Blog - Miles Together

Leeds & Liverpool Canal Race 2025

I have been looking forward to running this one for a while 😁 I’m not going to do a full write up as Iain covers lots about course details etc in his race report from 2021 and Eleanor Gallon has also written a great race report on Facebook so I will just write a short one! In March while running the Rasselbock Backyard Ultra I got chatting to Eleanor about point to point races and asked if she would like to run one with me. She was really keen so a plan was made to run LLCR together. I have only run KACR before but knew the canal races are a great introduction to longer point to point events with a great low key atmosphere and awesome medals. In the run up Eleanor had suffered with some injuries/niggles that had impacted the amount of training she could do. I was unsure how this would impact race day but we still put together an optimistic pacing plan to see us finish in about 29hrs.

Everything started well on race day and we easily stuck to our planned pace and enjoyed chatting through the afternoon and seeing Iain (our crew) at different points along the way. It was humid and warm so when Iain provided ice cold buffs and lollies it was a massive boost. Unfortunately the warm weather and miles led to the start of Eleanor’s GI issues. I was hopeful that once we got to evening and it cooled down this would settle down. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be and the Canal & Rivers Trust Key was well used to access the canal side toilets! The downside of this was a slower pace and I began adjusting my expectations thinking we would only finish late afternoon/evening at the pace we were going. If only I had known the solution was music! When Eleanor started listen to music at around 5am it was enough of a distraction that the GI issues settled down and we were back running at a better pace again. Unfortunately I had just swapped into a long sleeve top as I had been getting cold – I was now roasting until we saw Iain at the next checkpoint!

Of all the canals I have run on, LLCR has been the most scenic and I loved the route. It was far more rural than I expected which I really enjoyed. Burnley was a bit rough but we were soon through this section! We got to see lots of herons and loads of toads overnight (they seemed to find the path a comfy place to sit!) and a rat gave me a massive fright when it ran across the path in front of me. Both Eleanor and I enjoyed passing other runners, we mainly just said a quick hi but did run a few miles with Kole into CP5.

I needn’t have worried about Eleanor’s niggles as she was able to keep good running form until the finished and even squatted at the back of the car to sort her bags (note to self: I must do more strength training). We both enjoyed heading into Leeds and although the last 30 miles felt like they were taking forever to pass friends popping up to surprise us was massive boost. We decided on a new goal of finishing in under 32hrs and we were able to do this with about 15mins to spare. The finish as always was lovely, receiving the great medal from Dick and being cheered in by family, friends, runners and volunteers. I even got a cup of tea 😁

I was always going to run this race at Eleanor’s pace and was pleased with how well it went. It was lovely to run with her and have a good chat. Although my knees were slightly achey most of the race (I am sure it is hormonal) my legs generally felt good, I had no nutritional problems and ate and drank really well. I tried caffeine gum for the second time and found it worked really well – I should have just used it sooner as I had a few hours where I was very sleepy. Recovery has been really quick and my legs felt fine by Monday, lost sleep always need to be caught up on and I am taking it easy on the running this week. Back to training next week for the Ochil 100 in September 😁

Iain as always was amazing crew and it was nice for us to have the weekend away together. Big thanks to everyone that came out and supported us, to the race organisers and volunteers – I highly recommend the canal races to everyone 😁

The Highlander Backyard Ultra 2025

Photos are a mixture of our own and ones from the Highlander Backyard FB group – thanks Rocket Events and the marshals 🙏

An amazing, well organised, low key, no nonsense event with fantastic people – the marshals and volunteers give their all and make it one of the best Backyards I have been to. It’s a good sized event with lovely runners and great chat. Unfortunately the race was stopped after 31 yards with 7 runners still running. The Four Nations Championship was decided on the scores at the time we were stopped which means a win for Team Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I am super proud to have the opportunity to be a part of that. The team were amazing with everyone digging deep and giving their all and the team crew, Mairi and Lorna, were so organised and helpful – they couldn’t do enough for us runners and it really was appreciated.

Iain sadly couldn’t race, but helped to set up camp and dropped Julie off in the morning!

The course was new for this year and I loved it – nearly all the up in the first two miles and then down most of the way back apart from a short climb which gave the legs a little rest from the downhill. I didn’t mind the tarmac and the gravel tracks were good (until the rain!) The scenery is stunning and varied making each lap pass quickly and several marshals along the route was great as it broke each loop into smaller sections. They were all amazing, giving us runners a big boost. Yes the route was hilly, with just under 500 ft of climbing on each loop, but I was surprised (and pleased) that I really didn’t mind that.

The weather also deserves a mention – it was wet, really wet, for 13+ hrs, all through the night and into the morning. We were all soaked, it was too hot for jackets so most people just got wet. Turns out running in wet clothes for that long causes quite nasty chafing – every runner I spoke to had chafing in delicate areas 😩 I found KT tape worked best for solving this problem and think I got away relatively lightly. The rain also resulted in lots of people suffering with their feet – trench foot was mentioned by a fair few. My feet held up pretty well with only one blister on the ball of my foot which was soon treated with KT tape. I wore the same shoes the whole race and just went for changing my socks every 4 or 5 yards. The other consequence of the rain was the downhill that had looked like a good solid path turned into a mudfest with streams of water running down it. This was tricky for a lot of people but I found I was really enjoying it and able to keep up a decent pace despite the path deteriorating! Basically all night I revelled in the downpours, the ridiculousness of it all and the fun of being able to be out in it and experience it – I felt alive and had a blast!

Coming back from an early yard (already soaked)

We had all been ready for the rain to stop so we could at least dry out a bit, so it was great when it finally did in the morning – but then it was humid, really humid and after lunch the sun came out and it was hot. I probably found these hours the hardest as I don’t like being hot and sweaty and I was. But the good company and chat meant the yards still passed by quickly and I knew I would soon feel better once we got to evening.

With unforeseen family circumstances meaning Iain had been unable to take up his place on the team he was thankfully still able to come up on Sunday and swapped with Rhona who had crewed me all through the night and morning. She was amazing and I couldn’t be prouder of her. She stepped up and got on with it and did everything I needed her to do. The swap to Iain crewing was a smooth transition and it was just lovely to have him there.

Yes, we didn’t get to finish the race but I am able to take so many positives from the weekend that I can take into future races:

After 31yards, on a hilly course, in terrible weather, I was still feeling really really strong and like I could keep going forever. The training is paying off and I am in a strong position for future races.
I was able to keep to the pacing I wanted for all 31 yards, I had wanted to be close to 12:30 min/mile average pace and when I looked at Strava afterwards it was 12:31 🎯 My yards did vary a bit between about 51 and 54 minutes as I was enjoying chatting with people on the course so much but I was always in control.
I wanted to have fun and boy did I! I honestly enjoyed every single yard with so many lovely runners to chat with and get to know. It was great to have time to catch up with old friends and lovely to chat with new people and hear their stories. It was nice to be able to offer advice and encouragement and to see people dig deep to achieve new PBs. All the team runners were lovely and I enjoyed chatting with everyone.
I got to run for Scotland, and am super proud of that. I loved being part of the team and supporting each other. Hopefully it was the first time of many.
Food and nutrition went brilliantly and I now have a much clearer idea of what works for me.
I managed everything that cropped up well with the help of an amazing crew – it meant little niggles never got any bigger and I can’t thank Rhona, Mairi, Lorna and Iain enough for that.

And so that’s a wrap for Backyards for me for this year. I have other races coming up and exciting plans for next year (watch this space). However it is not the end of Backyards and I look forward to coming back to the Highlander next summer and seeing how far I can go… I wonder what weather it will throw at us!

To everyone I spoke to over the weekend, it was lovely and you were all part of making for a very special weekend. Big thanks to Bill and his team for putting on one of the best Backyards I have run at (it’s on a par with Orkney for me) and to the Four Nations teams for the fun competition. Well done Team Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Backyard Ultra Tips – Part 2: Hydration & Nutrition

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It’s been one heck of a week in the Backyard Ultra world with Phil Gore setting a new world record of 119 yards at Dead Cow Gully 😮 In between following the race, we put together the next post in our BYU tips series. This one covers hydration and nutrition, and while the basics are not so different to how you’d fuel on a regular ultra there are a few Backyard-specific points that are worth discussing. Same as in the previous post, look for the ⚠️ highlighted tips ⚠️ if you just want the key points, or read on for a dive into the details.

If you want some specific help preparing for your next BYU, check out our coaching services and drop us a line to see how we can help!

Hydration

The goal of a hydration strategy is to replenish the water and electrolytes that are lost through sweating and urination. Your body needs a good supply of water to allow your muscles to function properly, to help with digestion, to repair and rebuild, and to regulate your temperature – all of which you’ll need to be able to do if you want to run a long way in a BYU. But how much liquid should you be drinking, when and how to drink it and what should you be drinking? Answers to all of these can vary quite a lot from person to person, as well as depending on the weather and other factors. Here are some guidelines that will help you work out a hydration strategy that is best suited to you!

The general recommendation for endurance athletes is to drink between 400-800ml of fluids per hour during exercise. Towards the higher end of that range if your are larger, the weather is hotter and you sweat more heavily, and less if you are smaller, the weather is cooler and you sweat less. The guidance is based on events like the marathon or triathlons, where you typically work much harder than in a BYU, so most likely you’ll be on the lower end of that range, or even below it – and that’s OK!

⚠️ Tip 11: Drinking 400-800ml of fluids per hour during the race is a good guideline – but you might well need less. ⚠️

Knowing exactly how much to drink can be tricky but there are a few guidelines that you can use to help. Firstly, it’s better to drink “to thirst” rather than following a set plan of X ml per hour to avoid accidentally over or under-hydrating. It’s normal for the amount of fluid your body needs to vary throughout the race and it’s hard to account for that in a set hydration plan. Normally, you’ll need more during the day (especially if it’s hot) and less at night. Put simply: if you are feeling thirsty, especially if you have dry mouth or lips, drink a bit more.

Another easy check is to look at the colour of your urine – it should be “pale straw” coloured. If it’s completely colourless then you can drink less, which will also cut down on the amount of time you need to spend having a wee between or during the loop! If it’s a strong yellow colour then you need to drink more. Dark orange or black indicates serious dehydration and possible kidney problems and you should stop and seek medical attention.

⚠️ Tip 12: Drink to thirst, rather than following a strict plan.

Check that your urine is “pale straw” coloured – not too light, not too dark. ⚠️

It’s still a good idea to keep track of roughly how much you are drinking, just as a check you are somewhere in the recommended range. This is a good task for your crew to keep notes of!

As well as the total amount of fluids to drink, you should plan whether you are going to drink while out on the loop or only while in camp between loops. Generally, your body absorbs fluids better if you drink smaller amounts and often compared to large volumes in a single drink. Smaller drinks also avoids the feeling of being bloated, a full stomach or even sickness. If you’re on the lower end of the recommended range, then drinking in camp only should be fine. On the other hand if you need to take on more fluids then it’s better to take a soft flask, hand-held bottle or hydration vest with you and take smaller, regular sips during the hour. Iain usually drinks between loops, except on really hot days when he will take a soft flask out on the loop.

At a minimum, you should make sure you drink something each hour, even if you are not that thirsty, or are having stomach issues and feeling sick. In case you come in late from a loop and only have a few minutes or less before starting the next yard, it’s a good idea to have an “emergency” drink made up that you can quickly grab, or have your crew hand it you in the corral, avoiding the situation of accidentally going for a couple of hours without any fluids.

⚠️ Tip 13: Prepare an “emergency” drink which is easily accessible in your camp to take with you on the course if you have only a few minutes between loops. ⚠️

What to drink? Again this is a very personal topic which you should experiment with during training to find out what you enjoy and can tolerate during exercise. If you’re planning to go a long way at a BYU, it’s a good idea to have a variety of different drinks available depending on your needs throughout the day, or simply to give you some variation so you don’t get fed up of the same taste! Here are some options:

Plain water – sometimes it’s nice to have something without any flavour, especially if drinking and eating a lot of sweet stuff. Make sure you’re getting enough electrolytes from other drinks, foods or supplements (more on that later)
Sports drinks – we use KMC ISO Mix but plenty of other options are available such as Tailwind, Precision Hydration, Active Root etc. Usually these provide either some calories and/or electrolytes so are a good general purpose drink for most of the race.
Fizzy drinks – use the full sugar option (not the “diet” or “zero” varieties). It’s also a good idea to open the bottles/cans well before you need them to allow the drink to go flat. Makes it easier to drink and avoids burping while running. We usually have a can or two of drink open at all times in our camp.
Tea/coffee/hot chocolate – this is a great option for during the night or on cold days to warm you up. It can also be a good source of caffeine if you need it or drink decaf if you prefer. Most race organisers provide a source of hot water so you can make a drink between loops. Make sure to add a bit of cold water too so it’s cool enough to drink, or if you have a crew ask them to make you a drink 10 minutes before you are due to get back from the loop so it has time to cool down. There’s nothing worse than being ready for a cup of tea and finding it too scalding hot to drink!
Soup – debatable if you count it as a food or a drink, but it’s certainly a source of fluid! Depending on your preferences and the facilities available you can have soups hot or cold. Either canned soup or cup-a-soup (just add hot water) are good options.

⚠️ Tip 14: Have a range of drinks available to choose in your camp or from the race organiser (if they provide them) ⚠️

As well as losing water through sweating, you also lose electrolytes (or salts) and these need to be replenished to keep your body working properly. You can take on electrolytes via a combination of sports drinks, electrolyte tablets and food. We recommend drinking a sports drink that contains electrolytes such as the brands that we mentioned above. Salt tablets (such as SaltStick Fastchews) are a good addition but only really necessary if it’s an especially hot day, or you tend to sweat a lot. Make sure to follow the directions on the packet to make sure you are taking the correct amount! Making sure to get some salt via your food (for example crisps, pretzels or salted potatoes) is also recommended. It used to be thought that muscle cramps is a sign of low electrolytes, but this is no longer understood to be the case. The most likely sign of low electrolytes is a sudden drop-off in performance – so try too keep up a steady intake of electrolytes, and if you suddenly find it hard going (especially on a hot afternoon), think about taking a few salt tablets and see if that helps!

⚠️ Tip 15: Make sure to have a regular intake of electrolytes from sports drink and food. Top up with salt tablets on hot days or if you sweat a lot. ⚠️

Nutrition

Let’s start with the basics… how much do you need to eat? The general recommendation for endurance sports (events lasting 4 hours or more) is about 250 calories per hour. You’ll also see recommendations of 90g of carbohydrates per hour (which is about 360 calories), but as we’ll soon see, you’ll be eating more than just carbs, and the energy demands of a backyard are a quite low due to the relatively low effort level, so we’ll stick with 250 calories per hour as a guideline. If that sounds like quite a lot, think of it this way. 250 calories per hour adds up to 6000 calories per day, and the average adult needs 2000-2500 calories per day and that’s assuming a normal level of activity, including 8 hours of sleep. So it’s no surprise that to cover 100 miles in a day at backyard pace you should be aiming to fuel your body within 2.5-3 times this amount! In a point-to-point ultra, you might get away with less as you know you can refuel at the finish, but if you plan to go for multiple days in the backyard you need to keep your body fully fuelled… remember there is no finish (or at least, you don’t know when it will be)!

⚠️ Tip 16: Aim for around 250 calories per hour, throughout the race ⚠️

Although carbs are the body’s primary fuel source (even for long, slow endurance events), you need more than that! To keep your body functioning well you need to eat a balanced died consisting of protein, carbs and fats, as well a full range of vitamins and minerals. This will allow your body not only to keep going, but also to minimise the effects of muscle fatigue and even repair and rebuild damage. Plan to bring a wide range of foods that you like to eat, both sports nutrition such as gels, bars and energy drink, but also “real foods” such as fruit, nuts, sandwiches, crisps, soup, sausage rolls, pasta, sandwiches, chocolate bars and biscuits… whatever you fancy! Exactly what is practical to take (and keep fresh for more than a day outdoors) depends a lot on if you have a crew, access to a coolbox/fridge – we’ll discuss that more in a future post on backyard logistics.

⚠️ Tip 17: Eat a mixture of sports nutrition (mainly carbs) and real foods for a balanced diet ⚠️

“Real food” for two, ready to be packed and taken to Rasselbock BYU 2025

It’s important to have a mixture of easy-to-eat and digest items, as well as some more hearty foods. A good strategy is to alternate heavier foods with lighter snacks to allow your body time to digest properly. For example, you might have a bowl of pasta (could be 300+ calories depending on what’s in it), then on the next lap just have a bit of fruit or a chocolate bar (roughly 100 calories each). Don’t forget, if you are drinking half a litre of a sports drink per hour, that could add another 150 calories. If you don’t have time (or don’t feel like) eating a lot between loops, you can of course take a variety of smaller snacks out with you to eat on the yard.

