describes every ultra-marathon start line as a "mid-life
crisis anonymous meeting". "We've all got issues," he says. "It's
clearly some kind of therapy."

The race takes place in Combe Down Tunnel, a mile south of Bath city
centre, and starts at 4pm on a Friday in March. No more than 40 runners
make it that far, partly because of a strict - and deliberately opaque
- qualification process and largely because the tunnel is not big
enough to accommodate many more. "Even the start line is weird," says
Mauduit. "You have to stand one behind another in a queue."
Runners line up to start the Tunnel Runners make the most of daylight
during the race briefing before spending a weekend in darkness

Combe Down was restored as a cycle path in 2013 after 47 years under
weeds. It is the UK's longest foot tunnel - and the obvious setting for
an ultra-marathon if your name is Mark Cockbain.

"I like things that have got an X-factor," says Cockbain, a prolific
former ultra-runner who set up the Tunnel in 2019 to add to his
brilliant yet brutal portfolio of events as a race organiser. "As soon
as I got permission to use the tunnel, it was a no-brainer."

The race is low key in the extreme. A fold-up table outside one end of
the tunnel serves as race HQ. There is no shelter or rest area to speak
of unless runners have the foresight to bring a camping chair. They
must all share a portable toilet which, by the end of the weekend,
would not look out of place at a music festival. Refreshments are
limited to water and tea, while the most luxurious snacks are Pot
Noodles. If you're lucky, they might not be out of date.

"I cut back on delicacies," says Cockbain in the matter-of-fact style
for which he has become famous in the ultra-running community. "You can
get through any of these races with a bit of water and food. I wanted
to make it all about the running."

For Mike Raffan, a 43-year-old IT manager from Aberdeen who finished
second in 2021, that's part of the appeal. "It's nice that there isn't
any nonsense," he says. "The Tunnel is pure, unadulterated running. You
run from one end to the other in a straight line, turn around a traffic
cone, come back again, and just keep going. That's it." Persson agrees.
"There's no fanfare. If you're looking to be pampered, you've come to
the wrong place."

All of which adds up to a notoriously low finish rate. Of the 31
runners who started the inaugural Tunnel, only two completed it, and 13
in total in the three years it has been in existence.

"I don't want there to be no finishers," says Cockbain. "But I do want
them to go through hell to get there."
A runner lies on the ground outside the tunnel The Tunnel claims
another victim

So how exactly do you survive a race that is deliberately designed to
break you physically, mentally and emotionally?

In one sense, it is simple. "The only things you have to think about
are moving, eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the toilet. That's
the limit of your universe," says Max Newton, a fundraising manager
from Sheffield who was among the seven finishers in 2020. "All that
jazz in real life is nonsense."

"One tactic for me is 100% commitment," says Raffan. Those words carry
added weight from someone who ran 182 miles in 24 hours around his back
garden three months after open-heart surgery in 2020. During another
Cockbain race he continued running in conditions so bleak that his
eyeball froze. "I never thought about not finishing the Tunnel. Before
the race I told them, 'Do not let me stop unless there's a medical
reason for it'."

Mauduit's approach is similar. "I'm asking myself all the complex
questions - 'Why am I doing this? Should I go there?' - before the
race, in training. During the race I just finish the lap - there's no
question."

"You have to be all in. If doubt creeps in, you're gone," says
Cockbain. A 50-year-old electronics engineer by trade, he completed
[110]199 marathons and 106 ultras - including some of the toughest in
the world, notably five Spartathlons, three Badwaters, a double
Badwater and a 300-mile race in the Arctic - before knee problems
forced him to stop running in 2011. "I could sit in a corner and hit my
head with a spoon for three days if that's what I decided to do."

Bettinson admits the "possibility of failure was a big thing" when he
stood on the start line, yet he went on to finish in a scarcely
believable 43 hours nine minutes. It remains a Tunnel record by more
than six hours and is "up there with some of the all-time greatest
ultra achievements", according to Cockbain, not a man given to
hyperbole.

