North Downs Way Podium 2025

There have been plenty of magical moments between Peter Thomason and Camino already.over the last few magical years x

Peter took place in our first ever event.

This year Peter set the course record in his win of the inaugral London 100

Peter has never not finished nor excelled in any event in which we have worked together.

After a stellar Longbridge 100 backyard in January (where Peter only ended after 25 hours because he had a long haul flight to catch) and his London 100 win in May the third of this years big races was North Downs Way 100 miler. Peter has had several other sub 20 hour successful 100s over the past few years and there was no reason not to think that this would be another.

We had a great pre-race catch up and agreed that if everything went well on the day then Peter was more than capable of getting on the podium (we know we cannot predict what others will do and the race favourite and twice previous winner Ryan Whelan was back again but we crunched the data pretty meticulously and it felt like a fair call).

Grateful as always to how Peter interacts with the Camino Coaching team and practice - there are always work balance challenges but Peter is an absolute joy and he always puts in a full 100% for every event he joins on the start line.

Over to Peter to share how this one went.

PETER:

“Just make sure you don’t go out too fast”. Good advice.

These wise words have been heard by every long-distance runner at some point, however, at this year’s NDW100 I planned on ignoring that advice as I had crazy dreams of aiming for a top 5 finish. Benchmarking split times from previous years, it was clear that, I’d need to finish around the 18-hour mark and that getting that time usually required people going out quick to make the most of the NDW’s relatively flat start and before any potential August heat would kick in. This could either go great, or I could blow-up and crawl to the finish. Time to roll the dice.

Prep:

This was my 5th 100-mile race and would be my 3rd race in 2025 after the Longbridge Winter Backyard in Jan (see Coach David’s great blog post on his experience of that awesome race) and winning the inaugural London 100km. My performances had been moving in the right direction but I’d never fully committed to racing 100 miles so this was the motivation I needed.

Coach David helped build a great plan, which due to travel with work to some non-trail-friendly locations, included a lot more treadmill sessions than ideal. In the 2 months before the race, I had 6-weeks where I could do very little outside, but there were positives. David designed some very specific sessions in the gym with gradients, pace, etc., and by virtue of being in tropical countries, there was some heat training thrown in as a bonus as I was always sweating my nuts off! Weirdly, I also found this great training for the mental side of the sport. 3-hour treadmill sessions were great for creating monotony, boredom and feeling like I had to ‘grind out’ training miles. This forced me to get better at creating short goals for myself (only allowed to eat or drink at these times, you’re only allowed to change to the podcast you want to listen to in 30 more mins, etc.,) which as silly as it sounds gave me more tools to help stay positive and having fun when times inevitably get tough on long races.

As well as that, compared to previous years I added more gym-sessions to my running schedule, particularly focussing on prepping for long down-hill sections. Living in London, I struggle to practice for this outside and have often found that my quads that would die first, costing me time in the latter stages of trail races, so I added more hill specific S&C to try and put this right. Alex Alvarez has helped me with this as well as improving nutrition, so if it’s something you’re considering I’d recommend him for sure!

The race:

Starting from Farnham at 7am I arrived in good time. I was feeling excited but nervous as I knew this one might really hurt and I could definitely fail to achieve the goal I’d set.

The course starts down a little wooded lane and is a relatively narrow funnel so the first statement I made to myself was to get right to the front. Imposter syndrome swelling I thought, hey, fake it ‘til you make it and lined up next to the people who had featured in Centurion’s pre-race list of ones to watch. For the first 25 miles to Box Hill I was determined to stay in the hunt of the lead pack, including Ryan who had won the race the previous 2 years, and was going for the three-peat.

That was the first goal of the day and meant getting to 15-miles mark at Newlands Corner in under 2-hours. Deep breath, and off we went.

Around 10 people seemed to have a similar plan and a group formed that pushed from the start, completing the first half-marathon in 1hr 45mins and the first marathon in 3hrs 40mins. Gulp. I’d loved this first section though, as I grew up around this part of the NDW so going up St. Martha’s hill was extra special as it felt like a homecoming for where I first got into running.

