I have suspected for a long time that I don’t get enough protein in my diet. With a heavy training load, busy family, work etc. I have been finding it hard to get enough protein so decided to try adding in a plant protein shake. Initially I was just using this after harder runs to aid recovery but in the last six months I have tried to add in a shake most days. The most noticeable difference has been if I have a protein shake in the mornings I am not needing to snack and am not super hungry by lunch. I am unsure if it has improved my recovery as so many factors come into play, but I think it can only be a benefit when I have a high training load and busy race calendar… so the protein shake is a success and here to stay! I usually make mine up with oat milk rather than water as I prefer the taste and consistency and I tend to drink it mid morning after my run to work.
Before Rasselbock Backyard Ultra I was thinking about my race fueling and was looking at ways to get more protein into my snack selection. I was looking for a snack that was easy to eat, kept well and was high in both sugar and protein. The solution was to combine a family favourite gluten free chocolate cookie recipe with some of my plant protein powder to make my very own protein cookies. Yes, they are full of sugar and not healthy but they were perfect during Rasselbock BYU and I will be making some for all future races. They kept well, were easy to eat and both Iain and I enjoyed them even in the later stages of the race.
The original recipe comes from Laura at My Gluten Free Guide – thanks to Laura for allowing me to share my version. If you are gluten free and looking for a sweet treat they are great just as they are 😋
To add protein my modified recipe just involves swapping 60g of flour with 60g of the plant protein powder. I don’t know if you could swap a higher proportion with success (let me know if you try)! Swapping this amount of the flour makes the cookies slightly softer and they don’t spread as much when you bake them, so I flatten mine out more when I put them on the tray, otherwise they come out very domed!
Iain is a big fan and has taken them on some of his recent hill runs… the only challenge is getting hold of them before they get eaten by the kids 🤣
Disclaimer: Don’t make any major changes to your diet based on what you read on the internet. Always consult a qualified dietitian or your GP first, especially if you have any underlying health conditions. I am just sharing my experience, make of it what you will!
Despite running roughly 50 miles per week consistently for the last few years, I’ve always had a bit of a tendency to put on weight easily. There might be a genetic factor to that but more likely it’s due to being weak-willed when there is food available. No matter how much I tried (and succeeded) to shed a few kilos, along would come a birthday, Christmas or other occasion and those few kilos would jump straight back on. Coming home from Christmas and New Year 2024, I weighed in at 80.9kg on the 3rd January, heavier than I had been since 2021. With a big year of races coming up, I decided it was time to do something about it!
Along with the books on running psychology that I reviewed last month, the other book on my Christmas list was Christopher McDougall’s “Born To Run 2”. While his original book promoted the benefits of barefoot and minimalist running, the sequel looks at the diet of the Tarahumara (the Mexican ‘tribe of ultra runners’) and the benefits it can have. Put simply – they follow a low-GI diet – so I decided to try it!
What is a low GI diet?
All foods can be categorised according to the Glycemic Index (GI). Essentially what it measures is how easily the food can be broken down into glucose, which is carried around in your bloodstream and metabolised as the primary source of energy for everything that you need to do… not just running!
Foods with a high GI can be turned very easily and quickly into glucose. Examples are obviously sugary foods – sweets, cakes, syrup – but also refined (white) flour which means most bread products and pasta, as well as potatos (chips, crisps…), white rice, and (sadly) beer. As you probably know, many foods also have a lot of added hidden sugar, including a lot of “healthy” breakfast options such as muesli and granola.
Foods with a low GI are the opposite, they take longer for the body to break down into glucose, either because they contain more complex molecules or significant amounts of fibre which slows down the digestion process. Examples are nuts, beans, meat and fish, diary (cheese, milk, cream…), many fruits and vegetables, and whole grains (oats, brown rice, barley…).
It’s a sliding scale and there are lots of food somewhere in the middle. You can find plenty of lists to look up individual foods if you’re unsure.