Repeatedly running along the same stretch of tarmac throws up a mental
challenge rarely found in races of any distance, let alone 200 miles
(the total distance is actually 208 because the tunnel is slightly
longer than a mile).

"The difficult thing with doing 100 laps is there are 100 chances to
stop," says 49-year-old Newton, who also ran a 300-mile lapped ultra
last summer. Even if runners quit mid-lap, they must make their way
back to the start line. Mauduit agrees that the turnaround point at
race HQ is often the most difficult. "Once you're on the course it's
easy - everyone can do two miles," he says.

"When you reach the start line again you're facing two choices. One is
calling it a day. You will still suffer, your legs will hurt, the pain
will follow you for hours, and you have to deal with the fact you gave
up. Or you can beat your own personal record in the tunnel and write
history. You only have to be motivated for five seconds - just enough
time to pick your butt up and get into the tunnel. During the Tunnel I
don't do 200 miles; I do two miles 100 times."
Christian Mauduit "Another lap?" Christian Mauduit loses count as he
approaches 200 miles

A positive mindset is universal - some would argue essential - among
those who have completed the race.

"When it's really hurting and I'd rather be in bed, I say to myself, 'I
love this tunnel and I can't believe I've got this opportunity'," says
Persson, a 57-year-old counsellor from Bristol who once ran 900 miles
from Land's End to John O'Groats in 17 days.

"You've got to embrace it - there's no point fighting it or being
grumpy. You have to find the bits that make it good," says Newton. Alan
Cormack, who finished second in the inaugural Tunnel, adds: "You don't
have to worry about weather, mud, navigation. And you don't have to
carry a pack."

With no scenery, music or conversation, surely it must be boring? "On
these runs you're often very busy," says Mandy Foyster, who staggered
over the finish line five minutes inside the time limit in 2021 to
become the only female runner to have completed the race. "You don't
have time to get bored - you're doing maths in your head and you're so
focused on keeping going."

Persson says "my personality likes routine", while Mauduit positively
loves it. He once ran 238 miles in 48 hours on a treadmill, but says
his favourite events are six-day races. His record is 541 miles.

For Raffan, ultras are his meditation. "People ask what I think about
when I'm running. Absolutely nothing. At the best points your mind is
empty. When you're in that proper trance state you're not thinking
about anything."

Running 200 lengths of the tunnel means running 200 times past a
speaker built into the wall at the midway point that resembles a giant
eyeball and [111]pumps out classical music on loop all day and night.
"There are these little submarine-style windows which glow different
colours," says Newton. "It's like super stereo."
What is it actually like inside the tunnel?

Cormack describes it as a screeching violin, which Bettinson claims
"adds to the weirdness and psychological torture". Mauduit is more
direct: "It drives you nuts."

More psychological torture comes in the form of darkness. There is only
dim lighting in the tunnel - which is shared with cyclists and walkers
during the day - and even these are switched off between 11pm and 5am.

"Not only are you in the darkness, but you are alone and you have no
headphones. It's like a giant meeting with you and your feet," says
47-year-old Mauduit. "All human bodies are conditioned by daylight. In
a standard race, when the sun rises you feel great. In the tunnel you
have no reference - it's always night."

"It became a very big battle to stay awake," says Foyster, a seasoned
ultra-distance athlete whose idea of celebrating her 50th birthday was
to cycle between Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon and sleep on the
summits of each. "When I got to the end of the tunnel I'd step out in
the daylight and just stand there for 10-15 seconds."

Foyster put more thought than most into keeping the so-called sleep
monsters at bay - "I had perfume to spray and a Vicks to stick up my
nose - anything to stimulate your senses" - but her most valuable tool
was a small spray bottle. "When I felt myself falling asleep I sprayed
myself in the face with water. That was absolutely fantastic."

Some runners might grab a power nap outside the tunnel - and pray it
doesn't rain. Others treat sleep as an inconvenience in a race with an
already demanding time limit. A rare few don't even afford themselves
the luxury of sitting down.

