The 12 best festive races for 2024

Keen to keep moving over the festive period? Here are the best 12 seasonal workouts and events that will keep you fit (and sane). Santa hats not optional…

1) Santa Runs

• Various dates in December 2024
• Difficulty level 1 out of 5

Depending on where you live, you can’t help to have seen banners posted from October onwards directing you to an upcoming Santa Run. These are untimed 2km runs where you raise money for the Children’s Hospice.

As an example, there’s one near where I live in North Somerset at Charlton Farm. Sign up for less than a tenner (children are £4.80; children under three are free), raise £25 for the Children’s Hospice, and enjoy a fitness and fun boost all at the same time. Fancy dress isn’t mandatory, but it’d be rather Scrooge-like not to dress as the bearded one (Father Christmas, not Noel Edmonds), a reindeer or something equally as festive.

There are further Xmas Pudding Runs and Santa Dashes that aren’t affiliated to the Children’s Hospice. Just search online and do your bit for others (and your cardiovascular system) this Christmas.

2) Rapha Festive 500

• 24^th to 31^st December 2024
• Difficulty level 5 out of 5
• More info: rapha.cc

The average weight gain during the Christmas period is 2lbs, which sounds optimistic given the amount of cheese that’s consumed in our household over the ever-extended festive period. Yes, it’s good to let off some steam. But not so much steam that you spend the first couple of months of the New Year aiming to return to where you once were at the start of December.

Which is where the Rapha Festive 500 comes in. The idea is that you ride 500km over eight days from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve. That’s an average 62.5km a day, though obviously you can split each day as you see fit. And indoors and outdoors is fine.

The apparel brand encourages riders to commemorate their festive efforts via photo albums, poems, hand-drawn maps… whatever you see fit will live long in the memory from your 500 efforts. The most inventive entries are rewarded with prizes from various sports companies including Rapha themselves.

12ks of Christmas

• 14th December 2024
• Difficulty level 3 out of 5
• More info: gertlushevents.co.uk

Fancy fuelling a run around the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside by washing down a mince pie with a mug of mulled cider at the halfway pitstop? Of course you do, so why not sign up to the inaugural ‘12ks of Christmas’?

The 12km trail run takes place around the stunning woods of Dursley that starts at the Leaf & Ground café and finishes at the nearby Dursley Rugby Club. After a series of hills, trails and thrills, you reach the 6km checkpoint that’s packed with festive treats, including the pie and cider.

Fancy dress is encouraged so, as the press release says, “whether you’re a nutcracker ballerina or a candy-cane superhero, flaunt your festive flair as you might just claim the prize for best-dressed runner?” You’ll have competition though, as Editor Helen is already signed up… Entry is £25.

Festive swims

• 24^th and 25^th December 2024; 1^st January 2025
• Difficulty level: Depends if you swim or paddle!

Festive swims take place across the country, from Redcar in the north to Weymouth in the south, with many raising monies for charity. In general, they take place on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

For example, I’ve swum (well, paddled) at a Christmas Day swim in Exmouth, Devon, and endured similar on Boxing Day in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Both were memorable events with traditional Santa hats and Christmas jumpers mixing with far-too tight swim briefs and mankinis.

It’s a tradition that stretches back years with Brighton Swimming Club’s annual event, started in 1860, widely regarded as the UK’s oldest.

If you’re too busy preparing Christmas lunch and the Boxing Day buffet and a cold-water plunge is out of the question, fear not as there are many New Year’s Day swims to satiate your sadistic streak. Just remember to bring your DryRobe. (Note: other post-warming items of apparel are available!)

Night on the Edge

• Various dates Nov-Jan
• Difficulty rating 4 out of 5
• More info: wildrunning.co.uk and maverick-race.com

Ever competed in a run event at night? This author has and I’d thoroughly recommend. My favourite is the Wild Night Run held on Dartmoor each February (the 15^th in 2025). It’s organised by Wild Running, whose Wild Night Run series starts on 16^th November at Burrator Reservoir, again on Dartmoor. They also run events on 30^th November at Mount Edgcumbe (Night on the Edge, above, with 5km, 10km and half marathon distances on offer) and in Dorking, Surrey, on 18^th January. What’s different about running at night? Over to organiser Ceri Rees.

“Running at night is a great leveller. By day you may feel like you’re sleepwalking through familiar landscapes. Darkness however, will force the rush of blood to your senses. For runners the evening is time to wake up. Reduced visibility brings an element of doubt, which works itself into your psyche, like a primeval spanner. What ensues can deepen the experience, as our imaginations reach new heights, and we have to forge new associations. A bridge can become a refuge as well as a convenience, a reflection in a reservoir becomes a beacon.”

Night run races are pretty popular, so check online to see if there’s an event near you. We also rate the Dark Series from trail experts Maverick Race who have one night-time event left this January.