The problem is that our normal Western diet is mainly full of high GI foods. When we eat them we get a rapid increase or spike in our blood glucose levels. The body responds to this by releasing insulin, which triggers the storage of any excess glucose that’s not immediately required for exercise or recovery as body fat. This causes the blood glucose levels to drop rapidly, making us hungry for more food and starting the cycle again. Since most of us start the day with a sweet breakfast (cereal, toast with jam etc.) we can end up riding the spike/crash rollercoaster all day long. By replacing high GI foods with low GI alternatives, it smoothes out the peaks and troughs in our blood glucose level, reducing the opportunity for our bodies to store fat and feeling full for longer. At least that’s the theory!
What a low GI diet isn’t – it’s not about calorie reduction. You can still keep a healthy overall amount of calorie intake which is particularly important if you have a high training load and are exercising frequently. Going into calorie deficit can cause your overall fitness to suffer and in the worst case lead to conditions like RED-S. Low GI is also not a low-carb diet (like the Keto diet), although it has some similarities. There are plenty of carb options that are low GI, so you can continue to eat a balanced, healthy diet. It’s also perfectly possible to follow a low GI diet while being vegetarian or vegan if that’s your thing.
How to start a low GI diet?
Born to Run 2 has a detailed plan for switching onto a low GI diet, but essentially it involves being very strict for a period of roughly two weeks to force your metabolism to adapt. This is probably the hardest part of the process as it requires cutting out some common foods entirely (no potatoes or white flour products). To avoid having to cook several different meals Julie and I went through this together in January. It’s a bit of a “cold turkey” phase and we definitely felt a bit rough for a few days – Julie worse than me. We both experienced the “keto headaches”, which were not pleasant… but we got through it. After the two week period is over, you can re-introduce a few more medium and high GI foods, or stick firmly to the low GI diet as you prefer. Obviously the more you stick to it the bigger the benefits!
Here’s an example of some of the changes I’ve made that I’ve stuck to for the long term:
Breakfast – swapped muesli for either smoked mackerel on wholewheat toast or porridge with nuts and dried fruit.
Cut out white bread – lunch is usually salad or fruit with oatcakes and cheese (if not leftovers from the night before)!
Cut out pasta and white rice – brown rice is an acceptable option to everyone (even the kids), and if we’re having pasta we usually cook a portion of an alternative (wholegrain, pea, lentil) for me.
Swap potatoes and chips for sweet potato. Usually I’ll have a bigger portion of veg with dinner and less potatoes.
Sweet snacks (evening chocolate bars 🙈) replaced with savoury – cheese cubes, nuts and dried fruit. If you really want chocolate, dark is the way to go as it has much less sugar.
Low GI first – if you have to eat something high GI, then make sure you eat some low GI foods first, to slow down the overall rate of digestion and avoid a glucose spike.
All of these are fairly easy to introduce, even alongside cooking “normal” meals for the rest of the family. The main thing which required a bit of experimentation to find a good subsitute was a pizza base. I’ve shared a good recipe at the end of this post.
The results
After the first few days which were a challenge(!) I’ve felt great throughout the whole last three months. I’ve gone through a whole training block, including speed work, hill runs and long runs, not to mention an epic race at Rasselbock BYU. I’ve been sleeping well, injury free and have plenty of energy for training. I’ve lost weight consistently, between 0.5 and 1kg per week on average. The only weeks where it’s been harder has been two weeks I was travelling with work,where eating in restaurants makes it more of a challenge, and it showed 😬 Can you spot those weeks on the graph? In the end I finally hit 69.9kg on 27th March, a little less than 3 months since I started!
I think besides the physiological benefits that result in less fat storage, there are a couple of less obvious ways that the low GI diet helps. Firstly, most of the things that I would typically snack on fall into the high GI category. While I did allow some evening snacking, especially to get a bit of protein in immediately after a run, most of the time I didn’t feel as hungry between meals and if I did have the urge to snack I didn’t have anything in the cupboard I was allowed to eat… so much less snacking overall. Also I completely cut out beer, which is high GI. The second trick (not strictly related to low GI) is portion control – basically I switched to eating meals off a smaller plate! Training my body to obtain more fuel from fat stores rather than high levels of blood glucose meant I could eat a little bit less, lose body fat and still have plenty of energy for training!
