Race date: 16 August 2025

Race distance: 6-hours (28 miles for me)

Race report by Matt Broadhead

For anyone not familiar with Hell on the Humber, it’s an endurance race series, always on the same course (back and forth across the Humber Bridge). You can choose your time limit (6, 12 and sometimes 24 hours) and then you just get as many laps in as possible before the end. Snacks and water are provided, but you’re otherwise self-supported. Hazards include an incredibly hard running surface, occasional high winds and a disturbingly low barrier between you and the water 30m below. Upsides include an extraordinarily friendly atmosphere, great volunteers, cool t-shirts and medals. It’s also an ongoing learning experience…

This was my third HOTH, and the second six-hour one. It was also, thanks to the clement weather, the least frightening.

I turned up at the bridge nice and early, got registered, sat on the grass with a cheese sandwich and my book and had a chat with the guy pitching his tent next to me. (I am blaming the cheese sandwich for subsequent problems.)

As six o’clock approached, we were summoned for the race briefing and a bit of nervous shuffling about, and then we were off. My strategy was to run at a steady pace and take on fuel every couple of laps, and it started off pretty well. I nodded hello to a couple of familiar faces – walking man, who has been at both previous events, and rainbow lady who was there at the spring one – and ran for a bit with a lady from Lincoln who was doing the 12. The weather was perfect, a light breeze and mild temperatures. A man dressed entirely in (yellow) highlighter colour was belting along at a rate of knots*.

Two laps done and I stopped for a snack, but as I headed back up on to the bridge I felt the snack say “Help! I am trapped and wish to be let out!” I ignored it and finished the lap, but I felt decidedly gippy and so I drank a big slug of water and carried on for lap 4. It was a similar story, but as well as feeling sick, at the end of the lap I was forced to take a commercial break.

Returning after these messages, and still only 3 hours in, I decided to take it a bit steadier and aim for another 3 laps. I took water with me rather than leaving it at base, but I couldn’t really get a lot of food in, which was a real shame because the snack table had MARKS AND SPENCER’S BISCUITS. Dammit!

By and large for the first 19km I’d kept an even just-under-6-minute-per-kilometre pace, but after that it got a bit ragged and the last two laps were run-a-bit-walk-a-bit. Quite a few people were doing that by that stage. Not highlighter man though, he lapped me at least once more.

According to Strava this was my third-fastest marathon, which is nice. It’s also definitely the least-fuelled one! Regardless, it was my successfullest HOTH and I’m pretty pleased with how it went. There’s still room for improvement though. Should I have stuck with my usual “Soreen and jam” plan instead of the fateful cheese sanger? Is there a way to not get painful feet? Dare I tackle the 12-hour? And why did I do this 2 weeks before the 30-mile Dig Deep…?

At the time of writing, there are still places available on the Halloween HOTH, so why not give it a go?

27 runners did the 12 hours, 33 the 6. Nicky Jackson, Nicole Croft and Philip Humphries managed 56 miles in the 12 hours, while Anthony “the Stabilo Boss” Gerundini was a clear leader with 44 miles in the 6.

Striders result