America’s unsanctioned footraces pit runners against each other on unmarked urban courses in the middle of the night – and the concept has just arrived in the UK. Are you ready to run rogue?

Words: Mollie McGuigan

30women are lined up on a bitterly cold east London street at 11pm on Halloween, waiting for the start klaxon of a race. One that has no official route, no marshals and just a handful of spectators.

Unsanctioned racing, also known as rogue racing, has arrived in the UK. If you want a shot at it you’ll need to be fast, shrewd and possess the street knowledge of a London cabbie.

The scene is inspired by alleycat racing, a type of urban cycle-racing created by US bike messengers to mimic the routes and obstacles they might face on delivery. Riders must pass certain checkpoints in order, but otherwise how they reach the finish line is up to them.

It makes for a hair-raising footrace, wiThrunners speeding through dark streets, dodging cars and leaping over garden fences, all in a bid to get ahead of their rivals who could be taking the lead on an alternative route.

The history

If you Google unsanctioned racing two names will come up: David Trimble and Joe DiNoto. These 30 and 40-something New Yorkers are rogue racing royalty. DiNoto has been organising informal running events through his NYC club, Orchard Street Runners, for years but when he met Trimble, a runner wiTha history of organising big bike races, the two decided to upscale DiNoto’s increasingly popular events to the half marathon race. On a sticky night in June 2012, the Midnight Half was born. The first event topped 54 runners. Competitors were given a route map consisting of only a start line, a series of checkpoints and a finish line. The rest was up to them. The race began at 11pm and apart from a few cycling chaperones for the front runners, competitors sped off alone into the night, dodging cars, jumping fences and weaving through bike lanes to tick off each checkpoint and reach the finish in one piece – and the $500 prize money.

“It’s the antidote to mass participation events”, says David Trimble. “Instead of running wiTh20,000 runners, you might only be wiThthree or four other runners; sometimes you are alone. In a big mass participation event, even if you’re an elite runner, there’s going to be a thousand other runners at your level, so it’s hard to stand out, you become anonymous. If you get 10Thplace in the Midnight Half you’re a hero.”