You might also find that your appetite varies throughout the day. Iain finds that usually his stomach “shuts down” during the night and trying to force food in will make him feel sick. Your body works to a circadian rhythm, so if this happens to you don’t fight it! Iain’s strategy is to switch to gels and sports drink overnight. One or two gels per yard, plus some calories from drinks you can easily reach 200 calories or more. Then in the morning your stomach will be ready for breakfast and you can eat a larger “meal”. Don’t panic if you even go several yards with little to no food – your body has 10,000s of calories stored as fat and these can “tide you over” until the next time you are able to eat.

⚠️ Tip 18: Vary your food intake throughout the day. Alternating between heavier foods and lighter snacks will give your body a better chance to digest. You don’t have to hit 250 calories every lap! ⚠️

Food can also be a great motivator – don’t underestimate the effect of treats! If you have a crew, or there is a catering van on site then you might be able to order a portion of chips, a slice of pizza, or a burger to be ready for the end of the next yard. We guarantee you’ll be thinking about it the whole way round the next lap. Similarly, if it’s a hot day you can look forward to a cold drink or an ice cream. Again, if you have crew you might even be able to call them while out on the loop to “order ahead”! Even if you don’t have the opportunity to obtain any treat foods, you can still use a “meal plan” to motivate you. For example, if you plan to have a “breakfast” at 7am, “lunch” at noon, and “dinner” at 5pm you’ll be looking forward to those for the few hours beforehand. Using your body clock and normal routine can also help – if you normally have a cup of tea and biscuit at 11am when you’re at work or at home, you can do the same at a backyard!

⚠️ Tip 19: Use food as a motivator – plan specific meals or treats at certain times of day and the thought of it will keep you going! ⚠️

While it’s perfectly OK not to eat during the loop, especially if you have plenty of time between yards you don’t want to be caught out. It’s a good idea to carry at least one bit of “emergency” food in case you suddenly run low on energy (or motivation) mid-way round the lap. A caffeine gel is perfect as not only will the calories perk you up, but you get a double hit from the caffeine too. If you find you are getting short on time between loops, make sure to have some easy-to-carry food easily accessible in your camp for you to pick up, or for your crew to give you. We usually have a race vest or belt prepared with a small amount of food (and drink – as mentioned above) in case we need it.

⚠️ Tip 20: Always carry a small amount of emergency food with you such as a gel in case you run low on energy during the yard. ⚠️

Stomach issues

Following the advice above will go a long way towards creating a nutrition and hydration strategy that is sustainable over a long backyard ultra race. However, it’s all too common for races to be ended by the dreaded “stomach issues”, usually starting with nausea, feeling bloated and then progressing to stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhoea. But it doesn’t have to be the case! Here are some things you can do firstly to prevent and then manage or recover if it does happen to you.

The first thing is that practice helps – as much as possible, try eating all the things you plan to eat on race day in your training. Everyone’s different and you’ll soon find which foods you can tolerate well and which ones are likely to upset your stomach. Much better to experiment in training that have to work it out on the fly in a race, or even worse find that you don’t have enough food that you can actually eat! You can also experiment with whether eating smaller amounts more frequently is better for you than larger “meals”.

⚠️ Tip 21: Practice eating and drinking during training to find the foods, quantities and frequency that work well for you ⚠️

If you are planning to eat a relatively large amount of food between loops, for example a big bowl of pasta, a burger or a pizza then it’s a good idea to start the following loop slowly to give the food time to settle. Even walking for a good 5-10 minutes can make a huge difference – you’ll still have plenty of time to make it up over the rest of the yard. Even if you’re just snacking on the loop, it’s best to eat (and drink) while walking and give it at least a minute to settle before starting to run again.

⚠️ Tip 22: Have a good long walking break after taking on a lot of food or drink. Start the loop slowly after a “meal” between yards. ⚠️

Also in terms of preparation, think about having “backup foods” of different kinds, these should generally be of a similar type but easier to digest. Even if you don’t need them to manage stomach issues, they can provide a bit of variety to avoid getting fed up of the same thing. Here are some examples listed in order of ease of digestion. Add you own favourites to the list:

Real foods: Pizza, pasta, trail mix, bread rolls, pancakes, noodles, soup
Sports nutrition: Flapjack, energy bars/chews, gels (at least two different varieties/flavours), sports drink
Sweet foods: cakes/biscuits, dried fruit, fresh fruit, chewy sweets (Haribo etc.), canned fruit, flat coke/juice
Salty foods: Pretzels, salted potatoes, salt chews/tablets
Savoury food (protein): Sausage rolls, beef jerky, protein cookies, nuts, milkshakes/smoothies

⚠️ Tip 23: Bring a variety of foods of each type so you have some backup options if your stomach turns, or just just need a change! ⚠️

If your stomach does start to get unsettled during the race, don’t panic! There can be lots of reasons why, so think about what you’ve eaten and drunk recently. Too much of either liquids, solid food or even salt could be the cause. Assuming you have at least eaten something in the last couple of hours, try cutting back to have a yard or two with no solid food, and just sips of plain water. If you can tolerate it, a weak mix of sports drink is also a good idea just to get a little bit of energy and salts, especially if you have just been sick or have diarrhoea, to avoid becoming dehydrated. Often after an hour or so, your stomach will start to feel hungry again. If you take some food with you on the loop, start to eat again (little and often) as your stomach allows.

As we said earlier, you can go on for several hours with little or no food – but be careful to keep hydrated as a minimum! Make sure you go to the toilet too, even if you don’t feel like you need to go. Running (or even staying awake) for 24 hours can throw your body off its natural rhythm. Even if you can’t produce any solids, sitting down and having a good fart can make you feel a lot better 🤣

⚠️ Tip 24: If stomach issues strike, switch to a minimal intake of fluids for a couple of laps to let your body recover. ⚠️

There are some foods and drinks that are recommended to help settle an upset stomach, as well as some medicines that you might want to consider. In both cases, practice beforehand, and for medicines make sure to read the label, in particular to get the dosage correct and check they can be safely used for prolonged periods.

Ginger is well known to relieve nausea. The most well known sports drink which is ginger-based is Active Root. You can also find ginger-based chews, or even use candied/crystallised ginger which you can find in most major supermarkets. Bananas are easy to digest and also provide potassium to help replenish any lost salts. Bland, starchy foods like pancakes, plain crackers or noodles can also help as they will absorb excess stomach acid.

If suffering from heartburn/reflux, over-the-counter antacids like Rennie can help, and for diarrhoea there’s always Immodium. Both of these can and have been used by many runners, but we have found that usually a combination of prevention and management by swapping foods is sufficient to stop stomach issues escalating into a race-ending incident. Iain has lasted more than 12 hours through the night on gels and energy drink and won a BYU race despite bouts of sickness – it doesn’t always last forever, and it can improve!

Even more so than the previous post on pacing and sleep, nutrition and hydration is very individual and there is no one-size-fits-all answer! We hope the guidelines and tips we shared here will help you to develop or improve your own nutrition and hydration strategy. If you have any other suggestions we’d love to hear them!

The next post in this series will be cover the topics of mental strategy and crewing at backyards. Until then, if you need any support to help you on your running journey, have a look at our coaching plans, or just get in touch for a chat!

Interview: Aimee & Paul

Can’t believe it’s been over a year since our last Miles Together interview 😱 Too long! Anyway, we hope you’ll agree this one was worth the wait. A couple of months ago Julie completed the Cardiff to London Ultra and along the way she met Aimee and Paul who were simply the best checkpoint crew you could ask for – very un-Cockbain Events 🤣 We knew it would be great to do a Q&A with them on the blog but both of us have had a busy few months, so here it is…

Welcome Aimee and Paul to Miles Together! Please introduce yourself to our readers.

We are Paul Betteridge and Aimee Tippins, a middle-aged couple who run ultra marathons together! We did our first ultra marathon in February 2023 (Run Walk Crawl’s Brecon to Cardiff) which was a 44 miler. We share our running adventures on social media as Solemate Runners.

Everyone has their own running stories, so tell us yours. What led you to start running initially, all the way up to ultras?

Aimee dabbled a bit in running in her thirties, but nothing serious – just the occasional Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Then in December 2014 she did a 5K Santa Dash then a 12K race in January 2015. She completed that race but injured her left knee in the process. This resulted in surgery in October 2015 and she assumed she would never run again.

Near the end of 2019, Aimee did a few experimental parkruns to see how her knee felt when running, but the novelty wore off in the New Year! It was lockdown in 2020 which led to Aimee taking up running properly. She was furloughed from work, stuck at home and found herself climbing the walls, so she started going out for little runs. Her knee held up okay and so she started running more and more. But at that point she had no idea that she would end up running ultra marathons – she didn’t even know they existed!

Paul had never run before; his background was in calisthenics and mountain biking. He started joining Aimee on some of her lockdown runs and for the next year or so he dipped in and out of it. This was mainly because he found it hard, and he also initially only purchased running gear based on fashion not functionality and had lots of issues with his footwear! Paul also had, shall we say, a ‘love/hate’ relationship with alcohol, which caused his enthusiasm for fitness to ebb and wane somewhat, often due to raging hangovers.

Aimee ran her first official race in July 2021 which was Compton Verney Half Marathon (she was gifted the place at the last minute which is why Paul didn’t run it with her). She hadn’t done any proper training for it and it was a blazing hot day so she didn’t quite hit her target of finishing in under 2 hours, but was chuffed to get close with her time of 2:00:47!

Our first official race together was the Alcester 10K on 10 October 2021. We started together but despite doing very little training, Paul got ahead and finished in 50:00, beating Aimee’s 51:38.

Then on 17 Oct 2021 we started the Sutton Park Half Marathon together. It was a horrible day weather-wise, very wet and windy. The race did not go well for Aimee, she started feeling unwell and also struggled mentally with the race being 4 laps of the park, so she pulled out after 2 laps. As she had done just over 10k when she crossed the finish line, the organisers very kindly allowed her to drop down to the 10K distance on the results, so she still got a medal! Paul pushed on and completed the half marathon – this (so far) was the last time Paul has beaten Aimee!

The only races we did in 2022 were the Alcester 10K spring and autumn races (May and October) – at both of these races we started together but Aimee finished ahead of Paul! During this time, Paul started watching YouTube videos about ultramarathons and becoming more and more fascinated with the concept. Numerous times he told Aimee he would some day run 100 miles, but he still at this point wasn’t taking his running very seriously, and Aimee never believed it would happen! Nevertheless he was able to persuade Aimee to sign up to do our first ultra marathon together in February 2023 (Brecon to Cardiff, 44 miles). That race was a massive eye opener for both of us and we learnt valuable lessons about the importance of fuelling and correct footwear – but we finished, together!

After doing another (smaller) ultra together in April 2023 (Run Walk Crawl’s Vale Coastal Ultra, 32 miles) for Paul’s birthday, Paul persuaded Aimee that we should sign up for Endure24 Reading in June. More on how that went later!

In August 2023 Paul decided to stop drinking completely and that led to him starting to take his running much more seriously. Since then he keeps finding more and more scary/challenging events for us to sign up for! A common pattern for us is Paul goes in with ambitious goals and feeling really confident but then things don’t go to plan for him, whilst Aimee takes a lot of persuading, goes into these races not feeling confident and then does really well!

Sounds like a very healthy competition between the two of you 🤣 and huge congrats to Paul on his upcoming two years sober!

Since your first few ultras we know you’ve gone on to some big events such as the Bridge 100 and Endure24. How did they go? Did you run them together, or was one of you supporting the other?

Paul became obsessed with running 100 miles and our first attempt at this was Endure24 Reading in June 2023. It’s a 24 hour race on a 5 mile trail loop, so completing 20 laps gets you to 100 miles. Aimee was dreading it because of her hatred of repeat laps and so she went in saying she would be happy to achieve anything between 50 and 75 miles. Paul of course was totally confident he would get 100 miles! There was a mega heatwave that weekend and unfortunately Paul did not cope well. We ran the first 4 laps together then Aimee went ahead. Paul had stomach issues and severe leg cramping and had to stop for a substantial period during the night. Aimee however found herself really enjoying the event and she was able to keep going. She did help Paul to get going again by walking a couple of laps with him. The end result was Paul did 13 laps (65 miles) and Aimee did 17 laps (85 miles) which meant she finished 5^th female!

Not deterred, Paul immediately started looking for another race to attempt 100 miles at and he entered us for The Joust in September 2023. This is very similar to Endure24 but on a much smaller scale (300 runners rather than 3,000+) and the lap is slightly longer (it’s a bit over 5 miles) so at The Joust the 100 mile target is 19 laps. We thought being September it would be cooler, but how wrong we were! It was actually even hotter than Endure24 and more humid, so it proved to be a very difficult run for both of us. We very quickly realised 100 miles was not going to happen for either of us and stayed together for the whole race, just trying to keep moving as best we could in the heat. We finished on 13 laps (70 miles). Aimee was shocked to win her first trophy at this event – she came 2^nd female!

2024 was a much more successful ultra running year for us both. We ran The Arc 50 in January 2024 together – that was a brutal race which we both underestimated, but we were over the moon to finish it. The Arc is particularly meaningful for Paul – it was seeing YouTube videos about the Arc of Attrition that first lit the ultra-running fire in him and gave him the desire to run a 100 mile race. He really wanted to sign up for the 2024 full Arc of Attrition (100 miles) but much to Aimee’s relief we didn’t qualify (at the time of signing up in 2023 the longest race we had done was our first Ultra, the 44 mile Brecon to Cardiff race). We crossed the Arc50 finish line holding hands, it was a very emotional one for us.

We had signed up to do 2024’s Endure24 Reading as soon as the 2023 event was finished and that was supposed to be our “A” race after completing Arc50. However, near the end of 2023, Paul persuaded Aimee to sign up to do The Bridge 100 which fell in May 2024, despite Aimee’s reservations about it being too close to Endure24! The Bridge 100 is 25 laps out and back over The Old Severn Bridge linking England to Wales – definitely a mental challenge as much as a physical one! Typically, it was another hot weekend and we were both very nervous. We started out together but after just one out-and-back (4 miles) Aimee went ahead as she had settled into a pace she wanted to stay at, whereas Paul felt he needed to go a bit slower. Obviously, as the race progressed we saw each other regularly as we kept passing each other on the bridge! The race went brilliantly for Aimee (other than a little wobble when she had about 6 laps left to complete) and to her complete surprise she was the first finisher and the only participant to finish in under 24 hours (her time was 23:14:05). Paul struggled, having made (by his own admission) some very poor decisions – i.e. the wrong footwear and failing to use Body Glide. Early on he developed blisters and some hideous chafing in very unpleasant places! Nevertheless, he battled on and completed it in a time of 27:24:57. We were ecstatic to have both finally joined the 100 mile club!

Endure 24 Reading fell just 3 weeks later. We pretty much rested up until then, as we were both feeling quite battered after The Bridge 100. We went into Endure24 not sure what to expect. Whilst we both would have loved to get 100 miles, we were unsure how are bodies were going to hold up, so we just decided to play it by ear. We ran the first 3 laps together then Paul decided he needed to change his trainers, so Aimee carried on without him. We then hardly saw each other until just after 1am Sunday morning, when Aimee came back to the camper to find Paul had stopped due to his legs just giving up on him – he had done 11 laps (55 miles) in 13:05:08. He said he would support Aimee to get her to 100 miles. At that point Aimee was feeling strong, but a few laps later she started to develop some issues (pain in her hip and shin, both of which had played up near the end of The Bridge). Just before 4:40am Aimee also decided to stop as she didn’t want to risk serious injury. She finished on 15 laps (75 miles) in 16:48:47.

Our next big race was The Joust again in September. This race actually went like a dream for us! Everything just seemed to come together and we ran together for 19 laps (101.6 miles) which we completed in 21:51:25. Aimee then carried on to do another lap on her own, so she finished on 107 miles in 23:00:42. This meant we both got the 100 mile buckle and we both won a trophy! Aimee won 1^st Lady (she was 2^nd overall) and Paul won 2^nd Male (3^rd overall). This race is definitely a special one for us now as it is local for us, and being able to run 100 miles together made it so much more meaningful.

Our next two big races did not go to plan (Escape from Meriden Chained and Arc of Attrition) – more on both of those later!