Halesowen Tri Aquathlon

• 15^th December 2024
• Difficulty rating 2 out of 5
• Find out more: clubs.britishtriathlon.org/HalesowenTri

Keep your competitive multisport juices flowing with this pre-Xmas swim-run event in the West Midlands. Based at the recently refurbished Halesowen Leisure Centre – which doubles as the transition area – a 400m pool swim’s followed by a fairly flat 5km run. For those really racing at the peak of the pyramid, there are prizes for the first three open male and female competitors, and first male and female in the over-40, over-50 and over-60 age categories. (Competitors can only win one prize.)

There are also a number of Swim Bike Run Local events (that are often run, bike, run or run, bike) taking place throughout December and January. These are accessible and cost just £5.

Sherwood Pines Festive Duathlon

• 15^th December 2024
• Difficulty rating 4 out of 5
• Find out more: wilddeerevents.co.uk

Robin Hood country is better known for the long-distance Outlaw Triathlon, held at Holme Pierrepont each July. But if you and your band of Merry(iron)Men (and women!) fancy an ‘off-season’, and off-road, effort in deepest, darkest Sherwood Pines near Mansfield, you’re in luck.

There are two duathlons on offer. The Festive Sprint comprises a 5km trail run, 15km bike and 5km trail run, while The Festive Standard comes in at 10km trail run, 30km bike and 5km trail run. The bike course is suitable for any off-road bike, so gravel bikes are allowed but mountain bikes and their suspension will be smoother. There’s also a 10km trail run and one-mile family run.

Note: you do not need to wear a tunic, cap, green leggings and be a skilled archer to enter this event!

Box Hill Knacker Cracker

• 1^st January 2025
• Difficulty rating 5 out of 5
• Find out more: trionium.com

The Knacker Cracker’s billed itself as ‘Britain’s toughest 10km’. Well, for 2025 the route’s billed as ‘substantially harder’ by its new organisers as this event on the steep, sharp tracks of the Sussex Downs has been adapted for ecological reasons, meaning it no longer runs up to Juniper Top, but instead goes up the bottom of Happy Valley. Or Unhappy Valley as it just grows steeper and steeper. It includes 473m of ascent and 335m of descent over its 10km course including two notoriously brutal sets of steps. Fancy dress is heartily encouraged albeit costumes aren’t mandatory.

Christmas Cracker! Catch the Panther Handicap Ultramarathon and Trail Race

• 7^th December 2024
• Difficulty rating 5 out of 5
• Find out more: runabc.co.uk

This is sold as the ‘ultramarathon where anyone can win’. It’s set on a mystery route that can change every year, albeit for 2024 we know that it starts in Otley, as race registration takes place at the West Yorkshire town’s Bridge United Reform Church.

This is deemed one of the UK’s most democratic of races because Catch the Panther sees the slowest runners start first with subsequent starting positions based on the participants’ average pace in other races organised by Punk Panther. The person who starts first is the person with the slowest average pace – can they be caught before they reach Otley? As well as race prizes there are awards for fancy dress.

Christmas Cracker Chill Swim

• 15^th December 2024
• Difficulty rating 3 out of 5
• Find out more: vobster.com

While the festive swims are more about a dash into cool waters in fancy dress or brief swim attire, a very brief swim and dash out, this fundraising event at former quarry Vobster Quay in Somerset is generally crazy dudes in wetsuits with the occasional Santa hat thrown in for good measure. Afterwards, warm the old cockles with mulled wine, live music and a hot meal. Vobster will also be firing up their Heatwave fire pit to provide a warm and welcoming glow to proceedings.

Christmas Canoe Paddle

• 7^th-8^th December; 14^th-23^rd December 2024
• Difficulty rating 0 out of 5
• Find out more: newforestactivities.co.uk

Okay, this one won’t necessarily fire up your fast-twitch muscles and crank up your VO2max. It will, however, make your young children’s Christmas as you and your family enjoy a 90-minute canoe tour on Beaulieu River to find Santa. Guides ensure you and Santa are safe, and at the end of it, you meet Father Christmas who’ll dish our presents to your children (from a canoe not sleigh!). Each adult is £37.80 while children between 18 months and 16 years old are £25.20.

Rouvy Festive Challenge

• 16th December 2024 to 5th January 2025
• Difficulty rating 3 out of 5
• Find out more: rouvy.com

If you prefer to keep your events fun indoors during the holiday season then Rouvy have a simple but fun challenge for you.

Ride a set festive route between the latter part of December and first week of January and you’ll receive a (virtual!) special jersey and bike. The real prize though? Keeping your training up over the festive period and escaping from in-laws and turkey curry. Just don’t let on that we gave you the idea… Have a great festive break!

• Try these great festive energy balls recipes
• We’ve got three recipes using Christmas leftovers
• Pro athlete Tom Bishop’s guide to Christmas training