Chilterns races

Beech woods and chalk ridges within an hour of London, and much muddier than that description suggests. The classic Chilterns surface is leaf litter over chalk, which drains well in summer and turns to a slick paste through winter — the descents through the woods above Henley and Wendover catch people out every year.

The climbing comes in short, steep, repeated doses rather than long ascents. Wendover Woods in particular is a lapped course that finds far more ascent than the terrain looks capable of.

This is where a lot of people run their first fifty or hundred. The races are well marked, navigation is not usually part of the challenge, and the bases — Henley-on-Thames, Goring, Wendover — are easy to reach. Several run through the night, which in dense woodland means your world shrinks to the beam of your torch and route-finding becomes harder than the daylight version would suggest.