Our most recent ultra distance race has been Endure24 Reading again in 2025 which was a month ago now. This was our third attempt to get 100 miles at this event! The weather was awful, as it was really warm but we had heavy rain for most of the first half which caused a lot of the 5 mile course to be horribly muddy and slippy. Paul stopped running after 9 laps (45 miles) as he was having issues with his ankle, but Aimee’s race went brilliantly. By midnight she had run 13 laps (65 miles) and had been leading lady from pretty much the beginning. Paul became her support crew when he stopped running. Aimee did have a ‘wobble’ after her 15^th lap (75 miles) where she felt dizzy and sick, so Paul persuaded her to take a little rest. With hindsight we could see her fuelling had slipped during the night, she was eating and drinking less without realising. After a short break (it was about 25 minutes in total), she was able to get going again, but in that break another lady moved into 1^stplace. Just as Aimee was finishing her 18^th lap (90 miles), a nasty blister very painfully announced itself on her right big toe, so she had to take another short break to deal with that. But she carried on and finished her 20^th lap at 09:17 on the Sunday morning, meaning she had run 100 miles in 21 hours 17 minutes. If it wasn’t for the blister, she would have carried on running as the race didn’t finish until noon, but it was making her limp and she was worried about causing injury. So we decided that we would just walk another lap together, to get Paul to 10 laps (50 miles). The end result was Aimee finished on 21 laps (105 miles) in 22:59:50 which won her 2^nd female and 9^th place overall

Congratulations on breaking the 100 mile barrier, although I’m not sure most people would have chosen The Bridge as the one to do it on! Great to see you’ve found ways to support each other at events even when you’re both on different race paces or strategies, whether by choice or not.

Outside of racing, do you do most of your running together? How important is running as part of your relationship?

Running has become a crucial part of our relationship, as it has become a hobby that we can enjoy together. It has become obvious that we both have that crazy gene that all ultra runners seem to have and we relish taking on these massive tests of endurance as a couple! However, we don’t do all of our running together. Because of a combination of work commitments and personal preferences we do some of our weekday training runs separately. For example, Aimee does a Pilates class every Wednesday morning and so on a Wednesday she always runs to that class (just varying her start time and route accordingly, to fit with whatever run is required on her training plan for that day) – it has become almost like a therapy run for her! Paul’s work can involve travelling to site jobs which can be anywhere in the UK, so it is sometimes difficult to fit his runs in. It is also true that Paul also takes a little more of a ‘lackadaisical’ approach to training! He does not stress about missing the odd run on our plan or following our Coach’s instructions to the letter, whereas Aimee is stricter with herself! But pretty much all of our weekend training is done together, that’s when we usually do back-to-back long runs.

When it comes to races we always start together, and the intention is usually to stay together, but on loop races (like The Bridge, Endure24 and The Joust), it usually ends up with Aimee leaving Paul behind! The only exception to that has been The Joust 2024 where we did run the 100 miles (19 laps) together, Aimee then did an additional lap on her own.

On A to B ultras, for the most part we stay together. There has only been one race so far where we have separated which was the Run Walk Crawl Vale Coastal Ultra in April 2025. We did the first 17 or so miles together and then Paul started slowing down after slipping down a step and aggravating his weak ankle. As Aimee was feeling really good, we decided to separate as Paul felt he was holding Aimee back. She ended up winning 2^nd female!

If you’re anything like us, all that running together will have left you with some stories to tell… What are your best (and worst) or funniest moments?

In terms of best moments, we would both have to say completing The Bridge 100 as our first 100 miler – that was very memorable. For Aimee she would also say crossing the finish line on her 20^th lap at Endure24 this year – with the commentator calling out that she had done 100 miles and was 2^nd lady, the crowds cheering and Paul waiting for her to give her a massive hug – it was a fantastic moment that will stay with her for a long time. Paul is particularly proud of his performance on The Joust in 2024 as it went so well, he felt strong all the way round and he crushed his goal of running 100 miles in under 24 hours.

In November 2024 we took on a particularly crazy challenge, with Paul setting us a ridiculous target (there is a bit of a theme here!). We did Cockbain Events’ Escape from Meriden Chained. [MT: More about this race in Heather and Geoffrey’s post] You start on the Friday at midnight in Meriden (the centre of England) and you have 36 hours to run as far away as you can, in as straight a line as possible. But you are also chained together at the wrist with a 1 metre chain and are wearing orange boiler suits! There is a special medal for any Chained runners that go over 130 miles, so that was Paul’s target. He plotted our route and with hindsight he made a few key mistakes: firstly, he took us west towards Wales which meant it got extremely hilly! And secondly, he routed us on quiet, country lanes through tiny villages with very little in the way of shops, garages, or any places at all to get supplies! It didn’t go well and at 9pm when we happened to stumble across Leominster Golf Club, Paul insisted we go in. That is probably our funniest ultra running moment – it was certainly an experience crashing a rather posh, private Christmas party at a golf club looking like very bedraggled escaped prisoners chained together! Aimee wanted us to stop for an hour or so to rest and refuel then carry on, but Paul had completely crashed (insufficient nutrition being the main cause), he refused to go any further and asked the lovely staff at the golf club if they could call us a taxi. So we ended our race after just 21 hours having covered 74 miles. The most frustrating thing for Aimee was when we woke up at home at 8am on the Sunday morning (bearing in mind the race didn’t finish until 12:00 noon on the Sunday), the first thing Paul said was “we should have carried on”!!

Our most heartbreaking experience so far has been the full Arc of Attrition (100 miler) that we attempted in January 2025. Paul in particular was so excited to be on this start line as this race means so much to him (Aimee was absolutely terrified!) The weather leading up to the race had been horrendous, with lots of rain, and major storms were forecast for that weekend. We were actually lucky that the race itself ended up falling between two storm fronts, so we only had a bit of rain during the Saturday night, but it was extremely windy and the terrain was very treacherous with hideous mud and extremely slippy rocky sections. The race was going well for us initially and we felt that we had it in the bag, but we got caught out by the St Ives cut off unfortunately. We thought we had been well ahead of the cuts off at earlier checkpoints, but we had completely underestimated the section from Botallack to St Ives (despite having done it on the Arc50 the previous year). That section is absolutely brutal and slowed us down so much we missed the cut off to St Ives by 21 minutes. Although we were able and willing to carry on, rules are rules, so we were timed out at just under 80 miles, which we had done in 26.5 hours (the cut off for the finish is 36 hours). We had realised we were going to be timed out on the approach to St Ives, so we ended up just walking into the town. It was a really bittersweet moment as there were a lot of supporters there for the 50 mile and 25 mile runners – they could see we were 100 mile runners from our bibs and were really cheering us on, saying things like “you’re doing amazing!” and “only 20 more miles!” etc, but they didn’t realise we were going to get pulled out at the checkpoint and we did! Paul got emotional first, which then set Aimee off, so we walked into the checkpoint holding hands, crying!

Our Arc of Attrition failure got to Paul so much that he decided for his 50^th birthday he wanted to try to run it again, unofficially. So on the Easter weekend in April this year we took ourselves back to Cornwall, with some lovely friends as our support crew, and we tried to run it again. We had horrendous weather (heavy rain and gale force winds) but we were going brilliantly. We did the first 50 miles in 14 hours, so we were well on target for a 30 hour finish. But then 1.5 miles out from Lands End, Paul lost his footing coming down a hill on some slippy rock. He hurt his ankle, twisted his knee and thought he had possibly broken a toe. This resulted in a slow hobble the rest of the way to Lands End and we had to call it there – we had done 55 miles. So the Arc of Attrition remains very much unfinished business for us!

That’s such a shame, but you definitely have it in you both to finish so hopefully it will work out some time in the future.

We both know that running together with your partner can be an amazing experience but not without its challenges too. What would your advice be to a couple thinking of starting to run together?

If both beginners, start out gradually and incorporate Jeffing (run/walk technique). Don’t get sucked into focussing on pace, it’s not important when you are starting out.

Whether you are new or experienced runners, accept that you and your partner are likely to run at different paces and have different strengths. We find that when we run together, Paul is faster on inclines and Aimee is stronger on roads. Generally, Paul gets to the top of hills before Aimee and waits for her at the top, and Aimee ends up waiting for Paul to catch her up on long road runs! But on training runs, pace really doesn’t matter, it’s all time on feet! Probably 80% of our training runs are easy-paced (low Rate of Perceived Exertion / RPE), so that means we can have relaxed, chatty runs and just enjoy the time together.

If you have conflicting goals (for example, one of you may be training for a half marathon PB and the other training for an ultra) you may have some different sessions to do, as speed training is very different to endurance training. But there will be some common elements and our advice would be to at least try to do your long, easy runs together. Or if one of you has some speed work to do (such as strides) and the other doesn’t, add the strides to the end of the run you do together and the runner not doing the speedwork can time the strides for their partner.

But it is important to do some runs on your own as well! We both find we enjoy doing some solo runs. It is nice to have some runs where you can run completely at your own pace without worrying about slowing your partner down or running too fast for them. And it’s good to have that “me time” for yourself!

If looking to do ultras together, we have learnt that there are three elements to focus on: fitness, fuelling and your mental strength. It is astonishing how much our bodies are capable of and more often than not it is your head that stops you from going further not your body. We often set ourselves training runs that will mentally challenge us – for example, we will do boring repeat laps when training for loop races and we go out for runs in the middle of the night when our brains are telling us we should be asleep!

That’s great advice and totally chimes with our own experience too…

So let’s jump back to where we started. How did you come to be running a checkpoint on Cardiff to London where you first met Julie? And did you know that Mark’s CPs are normally minimal (what you had was awesome by the way)???

We know Mark Cockbain from doing The Bridge 100 in May 2024 and Escape from Meriden Chained in November 2024. He was calling out for volunteers for Cardiff to London so we offered to run checkpoint 7 for him. Having participated in The Bridge we are very familiar with the Cockbain approach to supporting his runners – ‘minimal’ is definitely a good word for it! However, we know from experience how important checkpoints can be on ultras, so we risked being told off by Mark and made our little checkpoint as luxurious as we could without breaking any of the race rules!

We love being able to help out on events like this. Volunteers are so important on any races and we really value being on the ‘other side’ – seeing how much is involved in organising these events and being able to give back. On ultras checkpoints can literally feel like lifelines and so when we are volunteering we like to go all out to help runners as much as we can!

It was fantastic to meet Julie on Cardiff to London and our pleasure to be able to help her and see her on her way for that final push. She did absolutely brilliantly!

You seem to have a really busy calendar of events, and I’m sure some big things planned… What’s your next adventure together?

We have 2 ultrarunning adventures still to come in 2025. In September we return to The Joust 24 hour race, where Aimee will be defending her Ladies’ Champion title and Paul is going for the Men’s Champion trophy!

Then December 2025 will bring our biggest challenge yet – we’re doing Centurion’s Winter Downs 200. This will be our first 200 mile race and we are both excited and terrified!

We do already have a race lined up for 2026 – in March we are both taking on Cockbain Events’ The Tunnel. This is a 200 mile race in a 1 mile long tunnel so it’s going to be a huge mental challenge!

But before all of this, Paul’s biggest challenge is to sort out his problematic ankle! He has been given some specific exercises by his physio to strengthen it and he is mixing up his training at the moment to include some cycling and hiking to reduce some of the impact on his ankle while it heals.

Exciting! Julie will see you there at the Tunnel in March 👋

We hope this post has helped all our readers get to know you a bit better… we certainly have. If anyone wants to follow your future adventures, where can they find you?

We are @solematerunners on both Instagram and Facebook, we regularly share reels and posts about our training and races and a lot of them feature Paul messing around – there is never a dull day with him!

We also recently started a podcast – ‘Solemate Runners The Podcast’ which is on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We have done an intro episode about our journey into ultra running and subsequent episodes deep dive into specific races or events. So far we have covered The Arc of Attrition, Run Walk Crawl’s Vale Coastal Ultra and Big Bear Events’ Elephant Challenge. The next episodes to launch will be about our unofficial attempt to run the Arc 100 route on our own in April 2025 and our experiences at Endure24 Reading in June.

Awesome, please give Paul & Aimee a follow!

Well it was great to have a chat with the Solemates, we hope you all enjoyed it too. We have a busy summer of races and family holidays coming up, so keep your eyes on the blog and our socials for updates. Hope you are making the most of the summer weather too – see you out there on the trails 👋

Backyard Ultra Tips – Part 1: Pacing & Sleep

Between us we’ve run over 15 Backyard Ultra races, with more planned for 2025 and 2026 already! We often get asked questions at events or on social media about Backyards, and specifically how to improve your performance, so in this series of posts we’ll share some of our collected wisdom on running Backyard Ultras (BYU). We’ll assume you know what a BYU is – but if not Iain described the basics after his first BYU at the Cowshed in 2022 and you can read the official rules on bigsbackyardultra.com. Most of this advice has been worked out by the hard process of trial and error and after every race we always think of changes we can make for the next one, but some of it has been learned from friends and competitors, as well as the many BYU podcasts, films and articles that are out there. We hope you pick up a tip or two that help!

We’ll go into quite some detail on each topic, but if you just want the short version, look for the highlighted tips ⚠️ If you are interested in some personalised advice and training, please check out our coaching services or contact us to find out more…

Pacing Strategy

Unlike a normal ultra, the rules of the backyard sets the overall pacing for you. 1 yard (4.167 miles or 6.706km) every hour equates to 14m23s per mile or 8m57s per km so that’s the slowest you can go and still complete the yard within the hour. Of course that doesn’t leave any time for anything you might want to do between yards such as eat and drink, change clothes or shoes, fix any blisters, go to the loo, just have a rest (or sleep… more on that later). While many of us could easily complete a single loop in 30-35 minutes, to go a long way in a backyard you need to be more efficient – firstly using energy more efficiently, and secondly by reducing damage to the body. Both of these can be achieved by slowing down, but the question is… how much?

Most backyard runners tend to aim for a loop time in the 45-55 minute range, in fact according to backyardstats.com the average loop time over all the 25,297 yards that were run was 49:02. That’s still quite a lot of variation: between 10m48s and 13m12s per mile. It’s not as simple as one being “better” than the other. You can argue for going slower as being more efficient, but it also reduces the amount of recovery time you have between yards. On the other hand going faster allows for more recovery time at the cost of working while out on the loop. Everyone has their own preference but bear in mind that some people find they stiffen up during a long rest!

⚠️ Tip 1: Plan to complete each yard in between 45 and 55 minutes. ⚠️

Let’s see what some of the best backyarders in the world do… the graph below shows the lap times of the top 5 finishers at the Suffolk BYU 2024. All five of them had PBs of 70+ and Lukasz became the world record holder in 2025.

Image from https://www.backyardstats.com/past-events/suffolk-2024

Firstly, we can see that all of them slowed down by at least 5 minutes during the course of the race. Secondly, it shows that Lukasz is an outlier in that he is one of the few top-level backyarders who consistently runs at sub-45 minute pace, even late on in the race.

In our experience, we have aimed for the slowest possible pace that still allows enough time between loops to do everything that needs to be done and allowing enough “buffer” to account for slowing down later in the race. For us that’s typically around 52 minutes or 12m30s per mile, but it’s clear there is no substitute for testing it out for yourself to find a pace that you are comfortable with.

⚠️ Tip 2: Make sure to leave yourself enough time at the end of the loop and for slowing down later in the race. Starting out at 52 minute loops with 8 minutes break is our best advice. ⚠️

Once you’ve chosen a target pace, the next step is to decide how much of the loop you plan to run and how much you will walk. For many of us, even if aiming for a relatively speedy 45 minute yard, the required pace (10m48s per mile) is still slower than we might typically run so we need to consider walking for some of the loop.

Image from https://theconversation.com/walking-or-running-for-the-same-distance-which-consumes-more-energy-233943

This graph shows us three things. First, the purple line at around 12 minutes per mile says it becomes more efficient to walk than run – any slower than this and you should definitely consider switching to a walk. Second, running excessively slowly is inefficient. When you do run, you should run at or just slightly slower than your “normal” endurance running pace. Your body is well used to this movement pattern and it’s the most efficient speed for you to run for long durations. Finally, there is a walking pace that is most efficient – in this graph it’s at the pace of 24 mins per mile, but even at faster paces, walking is still more efficient than running. In a BYU where you need to cover a set distance (4.167 miles) in a fixed time what this means is the most efficient combination is to walk as much as possible, and the faster you walk the less time you have to spend running. If you have a strong walking pace, you might be able to walk for as much as 80% of the time!

⚠️ Tip 3: Walk as much as you can while maintaining your target pace. ⚠️

⚠️ Tip 4: Run at or just below your normal “long run” running pace. ⚠️

When it comes to putting this into practice you need a method to make sure you’re sticking to your target pace. That way you’ll avoid getting close to the end of the yard and having to sprint to make it in time! Some people like to identify key markers on the course… “I need to be at the top of the hill by 20 minutes”, “I need to have reached the turnaround by 25 minutes”… and work out these points over the first few yards.

What Iain likes to do is to track his pace on each mile using the “lap pace” on Garmin combined with an auto-lap at 1 mile intervals, and aim to hit the target pace on each mile. If he is ahead of pace, he can slow down a bit on the next mile and vice versa. This strategy also easily adapts to courses which have hills or other obstacles. For example, at GOBYU 2023 we did the first mile (flat) in 12 minutes, the second mile (uphill) in 13 minutes, and the remaining two miles (undulating) in 12m30s. At Pig on the Hill which has much more elevation per loop and Iain ran at 13 minutes per mile for the whole loop, coming in at around 54 minutes per yard.