At the start of March I ran (and won) the Rasselbock BYU, whereI largely stuck to my normal race diet including carb loading with (high GI) Domino’s pizza the night before and the usual mix of real foods, energy gels and drinks throughout the race. It’s fine to have plenty of glucose flowing round your system when you’re burning it off! After the race I switched back to low GI foods again with no ill effects, recovered fine and my weight continued to drop.
As I said at the start, please do your own research and consult a qualified professional before making changes to your diet. Having said that, this really worked well for me and my nutrition advisor said that a low GI diet is generally regarded as suitable and healthy for all, and simply reverses the increase in ultra-processed, added-sugar foods that are common in our diets. If you do try out any of the suggestions in this post, please let me know by posting a comment or connecting via our socials – I’d love to know how you get on!
Gram flour pizza base
Some foods required a bit more experimentation to find a suitable substitute, and one of those which was non-negotiable was Saturday night pizza. After a few failed attempts, I am now using the recipe below. It’s super-easy and requires only a few minutes to prepare. It’s also gluten free, dairy free and vegan!
The ingredients (per 1 pizza base):
115g gram flour (a.k.a. chick pea flour, available in most major supermarkets or a local Asian store)
160ml water
Pinch of salt
Tablespoon of vegetable oil
Batter mix with plenty of air bubblesJust cooked at the edges… give it another 30s.Flipped successfully, 1min on the other side.
Method:
Mix all the ingredients (apart from the vegetable oil) together in a bowl to make a runny batter. You can use an electric mixer or a whisk.
Leave to stand for 30 mins (or longer if possible).
Heat the oil in a large frying pan, skillet or griddle pan to a high heat. Give the batter a final whisk to get some air into it.
Pour the batter into the pan, tilting the pan to ensure an even spread right up to the edges.
Cook on one side for approximately 2 minutes, until the batter is dry on top.
Using a spatula, flip the batter over and cook for a further 1 minute.
Remove from the pan and place on a baking tray.
Top with tomato puree, your favourite pizza toppings, and plenty of cheese.
Bake for a further 10 minutes in a hot oven (200-220C)
Enjoy a low GI treat!
Topped with salami, mushroom and red peppers.Ready to eat!
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About 20% of the population suffers from Raynaud’s Syndrome, which causes poor blood flow to the fingers at the slightest sensation of cold. I’m one of the unlucky ones and there is nothing more frustrating than having your hands go numb and stop working when the rest of you is fine and warm. It’s really frustrating not being able to open gels and other foods, use a valve on a drinking hose, or just struggle to adjust your jacket zip. If you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t suffer from Raynaud’s then great, but maybe you just like to keep your fingers nice and warm!
I have several pairs of gloves of different thicknesses that I wear at different times of the year, but this winter I tried adding something new – waterproof overmittens – and it was an absolute gamechanger. By wearing them over even a relatively thin pair of gloves I found that my hands got warm and stayed warm, even when running in sub-zero conditions! The pair I got were the Black Diamond UL (UltraLight) Overmitts. The RRP is £50 but you can find them cheaper elsewhere – I paid £34 for mine.
These mitts are made from a thin, layered fabric which seems to offer a great compromise between wind/waterproofing while still allowing enough flexibility to still use your fingers without taking the mitts off! For example I could still feel enough to use the individual buttons on my watch. There is elastic at the cuff and also at the base of the palm so they are nice and snug without being tight over the fingers. That’s really handy as I have worn them over a pair of lightweight gloves for typical UK winter temperatures, or over the top of much bulkier winter insulated gloves when running at -8C in Sweden. They’re also super-lightweight at only 28g (size L) and pack up really small, so popping them in your backpack or pockets on a cold day is an absolute no-brainer!
The only downside I’ve found so far is that Black Diamond appear to have discontinued them, so get them while you still can!
