On the 12th and 13th of September, Thunder Races are bringing the Pilgrim’s Reckoning ultra marathon to Bedfordshire. The 81-mile circular ultra-running event is set on the historic Bunyan Trail waymarked by the official Bunyan Way markers throughout. Runners have just 24 hours to complete the full loop, which offers a varied mix of rural paths, villages, and open countryside, providing a challenging but runnable long-distance experience.
Bunyan400 is delighted to engage with this exciting way to make use of one of the many Bunyan Trails in Bedford and the surrounding area. This long distance trail was created in 1995 for the Diamond Jubilee of the Ramblers Association, and features on several websites for long-distance trails, varying in length from 80-86 miles in length. It features as a pilgrimage (appropriately) on the British Pilgrimage Trust, which notes that Bunyan is very much present in the landscape:
Before being incarcerated for his religious beliefs and writing his masterwork from prison, Bunyan worked as a tinker, and so he would have travelled many of the paths in the Trail as he plied his trade across the county.
Behind its creation was local historian and ‘scourge of the Bedfordshire County Council Right of Way Department’, Gordon Edwards, of the Ivel Valley Walkers. With his wife, Heather, he walked, mapped and waymarked the trail, and persuaded the County Council to open it up and maintain it.
The trail is divided into shorter sections, for convenience, and makes the most of its strong historical links with Bunyan, and his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. His birth place, and locations associated with his clandestine preaching while under persecution, or his arrest, trial and sentencing, bring the traveller into contact with a turbulent era in English history. But it is also possible to enter the allegorical landscape, which is reputed to have inspired the ‘House Beautiful’, or the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’.
However, the runners of the Ultra Marathon, who have the 24 hours from 6 p.m. on Saturday, through the night and next day to 6 p.m. on Sunday, to cover the course, will probably be concentrating on the course, and their next step. And we will be there to see them off.
If you would like to show your support, you can:
Come to the starting place, Bedford Greenacres Independent School, Manton Lane, Bedford. If you can be there by 3.30 p.m. on Saturday 12th September, you can help look after the Bunyan 400 stall, with flyers and display. Janet Wootton will have the opportunity for some encouraging words on the start line, and we will wave them off.
If you want to get more involved, we can help at one of the way stations, with refreshments and chat along their way, at Cranfield any time from 3 a.m. to noon.
When they return, each runner will be given a T-shirt with the map of the run, and a medal with Bunyan’s words, ‘I will walk by faith even when I can not see’ written on it.
We understand that there are a few runner places sill available, so if you are interested in taking part, contact the Pilgrim’s Reckoning team.
Please email [email protected] in the first instance if you have time to volunteer – we’d be delighted to hear from you!