Centre of the Universe

Price: £48 Affiliated / £50 Unaffiliated

Age Limits: 20 years old

Our first event of 2021 will be the “Centre of the Universe 50 km” - a totally unique ultramarathon where you decide the start point (as long as it is outside of a designated 50 KM zone) and you finish up at the "Centre of the Universe" otherwise know as Hackney Wick in East London. 

Centre of the Universe 50 KM FAQ:  WHAT ON EARTH! is the "Centre of the Universe Ultra" - The concept is simple. We draw a map that is 50 KM as the crow flies from our end point in Hackney. As a team of 2 or an individual you choose where you want to start from 'outside of the ring'. You will have a tracker that we supply and a start time and your mission is to cover 'at least 50 KM' as fast as possible. There will be 9 hour cutoff for this ultra which also means that as well as prizes for the fastest Male/Female and Teams there will be a very special prize for the furthest distance covered inside of the 9 hours. So the challenge is set but which one will you choose - Run your first ultramarathon distance or run your fastest 50 KM or complete the furthest 'point-to-point' distance whilst keeping inside the 9 hours. As you can imagine in the lockdown prone world that we are living in this is the closest that you may come to a "fool-proof" ultra race format!  

1. How can I sign up? – You can enter all Camino Ultra events through our partner Race Director https://www.racedirector.co.uk/events  

2. Can I walk this race? There are cut-offs for all our events (mainly because we hire the venues and we need to keep to strict times for our licences) So whilst you will definitely be able to walk sections of our ultra events they are not suitable for pure walkers  

3. This is my first race – what happens if I don’t finish? One of the great things about our events are the accessibility of easy public transport. You are never too far from a bus or train station – dare say that a taxi could be called out to most places too.  

4. Is there any mandatory kit? For Camino events the answer will mostly be no. However please do read any emails that are shared or community/social media posts – especially ones that may be helpful around weather warnings.  

5. This is my first Ultra – what do I need to consider that I may not have done for a road marathon? Probably the biggest impact will be the amount of food/hydration that you may need. We have some unique ideas for this Centre of the Universe ultra regarding the nutrition we will be looking to get you but you will need to factor this in to your run route. We can help you with some advice.  

6. Where can I start from and how can I plan my route?  The magic of this event is that you decide where to start. In part this race was designed to help us in the Covid-19 pandemic times where races were being cancelled due to mass starts of locations not wanting mass groups in one place. So you pick a location. To help you and to make things interesting we picked a MAGIC CIRCLE that is 30KM radius from the finish at Here East, Hackney Wick.

You can find a picture of this on our blog post - https://www.caminoultra.com/post/how-to-create-a-route-for-the-centre-of-the-universe-ultra. The aim is to get outside of this circle.

Some of our runners have chosen Oxted, Leatherhead, Berkhamsted, Welwyn, Billericay as start points.

Please NOTE - we are a very kind and soulful race organiser. We do not penalise our beautiful runners for being inside the circle. There are always mitigating circumstances - especially in a pandemic where "safety" trumps all.

There will be a special prize for the runner or team that starts and finishes the "furthest away from Hackney and finishes inside the 9 hours cut-off" - that prize may be a night in Daz's Camper Van with Daz. Second prize two nights.....

HOW TO PLAY WITH YOUR OWN CIRCLE:

We have found that it is helpful to play with your own version of the circle so that you can zoom into an area. How do you do it: 1. https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php

2. Add Address as "Here East Hackney"

3. Add Radius as "30 KM"

4. Click New Circle Button

5. Click button to expand map onto Full Screen

6. Click + button to zoom in

If you take WATFORD for example this is inside the circle by a few KMs

Options are to look at websites like

https://ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/search_by_path.php where you can search by place name

www.fastestknowntime.com where you can zoom in on their London routes

As well as looking for local entries by googling trails in "Watford"

As always please contact the Camino team on all channels as they will gladly help

7. What does the Centre of the Universe ultra include:  Finisher bag in the Camino style  World-class TRACKING and timing from Race Director  One-off designed Centre of the Universe item  You will receive a ReRun vs Camino Finisher clothing stamp  Warm drink and delicious food at the finish  Specially designed Prizes by local Artist  Full insurance from UK Athletics  

8. What happens with RACE NUMBERS and can we get drop bags to you: These are being explored at the moment in the Camino Think Tank!  

9. What happens at the finish? There will be volunteers towards the end of the race that will inform you how close you are to the finish – so that you can be prepared to sprint it home. You will clearly see the finish banner (for Centre of the Universe 2021 this will be by the Here East zone near the Hackney Olympic park) Our finish venue is the St Columba Barge which will have a clean toilet and your finisher pack. There is a station at Hackney Wick which is a 10 minute walk from the Barge. There are plenty of amazing places to meet your friends and eat – we recommend the Crate for beer and pizza.  

10. Is it possible to leave a car at the finish? You can park all day near Hackney Wick from less than £8 using https://www.justpark.com/uk/parking/hackney-wick-station/  

RACE REFUNDS You can process any Race refund through the existing functionality on the Race Director website. We will constantly update the signed-up runners through emailed newsletters. However there will be a clear date where we will be no longer be able to process refunds due to the need to pay for committed spend for this race.