"If you stop you've got to start again. If you don't stop you don't
have to start again. I just kept going," says Bettinson, whose 17 years
in the Army have proven an excellent grounding for ultra-running. "I
did end up lying down a couple of times, but you're in so much pain by
the second night that you can't sleep anyway. And you're just wasting
time by not moving."
Runners asleep outside the tunnel To sleep or not to sleep - that is
the question runners must ask themselves given the strict time limit

Raffan pulled out of the 2019 Tunnel after 100 miles to join his wife
and daughter at the zoo. It remains his only DNF from more than 50
ultras. When he returned in 2021 he deliberately did not bring a chair.
"I ended up sitting on somebody else's, but that was good because
whenever they needed it, it forced me to get out."

"I don't trust myself to set an alarm and wake up, so I didn't take the
risk," says Mauduit. "The only time I stopped was at the refreshment
table or to go to the bathroom."

If sleeping is optional in the Tunnel, hallucinations are all but
guaranteed.

"I saw a family of abominable snowmen, a massive slug and I thought I
was on the edge of a cliff," says Karl Baxter, who failed to finish the
race in 2020 but conquered it with less than an hour to spare the
following year.

"Orange blobby monsters kept floating at me out of the darkness," says
Foyster, who blames her good friend Baxter for convincing her to sign
up for the race. "I wasn't in a tunnel a lot of the time - I was
running through Egyptian tombs or over a suspension bridge with deep
ravines."

Mauduit recalls: "On the last day it got insanely bad. I was seeing
stairs; I was walking on a glass floor. I couldn't escape from it. The
hallucinations were an order of magnitude stronger than anything I've
ever had before. It was mind-blowing."

Cockbain has seen it countless times. "It's just total carnage," he
says. "People are losing their marbles. If they stop for a rest, they
can't remember which way they're going."

The effects lasted beyond the race for Persson. "I saw ticker tape,
carvings in the wall, and I was convinced there was a glass
conservatory with flowers. My wife and daughter picked me up and I was
still hallucinating by the time I got home. I've never had that level
of it before - it was so extreme."
Alan Cormack Alan Cormack was one of only two finishers in the first
edition of the Tunnel in 2019

Training for the race varies wildly between competitors. Bettinson's
longest run in the build-up to his victory was a mere 12 miles; Foyster
"did a lot of fast walking"; Cormack, who was scared of the dark as a
child, favoured night-time runs; and Baxter attempted to simulate the
boredom with lengthy treadmill sessions or by running up and down a
one-mile stretch of road. He managed 48 of them one day.

Eating and drinking strategies are equally individual, but, given that
runners burn about 20,000 calories during the course of the race,
hunger triumphs over health. Dentists and doctors, look away now.

Pizzas, chocolate, cake and flat cola fuelled Foyster for nigh on 55
hours. Baxter polished off tube after tube of salt and vinegar crisps,
all eaten on the move to save time. Jam sandwiches, flapjacks and Pot
Noodles - "they really hit the spot" - kept Newton going. Raffan tucked
into supermarket meal deals and butteries - a "really dense, stodgy"
Scottish pastry - but describes cold custard as his "secret weapon".
Persson's menu of quiche, sausage rolls and overnight oats seems
positively gourmet by comparison.

Bettinson is powered by a concoction of Lucozade, pineapple juice and
beetroot juice. He also liquifies food and puts it in baby pouches "so
it's easy to get down". Because it is impossible to replace the energy
you are burning, his plan is "fuel early and then cling on".

As the saying goes, what goes in must come out, although most runners
visibly wince when they remember a toilet situation that Newton
laughingly describes as "a disgrace".

Bettinson says: "The first time I did the Tunnel it was a little
chemical kiddy loo that you'd take camping. It was in a half-collapsed
tent with a broken zip. Mark deliberately put it in a puddle, so you
had to get your feet wet just to get inside it, and after the first 50
miles it was like a festival loo - you had to hover over the top."