You can also use this method to vary your pace during the race. For example as the race goes on and you begin to slow down, you can allow yourself an extra 15s on each mile. Or on races which have a different day and night loop, the night loop is usually easier – either less elevation or easier terrain, so you might consider a faster pace during the night.

⚠️ Tip 5: Track your pace during the loop to hit your target time, adapting to varying terrain if needed. ⚠️

Sleep Strategy

Most people are capable of staying awake for at least 24 hours, with practice! Especially if you are running a BYU in the summer and the night is quite short it’s completely realistic to run through the whole of the first night (and even the second!) without any sleep. Even if you need to go hard on the caffeine (tea/coffee, gels, cocoa beans, caffeine gum) to get you through, it’s do-able in the short term. If you’ve never run through the night before, it’s definitely worth practicing in training. Not only will you find out how your mind and body respond to the darkness, but you’ll also learn how to run by torchlight. It’s a good idea to figure out a safe 4.167 mile loop that you can run from your home or car, and try at least a 6 hour overnight backyard run. You’ll feel much more prepared when nightfall comes during the race.

⚠️ Tip 6: Practice running at night in training before you do it in the race ⚠️

If you are aiming to run for several days at a BYU, at some point you’re going to need to sleep. The next question is when and for how long! Similar to the variation in pacing strategies, there are lots of possible sleep strategies. Some runners prefer micro-naps – sleeping for just 5 or so minutes whenever they need it. It could be every loop during the night, or every so often when you feel sleepy. Alternatively, some prefer a longer sleep – 15 or even 20 minutes. Of course this requires running a faster loop so that you have enough time left in the hour. Again, how often you do this (and how early in the race) is a matter of personal preference. At Rasselbock BYU 2025 Iain did two loops on the first night in 41 and 45 minutes and one on the second night of 44 minutes to get a longer sleep. He also took micro-naps on most of the night yards, especially between midnight and 5am. On the other hand, Julie has run through two nights without any real sleeps 😮 As mentioned above, some courses have an easier night loop which naturally lends itself to faster loop times. Some runners have been known to sleep during the day too, but this is definitely less common!

⚠️ Tip 7: Plan for running faster loops at night to allow longer between loops for sleeping.⚠️

Image from: https://www.backyardstats.com/past-events/bigs-2023

In the graph above we can see the amount of time spent resting (not necessarily sleeping) of the top 8 finishers at the 2023 Individual World Championship race at Big’s. There are 13 night yards so on the first night they were averaging about 3 hours of rest (nearly 14 minutes per yard), dropping to 1-2 hours (4-9 minutes per yard). A closer look at the data shows that Frank who had the least rest in total, still ran at least 2 or 3 faster laps each night.

Once you’ve figured out how much time to leave for sleeping, how to make the best use of it? The first thing to note is that if you plan to sleep, you either need someone to wake you up (crew or a race volunteer – if they are willing!) or take a bit more risk and rely on an alarm or the whistles to wake you up. Whatever you plan, don’t DNF because you were asleep and failed to make it to the corral in time! Waking up with 60-90 seconds to go to the start of the lap is plenty of time, as long as everything you need for the next loop is prepared beforehand (or can be prepared by your crew while you sleep)

⚠️ Tip 8: Have a foolproof plan for waking up in time – ideally a reliable crew member ⚠️

Getting to sleep can prove difficult for some, and it’s frustrating especially if you are very sleepy out on the trail, but then can’t sleep in camp. Here are some pointers that have worked well for us. Stay off caffeine in the hours before you plan to sleep – for me that means caffeine in the morning and then staying caffeine-free for the rest of the day (unless in absolute emergency when I might take a caffeine gel during a night loop). Create a warm and comfortable place to sleep – this could be a reclining chair, a camp bed or inflatable mattress with a sleeping bag, blanket or dry-robe for warmth. If you don’t sleep well and the camp is bright and noisy, consider noise-cancelling headphones or earmuffs and a eye mask. Iain finds pulling a hood over his head is enough!

⚠️ Tip 9: Create a warm, cosy and quiet environment to sleep – as best as you can in a camp full of other runners ⚠️

Slow down and walk the last few minutes of the loop – this will give your heart rate time to drop and help you enter a naturally sleepy state. It’s hard to drop off when your heart is pounding! Try to avoid having to do any extra tasks on the loops when you plan to sleep. If you need to prepare supplies to carry with you on the next loop or need to eat or drink in camp, either have your crew do it for you (if you have crew) or wake up with enough time to get it done before starting the next yard.

⚠️ Tip 10: Prepare to sleep – slow down at the end of the yard, and minimise interruptions or extra tasks (or keep them for when you wake up) ⚠️

Once again, everyone is different – so there is no substitute for practice. After having difficulty sleeping during the 2024 Team World Championship, Iain did a 12-hour overnight practice session in January with a full 12 hours of darkness, experimenting with faster laps to allow for longer sleep, and also practicing waking up from a wrist-watch alarm, and it paid off at Rasselbock 2025!

We hope you’ve found this first Backyard Tips post to be interesting, informative and hopefully useful. In the next post in this series we’ll dive in to the topics of nutrition and hydration… see you soon! 👋

Suffolk Backyard Ultra 2025

Well after returning home from Suffolk BYU I slept most of the next 48 hours, hopefully speeding up my recovery from whatever virus I had been fighting for the previous ten days. It ended up being three weeks before I finally felt myself again, making me even more certain that stopping when I did was the right decision.

After Cardiff to London four weeks previously my full focus was on recovery and the weekend before Suffolk I was feeling really strong and ready to give it my all. Then Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat – one of the kids has been ill all week coughing and spluttering. Not to worry! I went for an easy run with Iain at backyard pace and felt fine. I was sensible and took it easy the rest of the day. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday and although I was a little concerned it was still just a sore throat so I figured I would be OK. By Monday I was feeling pretty grim and had developed a cough – I was beginning to suspect it could be COVID, so no running this week and rest as much as possible, Unfortunately work still had to get done and our eldest needed to be moved to their new rental flat in Edinburgh, so not the quietest of weeks. However I had managed to run KACR 9 days after COVID in 2022, so I was still hopeful all would be well for the weekend. Thursday I went for a 2 mile tester run – it felt OK but I was exhausted afterwards. By Friday I only had a slight cough and was mainly feeling OK so with the train and hotel booked (both non refundable) I decided to go and see what happened. I was hopeful that I was over the worst and would still be able to put in a big performance but knew it was a big risk and the wheels could fall off.

I travelled down to Thetford on the Friday after work – seven hours (4 trains and 3 connections). The journey all went smoothly apart from one delayed train that left me with a four minute connection in Peterborough – running up and over a railway bridge with a full bag was not much fun! It was a short walk from the station to The Bell Hotel where I was staying and I picked up dinner on the way. I was all checked in by 8.15pm and after sorting my stuff and eating I was asleep by 10pm.

I had a good night’s sleep and had no rush in the morning thanks to Vic Owens who was for crewing me and Luke Carter agreeing to get there for 8am to set up the crew tent etc. Race Director Lindley had asked for nobody to arrive before 8am but many had and when Vic arrived at 8 there was already a long queue waiting to be allowed on the field to get the best spots closest to the corral. This meant our crew tents were a little way back from the start. With 275ish starters it was a large field of tents and there were plenty of people further away. It just meant I had to be out of the tent on the 1 minute whistle to ensure I was in the corral on time. Saturday morning was very wet so I had a slow get ready in the hotel room before heading to High Lodge.

I got a taxi from Thetford station to High Lodge in Thetford forest and arrived about 9.30. I soon had all my bits organised, had registered (a very straight forward process) and was able to get a chat with some old friends. I was feeling good and looking forward to the race start. I don’t like midday starts as the morning tends to drag and by lunchtime I always feel a bit lethargic, but I tried to relax, had a coffee and very nice double egg bun from the catering van. They were very helpful in catering for gluten free and other dietary requirements. The rain had gone off although more was forecast for later in the day. It was finally time for race briefing at 11.30, I ended up near the back which made it a little challenging to hear the race briefing but I had thoroughly read the race pack and know the backyard rules well. One that I hadn’t seen before and was a little concerned about was the following:

There are no toilets on the route except the start/finish funnel, please do not go to the toilet on the trail, if you do and you are spotted you will get a DQ. You can use the toilets in the funnel on the way in or out of the laps or between loops.

Now I am a stickler for rules, it’s just my personality and it makes me very anxious if I think I have accidentally broken one. So this for me meant no wild wees on the course full stop. I therefore decided to use the loos at the end of nearly every loop to ensure I didn’t get caught short. However with only 8 toilets and 2 urinal blocks this lead to a 2-3 minute queue after several laps – it doesn’t sound much but when you only have 7 or 8 minutes to get turned around it was not ideal. I suspected the vast majority of runners took this rule very loosely and were quite happy to nip into the bushes especially overnight and the second morning. This was frustrating as I felt penalised for sticking to the rules but also knew if I did deliberately wee in the bushes I would feel guilty about it. I just had to make the most of it.

At 11.57am the 3 minute whistle sounding and it was finally time to get started. We were all in the corral and at midday exactly we were on our way. I had already decided I was going to chat to as many people as possible during the first laps as I love hearing people’s stories and it helps pass the miles. I wasn’t sure if the course would bottleneck, especially at the only ‘hill’ at the start of mile 2 but actually it was fine. You did end up in a queue and had to walk at others’ paces but it wasn’t a big problem. Once at the top there was plenty of space for everyone again. The course was far more enjoyable than I remember from October (always a good thing) and the first few laps flew by. I chatted to friends old and new, tried (and failed) to remember faces and names – sorry if I tried to have the same conversation with you more than once. It was all good fun. My legs felt great and running didn’t seem to irritate my cough or throat so all was good. I took it easy and by the time I had nipped in to the loo at the end of each loop I was crossing the line at 52-54 minutes. It did feel a quick turn around by the time I had walked to the tent and back again but it was enough time to eat, drink and do what I needed to.

Annoyingly after a few yards my period started (I’m not having much luck this year) so I had stomach cramps and bloating to deal with but neither was a big problem thankfully. Vic Owens was fantastic at crewing Luke and myself, calm and organised and a lovely person to come back to at the end of each lap – thank you 🤩. I did a quick lap at tea time so I had an extra couple of minutes to wolf down some cheesy chips, they were great and gave me a boost going into the evening. During the evening there were a wet few yards but it wasn’t cold and by night time it had dried up so I could swap into a dry t-shirt for the night. With the cloud cover we were asked to take headtorches from 8pm but didn’t actually need them until the 9pm loop. As night fell more people had headphones in and there was more of a hush over the runners. I love night running and it was great seeing all the headtorches strung out through the forest.

One of many changes of train on the way down

Up to midnight I was still having fun and chatting with different folk – people were quieter as darkness fell but there were still enough people without headphones in that I could chat to. The legs were feeling good with no real niggles and I was still enjoying myself. Unfortunately other the next few loops I was aware that everything had suddenly become really hard work and much harder than it would normally be at this stage and distance into a race. I felt like I had run 30 loops not 12! I suspected the nasty virus was to blame as everything else was going to plan. I decided to listen to an audiobook for a few laps and see if things improved – it was a short night and not long until morning and then I would reassess. Unfortunately things didn’t get better and I was roasting hot and working far harder than I should be – I was beginning to accept today was not going to be my day. I wanted to get to daylight and see if things improved. I got my temperature checked and it was normal but I still didn’t feel right. At 5am I gave Iain a call to chat things through but had already decided to stop sooner rather than risk and even longer recovery. He was really supportive and agreed and when I spoke to Vic she was also supportive and helped me make the right decision. Ultimately health has to come first and I still wasn’t well.

I went out on lap 19 but knew I wasn’t going to continue so from mile 2 I walked the loop taking photos and enjoying the early morning. George Parkin surprised me by catching me up at just over 3 miles. He was really tight on time for getting around in the hour so I told him to hurry up and get a move on! He was also having a tough time so soon after GOBYU (3 weeks earlier). I timed my loop perfectly coming in just after the runners had gone out on lap 20. I was able to ring the bell and collect my DNF dog tag. I was disappointed as it was a year I would have had a good chance at the win but it was out of my hands and I was pleased I had made the sensible decision – 80miles was still a good effort!

Vic was great at making sure I was alright and putting out my bed roll and sleeping bag for me and once changed I had a lovely couple of hours sleep. I was then able to sort out a lift to the train station – thanks Ruth and Gav. I didn’t have loads of stuff so soon was packed and able to go and have some chats with folk and clap the runners in for their 24 hours and 100 miles.

All in all it was a great weekend and I am glad I travelled down. It is a lovely course that has the potential to go a really long distance and that is exciting for future years. It was all well organised, with great volunteers, personally I would have preferred more toilets and am still unsure about the no weeing on course rule as it just penalises those that stick to it (and a large number of people didn’t) but all in all a great race and a great weekend.

Thanks to everyone who supported me especially Vic for being an amazing crew and Iain for looking after everything at home. Thanks to all the other runners for the great chat and great atmosphere and Lindley and all the volunteers for a great event.

Cape Wrath Ultra 2025

Photos credits: (1) No Limits Photography (2) David Siska (3) the Taylor family (4) Pam Nix (5) Gavin Davies

Where to even start with this one? What an absolute epic of a race – it was everything I imagined and more. Completing the Cape Wrath Ultra was the culmination of a three year journey starting with volunteering at the race in 2023, deferring my entry in 2024 due to injury and volunteering for a second year, and finally being on the start line this year! I shared a post earlier about my preparation for the race so let’s start the story from there…

The journey to Cape Wrath starts in Fort William, and although the race doesn’t start till Sunday, Saturday afternoon is for registration, which takes place at the Fort William football club. Leaving home late morning, I picked up Gary Legg at Perth station who had travelled up on the train from Newcastle and we arrived in Fort William under hot, sunny skies – the first of many such days! At the football club, a mini event village was set up and after picking up the mandatory blister treatment kit from the on-site shop it was time for kit check and registration! As I said before, the mandatory kit list is extensive and very detailed, so I was very pleased to have all my kit approved first time. I was given a wristband to be worn all week, picked up my race numbers and event t-shirt, and had my photo taken for the race tracking page. I was able to weigh my dry bag on the official scales and it came out at 20.1kg – not bad considering I had weighed in at 19.9kg at home and just added the blister kit. I planned just to take one 200g bag of trail mix out of my spare food and carry it in my pack on day one to get me back under the limit.

Arrived in Fort William – it’s finally happening 😁

After that we had several hours to chill out, catch up with old friends among the event team and participants, and meet many new people too. There was definitely a general air of nervous anticipation, but I was quite relaxed as I knew what to expect in terms of the race logistics, and had done a lot of research on the route too. We were served our first meal by the Ourea catering team (lasagne, garlic bread and salad) and then had a short briefing and then were free to go for the evening.

I was planning to sleep in the back of the van, so after dropping Gary at his hotel, I stopped off at the chippy for a last minute carb load, then headed down the A82 to find a nice parking spot in a layby with views over Loch Linnhe towards Cona Glen where we would run tomorrow. After a relaxed evening looking over the map for tomorrow’s first stage of the race, I got my head down early with my alarm set for 6am.

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Day 1: Fort William – Glenfinnan (23 miles)

I actually woke around 5:30am after a reasonable night’s sleep considering it was the night before a race and I was sleeping not far from a busy road. It was already light and I was ready to go so I got dressed into my running kit, ate some breakfast and headed in to Fort William. I stopped off at McDonald’s for a breakfast wrap and a cup of tea – I was first in the door when it opened at 6:30am and placed order #1 on their system. Probably the only time I would be in first place all week 🤣 After this second breakfast I drove back up to the football club where I’d be leaving the van for the week. After packing of both my race pack and dry bag and a final check that I had not left anything behind, I locked the car and headed to the bag drop. This time, the dry bag weighed in at 19.8kg, so I took the 200g bag of trail mix out of my pack, stuffed it in the top of the dry bag and it was accepted with a final weight of 20.0kg!

I took a leisurely walk down through the town, stopping for another cup of tea and making my way to the West End car park where all the participants assembled to wait for the ferry across Loch Linnhe to the start line. I collected my race tracker and after an hour or so of chat and waiting around, we boarded the ferry. With around 180 runners in the event (including a few who were taking on the shorter Cape Wrath 100 – the first three days of the main event), there were two planned start waves. I had managed to get myself in the first wave, so the ferry was at 10am, for a race start at 11am. It only took 10 minutes or so to cross the loch but it was exciting to finally be starting out on the journey for real! When we reached the other side a piper was playing as we disembarked and made the short walk to Treslaig village hall, where we had a last minute chance for drinks, biscuits and a few visits to the toilets. It was already hot at this point and I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, and topped up my sun cream while waiting for the start. With a few minutes to 11 we gathered on the road and as the piper played we counted down the seconds and then we were off – the Cape Wrath Ultra had begun!

