Richard McDowell

About

Richard McDowell is a British ultrarunner and club athlete who spent the earlier part of his competitive life as a triathlete before recognising that his primary strength lay in running — a recognition that led him to join Hercules Wimbledon AC and build rapidly toward elite performance across a range of distances. He ran his first marathon in India in 2012, improved to a 2:23 personal best at the London Marathon in 2019, and won the Bournemouth Marathon in 2018. After experimenting with fastest known times (FKTs) across British trails during 2020, he turned to official ultra races and delivered immediate results at the highest level of domestic competition: in 2021 he won both the Centurion South Downs Way 50 and the Thames Path 100, setting a new UK trail 100-mile record of 13:43 at the latter — one of the most significant benchmarks in British ultrarunning. In 2022 he added the Centurion South Downs Way 100 title and won the Country to Capital ultra from a field of 280 competitors. Versatile across trail, road, cross-country, and track, McDowell remains a consistent and formidable presence across the full spectrum of British competitive distance running.

Notable Wins

• — Thames Path 100 2021 (UK trail 100M record 13:43)
• — Centurion South Downs Way 50 2021
• — Centurion South Downs Way 100 2022
• — Country to Capital 2022
• — Bournemouth Marathon 2018

Race History