Even if runners can cope with the boredom, darkness and sleep
deprivation, pounding tarmac for longer than some weekend breaks last
takes an immense physical toll.

"Of course your legs will hurt - you're running 200 miles. What did you
think was going to happen?" says Mauduit, a man whose CV also features
winning a Deca Ironman - a triathlon consisting of a 23-mile swim,
1,118-mile bike ride and a 262-mile run.

"Everything after 20 miles involves pain," says Bettinson, who admits
that theory was tested when his hips were in "absolute agony" 100 miles
in. "Anyone can get round it - you just have to want to."

Newton's approach veers towards the spiritual. "In a weird way, if you
run through excruciating pain it doesn't hurt any more," he says, with
the caveat that this approach doesn't always translate to his partner
Anna. "She's worried I'm going to die. She has seen me in a bad state -
sometimes it has been a bit messy."

Cockbain has this advice: "The feeling of wanting to give up doesn't
last - if you put something in its place."

Runners know better than to expect sympathy from Cockbain, whose stable
of events also includes an unsupported 300-mile run from Hull to the
south coast as well as a race where pairs of runners in boiler suits
are chained together and have 24 hours to cover as much ground as
possible. You can sense the disappointment in his voice when he recalls
how The Hill, which involved climbing up and down a hill in the Peak
District 55 times - equating to 160 miles - in 48 hours had to be
scrapped after the pub which doubled as the checkpoint closed down.

Perhaps Bettinson sums up Cockbain best: "Mark has a motivational
speech at the start of his races: 'If you're going too slow, speed
up.'"

Baxter, a 51-year-old from Norfolk who spent 12 years in the Army and
now drives lorries for a living, turned an ankle during his second
attempt at the Tunnel. "It came up like an egg. I sat down for 20
minutes and I was going to quit. Mark said, 'A twisted ankle never
killed anyone' and told me to carry on. It taught me a lot. Once I got
to 150 miles I knew I was going to finish."

Individual motivation comes in different forms, but a common thread
among finishers is the time, energy and money they have invested in a
race that often few people outside their close circle of family and
friends know about. Nobody gets into ultra-running for the glory, least
of all those taking part in Cockbain's events.

"My wife is handling all the family by herself, working and having no
fun," says Mauduit, who rode his motorbike from Paris to take part in
the Tunnel. "I'm having this five-day vacation so I should do something
good with that."

Bettinson flips the question on its head. "My why for being there is I
chose to be there. I've paid the money, I've done the training, I've
turned up. Why on earth wouldn't I finish?"

Foyster, meanwhile, does it for the sheep. Having grown particularly
fond of the animals during endurance adventures such as running the
width of the UK or cycling the length of it, she now uses
ultra-marathons to help raise funds for a sheep sanctuary in
Lincolnshire.

"When I was struggling in the Tunnel, my friend sent me videos of the
sheep. I'm thinking of them at the tough times," she says. "Some people
ask me if I have a coach. I say my coach is a sheep called Bella."
Mandy Foyster's sheep mascots Mandy Foyster's toy sheep help remind her
why she puts herself through gruelling ultra-endurance challenges

Foyster, who works at an animal sanctuary near Norwich, has run the
London Marathon dressed as a sheep and even had a fancy dress costume
lined up for the Tunnel, but never got chance to wear it because she
was in such bad shape later in the race. What was the outfit? "A sheep
dressed up as Darth Vader."

The gruelling nature of Cockbain's races and the derisory finish rate
creates a special sort of camaraderie among runners, evident from the
dark humour on the start line to the support they offer each other as
they push beyond their limits.

"Everyone feels like they're in it together. It doesn't feel
competitive," says Newton. Cormack, who runs a cleaning company in
Aberdeen, adds: "Nobody cares if you're first or you're 20th."
Bettinson says: "Mark's events feel less like a race and more about the
entrants against the event as a collective. You're only ever racing
against yourself."