The first 6 miles of the route actually follow a tarmac road down the side of Loch Linnhe. Apart from a small group who blazed off into the distance like they were running a half marathon, most people were taking it fairly steady and I settled into an easy rhythm and had a bit of chat with the other runners around me. There were some gorgeous views down the loch as we passed through banks of rhodedendrons – I reminded myself (and others) that this wasn’t even the most scenic day, it was only going to get better as we headed North.

Turning off the road into the interior of the Ardgour Peninsula, the next 10 miles climbed gradually up Cona Glen on a wide gravel track. I spent much of this time running with David Siska – it turned out that he worked in the School of Mathematics at Edinburgh University and had an office two floors up from where I used to work. Small world! It was definitely a hot day, but there was generally a good breeze blowing down the glen so apart from a few sheltered spots it didn’t feel too bad. Near the top of the glen, we took a sharply rising grassy path up to the first of many cols of the route at a height of about 1280ft.

View down Loch Linnhe from Fort William.

From here it was downhill all the way to the finish. I stopped to tighten up my shoes as they were almost new and I didn’t want my feet to be sliding around in them on the descent. David headed off into the distance and I made my way down on mostly good trail, with a few rocky and heathery sections. Some of the race hill response team were waiting where the trail led down from the open hillside out onto a wider gravel track through forestry plantation and I enjoyed picking up a bit of speed again. Coming down into the valley the breeze dropped again and for a while it felt really quite hot in the sun, especially on the sun-baked sandy road that led down towards the Callop River. Fortunately, for the first time in several years, the footbridge here had been repaired and we could run all the way across into Glenfinnan. In the last two years, participants had to finish at the end of the road, then walk back a mile and be ferried by car back to the finish.

It was busy with tourists visiting the Glenfinnan monument as I came out of the woods onto the main road, and there were a couple of race marshals directing us on over the River Finnan on the road bridge and then right into camp. A final short stretch of trail led to the finish funnel and under the CWU gantry, marking the end of the first stage! It took me 3h22, which was just around the time I had expected – not bad for a hot day, and most importantly, everything felt fine.

Coming in to camp, I was the first one back out of the 8 of us assigned to tent 21 so I was able to unpack all my kit and claim a sleeping spot in the far corner from the door. Over the next few days my post-race routine was honed to perfection. After unpacking and hanging up my race kit to dry, I’d eat a bit of beef jerky, make up a protein shake to kick-start the recovery process and then head to the nearest river or loch for a quick dip to cool off and wash. I did get a few funny looks from the tourists heading up the path to the Glenfinnan viaduct while I was floating around in the river! Then after getting dried and dressed into my camp clothes, I would have the obligatory soup, chips and a cup of tea. After that, I would sort out my race pack for the next day, replenishing it with food from the supply in my dry bag and study the map and my pacing plan for the following day, then head straight for dinner at 6pm when it was served.

As this was the first day, I also had the chance to meet the rest of my tent-mates: Wayne (sadly DNF’d after day 2), John, Tom and Alastair (completed the Cape Wrath Explorer), Julian, Nicholas and Peter (all completed the full Cape Wrath Ultra). Once everyone had completed the stage, I was placed 11th overall. I was planning to stick to my pacing plan and not get sucked into “racing” as I simply had no idea how well I would recover and be able to run for many consecutive tough days, but it was nice to know I was somewhere near the front of the pack. Since my time had been under 3h30, I also had a mandatory late start time of 8am for the next day. Normally, you can start each day any time between 7am and 9am, with most choosing to start as early as possible, especially on the longer days with tighter cut-off times. The fastest runners have to start later to avoid them arriving at the finish before the event team have had time to build it! Although it was great to have the first day done, the focus was now on tomorrow which would be the first “full day” of the race so I got off to bed around 9pm and was soon asleep.

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Day 2: Glenfinnan – Kinloch Hourn (35 miles)

I had set my alarm for 6am, but the first alarm in my tent went off at 5am and I was aware of people starting to get up at 5:30 and I followed soon afterwards. This actually worked quite well as it meant I missed the rush of the 7am starters when breakfast began serving at 5:30. It was a bit midgey as expected in the morning but they didn’t bother me much. What became my usual morning routine was two cups of tea, 2 (vegetarian) sausages in a roll, eggs, beans, 3 hash browns and a “Belgian” waffle (the Belgians in camp said they were not authentic!) and then back to my tent to get changed, prep my feet for the day, and pack everything away in my dry bag. As most of my tent-mates were heading out at 7am or soon after, I usually had the place to myself. After only a short day yesterday, my feet were still in excellent shape!

A group of around 10 of us set off at 8am, heading out of camp, under the viaduct and up Glen Finnan on first a tarmac road which turned into a gravel track and finally a hill trail as it climbed up to the col. It was pretty runnable, and many of the others were going faster and I was happy to let them go and stick to my own pace, hiking the steepest parts. Going over the first climb I caught up to the back of the main field and gradually worked my way past them. This would be the case on almost every days – on the longest ones I would run right through the field but on the shorter ones the fastest would make it to the finish first (having had a 1 hour head-start). I really enjoyed exchanging greetings with everyone as I went past and as the week went on it became a great source of motivation and encouragement – in both directions!

The descent was steep but mostly runnable grassy and heathery terrain, with a decent trodden path to follow and only a few truly trackless sections. The ground was generally quite dry after what had been several weeks of warm, dry weather, but on a “normal” year it would have been quite boggy I think. Before too long we hit a small bridge and joined a forest track leading to CP1. The next few miles were undulating forest tracks through woodlands and I really enjoyed this section – very runnable and my legs felt great. As we climbed out of Glen Dessarry, this faded into a rough hill track and past a couple of high lochans near the col. The map showed a river crossing, but the water was low enough it was easy to skip across without getting wet feet. Across the whole week, of all the 100s of river/burn crossings, only 2 or 3 were actually deep enough to require wading!

A steep zig-zagging descent led down to the shoreline and past the Sourlies bothy. The tide was in, so we had to stay on the stony ground at the top of the beach, and climb up and over the headland rather than run on the beach itself. Around this point I was passed by Marcus Scotney, the eventual race winner and CR holder from the inaugural race in 2016. On future days he’d pass me much earlier but today he’d started even later at 8:30am so it took roughly half the stage to catch and pass me! Beyond the beach there is a section of low-lying terrain that is notoriously boggy. However, it did not live up to its “man-eating” reputation this year, as the ground was largely dry and there was a decent trod to follow for the most part. Crossing the bridge at CP2 it was good to see some of the event team, including Christine who I had met in 2023 and crewed for us at the UK Backyard Ultra championship last year.

The sun rises over the hills as the first runners set off at 7am.

Beyond the CP, the route follows the River Carnach as it meanders first through a wide, flat plain and gradually narrows into a gorge with a fantastic waterfall and some scrambling over rocks required! For most of this section I was completely alone and had the first real sense of remoteness and solitude, which was really great. The stillness was briefly shattered by an RAF Herculus transport plan carrying out low level manoeuvres! I filled up my soft flask here and even though the water looked great, I treated it with a chlorine tablet. After the norovirus outbreak on last year’s camp which was suspected to have come from contaminated water, I wasn’t taking any chances! The final big climb of the day followed – more than 1000 feet in around a mile. It was a tough one in the early afternoon heat, but I was bouyed by overtaking the front-runner from the 7am starters and (apart from Marcus) being at the front of the field. The run Glen Unndalain down towards Loch Hourn has great views and is on a good path, but for the first time I started to feel a bit sick. I had been eating well all day but I think a combination running the steep descent and being a bit overheated from the climb were the cause. I backed off a bit and was passed by David and later Jon (who would go on to finish second overall), but after filling my flask again at the campsite/bothy at CP3 I started to feel a bit better.

The final 10k along Loch Hourn have a reputation for being slow and difficult. I was prepared for this having run a bit of the route in 2023, but I was still surprised to see my watch showing 1000 ft of climbing still remaining. In the end, there were a couple of moderate climbs, but lots of twisty, up-and-down rocky and rooty singletrack all the way to the finish. It’s the kind of terrain I love to run on on a short training run, but it was a bit tedious at the end of a long, hot day! Lewis Taylor (finished third overall) also caught me up on this section but I stuck with him and we ran the final few miles together to the finish. Turns out he is also from Edinburgh and even lived in the same tenement block as David – small world indeed! Eventually the camp came in to view and we jogged the final short section of road, arriving in to camp in 7h14. The first big day was done.

It was still mid-afternoon so I had plenty of time to get in the river and relax in the sun. Kinloch Hourn is a really beautiful and remote location, nestled at the end of a deep sea loch and as the sun dipped below the hills it cooled quickly and the midges came out. I retreated to bed well before 9pm, with many participants still out on the course. Two of my tent-mates came in well after the 10pm course closure time and were relegated to the Explorer course as a result, but I was fast asleep!

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Day 3: Kinloch Hourn – Achnashellach (42 miles)

Day three is regarded as the real crux of the Cape Wrath Ultra, with an extra 7 miles and 1800 ft of climbing compared to day two, anyone in trouble with cut-offs already will have a hard time on this one. History shows that anyone completing day three has a very good chance of finishing the whole race. As I went through my morning routine there was a long queue of participants eager to start at 7am on the dot to give themselves as much time as possible. Thanks to my sub-8-hour finish yesterday, I had to start at 8am. My feet were still in really good shape, with just one small hot-spot developing at the base of my left big toe. I taped it and it didn’t bother me all day.

After a very short warm-up on a track around the head of the loch, the climbing starts right away with a steep pull of nearly 1000 feet up a rocky track. This opens onto a good runnable and gradually rising track up into Coire Mhalagain. Marcus breezed past me again, having only started 5 or 10 minutes after me today. As the climb steepened onto a grassy and boggy bank up to the top of the Bealach, I was already catching up with some of the 7am starters – they were indeed in for a long day of chasing cut-offs. Over the top of the ridge there is a short rocky section as we passed the base of the Forcan Ridge, with The Saddle looming overhead on the left. I found this OK and really enjoyed it as the trail opened out onto a wide track and grassy descent into Coire Caol. Many participants were filling bottles as I crossed the Allt Undalain – keeping my feet dry again by staying on the many rocks, but this would be a proper river crossing on most years. A good landrover track led downhill and before long we reached the campsite and road at Glen Shiel. David and then Lewis Taylor both passed me at this point, and I was surprised when he passed me again just after CP1 – he’d stopped at the cafe but given up waiting as the queue was quite long. Maybe one for the Explorers, but not for those of us in a hurry!

After CP1 there are a few miles of road past Morvich and the Kintail Outdoor Centre. It was only 11am but the sun was blazing down mercilessly and it felt really hot! A gate led onto a narrow trail through the lower hill forest and after crossing the river, steeped as we climbed up through forestry plantation and out onto open hillside towards the Bealach na Sroine. There were a few runners ahead on the path but I was only just overhauling them and though it was a good path there was no shade and it was hot work. Over the top and there was a short grassy descent before the steep path along the edge of the gorge where the Falls of Glomach lie, mostly hidden from view. Despite knowing to keep high at the marker post, I nearly took the lower path but corrected my error after only a few metres. Similar to yesterday I was starting to feel pretty sick and going slowly on the descent. About half-way down the gorge there is a confluence with another big mountain stream cascading down to meet the Allt a Glomaich in a deep, shady pool. Conscious that the heat was what was making me suffer, I drank about a litre straight from the falls and filled up my flask. I didn’t chlorinate this one – it was as clear and pure a water source as you could hope to find, and I instantly felt better for it.

CP2 is where the trail to the falls meets a wide estate track. It was great to see my 2023 “van buddy” Sam there, although I suspect for others he marked the end of their race if they missed the cut-off and had to be extracted by road. I got into a good running groove along this track, with a deep blue loch glistening in the sun on the right. Jon passed me at this point but as the track started to rise again I gradually caught up with him as my power-hiking pace showed. I passed him as we both stopped to fill our bottles at a stream crossing, and by the time I reached the top of the hill he was no-where in sight. Later it transpired that he had left his poles at the burn and had to walk back for a few minutes to retrieve them!

A long queue of runners ready to start at 7am sharp.

From the top of the climb there are several miles of grassy, runnable, gradually downhill track leading towards Maol Bhuidhe, one of the most remote bothies in Scotland. I absolute loved this section – the scenery is not particularly dramatic compared with the Forcan Ridge or the Falls of Glomach, but the sense of isolation and wilderness was outstanding. I was feeling much better now and it was pure “type 1” fun all the way past the bothy. A mile or so’s climb through mostly trackless moor followed, and Jon caught me up at this point. We ran together for several miles on the good track past Loch Calavie and down towards CP3. We passed David again at this point who said he had gone out a bit hard and had a sore ankle. Christine cheered me through CP3 and I made good speed along more good gravel track to Loch an Laoigh. It had been a long, hot day and I was very low on water with the prospect of one final big climb to come. I found a decent looking side stream – there wasn’t much flow but it looked clear so I filled up a dropped in a Chlorine tab. Jon was a bit ahead as we hacked across the (mercifully dry) bog to the Bearhais bothy and we hiked the final climb together. The route over the top of the ridge is supposed to be tricky but it was clearly flagged (and of course we had no low cloud to content with unlike last year) and as we threaded through the correct notch in the cliffs we could see the next camp a few miles ahead and 2000 ft below us. The run down was great, zig-zagging through heathery open hillside and eventually into the Achnashellach forest before finally emerging on the banks of the River Carron. This was the first “proper” river crossing of the race so far but it was nice to wade through the knee-deep cold water at the end of the day with only a short distance to camp. We finished together in 9h16 (although Jon ahead in reality as he had started 10 minutes behind me). This was to be my longest day of the whole race, befitting its status as the hardest one. In total, 100 miles completed over the first three days and the prospect of two shorter days to come… things were looking good!

Finishing after 5pm I had a bit less time in camp, but still plenty to get everything done. I spared a thought for those who were still out on the course (the final finisher arriving at around 9:50pm), although many had also failed to make the cut-off at CP2 after the Falls of Glomach and were driven back to camp. After all the front-runners had got back I found that I had moved up into 4th place – great news but I was still focussed on sticking to my own pacing plan and keeping my effort sustainable each daya.

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Day 4: Achnashellach – Kinlochewe (22 miles)

As this was a relatively short stage, the fastest runners had the luxury of at 8:30am start. After the water crossing at the end of yesterday’s run and without an afternoon in the sun to dry things out my running kit was wet so I changed into my backup shoes and fresh kit for the day. My feet were still in good shape, but the hotspot on my left foot had developed into a small blister so I drained it and taped it up and it didn’t cause me any bother for the rest of the week.

I got out at 8:30 sharp and headed off along the short stretch of road to the train station. Crossing the railway, the track rose steadily, up between Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor. Already the landscape was changing as we left Kintail behind and headed into the rocky grandeur of Torridon. It was yet another blue sky day but still fairly cool in the morning. Jon caught up with me early on and we stuck together up and over the col before he picked up the pace, and I took it easy on the descent, mindful not to overheat. A good walker’s track led the way down to the Torridon road and the first checkpoint. The views ahead to Liathach on the left and Beinn Eighe on the right were spectacular. I had been looking forward to the scenery of this part of the route and it did not disappoint!

Crossing the road at the one and only checkpoint of the day, nearly half the distance and climbing was already done, but the hardest part of the day was still coming! An excellent walker’s path up the valley and round to the back of Beinn Eighe was mostly hiking, with a few less steep and runnable sections. The final climb up to the lochan in Coire Mhic Fearchair featured huge stone blocks, forming a staircase that at least made for quick, if not easy, climbing. Suddenly we popped out onto a broad stone ledge, with the lochan and the triple buttress behind it, and the burn tumbling down a waterfall to the right. A great place to stop, but not today! Our route pushed on, first dropping then contouring round the pathless and rough North flank of Beinn Eighe. A mixture of steep tussocky and bouldery slopes led to a wide undulating and heathery glen. This section had been described to me as “the worst 5k of your life” and it wasn’t easy but at least the ground was mostly dry and I could see where we were headed. There might be a good line to follow somewhere, but if so I don’t think I found it. It was good to have a few other people for company and I spent most of this section with Elliot Robbie – I think he hoped that I knew the best route, but I think I disappointed him 🤣 After an hour of hacking through rough terrain we eventually picked up a path as we came over the lip of the col near the ruined croft of Creagan Ruadh.

Finally the tough terrain was over and all that was left was a few miles of downhill on a white Torridonian gravel path and through the woods to Kinlochewe. As it had been a fairly short day and some those participants who had started early had a 90 minute head start, I was still catching and slowly passing people all the way through the village and to the new camp location in a field just over the Kinlochewe river.

