The difficulty was notched up substantially in 2016 Apocalypse 50 Ultra. At registration participants received a passport and then followed the paths of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. To complete the course it was necessary to: Make Conquest, Fight Famine, Go to War and Escape Death - each of these was a loop on part of the course. In 2016 Apocalypse participants had to take on all four horsemen (two horsemen if you were doing the Marathon). Each apocalyptic loop starts and ends at the central HQ in Church Stretton, Shropshire. This meant the loops took full advantage of the extreme nature of the hills surrounding the valley, as a result, there was 10,000ft of ascent and 10,000ft of descent across the four Apocalyptic loops. Participants did not have to follow the course in traditional fashion, of mile 1 to 50, instead, when the horn blew you could go in any one of four directions to face each of the four distinct loops. Kareen Porschke said the start looked like a Monty Python sketch! Steve Smith and Steve Armstrong showed great resilience in completing the four loops.