Foyster, 56, says she goes into any event with a "1,000% determination
to finish it", but her unwavering drive in the Tunnel took her to a
place she had never been before.

"After 100 miles my body started to break down," she recalls. "By 150
miles I had adopted my walk-shuffle approach, and in the last 10 miles
I completely lost my mind. I kind of went over to the other side.

"At mile 192 I became completely disorientated and started going the
wrong way. I thought I was wandering along a quiet country lane. I
didn't know who I was or what I was or what I was doing."

In a rare moment of weakness/graciousness (delete depending on the
coldness of your heart), Cockbain allowed Foyster's friend to accompany
her as she staggered to beat the time limit. He even turned cheerleader
on Foyster's final lap.

"At mile 198 my vision went," says Foyster. "I couldn't see anything. I
crashed into the wall a few times. I had a broken tooth. I felt like I
just needed to collapse on the floor. It was the first time that I'd
felt worried about myself physically.

"Mark appeared behind us on a bicycle shouting 'you've got to go
faster'. I was running blind - I was running into a white mist. I felt
like I was sprinting flat out. I kept running until Karen the timing
lady caught me in her arms." Foyster had finished in 54:55, not even
time for another lap.
'I was running blind - I was a complete and utter state'

Because she was "in a complete and utter state", Foyster says she did
not get to savour the finish line moment. "That's the only bit I
regret."

She didn't miss much. "There are only a handful of people there. You
get a bit of a clap, Mark shakes your hand and gives you your medal,"
says Persson. "It's not like you've got people patting you on the
head," says 55-year-old Cormack, who then slept on the back seat of his
car because he was too tired to put his tent up.

"Mark said a few words - I was so knackered I can't remember what - and
I just picked my box up and went to the train station," says Bettinson.
"It was a busy weekend and there were a lot of people ready for a day
out. There was me, absolutely stinking, wheeling this box and eating
bits of scabby old sandwich."

Foyster was so spent that she had to be carried to her hotel room.
Baxter, who did some of the carrying, says: "That was just as hard as
the last few miles."

"If you finish one of Mark's races you get respect from him. That means
a lot," says Newton. Bettinson agrees. "Most of my medals I chuck in
the bin. If it's one I'm bothered about I keep it in a drawer. I've
kept the Tunnel one."

Cockbain's goal is simple: "All I want is that someone walks away
remembering it for the rest of their life. Ultimately we're going to
live and die. How are you going to fill up the middle of that?
Achievements last forever."

"Races aren't pretty - that is real life," says Foyster. "The Tunnel is
the hardest I've pushed myself. I've never needed help like that, so my
overwhelming feeling was I was so grateful."

Mauduit, who describes the Tunnel as an "awesome race", adds: "I thank
Mark for putting it together. I discovered something new. It was a
blast. It all makes sense because it doesn't make sense. It's worth
every penny."

Baxter remembers clearly his feelings in the week after the Tunnel. "I
was buzzing. I felt on top of the world. I felt invincible." Newton
recalls: "When I was telling people about the Tunnel I was talking with
a smile on my face."

But what on earth is next for those who have completed one of the most
challenging ultra-marathons invented?

Baxter tells a story typical of a certain breed of ultra-runners. "My
girlfriend said, 'Is that it?' I said, 'No way. I want to go further.'
Plus, no-one has done it twice." He may have company. "I'll be back one
day," says Mauduit. "I'm thinking about it."

Cockbain recognises the signs from his own running days. "It's a drug.
It's an addiction. It's a never-ending 'what's next?' You never get
satisfied."

Even Bettinson, the record holder, says: "My holy grail is I want to
finish an event where I know I've given absolutely everything - even if
I don't finish. It could be one mile or it could be a thousand miles.

"I'm still chasing that unicorn."
Mark Cockbain congratulates Karl Baxter on completing the Tunnel "Mark
is genuinely happy for you. He wants to see how far you can push
yourself" - Karl Baxter (left) is congratulated by race director Mark
Cockbain

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