Finishing the day in a little over 5 hours, there was plenty of time to relax, recover and get everything from yesterday dried out in the sun. Some folks even made the short walk back into Kinlochewe to make use of the shop to get a few extra treats! I stuck to my routine, but added in an hour or so’s afternoon power nap in my tent before dinner – the perfect end to an awesome day on the trail. It might have been today (or maybe the next day… they all blur into one to some extent) that in addition to the afternoon soup and chips, the catering team also started serving wraps. They were great, not least because they had tons of fresh salad in them, and I had one with my chips each day from now on.

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Day 5: Kinlochewe – Inverbroom (27 miles)

The fifth day of the race and the good weather was still holding out – we were in store for another hot one! Once again, I had an 8:30am start. Although slightly longer than the previous stage, this one had around the a similar amount of elevation (or actually slightly less according to what my watch measured), so it was expected to be much more runnable.

Today I started out alongside Lewis Breen, who was quite close behind me in 5th place overall. The first 7 miles of the day take a wide gravel track up Glen na Muice and I was able to keep up a strong pace. I left Lewis behind, was overtaken by Marcus (as usual), and caught up by Jon just as we reached CP1 – and unmarked turn-off from the main path onto a steep grassy climb up to the Bealach nan Croise. Coming over the top, the descent started with a wide trackless section of heather where a wide variety of routes were being taken, none of them notably better than others! After a couple of miles a track gradually developed. Lewis had caught up and both he and Jon were getting ahead of me when Lewis Taylor also caught me up. I decided this was not the time to dawdle and for the first time in the race I pushed the pace to stay ahead of him. Before long we caught up to Lewis Breen and for a couple of miles I took a ride on the “Lewis train” as we blasted down the narrow and sometimes muddy trail at the bottom of an isolated glen – probably far too fast to be going in the middle stages of a multi-day ultra, but it was fun and remains one of my greatest memories of the whole race!

By the time we reached the bottom of the next climb the train fell apart – Lewis Taylor pushed on ahead and Lewis Breen fell back as his legs had started cramping. The climb was roughly 800ft, but on a wide gravel track and relatively easy going. Hiking gave my legs some respite after a lot of running in the first half of the stage. From the top, the path tilted steeply downhill and despite fairly sore quads I pushed the pace, making the most of the runnable terrain. Reaching the road at Corriehallie there was a short run down to CP2 where quite a crowd of event team were waiting, which was really encouraging! I knew all that was left was a short 10k section over a final climb and down in to camp.

Getting ready to set off as the camp is dismantled, with Beinn Eighe in the background.

From the checkpoint, we were back on a steep hill path – at one point having to scramble over a huge windblown tree. We passed a beautiful waterfall over some stone slabs, where I filled up my flask before heading on up the hill. There were still plenty of other participants out on the course, either from the 7am start, or those on the explorer course who had recently started the day at CP2. As we reached the top of the climb, I was on the lookout for the point to leave the path. I was acutely aware of it after having watched my friend Agamemnon miss it completely in 2023 and come down off the hill about a mile from camp! Fortunately I had recce’d this section during last year’s race and I found the route with little trouble. Once again, what would usually have been a boggy plateau and a very wet descent were dry and straightforward. The path zig-zagging down the hillside to Inverbroom was rocky and steep, but not slippy and after a short final stretch along the road I arrived back to camp in 4h37 – about half an hour faster than the previous day, despite an extra 4 or 5 miles. The promise of a more runnable day held up and the Lewis train on the way certainly helped too!

Another early afternoon finish was made even better by the news that there was Coke on offer in addition to the usual options of squash and hot drinks. I made the most of the time to rest up ahead of the longest day with another little power nap 🥱

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Day 6: Inverbroom – Inchnadamph (45 miles)

Alongside the “hardest day” (3), the “longest day” (6) is the other crux stage of the race. It is much more runnable – so as long as you can still run, you should be fine! It started relatively cool when I set off at 8am with Lewis Taylor for company. After a short warm-up on road, we joined a shady track through Inverlael Forest. After a little bit of tricky navigation we found a steep trail up through the forest and out onto the open hillside. The ground was still mercifully dry as the gradient slackened onto the broad grassy shoulder of Beinn Bhreac. Several miles of trackless but easily runnable ground led down Glen Douchary to join a wide gravel track at CP1.

This was the start of roughly 20 miles of gravel track – it was easy to run on, but even in these surroundings I have to say I was a bit bored of it by the end. I definitely had a love/hate relationship with that track! The roughly 10 miles to CP1 was gradually downhill and I had plenty of runners ahead of me to chase, which made the miles pass quite quickly, and I was keeping a strong pace. Even so, the final stretch down Glen Einig seemed to last an awfully long time. CP2 at Oykel Bridge had plenty of people, including Lewis’ family and 4 month old son… and cowbells, which is always a good thing!

From CP2 the track gradually rises, following the River Oykel upstream. Two interesting things happen to break up the monotony of gravel track. Firstly, just past Caplich Farm, three spectators turned up at the side of the trail, with a portable sound system blasting out Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone”! No idea who they were, but I loved it and it certainly gave me a boost. Secondly, I was on the lookout for somewhere to fill my flask as it had been yet another long, hot day. The river was mainly quite a distance away from the path, so when a sizeable burn crossed from the right, I stepped a little bit upsteam, drank a bit and filled up my flask. I crossed the burn and pretty much stepped on the carcass of a deer! Fortunately it seemed to be long deceased and was just bones – although I’d already drunk directly from the burn, there wasn’t anything I could do about it… I did empty out my bottles and refilled again from the river a bit further upstream, and hoped for the best. Finally, the track came to an end. This year, we were following a grassy and somewhat muddy trail right next to the river. It was a bit slower going but I wasn’t caring as it was nice just to have something different underfoot. A few miles further on and I reached CP3, who were just setting up. I found out later that they had been delayed getting to the CP and several runners had come through before they arrived! Christine was on the CP crew (she had also been at CP1) and it was her birthday but I completely forgot until the next day – oops!

Plenty of runners ready to start at 7am, ready for the longest day.

After the checkpoint, a short section of road skirted Loch Ailsh and took us past the grand Benmore Lodge and into the upper reaches of Glen Oykel. This was a wide, verdant basin and I loved it! I passed one of the race photographers and was followed by his drone for half a mile or so – I haven’t seen the footage yet but if it looked half as good as it felt it would be great! I caught up with tent-mate Alastair just before the final climb up to the col to the left of Conival. He was running the Explorer second half of the course option and was very pleased that he’d been the front-runner for quite some time before being passed by Marcus, Jon, Lewis and Bruno (he was having a strong second half of the race and would eventually finish fifth overall). I knew the final climb was coming but it was just a dreadful 800ft slog up a tussocky grass bank and it was not fun! The only good thing about it was that the col was supposed to be spectacular, and after that it was just a few miles of downhill to the finish. Eventually I reached the top and found the narrow track that threaded high above the gorge that drops away steeply to the left (there were a couple of the event response team and some flags to make sure you couldn’t go wrong). It was nice to be headed to the finish but I didn’t get into much of a groove as the track was narrow, steep and disappeared entirely in places. With two miles to go I was surprised to see Jon ahead of me – he’d passed by before CP1 and I hadn’t expected to see him again. It transpired he had some bad blisters and was having a real slow struggle to the finish. I guess a bit of competitive fire kindled in me and I boosted past him all the way to the finish, even clocking a sub-8-minute mile! He finished a few minutes behind me, but having started later I think he actually beat my time of 7h23.

Anyway, the longest day was done and I was still in fourth place overall. After a great run Bruno had moved up into fifth, overtaking Lewis Breen who had another tough day. I had resolved earlier in the race that if was still feeling good by day seven I would see what I could do in terms of racing! Lewis Taylor in third still looked strong, but with Jon evidently struggling with his feet, there was still a chance I could move up a place before the end.

Camp 6 is in quite an exposed location and the wind was whipping across – the weather was definitely starting to turn after a week of perfect sunny days. The river here felt much colder too! By the time the last few runners were coming in, it was raining steadily. I was back in my tent by this point, but was woken suddenly as our end of the tent collapsed in the strong wind. Fortunately the air-beam had not actually deflated and we were able to pop it back up. Unbeknownst to me, the camp team were running around re-pegging in the guy ropes and moving vans to create a wind-break. I wasn’t awake for long and fortunately the wind died down!

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Day 7: Inchnadamph – Kinlochbervie (38 miles)

Nothing is ever a gimme in ultra running, but there was definitely a sense around the camp that today was all that was standing between us and the almost certainty of reaching the lighthouse. The overnight rain had died out, but there was low cloud and a stiff breeze blowing in so for the first time I put on a base layer rather than just running in a t-shirt.

Once again I set of at 8am sharp, initially back up the track that we had finished on yesterday, but soon branching left and heading for the col below Glas Bheinn. I had walked up to here last year and there were absolutely mind-blowing views over the dramatic sea lochs to the North. This year there was about 100m of visibility so I’d just have to imagine the views. I was pushing hard and the descent down to the head of Loch Glencoul was great fun, slithering around on the sodden ground, and having a proper “wet feet” day, finally! Dropping below the cloud, the loch revealed itself and I passed most of the field as we picked out way along a tricky, boggy path and climbed the headland that separates Lochs Glencoul and Glendhu. It was great fun to be in such inaccessible terrain, the rain had stayed away and I was having fun.

It was a relatively long first stretch to CP1 and I had pushed hard the whole way. On the soaked ground my ankles were finally getting a good workout as the footing was much less reliable than it had been the rest of the week. From CP1 I knew there was only one more major climb remaining of the whole race – Ben Dreavie. In total it rises about 1600ft from sea level to the top, but the majority of it was on a good gravel track. I knew that Lewis Taylor was in front of me as he had passed me on the first descent and was having a strong day trying to catch up to Jon in second place in the overall standings. Jon and even Marcus were still behind me and it was roughly half way through the stage, so I was feeling confident. Turning off the track for the final push to the top of Ben Dreavie, I headed into low cloud and driving rain. It could better have been called Ben Dreary as the path wove in and out of lots of indistinguishable bogs, lochans and grassy knolls. Coming down off the top to the West in the cloud was just a wet, trackless, soul-destroying mile and I was beginning to have a bit of a sense-of-humour failure about it. Eventually I saw another runner in the distance, and caught him just as we reached a bit of path again. Shortly after, Jon and Bruno appeared behind me. Jon was running well, despite his blisters and I couldn’t stay with him as we descended on a steep, widening track to CP2 at the crossing of River Laxford. I was determined to keep Bruno behind me though and that became the main thing that kept me going for the rest of the day.

A soggy morning for day 7… no views today!

On paper, the section from CP2 to CP3 – it’s “only” 7 miles, gently downhill, following a remote little series of Lochans down to the coast at Rhiconich. In reality, it was one of the worst parts of the whole course for me. A few miles of runnable track led to a short trackless boggy tramp and then a narrow, off-camber peaty trail through the bracken, right along the lochside. It’s probably lovely if you are in the mood to appreciate it, but my right ankle was starting to send increasingly frequent warning signs and I couldn’t work out quite what movement was triggering it – it seemed related to the tendon on the inside of my ankle. It wasn’t slowing me down, fortunately as Bruno was firmly in my rear-view mirror, at one point getting to within about 100m of me. I was counting down the distance to the checkpoint, and fortunately the last half mile or so was on a stronger trail. When I finally reached the road, I don’t think I’ve ever been so thankful to see tarmac. If had been sure I could get back up again, I would have laid down and kissed it!

The last four miles of the day felt like the last four miles of the race and I was able to run a decent pace on it, finally getting a little gap ahead of Bruno. I caught and passed lots of the Explorer course runners here, and I knew that once I crossed the final horizon line there I would be able to see the camp and enjoy the long sweeping descent down to Kinlochbervie. Eventually the road twisted and turned for the last time and the camp came in to view. I whooped as I ran down the hill, passing some rather bemused looking walkers and crossing the finish line in 7h40. It wasn’t until well after crossing the line that I realised I had never been passed by Marcus. This was the only day I actually beat him (by 2 minutes!) – I’ll take that!

It had been a long, tough day – a final sting in the tail before a short bimble to the finish tomorrow… or so I thought! My legs felt like they had been pummelled all day with a meat tenderiser, I guess due to a combination of the tougher terrain, slippy conditions on top of the cumulative effort of the week. A quick dip in the Loch seemed to sort them out, fortunately. Although the sunny weather was gone, it had not been too bad today – I’d run all day in just a base layer and hadn’t even needed to put my jacket on at all.

Camp 7 is on the football field next to the local school, and for a change we were served food not from the usual catering tent, but from the school kitchen and were able to sit and eat inside in the warmth of the school dinner hall. The only in-camp snag today was that someone had (I assume accidentally) removed my towel from the drying line in camp 6. Fortunately, the event team came through and were able to lend me one. Thanks Jen! It wasn’t nearly so windy as the previous night, and it was great to see the other three guys in my tent who were still on the the full ultra course complete the day unscathed. The weather forecast for tomorrow was looking wild as I headed off to sleep… it was starting to look like today’s difficulties were not to be the last ones after all!

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Day 8: Kinlochbervie – Cape Wrath (16 miles)

I woke with excitement for the final day of the race. The weather forecast was for strong Westerly winds of up to 50mph, so there were a few important changes planned as a result. Firstly, instead of moving on to camp 8 at Keodale which is an exposed site on top of a hill, we’d be staying a second night at Kinlochbervie. Handily, this saved time in the morning as there was no need to repack our dry bags, everything we didn’t need to carry on the course could just stay in the blue tents. Secondly, we were required to carry our cold weather kit – an extra warm layer, full body waterproofs, warm hat and gloves. I decided to wear my thicker base layer to start, packed all of my cold weather gear in my race pack, and strapped the spare fleece to the outside. Fortunately as it was a short stage I had less food and drink than usual, and still had room for a hip flask of Jura whisky which I planned to open at the finish! Finally, there was an unwelcome possibility that the boat which would shuttle us back across the Sound of Durness from Cape Wrath to the main road might not be able to run… in which case we had an extra 4 mile walk to manage!

Rather than the fastest runners starting last, today we were set off in race order and I had my earliest start of the day at 7:30am! We set off around the loch and onto the road North that leads towards Sandwood Bay and the Cape. The wind was gusting strongly from our left, bringing a consistent spray of drizzle, and it quickly became apparent that it was going to be colder than I had thought. I stopped after a few miles to put on my fleece, waterproof jacket and gloves and immediately felt much better! Soon we came to the first checkpoint and turned off the road onto a track which leads to Sandwood Bay. A few of the runners who had started behind me were clearly having a fast final day, but I was just focussing on being consistent and getting the day done. After a good first few miles on the road, my ankle started complaining again with some added shooting pains every so often for good measure. The track gave way to grass and then to sand as we popped out onto Sandwood Bay. It certainly wasn’t the picture-postcard tropical beach scene that has appeared in the race photos for the last few years! Instead there was crashing surf breaking onto sand which was whipped up by the wind and blasted at exposed skin as I tried to get off the beach as quickly as possible. There was at least some fairly compact sand that was runnable on, but it was hard work!

Cold and windy in Camp 7, Kinlochbervie.

To the North several brooding headlands jutted out from the cloud – today was showing us just how wild and mighty the Atlantic coast could be. Sandwood Bay was already more than half way through the stage and there were single-digit miles remaining, but the worst of the terrain and the majority of the climbing were still to come. Three short climbs on mostly trackless, wet ground led to a fence marking the edge of the MOD firing range. Fortunately there would be no bombing today, but signs warned us in no uncertain terms not to mess with any suspicious metal objects that we might find! A steep descent past a ruined bothy led down to a small burn, before the last short, steep ascent of the race. Bruno caught up with me again at this point and overtook me on the climb. I was trying my best to protect my ankle and I remember telling him he could have this stage since I knew I was more than 90 minutes ahead of him overall, with just a few miles left to run. From the top of the final hill we got a brief glimpse of the lighthouse and my “smell the barn” instinct kicked in. I set a good pace on the soft but runnable grassy downhill and passed him again. The route dropped down into a small sheltered valley and out of the wind it suddenly felt peaceful and actually quite warm – the temperature was actually in the mid-teens and the cloud was beginning to break to reveal patches of blue sky. One final short rise led to the road and I knew we had only a mile to go to reach the lighthouse.

I broke into a run as we rounded the final bend and the lighthouse came in to view – less than half a mile to go! I will admit to being a bit choked up with emotion, it just felt amazing to finally be reaching the end of this epic journey. I whooped, picked up the pace and savoured the moment as I passed through the stone gates of the lighthouse and rounded the final turn to reach the finish gantry and the end of the race! In total I had completed the Cape Wrath Ultra in 47 hours, 43 minutes and 59 seconds.

