The event is basically a team game with four players to compete at the events in 48 hours with a 100 km hiking trail in Hong Kong, a 100 km trail in the UK, a 100 km trail in Australia, a 100 km trail in New Zealand and a 100 km trail in Japan. The events take in some of the most breathtaking views, high mountains and below sea-level scenery which you could ever hope to view. The overall event itself continues to grow as the popularity of ultramarathons and ultra running continues to increase around the world.

When you consider we are talking millions of pounds in money raised by the Oxfam Trailwalker it is easy to see how popular these particular events are becoming and how important they are to many areas of society.

To make matters worse, all participants in the Namibian ultramarathon have to carry their own food, clothes, navigational equipment and water which makes it one of the most dangerous ultramarathons there is. The winner of the inaugural Namibian ultramarathon was Tom Maguire who finished in 17 hours and 15 minutes some three hours faster than the 2009 winner, Darren Roberts, who finished in a time of 20 hours and 28 minutes.

The Namibian desert marathon is not the only ultramarathon which takes place in the desert but it has to go down as one of the most difficult, mentally and physically testing of them all. Those with an interest in ultra running will find it very difficult to comprehend how you can run three marathons in one day in the searing heat of the desert!

The vast majority of runners today want to take in scenery which is beautiful to observe as well as challenging conditions and differing terrain. There is no doubt that Hadrian’s Wall offers everything you could wish for as well as a number of stopping off points for refreshments and potential rest areas. The Northumberland Tourist board have been very proactive in their promotion of Hadrian’s Wall which has attracted massive attention to areas such as Haltwhistle which now thrives on its tourist attractions.

While obviously there would be a need to protect the wall, which has been around for hundreds of years, it should be fairly easy to produce a course which is accessible, safe and tracks the path of Hadrian’s Wall as closely as possible. Would you take on the challenge left behind by the Romans?

The 1000 mile round UK trip will certainly be tough on the famous cross-dressing comedian but it has also managed to bring ultra running into the UK News, a subject which many people had never even heard of. Despite the fact there are a growing number of ultra marathons in the UK and a growing number of ultra runners, this is a sport which rarely receives attention grabbing headlines and is never part of the mainstream news in the UK.

So not only will Eddie Izzard raise a significant amount of money for charity but he has also done the cause of ultra running in the UK a great service, and one which could offer a significant boost in the short to medium term. Will we ever see ultra running appear in the Olympics? Is 2012 to soon to introduce an ultramarathon to the event?

The race itself is run entirely on the road and starts and finishes in Princetown which is the home of Dartmoor prison. While the distance for this particular ultramarathon is “only” 32 miles 674 yards it is one which has a precondition in that you need to have completed a marathon in less than 4 and half hours in the 18 months prior to the race. Even though the Dartmoor Discovery ultramarathon is limited to a maximum of 190 entrants it is one of the hardest in the UK, and potentially Europe, taking in 4000 feet of ascents and descents.

The race has been run since 1998 although the 2001 event was cancelled because of the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK which affected the local area. The record time for the men’s event came in 2002 when Mike Feighan of Exeter Harriers  registered a time of three hours 36 minutes. The record for the ladies event is held by Adela Salt who registered a time of just under four hours and three minutes back in 2008.

This is most certainly not a race for novice Ultra runners!

The winning runner is likely to complete the course in under six hours and while there is a 10 hour time limit after which time the event will not be marshalled, there will no doubt be other ultra runners finishing the course after the limit. Many feel it would be a shame to say goodbye to this particular ultramarathon which is one of the more prominent in the UK and one with the longest history.

Even though there has been a significant increase in the number of ultra runners in the UK it is still one of the niche sports, which certainly requires more coverage and more runners. Whether this will be forthcoming in the future remains to be seen but hopefully the London to Brighton ultramarathon will continue for many years to come.

Not only is the Comrades ultramarathon over 50 miles in distance but it takes in five massive hills which include Cowies Hill, Field’s Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts and the number of other challenging gradients. Originally competitors in this ultramarathon had 11 hours to complete the event although this was extended to 12 hours in 2003. There are a range of medals available to those finishing the race and to anyone crazy enough to completed nine marathons they are allocated a yellow number and those who have completed 10 races wear a green number – both of which are permanently allocated to the runners in question.

The event is really a commemoration of South African soldiers who were killed in World War I and was the brainchild of Vic Clapham who wanted an exceptional test of physical endurance and mental strength. The current holder of the Comrades Marathon championship is Stephen Muzhingi of Zimbabwe who completed the event in five hours and 24 minutes, just a fraction under the five hours 20 minutes and 49 seconds achieved by Leonid Shvetsov in 2007 – the fastest time ever recorded.

The truth is that ultra-distance running is not only a challenge of the body but it is also a challenge of the mind and those who have one skill but not the other will struggle. The ability to keep going when your mind is tired, your body is aching and you were all alone with nobody to talk to or even race against is the ultimate challenge. Those who try and run the same race as those who burst ahead at the start of the race are the ones who will suffer in a classic case of “the hare and the tortoise”.

Competition in the sport of ultrarunning is growing all the time and while it will always remain a specialist niche area of sport it is one which is attracting the attention of some big names. There are literally hundreds of high-profile events around the world which are attracting big sponsorship money and even the attention of TV!

While strictly speaking an ultramarathon is anything above 42.195 km, i.e. the length of the standard marathon, the ultra marathons of today can be thousands of miles in length. There are many multi-day ultra running events which can take six days and beyond to compete, so how exactly do you prepare yourself for an ultramarathon and what does it take?

The average ultra runner will take in hundreds of miles a week when in full training and literary become one of the finest specimens of an athlete you could see. Ultrarunners need to have a controlled diet, and they need to be as fit and healthy as possible, they need stamina levels which the average person could never even dream of and ultimately they need mental strength to push through the difficult periods which all of them experience in ultramarathons.

The training programme for an ultrarunner would literally kill off the average runner as they take in so many miles, pushing their bodies to limit each time. The ability to not only run potentially hundreds of kilometres, focus upon the task ahead and ultimately remain cool calm and collected is something which can easily translate into other areas of everyday life. Ultra running is not a hobby, ultra running and ultramarathons take extreme dedication and extraordinary willpower.

Amazingly it was not until after the 95 mile West Highland Way race that Debbie found out she was pregnant with her son and while many mothers to be would have sat back as birth date got closer, Debbie was pounding the roads on a regular basis. With husband Marco, who is also an ultra runner, they were able to help each other and it has only taken a few months for Debbie to regain her fulfil fitness and place on the UK ultra running scene.

When you consider the Highlands of Scotland are a challenge for walkers, can you imagine a 43 mile run just seven months after giving birth to your newborn son!

Those at the ultra running event also confirmed that despite the gruelling terrain, Debbie managed to muster something of a quick finish grabbing second place in the process.