Darkside Running

19/12/2024

After an incredible journey, it’s time for Darkside Running to cross its final finish line. We are announcing the closure of Darkside Running and, with it, the end of the Sunrise and Sunset races.

I know many of you will find this news disappointing and it has been an honour to hear how excited you were for the return of our events. Rest assured that this decision wasn’t easy, but after a two year break and in an increasingly competitive landscape for ultra marathon events, we decided that neither of us had the energy to continue what has always been a passion/side project for us both.

As we close this chapter, we are filled with gratitude for every competitor who embraced the challenge and every volunteer who made our events possible. Your passion, energy, and unwavering support brought our races to life.

Thank you for being part of our story. The memories, friendships, and achievements shared along the way will remain with us forever.

Here’s to all of you – the heart and soul of Darkside Running. Keep chasing the horizon and the sun, one stride at a time.

All the best

Giles and Mark
Race Directors

12/01/2024

Important announcement about our plans for 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/69f849b13936/introducing-the-new-darkside-sunset-marathon-and-ultras-15695317

17/03/2023

A great local event, RD’d by Paul, who many of you will have met as part of the Darkside Support Team at our events. Well worth an entry if you still have space in your race calendar.

2023 Race permit arrived today! Still time to enter - entries close 16th April

16/03/2023

What a race this year!

Barkley is trembling.

For the first time in its 36 year history, four runners - representing four countries - are on the 5th and final loop.

They have 60 hours to finish the Barkley Marathons.

Runners must hit the 48 hour cutoff to start the 5th loop. The first runner out chooses the direction in the final loop, subsequent runners must go the opposite. (Counter-clock direction could be ~two hours longer given elevation and climbs)

Here is the list of humans aspiring to make it back to the yellow gate and into the record book:
⛰️ John KELLY 🇺🇸 was first out and chose to run the final loop clockwise. Kelly was the last finisher in 2017. His 5th loop start: 46:02:55.

⛰️ Aurelien SANCHEZ 🇫🇷 was second out and has the misfortune to run the tougher counter-clock direction. His 5th loop start: 46:07:50

⛰️ Karel SABBE 🇧🇪 is third out. Only a 22 minute turnaround, he gets the clockwise direction. His 5th loop start: 46:59:20

⛰️ Damian HALL 🇬🇧 was the last to make the 5th loop. Facing the counter-clock direction, he made the run in 10 minutes and reportedly left carryover by a bag of Sonic. His 5th loop start: 47:49:03.

Nothing standing in the way.
Weather is clear. Sun is out.
Look for record setting finishes tonight!

Four humans on a mission today!!

Photos: Howie Stern.
💥 Follow Howie on IG and Keith Dunn on Twitter for updates.
Harvey Lewis - Ultra Runner is also posting as he is at the race!

02/03/2023

If you’re still looking for a running adventure for 2023, we can highly recommend The Fellsman. An absolute classic in a stunning part of the world and a perfect pick-me-up until we return in 2024 😁

05/02/2023

We know you are all busy pulling together your race plans for this year and thanks for all the enquires about our events over the last few weeks, It has been great to see such enthusiasm. Many thanks for your patience while we sorted them out.

As many of you will know, Darkside is a side project for us both, which we balance alongside our young families, day jobs, own running and a myriad of other commitments. The last four years have been a real joy (Covid maybe aside) and we have loved the way the running community has embraced our events and the crazy idea that began on that night run around the Cambridgeshire Fens back in 2018. We have big plans for all our events and some exciting ideas that we think will make them even better, while retaining the special challenge that they offer.

However, we would be lying if we said they were not a lot of work and are especially aware of the sacrifice our family and volunteers make to help us put these on. We have therefore taken the difficult decision to take a break for 2023 and return in 2024. We appreciate this will be disappointing news for many who had us pencilled into their calendars for this year but hope you understand our reasoning.

Rest assured this is not the end for Darkside and we are already putting plans in place for 2024 and some of the changes we have in mind. On that note, if you have any feedback or ideas you would like to throw into mix, we are all ears! While we can't promise to implement them all, we want our events to work for you, so are open to suggestions. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to drop us a line through Facebook or via email at [email protected].

Thanks for all your support since our first Sunrise event back in 2019. We have been honoured to host so many of you and see your beaming smiles cross our finish lines. A huge thanks as well to our enthusiastic volunteers, without whom none of this would have been possible.

We will open entries for our 2024 events later in the year and will be back with news of these once we have it. Remember, if you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to let us know.

All the best for your running in 2023. Hopefully we will join some of you on the start line ourselves. If not, we hope to see you at one of our events in 2024.

Mark and Giles
Race Directors
Darkside Running

14/12/2022

We have sorted through all the photos we took during last weekends events and are sharing the best to bring back the memories.

We tried to get as many of you as we could, especially at the finish. Apologies to those we missed. Timing and/or lighting conspired against us.

Photos from the 2022 Sunrise Full and Half Ultramarathons, on the 10th and 11th December.

14/12/2022

13/12/2022

We have reviewed the timing data and uploaded a final set of results from last weekend’s Sunrise Full and Half Ultras to our website, which you can download using the following links:

Full Sunrise Results:
https://www.darkside.run/downloads/2022/sunrise/full-sunrise-results.pdf

Half Sunrise Results:
https://www.darkside.run/downloads/2022/sunrise/half-sunrise-results.pdf

If you spot any issues, please do let us know. We are aiming to upload these to UTMB, ITRA and DUV later this week.

12/12/2022

Our apologies, with all that was going on at the finish yesterday, we neglected to upload this important video 🤦🏻‍♂️😕

Congratulations to both Julie Bethune and Kate Bennett, who crossed the line with Darkside regular Martin Koenigsberger in a time of 19:43, to become our 2022 Joint Ladies Full Sunrise Champions 👏🏻🎉

They also shaved nearly 28 minutes off the ladies course record! Amazing running both of you 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