Although the cloud had lifted, the wind was still whipping across so after a quick few photos, I headed inside to join the other finishers for soup, sandwiches and a welcome cup of tea. I brought out the hip flask of whisky and handed it round – it was a great atmosphere of camaraderie and celebration as we shared stories from the week. I was glad of the extra layers I had carried, and put them all on to keep warm! Not long after, we heard that the first placed lady was arriving and we all piled outside to cheer her in. We didn’t have long to wait before the first shuttle minibus was ready to leave and we headed back towards the camp. After an hour in the bus on the bumpy track, we were deposited on the pier and were glad to find that the wind had died down a bit and the ferry was on, so no extra walk was required. The short journey across the Sound was beautiful in the midday sun! Off the boat, we had a final little sprint race up the pier to the where MPVs were waiting to take us back to camp.

It was strange to be back at camp so early and have no next day’s racing to prepare for. With dinner not till 6pm an the prizegiving due to start at 7:30pm, we had plenty of time to get cleaned up, relax and enjoy the feeling of having finished. Although the drinking had started with whisky at 11am, I stayed well clear of the bar until late in the afternoon… any earlier and things could have got messy! It was great to welcome back more and more runners as they were shuttled back to camp during the afternoon, and before long we had bagged prime spots on beanbags right in front of the stage in the main marquee.

Tonight’s dinner was haggis and mash – strangely with gravy and no neeps! A fitting celebration meal to end the week. The last few runners to arrive back from the cape arrived around 7pm and then the prizegiving began with a local schoolboy playing the bagpipes. We clapped for ages as first all the Explorers and then the full Ultra finishers came up to collect their medals. Finally, the top five male and female runners were called up and we got to stand on the stage at the front before the two winners collected their medals and trophies. It was great to stand up there with some amazing runners and I think I can count fourth place as a “podium finish” as a result 😁

Last selfie with the start/finish gantry.

It wasn’t a late night though, one final beer and it was time to start saying goodnights and goodbyes. Tomorrow would be another early start and a quick exit (to allow the school to have their premises back before the start of the school day) on the coach back to Fort William, where we started only 8 days, but what felt like a lifetime ago!

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Afterthoughts

Looking back now, a week later I have an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and achievement about the race. Aside from a crazy amount of fluid retention (elephant legs, anyone?) that meant I couldn’t get shoes on for a few days and barely being able to keep my eyes open in the evenings my recovery has gone really well and I don’t seem to have any significant damage from the race.

As Shane said in the briefing, there is only true adventure when the result is uncertain and for me, I was confident that I could complete the distance, but the major unknown was how I would recover day by day, and what pace I could reasonably sustain when 250 miles is divided up into 8 chunks. I feel like I paced it about right, managing to beat my goal time (50 hours) by more than two hours and was still capable of running well right up to the last days. I was definitely running faster (and even on some uphills) compared to what I would do in a non-stop 100 miler and while I could maybe have got a few more % effort out of my legs I don’t think I would have been able to close the 2h20 gap to Lewis in third place. Certainly not without increasing the risk of injury, so I’d say I judged it perfectly, achieving a great result and still having plenty of “type 1” fun each day. I also managed quite successfully to focus on my own pacing and not get caught up in racing anyone, at least until day 5 when I started to focus on keeping first Lewis Breen and then Bruno behind me. I felt like I used the competitive aspect of the race to my advantage.

My footcare and recovery routine seemed to work well and even on the final day my ankle was only an annoyance, really. The minor issues that did crop up were kept under control and I was quite pleased to be one of the minority who never had to make use of the medical tent. Barring some KT tape and paracetamol, the contents of my first aid kit went unused. I took paracetamol regularly throughout the day – first at 8am just before the start, then at midday and at 4pm or just after finishing, which probably contributed to feeling physically good throughout. My gear and food selection was just about right – I used almost everything except for a couple of base layers (which I would have needed if the weather hadn’t been so kind) and had just a little bit of spare food left at the end of each day. I did supplement what I had brought with a few items which were donated by DNF’ing runners and left at the info point, which gave a little bit of variety. In general, I ate well through the day, mainly “real food” in the morning, and switching more to gels and KMC bars in the afternoon heat. Babybel cheese was an absolute revelation to me – I think I ate 16 of them in total, and would definitely use them again in races.

Overall, I totally recommend Cape Wrath Ultra to anyone. It’s fantastically well organised and is a great way to see some really beautiful and remote parts of Scotland in a unique way. Having spoken to many of the participants, it’s clear that with sufficient determination, fitness and preparation it’s possible to complete the course even with relatively little ultramarathon or mountain running experience, and of course there is always the option of the Explorer Course if you need a less demanding daily schedule but still get to the lighthouse. At around £2000 (depending on how early you enter), the event is certainly not cheap but it is good value for money! If you can spare the time, I do think volunteering at the race is a great plan – not only does it give you credit so you don’t have to pay the entry fee, but it’s a great way to understand the format, the logistics and the locations which really reduces the number of unknowns that you have to deal with when you do come to run the race yourself.

Thanks again to all of my fellow participants (many that I mentioned during the post, and many others), the event team volunteers and Ourea staff, and everyone who supported me throughout the journey – as always the ultrarunning community is what makes these crazy journeys so special. It was great to spend time with old friends and make many new ones and I hope to see many of you soon on some other race. I think it’s time for me to say goodbye to the Cape Wrath Ultra as the three years I’ve been at the race has meant a whole month away from family. I look forward to doing something different in May 2026. I won’t be the last time I’ll be at an Ourea event though – I’m going to be running the new Ben Nevis Skyline race in September, as well as Northern Traverse in Spring 2026 and maybe a few more in future. Until then, I hope you enjoyed following me on the journey to Cape Wrath!

Cardiff to London Ultra 2025

Well it’s a couple of weeks after Cardiff to London and I finally have time to sit down to finish writing a full race report. Cardiff to London was a race of two halves with the first half to Goring going really well and the second half a limp to the finish (well a fast walk!). I am really proud of pushing through and finishing this one, not in the time I had hoped but I carried on when I could easily have stopped and mentally that is tough! Although relatively flat this is a tough 200 miler with no crews, no poles, no head phones and only having access to your drop bag twice. The only luxury was check points that had more than just water(!) and a surprising amount of snacks and hot drinks, a special shout out to CP3 and 7 🤩

Setting off on a long bus and train journey to Cardiff

Some photos taken from the Cockbain Events FB group – thanks!

The race started outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay on the Friday morning at 7am. RD Mark was extra kind and took us down at about 6.40am for the race briefing so we were all freezing cold from standing around in the shade for 20mins! A friend-of-an-old-school-friend-of-Iain’s (and someone I had met at Mapledurham BYU) popped down to the start to see us off which was a nice boost. I find the waiting around for race starts hard and was relieved when it was finally 7am and we were off. With only 21 runners it was a small group and most set off at a rapid pace. I had planned to average 11:30min per mile to the first check point but even running near the back of the pack I found myself running faster than this. I had some good chat with Elisabeth Chapple all the way to the coastal path. Everything felt comfortable and as we ran I soon warmed up. I had been a bit concerned about the navigation out of Cardiff but it was fine as long as I paid attention to my watch (I had turn by turn alerts turned off to save battery). Being early in the morning the traffic wasn’t heavy so road crossings were not a problem.

The coastal path was brilliant, easy running, no navigation and nice views. The sun was up and the sunglasses were on. I began catching up with people who had gone out fast – I would have a quick chat and then carry on. This continued for much of the first day on and off. I had a great chat with David Harvey which passed a few miles. He then went on to keep up a brilliant pace and finish in 45hr 26mins – amazing running 👏👏👏 He was walking 5mins every half an hour while I was walking a few minutes every mile so our pacings weren’t the same and he soon headed off in the distance. Before I knew it I was in Newport – again the navigation wasn’t too tricky just requiring a bit of concentration. It is then a few miles of country roads to Goldcliff where you rejoin the coast and where the first check point was located.

When I got to the check point my tracker was reset as apparently there was a problem with it. I topped up my water and then headed on my way along the coast. This section has some nice views and was easy running. I got a phone call from Iain concerned my tracker hadn’t moved on from the check point – apparently it had been working up until then and had then stopped. I assured him I was fine and it must just be the tracker that was now playing up! The guys at the check point had said they would see me at the bridge if it was still causing problems so I guessed I would see someone then. It was hot along the coastal path, there were a few people out and about but it wasn’t busy. At about 27 miles you turn inland for a small section near Caldicot. I was trotting along the country roads quite happily when I tripped over nothing and fell hard. After a few seconds mentally checking the body I got up and hobbled on – 2 grazed hands with slight bleeding (stung bad but not too serious), a sore left elbow, but thankfully not much blood and a very sore left hip (my biggest concern). I carried on running on it so it didn’t stiffen at all and although tender it thankfully didn’t cause me any problems for the rest of the race. I am finding I trip over nothing more often and it is really frustrating as I have no idea how to minimise it – I spent the rest of the race reminding myself to pick up my feet, especially during road sections. I carried on back to the coast and under the Severn Bridge, along the coast a bit further before heading slightly inland to join the road and cross the Old Severn Bridge.

As I expected I was met to reset my tracker and thankfully was able to keep walking rather than stop as it takes a good few minutes. The bridge was really cool to walk/run across and I am now looking forward to the Bridge 200 next year. The route then crosses to the service station on the far side of the road and I was tempted to stop for a quick ice cream as it was mid afternoon and hot but I kept going and was kept alert for the next couple of miles that were on sketchy roads that required concentration. It was a relief to get this section done and get on some quieter roads. I was still keeping a good pace and on target to reach check point 2 slightly ahead of my optimistic pacing schedule!

The running the rest of the way to the check point was uneventful and I came to the check point sooner than I expected which is always a bonus. It was the first of 2 indoor check points where we had access to our drop bags. I soon had everything done that I wanted, enjoyed a katsu curry pot and headed on my way leaving about 10mins before my schedule. All was going well, the hip I had fallen on wasn’t causing me any bother, I had managed my hydration well in the heat and my only slight concerns were some lower back pain and tight quads. A few miles from the check point I realised the back pain was from a pressure point from my race vest. I was using a front pouch for the first time to make accessing food easier and although it had performed fine during training it turned out it changed how the bag weight was distributed putting pressure on my lower back. I soon had all the food transferred to different pockets on the vest and the pain began to ease over the next few hours. Problem solved!

I met and passed Agnes (Agnieszka Kaminska) while crossing a lively field of cows who were very interested in runners! Thankfully cows don’t bother me and although they came close they didn’t cause a problem. I was moving slightly faster than Agnes so headed on focussed on trying to keep a decent pace.

I was aware my pace had slowed down since the check point and without using more effort than I wanted at this stage in the race I wasn’t going to speed up! This next section to the next check point was a bit of a drag in the evening. At one point I passed a young deer injured at the side of the road – it was standing but holding one leg and it didn’t run away. I was concerned leaving it next to a busy road so phoned Iain to get him to report it to the RSPCA, he sat in a queue for half an hour on the phone only to be told they didn’t have enough staff to do anything. I hope it was OK but suspect it didn’t make it. The country lanes were busier than normal as the route went past the parking for the Badminton Horse Trials and it was the end of the day with everyone leaving. This was frustrating as it meant I had to keep stepping onto the verge to let cars pass.

I ran some of this section to the check point with Giacomo Squintani which was great. The chat gave me a boost and made the miles pass a lot quicker than they would have otherwise. Head torches went on before the check point and when I arrived I was still on schedule so was doing OK even if I didn’t feel like it! It was a fantastic check point with loads of food and drink options but I just grabbed some boiled potatoes and water and headed on my way leaving Giacomo to have a slightly longer stop. I now wanted to get to the Ridgeway and with the next check point only 14 miles away, it wasn’t too far to go.

A few miles after the check point as I was heading through Swindon I became really tired and had slowed down a lot. I decided to stop at a garage to get a coffee to hopefully perk me up. Unfortunately when I came out of the garage my watch complete lost its GPS and declared I was 4.5miles off course – not helpful as I didn’t know which way to go! It was like a technology black spot and my phone was also misbehaving (it also had a copy of the map on it). I sat on a bench for a minute to collect my thoughts and drink my coffee. A quick call to Iain and I headed off up the road hoping the gps would kick in before the next road turn. Thankfully it did and I was back on my way (the only navigation stress of the whole run). Soon after this Giacomo caught me up again and we ran a few miles together before I headed on at a slightly faster pace.

By the time I got to CP4 I had caught up with Sam Jelfs and ran a good few miles with him onto the Ridgeway. He was having problems with one of his calves/ankle so not running as much as he would otherwise. I was enjoying the company. The Ridgeway at night is not the nicest run, there is no real navigation and the terrain was hard, rutted and stony underfoot. The only plus point was portaloos in a few of the road crossing car parks! I was really beginning to feel the miles and knew I was slower than I had hoped. The path is very undulating and I just wasn’t moving very fast. At some point in the night I pulled ahead of Sam and then I caught up with Nathan Taylor, Colin Crowhurst and Gari John who were running together and I stuck with them most of the way to Goring. They ran longer stretches than me but I walked faster so I would power walk ahead of them until they caught up and then run with them for a stretch. It was great when the sun finally rose and there was only a few hours until the next indoor check point in Goring. I was concerned that even though I had fully refilled my water bladder to 2L I was completely out of water and still had 5 or 6 miles to go. But nothing could be done about it so I just carried on mindful to not push too hard (unlikely in my current mindset with sore tired legs!).

Once the sun had risen the scenery here was nice but by now I had had enough of the Ridgeway and was looking forward to getting on the Thames Path. I finally arrived in Goring about 1h30 behind my schedule and about 10mins ahead of the boys who hadn’t caught me up after their last stop. This stop was taken up completely with admin and still seemed to take longer than it should. I did indulge in a quick wash, some deep heat and then sun cream to set me up for the day! I was finally on my way just after 9am and looking forward to the Thames Path. A diversion before I had even left Goring was a bit demoralising and then there is a steep climb that I had no memory of (easy at the start of the Thames Ring 250). I was already hot and beginning to flag.

A old uni friend had cycled out to see me in Pangbourne and I stopped on the grass for a 5 minute catch up, we will definitely need to sort a longer catch up! I also tried to use the toilets in the car park that Nathan recommend but after cutting across to the car park I was disappointed to find them closed due to vandalism. I retraced my steps feeling frustrated (and still needing a wee). My boost from seeing a friend didn’t last long and over the next section of the Thames Path I began to feel really low. It was hot and my quads were really sore, I was running less and walking more. I didn’t keep control of my mind and let all the negative voices start shouting – I wanted to stop. I phoned Iain a few times who pointed out I was still doing really well and moving well and just needed to keep pushing on. It was mainly a long slow miserable afternoon – I would sort my head out for a bit but it wouldn’t last long and then I would be planning how to stop again. I caught up with Nathan, Gari and Colin asleep under a tree. After a brief chat they said I could tag along with them as they were mainly walking until it was cooler in the evening. This boosted my spirits having company but a mile or 2 later than all ran off into the distance, obviously having a change of plan. It was back to my own head and feeling miserable. Sitting here now it’s hard to understand why I wanted to quit so much as I was doing OK but in the moment it was all I could think about and what a long way it was still to go. Sam caught me up running well but still suffering from calf/ankle pain. He was planning on a slight detour in Henley to nip to a shop for pain killers so I decided to go with him as I had forgotten to pick up my paracetamol at Goring. I was also able to get a Calipo and coke. I sat on a bench in Henley and had another chat with Iain but finally got myself moving again, only to walk thigh first into a bollard – very ouchy at the time but didn’t stop me moving.

On such a nice Saturday afternoon and evening the Thames Path was really busy until quite late. I so wanted to quit but at the same time couldn’t bring myself to do it (I am now very glad I didn’t). From this point I walked the rest of the way to the finish. For the rest of the afternoon and evening I entertained thoughts of quitting getting as far as pulling out my phone to let Mark know. It turns out I can’t actually go through with it – I just can’t quit! It was a quick stop at CP6 at Bisham made easier by the basic facilities (a tripod stool). I planned to stop at a garage in Maidenhead which had an Asda attached – I figured it would have more gluten free options. Unfortunately, it was rubbish and had nothing at all worth buying, so I settled for a coffee which I took outside to a bench where I then got harassed by a random guy, luckily I was on the phone to Iain at the time so I quickly moved on across the bridge and on my way. Overnight, I was quite jumpy along the Thames Path until the early hours of the morning. It is a funny place to be on your own at night but other than being passed by a couple of cyclists in the early hours it was generally quiet. The miles ticked by and suddenly it didn’t seem too far to the final check point and my mindset shifted to getting it done and staying ahead of Agnes to ensure I finished first female. The sun rose on Sunday and I now knew I would be able to finish. It was like a switch had changed in my head and I was now focussed on finishing. I plodded along finally reaching the final check point at 5.30am. The final check point was brilliant and I was able to sort my feet (which were a mess and needed re-taping), I was also able to get a porridge pot, banana and two cups of tea.

