Fallout 2026
by Sue Walker
What a blast!
Fallout is organised by Richard Weremiuk of Beyond Marathon who also organises Escape from Meriden, Apocalypse, Cannonball – all quirky variations on normal races. This year Mark Cockbain was also involved in organising the event.
Fallout starts in Blewbury in Oxfordshire, not far from Harwell Nuclear Power Plant. The premise is that there is a nuclear incident at the plant and employees (runners) need to RFL to escape the nuclear cloud which expands at 3.4mph. Minimum safe distance is 40 miles as the crow flies and employees must reach that within 12 hours to survive. Anyone caught by the cloud is vapourised.
This year’s twist saw Mark Cockbain come on board. Mark organises tough ultras like The Tunnel, The Bridge, The Hill etc. With him on board, the organisers added nuclear missiles and bio hazards to the mix, with missiles being launched on the hour from 2pm. Employees who entered either the bio hazard zones (these disappeared after 15 minutes) or the nuclear zones, were vapourised. This meant route re-planning on the hoof to avoid being vapourised.
My plan was to run East from Blewbury towards London where my daughter lives. I don’t know the area at all so it was hard work to identify a good route. Fortunately for me, one of the Spine photographers who I met at Kirk Yetholm in January, had run Fallout a couple of years ago and he targeted London too. He shared his route with me, which made my life easier and I largely followed his route.
Pre-race entertainment came from a variety of 1950s public information films advising you to duck and cover as your primary protection in the event of an atomic blast! The race briefing was very helpful as they fully explained the bio hazard and nuclear zones which would be created as the race progressed. We carried trackers and used a link to the tracker page to monitor the spread of the cloud and to see where the missiles had landed. I set an alarm on my phone for 1 minute to the hour to remind me to refresh the tracker to see where the missiles had landed and to assess the impact on my route.
At 10am, with a final countdown and the nuclear alarm sounding, we left the building to smoke bombs filling the area with red and yellow smoke! Runners immediately scattered in all directions. Some runners chose to wear the bio hazard suit provided and fully embraced the spirit of the race.
I headed through some quaint chocolate box villages to reach the Ridgeway where I ran along Grim’s Ditch (dating back to Iron Age times). I crossed the Thames for the first time at Mongewell and then headed for my first major landmark, Henley on Thames at about 17 miles on my route. I was keen to cross the Thames here as it was the only crossing for miles and I was worried about those missiles! After Henley, there was a long, long uphill climb. This area was clearly a very well to do place, with horses, paddocks and open top sports cars aplenty. Shortly after this, I saw a very apt road sign pointing the way to Crazies Hill!
Maidenhead was next followed by Slough which went on forever. Slough was where my navigation let me down as I had planned to join the Grand Union Canal here. (The problem turned out to be user error!) Ken was watching my tracker, saw I’d missed my turn and called to advise me how to get to the canal via Langley. Missing the turn probably added about 2 miles to my total, but changing route saved me heading into a nuclear blast zone! My route should then have been along the canal to Yiewsley, then Southall, Ealing, Acton and beyond if possible. The minimum safe zone was located right by Ealing.
I was delighted when another pair of runners came along the dark canal towpath as it meant I then had support with navigation. The three of us had crossed paths a couple of times earlier, and were heading in the same direction. All of us had initially been heading for Ealing but it had been hit by a missile around 2pm and so was out of bounds. We then planned to target Brentford but in the final salvo of missiles at 9pm this too was hit and had a large exclusion zone around it. We worked out that we had a narrow gap between nuclear zones at Boston Manor and we made our way there, fighting our way through the large crowds out celebrating Eid on Southall Broadway. We reached the 40 mile safe limit at about 9:52pm – with 8 minutes to spare – and immediately powered off our trackers lest we stumbled back into the cloud or nuclear zone!
In total, it took me 11 hours 52 minutes to travel 40 miles as the crow flies. My watch recorded my distance at the safe zone as 48.63 miles. You get the chance to opt in (or out) for a medal when you sign up and there are two designs depending on whether you’re a survivor or were vapourised!
It was a great day out helped by good weather and dry underfoot conditions. I got to see some lovely parts of the country, and I really enjoyed the challenge.
Would I do it again? Yes but I’d probably target a different destination, maybe head towards Bath or Winchester, and have a short holiday after the event. With a myriad of routes to run, it would be a shame to repeat the same route. It truly was an adventure.