There was no doubt though that sticking to the pace of this group I was going even faster than the planned pace, we were all running significantly under course-record. My first moment of real doubt came when I got to the top of the famously, steep steps up Box Hill and felt the fatigue in my legs. I really thought I might have thrown my chances already as I was feeling heavy from the early effort. Having said, that I was 30 mins ahead of target time so as I moved along onto another runnable section I refocussed and aimed to preserve as much of that as I could.

This was also the last I saw of Ryan the race leader who would go on to dominate the day. I wasn’t sure of my position but thought I must be in and around the top-10, it was still early and I had achieved the first goals in my plan so I managed to get rid of the doubts, felt the energy come back and told myself to just keep going, focus on taking on calories, manage the heat and no need for anything crazy. Next target: get to halfway, the Knockholt Pound aid station in 8 hours.

Once again, the section of this course was very runnable, with hard packed trail (I was very pleased I chose to run in road not trail shoes) with often shaded tracks only interrupted by occasional short, steep hills. There were some great views here too as the sun was shining and helped by handfuls of ice in the cap whenever they had it on offer, I was generally feeling good. I made it, 15-mins ahead of time into halfway and with messages from David and friends updating me on my position I knew I was still around 10th place the leading pack were still close.

The next part of the day, between 50 and 70 miles was the hardest for me. It was 25 degrees by now and everyone was starting to struggle with stomachs. I felt queasy coming into Wrotham at 60 miles, but this is where my wonderful girlfriend, Beth, was waiting for me for a full recharge. New t-shirt, sun-cream, snacks from home and more ice. I spent a bit more time here and it was worth it. I also saw the guys I knew were in 3rd and 4th place at this checkpoint. Whilst, they arrived and left before me, I could see they were also feeling the heat and my competitive streak was revived as I knew I was in the chase.

Full of focus, I marched up the next hill and then along the least pretty section of the route on the side of a massive motorway near Gillingham. Before I got to the next aid station I managed to reel in and takeover Alistair and move into 3rd place. I even tried to put the hammer down at this stage to see if I could fully drop him but no joy as he’s a super strong runner and kept me in sight before we got to Detling at 82 miles.

20 miles to go. I was in 3rd and was told by the check-point crew that 2nd was just 5 minutes ahead. What’s more, I was 13hrs 40mins in, I realised I had a real chance of beating my target time and getting somewhere near 17 hours. I was sore, I was tired, but I had a chance of doing something I knew I’d be proud of for a very long time.

Text from David, “20 fun miles to bring this home, come on Pete”, so I went for it.

Running into a full moon, headtorch now on, I quickly overtook Joshua and was in 2nd for the first time all day. I promised myself I would not give it up easy. The fear of being hunted down and the amazing messages of support I was getting from friends and family kept me going and I worked my hardest for those next few hours. The high-tempo tunes that got me smiling me up on the treadmill sessions came out and I gritted my teeth (this was tough, but I was also loving it, how lucky to be getting these experiences!?) Finally, I pulled into Ashford and crossed the finish line in in 2nd place in 17hrs 1min, an hour ahead of my 18-hour goal. In the end, there was 35 mins between me and Ryan the race winner and I somehow got the same distance between me and 3rd place. I was over the moon!

As the dust-settled and it all started to sink in, two things happened at once… 1) I felt enormous pride and 2) I threw up…robustly.

Nice to know my mind and stomach agreed it was time to relax at the same time.

Thank You:

This was my third Centurion race, and they are fantastic.

A huge thank you to the race organisers and all the amazing volunteers.

The aid stations were full of huge positivity as well as a huge selection of food, drinks and the rest of it. All those guys are incredible.

Similarly, a massive thank you to David and the Camino Coaching crew. My first ever ultra was the Lea Valley 50km in 2019 and ever since they have guided me through to finding and living some of my best running and life experiences.

Looking forward to lots more!