The Otley Run, to the untrained ear, can be misinterpreted as a marathon you might spend months training your body for. However, it is actually a run of pubs that people still train for, but more like training their bodies to handle the number of alcoholic drinks expected to be consumed at every pub on Otley Road.

The Otley Run is often seen as a rite of passage for students all over Yorkshire, hoping to say that they completed the run without getting alcohol poisoning or completely breaking the bank on the way. The aim is to drink one alcoholic drink at every pub on the run, no matter what it is as long as it’s a pint or a double, and with the road consisting of 18 pubs, there are very few people that can say they’ve completed the Otley Run.

It is known for groups of people dressed up in costumes as they neck a pint of anything and everything, beginning to struggle by the fourth pub and even though a group theme is not a necessity, it is certainly better to see than a group made up of a cowboy, a smurf and a tennis player randomly put together. 

“I heard about it through word of mouth from friends/family/co-workers and serving customers who participated in the Otley Run.” Olivia Jessuk, 19, is a student grew up in Alwoodley, Leeds, not far from the famous Otley Run route.

In true Otley Run style, Olivia wanted to dress up as a group to make the night more fun and interesting as well as being controversial. “The girls went as playboy bunnies and the boys as Hugh Heffner.”

Being a student, Olivia talked about why she thought it was her time to experience what everyone had been talking about. “It could possibly be considered as a rite of passage because there’s a level of anticipation leading up to the Otley Run and for many students in Leeds and the surrounding areas, it’s a big transitional period into being a ‘true’ uni student, from the outfits to competing with mates over who made it to the final destination.”

The Otley Run has been thought of as a rite of passage for some time it seems, as Adrian Whitaker talks about doing this same route over 20 years ago.

“Even back then I think it was seen as a rite of passage for students because it was almost as if you had something to prove, prove you could drink like an adult and being able to say that you did the Otley Run was thought of as a great achievement.” This just shows the run as something every student wants to experience and say they’ve tried, if not completed because it’s something you wouldn’t want to miss out on.