Don’t shoot, I’m running The Imber Ultra!
The Imber Ultra Marathon takes place every year on the first Sunday in March. Starting at Westbury, Wiltshire it follows a loop around the Army training area on Salisbury Plain, a distance of 53km, arriving back at Westbury. The loop is run in alternating directions year on year. This year (2025), it was anti-clockwise and began with a short run to the edge of town before a trackway ascent to the top of the Wiltshire Downs. From there, you have the perfect excuse to stop and catch your breath (I’m just taking a photo, honest) because the views are spectacular and far-reaching. You then find yourself running through history, passing through the ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort, and past Bronze Age burial mounds. If you’re a history bore buff like me, you can bore your fellow runners to tears about these…
Much of the first two thirds of the route, heading south and then east in the anti-clockwise direction, is like this: flowing running on undulating trails – none hugely steep – with views across the vale (on a good day!). You’re right on the edge of the army training area and have plenty of time to speculate on whether or not the guns being fired are aimed at you – it lends speed to your heels.
After the village of Chitterne (heading anti-clockwise), the loop starts heading north and you pass The German Village, which is another bit of history: an empty village created to represent a German settlement where troops could practice fighting in built up areas. The last time I was there, I was 18 and lobbing grenades through windows. This time, I was munching the very nice home-made tray bakes I’d snaffled at the Chitterne checkpoint. Turning west to head back towards Westbury, the final 15k or so have a different character: many of those kilometers are on tank tracks, which are formed from compacted clay with flints, and on tracks and lanes, all of which are quite (very!) hard on the feet. I was wearing well-padded trail shoes but by then was wishing I was in even squishier road shoes: those tank tracks are designed to support 60 tons, and somehow manage to be more unforgiving than tarmac.
The final few kilometers see you back on nice (soft!!) trails, heading down a fun descent back to Westbury and a goodie bag which includes snacks and the coveted Imber Ultra mug, a hand-crafted mug inscribed with the Imber Ultra logo which they issue in lieu of a medal or Tee.
In terms of practicalities, the route starts and ends at the leisure centre which has changing facilities and showers. Parking is in the town, a short walk away, or the organisers provide a (free!) minibus link. I carried FAR too much food with me: the checkpoints are well stocked with basic snacks such as tray bakes and jelly babies, so you’d probably get away with a few gels and the like, unless you’re a very hungry runner or need savouries (aside from crisps, the snacks were all sweet). It’s a small (about 130 runners) and very friendly race, organised by Avon Valley Runners and the Rotary Club of Westbury, and any surplus from the £30-ish entry fee (which is a very good price for an ultra) goes to charity. The runners and volunteers were all fantastic, and there were even houses in the villages where locals handed out Haribos to keep us going. The hard surfacing of part of the course also makes it quite a fast one: the record is 3:48:07 (spoiler alert, that was definitely not me!), and the cut-off is 8 hours. This is a great ultra if it’s your first since it’s a fairly benign route (aside from those dreaded tank tracks), with about 900m of ascent and descent, all of it pretty gentle, and lots of lovely scenery to distract you from how tired you are after only 1km. for more experienced ultra runners, this would be a good long run to prep for ultras later in the season, or if you’re someone who wants an ultra PB. In either case, it’s a fun day out, with fabulous volunteers and runners, cracking scenery and the added uncertainty of whizz-bangs flying overhead. One note of caution: although Wiltshire isn’t famed for its mountains, the top of the Downs is very open and windswept, so if the race falls on a day of bad weather, you’ll know about it! Oh, and don’t stray past the red flags or you’ll be used for gunnery target practice.
By Jon Hart