Adrian arrived at the check point while I was there and headed off shortly after while I was still eating! I wasn’t bothered about my position or time now, my goals were to enjoy the rest of the race and stay ahead of Agnes. This looked straight forward on the tracker as she appeared to have slowed over night. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that I realised her tracker hadn’t been working properly and she in fact wasn’t as far behind as I had thought. This helped me to get moving and stay at a pace below 20min/mi. The early morning was lovely but it soon got hot and then busy with ridiculous numbers of people everywhere. I tried to find a decent breakfast in East Molesey but again finding gluten free options was a challenge. I ended up with a bottle of coke, bag of crisps and an apple. It was really busy as I had managed to time it perfectly for the start of the Hampton Court 10k! This meant loads of runners whizzing past as I shuffled along. It at least kept me entertained!

It was a relief to get past Hampton Court and all the runners only to then find a half marathon and triathlon also going on. Runners and bikes everywhere not to mention all of the other walkers, dogs and cyclists. It was so busy, but I just kept pushing on counting down the miles. This section of long races always seems to take forever – with each mile taking so much longer progress feels slow but all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other knowing that each step brings the finish closer. My feet were a mess of blisters and beginning to be uncomfortable and I just couldn’t muster a run despite a few half-hearted attempts.

I was able to buy a coffee in Canbury gardens which was a nice boost and then it was back to power walking and dodging people! Running past Kew Gardens it was roasting hot but I finally felt the finish was near and that kept me going. The next section is a bit frustrating navigation wise as there are lots of new developments that you have to run through. I was unfortunately needing a wee which wasn’t great but I just had to keep going and hope I found a toilet soon! It wasn’t until Battersea Park that I finally found a toilet. Great clean toilets in Battersea park and right on the route if anyone needs the info for future races! It was then a final push to the finish. I crossed to the far side of the river on Chelsea Bridge as this meant we would be finishing with Big Ben behind us – a great photo opportunity.

Final few strides over Westminster Bridge.

With so many tourists around I must have looked a funny sight, I finally weaved my way to Westminster Bridge with the intention of running the last few metres across the bridge – this wasn’t as easy as I had thought with so many tourists! It was more of a run, stop, shuffle, run to the finish where my Mum and Dad were waiting with Mark and one of the other runners (Neil Young) who had had to pull out earlier in the race. I was made up to have finished as first female in 56 hours and 8 minutes. It was made extra special by my Mum and Dad making the journey to the finish – they had never seen me finish a race before. A quick handshake with Mark and getting my medal and we headed off to finding a spot in the park by the London Eye where we could sit and I could sort myself out. The one advantage of a small drop bag is I didn’t have much to carry! I was able to sort my feet which were the thing bothering me the most, eat some food and have a drink and then my Mum and Dad had located the nearest toilets where I was able to get changed and tidy myself up before we went for a meal. We then had a very very slow walk across to Victoria where they headed home and I waited for the overnight coach back up to Edinburgh.

Another epic adventure in the bag. As always lots that went well and lots to learn. Hormones are still impacting all my long races and I need to work out how to manage this better. For some reason my feet blistered terribly this time – I am going to go back to trying toes socks for my next race. I also think I claw my toes when I run which results in a lot of nail bed blisters – I am not sure how to prevent this at the moment. Although my mind went AWOL half way through I have discovered I can’t quit and will keep going however tough it gets. A great thing to know for these long hard races.

Recovery is going well, with a week of no running and as much sleep as I could get I began to feel more myself. This last week has been short slow runs to aid recovery and next week I will add in a few more miles then a quiet taper week before Suffolk BYU. The blisters are all healing well after removing a couple of very loose toenails (mine never seem to just fall off completely), they should be good to go by Suffolk.

Thanks everyone for all your support and encouragement it means a lot 🙏

Preparing for the Cape Wrath Ultra

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Cape Wrath Ultra is an epic adventure race covering 250 miles of the North Western Highlands of Scotland, starting in Fort William and finishing at the iconic Cape Wrath Lighthouse on the most Northwesterly point of mainland Scotland. It’s been on my bucket list for many years (I think I first heard of the race some time in 2018) and I learned a lot about it by volunteering on the event team first in 2023 and then again in 2024 as I unfortunately had to make a late deferral after injuring my hip in March. This year I am fully trained, healthy and ready to finally take my spot on the starting line in just a few days time.

Unlike many other races we have done, the Cape Wrath Ultra is different in that it’s a multi-day stage race. The course consists of 8 separate stages, stopping each night at an overnight camp. No individual crew is allowed and all of my gear for the week must fit in to a standard issue 79 litre, dry bag with a 20kg weight limit, or carried/worn on the first day. The dry bag is transported from the start of each day to the next camp with the event team, and should be there when I arrive. Compared to a continuous point-to-point race, where you can travel relatively light and rely on regular crew or CP stops for resupply, or a Backyard Ultra where you have access to your own supplies every hour for Cape Wrath I must be self-sufficient for up to 45 miles, it requires quite a different approach and a lot more thought! Here are some notes on how I prepared for the race. Hopefully anyone planning to enter CWU or similar multi-day races in future will find it interesting and useful.

Gear

An extensive list of mandatory and recommended kit is provided by the organisers, Ourea Events. My starting point was to transfer every item on the kit list onto a spreadsheet and note which of my existing running gear I would use, and which I would have to purchase. In the end (aside from replacing/updating some worn-out “consumable” items such as socks, shoes and first aid kit), the only items I bought specially for the race were:

The mandatory drybag (Ortlieb PS490 79L) – I have a love/hate relationship with this after packing! It would be much nicer if they chose something which was less tube-shaped. Anyway everyone is in the same boat…
Ultimate Direction Adventure Vest 6.0 – a little bit of an upgrade to my previous 15L pack, this has 17L of capacity for the additional mandatory kit items I would need to carry and many more accessible pockets for food. I planned to use it with a 2L bladder plus a 500ml soft flask which I can use if I need to refill from streams on the longer days.
OMM Halo Plus jacket – my previous jackets were either too heavyweight (proper winter waterproofs) or had cutouts which meant they don’t meet Ourea’s requirements. Having bought it last Spring, I’ve worn and carried it many times in all conditions and totally recommend it as a great lightweight hill running waterproof. It needs to be paired with a warm midlayer on cold days though as it is only a waterproof shell and doesn’t have any insulation.
Evadict trail running waterproof trousers – a good upgrade over my “walking” waterproofs, with longer calf zips and stretchy knee sections so they are easy to put on when needed but don’t impede running. Very lightweight and surprisingly warm, having worn them over shorts in 0C conditions at Rasselbock Backyard Ultra 2025.
A new fleece midlayer (less bulky than my own, as this must be carried at all times on the course) – also bought ready for last year’s race and have worn it plenty since then.
A North Face Thermoball hooded jacket – this is a requirement to be carried in cold weather. My usual insulated jacket is too bulky, and I’ll need it to be in my dry bag to wear in camp anyway. Fortunately, I was able to pick this up on Vinted for £20 – can’t beat a good bargain 😁

Next I had to decide how many spare bits of clothing I should take. In the end I decided on a compromise between comfort, space/weight and flexibility. I have 4 pairs of socks and runderwear (so a fresh pair every 2 days), 2 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of Salomon Sense Ride 5 shoes (one new and one with a few hundred miles of wear), 3 tech shirts and a vest, and 3 base layers of varying thickness.

For my camp kit in addition to all the mandatory stuff (sleeping bag, midge net, first aid kit, washing kit etc.) I am taking the relative luxury of an inflatable sleeping mat, a full change of clothes to wear in camp, a pair of long-sleeved pyjamas, a solar charging power bank and some line and clothes pegs so I have a chance of drying my kit. The drying tent that was provided last year will not be available, so this could be the difference between putting on wet kit in the morning, or having it dry(ish) 🤞 I’ve also brought a smaller drybag which I’ll use to store any wet or worn kit, seal it up and stuff it into the bottom of the bag to keep the festering to a minimum…

The weather seems forecast to be good (maybe even too hot!) for the first 4 or 5 days of the race, so hopefully I have everything I need to stay warm, dry and comfortable both on the trail and in camp!

The next stage was to weigh all my items and add the weights to the spreadsheet. Including food (more on that later), I expected to have a bit over 18kg in the drybag, and around 3kg in my pack. During the week the drybag should get lighter as I eat my way through the nearly 6kg of food in it!

When it comes to packing I have arranged items into smaller drawstring bags. The drybag is basically a long tube, which is annoying as it makes it impossible to reach items at the bottom without having to take everything else out first. So the packing order is not that important, as I’ll have to do a full unpack and repack every day to access all my gear anyway. With a bit of careful squeezing and shaping, everything made it in to the bag in the end! The main thing that really helped saving space was to roll my clothes before stuffing them into the drawstring bags – apparently it helps get all the air pockets out. Anyway, I can say it certainly helped and I estimate it saved about 25% of the volume of my clothes 😮 There is a helpful guide to space-saving packing here: https://www.cabinzero.com/blogs/packing-tips/how-to-roll-clothes-for-packing 👀 After popping in a few extra items (since I had the space and the weight available), I weighed in at 19.9kg… hope my scales are accurate!

Food

Although I wrote that runners need to be self-sufficient, that only extends to food while out on the course. In camp, I will be served breakfast, dinner and the legendary afternoon soup and chips (for those fast enough to make it back before dinner time). Having experienced camp life as a volunteer for the last two years, I can say that the catering is truly excellent in both quality and quantity. In fact, I put on weight during my two volunteering weeks – not sure that will happen when I have to run 250 miles along the way, but we will see 🤣

To plan the food I was going to take I made another spreadsheet with the various things that I know I like to eat during a race – KMC energy drink and gels, home-made protein cookies, and a mixture of other savoury and sweet snacks and “real food” such as babybel cheese, crackers, nuts and dried fruit. I know from practicing on long runs that I tend to eat more substantial items when hiking uphill, so I checked the course description and planned for one cookie per major climb! For the shorter days (1 & 8) I will take 1L of KMC drink, increased to 1.5L if hot and 2L for the remaining days, to be supplemented by water from streams as needed (I have packed chlorine tablets if needed).

I added data for the weight and calories per serving of each food item and then adjusted the quantities to hit around 250 kcal per hour, based on the finishing time of a front-to-mid-pack runner from last year’s results. That’s actually quite a bit more than I’d eat even on a 100 miler, but I won’t have the luxury of several days of recovery, I’ll need to run again the next day so I’m aiming to take on a bit more energy and nutrients if I can!

In total I have around 6kg of race food (plus water which will be provided on site), totalling about 14,000kcal. That works out as 2.4kcal per gram, which is fairly efficient given that “pure” carbohydrates give you 4kcal per gram 🤔

All of the food is divided up into ziplock bags, one for each day, so all I need to do at the end of the day is removed any empty packets / surplus food from my bag and repack with the next day’s provisions – easy!

One final note about food, Ourea’s catering is plant-based (either vegetarian or vegan). Of course their menus are designed to provide plenty of protein and all the micronutrients that the body needs, but I have snuck in a few bags of beef jerky to provide a bit of a reward at the end of the day. I’ve also packed some protein powder and a mixer flask so I can have a quick protein shake to kick-start recovery at the end of each day’s running. The other “treat” item I’ve put in is a hip-flask full of whisky, which I plan to take in my pack on the final day to be opened when I reach the lighthouse!

Pacing

The individual stages of the Cape Wrath Ultra are not actually that long (relatively speaking 🤣 ). The longest day is 45 miles and there are three days which are less than a marathon. My training has gone well, I feel in good shape and I fully intend to come and “race”, rather than go steadily and treat it as an “experience”. I have done plenty of running on varied Scottish terrain so I know what to expect on most parts of the course, and have a good idea of the pace I can maintain both on and off trail. The big unknown is how well I can recover and go again the next day… that I’ll only find out as the cumulative fatigue sets in on day 2 or 3!

To plan out the race, I first plotted out the route on Strava, based on the 2022 route map which I was given during my first year as a volunteer. Once the final route GPX and guidance was published I went over them and made a few minor corrections, but broadly the route is unchanged. I’ll sync these routes to my Garmin as my primary navigation aid (along with the official printed map and the Avenza digital map). I haven’t done any official recces, but have experience on a short distance each way out of camp from runs and walks over the last few years, although I estimate that’s only about 10% of the route!

I then split each day up into sections (yet another spreadsheet – are you getting the hang of my strategy yet?) and read off the distances to each major waypoint (either the top of a climb, a checkpoint or other major feature). I pored over the map, exhaustively watched Youtube footage from previous years, race reports and even Strava cadence data from past participants to identify which bits of terrain were most runnable and walkable. For each segment I worked out a target pace (in minutes per mile) based on a moderate effort, what I would typically expect to do on a 100k race. Hopefully that’s a good balance between pushing fast enough to be competitive, but without blowing up and/or doing too much damage to recover each day.

I added them all up to give me expected times at each location, and total times for each day. In total this puts me at an estimated finish time of around 50 hours… based on previous years that would typically put me in the top 3 or 5, so that’s in the right ballpark as an “if everything goes to plan” goal. I am sure there are some speedy runners who are looking to go much faster (looking at you, Marcus Scotney 👀) so I will focus on the time goal firstly, and secondly managing my effort enough that I am still in a state to run properly right up to the final day. Whether that’s possible or not there’s only one way to find out, but it wouldn’t be a good goal if it was a certainty! I’ll report back in a couple of weeks and let you all know 🤩

The race tracking page is now live: https://live.opentracking.co.uk/capewrathultra25/ where you’ll be able to follow my progress over the week – I have race number 12. There will also be live video feeds from the start and finish of each day, and (not yet enabled) the “Ultra Mail” feature which means you can write me messages that will be printed out at the end of every day. I’m looking forward to reading them 🙏

Gore-Tex Shoes – Salomon Sense Ride 5 GTX

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I’ve written before about my all-time favourite shoes – the Salomon Sense Ride. Recently I ordered another pair of them so I had a fresh pair ready for Cape Wrath Ultra later this month. I took them out of the box, ready to give them a few runs before using them in the race… and I spotted a “Gore-Tex” tag. I’d bought the wrong shoes 😱 No big disaster, I just ordered another pair of the regular model (minus the Gore-Tex) as they will get used, just not for Cape Wrath! But what’s the difference, why is it a big deal, and when should you use Gore-Tex or not?

Put simply, Gore-Tex is a synthetic fabric which is waterproof. It was invented in the 1960s by Robert Gore and is most commonly used in outdoor clothing such as jackets and trousers which are designed to be waterproof. It can also be used in shoes – Salomon have waterproof versions of many of their shoes, for example the Sense Ride 5 (regular version) and the Sense Ride 5 GTX (waterproof version). The only difference is the “GTX” on the end, and a small “Gore-Tex” print on the upper – so it’s easy to mistake them (honest 🙈). Most other major running shoe manufacturers do something similar. The Gore-Tex material is usually added as a layer in the construction of the upper of the shoe, so you can’t easily tell the difference just by looking. Often it comes with a small price increase (maybe £10 extra), but sometimes you can find them even cheaper than the regular model, especially out of season.

Salomon Sense Ride 5 GTX – they look identical to the regular version 👀

Although Gore-Tex shoes are marketed as “waterproof” you should really think of them as “water resistant”. If you’re running around in deep, wet, boggy terrain, wading through rivers or just generally submerging your shoes in water then your feet will get wet regardless, mainly due to water getting in through the big hole in the top of the shoe – the one you put your foot into 😉 However, if you are just running through a little bit of moisture, for example splashing through puddles, or running through dewy grass or even snow then the waterproofing will work well and keep your feet dry.

So why wouldn’t you want waterproofing (except for the cost)? Well, even though Gore-Tex is designed to be breathable (letting moisture out but not in), it definitely slows down the rate at which your feet dry out. Where a normal shoe lets water in easily, but also lets it out easily, with a Gore-Tex shoe once your feet are wet they tend to stay wet for longer. The extra layer of fabric can also contribute to making your feet sweat more (or at least the sweat doesn’t wick away so quickly). These effects can combine to increase the chances that you’ll develop blisters, or in the worst case maceration and eventually trench foot. The last time I wore Gore-Tex shoes in an ultra was at Ultra Scotland 100 in 2022 and my feet were destroyed by the end (scroll down to the bottom of the post for pics… if you dare 🤢).

In summary, Gore-Tex shoes have their uses but be sensible, and like with all kit – try it out before you use them on race day:

Short runs ✅
Winter runs ✅
Occasional puddles and mud, or just a bit of damp grass ✅
Running in the rain ✅
Ultras (even in dry conditions, your feet will be soaked in sweat by the end) ❌
River crossings ❌
Deep puddles, consistently wet terrain e.g. bogs, long wet grass ❌

Hope you found this post interesting and helpful. If you love (or hate) running in waterproof shoes, do let us know! Alternatively, have a look at this post about waterproof socks as an alternative approach to keeping your feet warm and dry.