Let’s just say we had an absolute blast at Rasselbock this year. After Julie ran there in 2024 we knew it was going to be a great event and we were not disappointed. Both of us entered to run this year and after four months of solid training since the BYU Team Championship race in October we were both in good shape. Our stories of the race are intertwined as you’d expect so we thought the best way to share both sides of it was to talk though the event in an interview style… even if we’re only interviewing ourselves, I’m sure it will all make sense! If not then we’ll blame it on (🚨 spoiler alert 🚨) the 350 miles we ran between us 🤣!
How did you feel your preparation went leading up to the race?
Julie: My training over the winter had gone really well. In the run up to Christmas I had added in hill reps and some speed work by attending parkruns. After Christmas I fell back into my normal routine of slower steady runs, which was feeling really comfortable and then in the final few weeks before Rasselbock I switched to run/walks to make sure my walking was up to speed as I knew I would be doing a lot! The only negative thing was in February my Ménière’s disease flared back up and I was having an attack every week. This meant I was having to be flexible in my running to ensure I was hitting my monthly mileage. Unfortunately each attack leaves me wiped out for about 24 hours which isn’t ideal. Despite this I was feeling really prepared for Rasselbock and looking forward to seeing how far I could go.
Iain: I’d also put in a solid training block with no big races since the Team Champs and was generally feeling good. Not 100% niggle-free but definitely in decent shape as I’d done some speed work before Christmas, setting a new 5k PB (18:45 in case you wondered 😉) and then doing consistent volume including plenty of run/walk practice. I’d also switched to a low GI diet (maybe a topic for another post?) since the New Year, which helped me lose a few kilos and generally feel good. You can never tell when a great race day is going to come along, but all the groundwork was there.
Car loaded up and ready to go. Bed made up under the boxes of kit!Lots of space on site for camping in tents or vehicles.It’s light but very cold at 7am in the morning in camp.First look around the event HQ.Looking towards the corral, which we plan to visit many times during the race!Pre-race breakfast of bacon sandwiches. There was a large area cordoned off for cooking, no-one else was using it 🤷♂️Fuelled and ready for action (keeping many extra layers on for now).
Did you manage to get a good night’s sleep ready for the start?
Julie: Last year I struggled with sleeping the night before as it was so cold and I was in a little bivvy bag. This year we were sleeping in the car and we came well prepared for cold temps. The week running up to Rasselbock had been a tricky one as I had started a new job as well as getting everything ready for being away. This meant my sleep hadn’t been great and I was very aware of this.
After pizza in the marquee we retired to the car and were tucked up in sleeping bags by 9.30pm. It was really comfy with a duvet, sleeping bag, duvet sandwich and I was soon asleep. I actually woke a couple of times because of being too hot and stripped off several layers during the night! All in all it was a good nights sleep and I woke about 7am ready for the day.
Iain: After a pretty hectic few weeks leading up to the race, including quite a bit of work travel it was actually nice to be able to leave home (with the kids in the capable care of my parents) and just enjoy some time together. The journey down passed quickly and although we arrived at Sherwood Pines after dark it was great to see a few friendly faces waiting there on site… although they were mainly waiting for the pre-ordered pizza delivery rather than to see us I expect. It was bitterly cold (about -2C overnight), but I slept like a baby in the back of the van and woke pretty well rested for the day(s) ahead.
Looking back into the corral.Out of the corral to the first bend…… round the back of the maquee…… and out of the camp site.First long downhill on soft forest path……down to the first right hand turn.Onto the first gravel road….… gently undulating……and downhill to the next junction.
Some people say that the race doesn’t really start until 24 hours at a Backyard, but that doesn’t mean the first day and night are easy! How did it go?
Julie: The start of the race was fantastic with so many lovely people around. The laps passed by chatting to old friends and new runners – I love hearing everyone’s stories. I knew the course from last year and was pleased to find the underfoot conditions were actually better this year and instead of one of the muddier paths we were using a parallel track which was much more pleasant. The sun was shining and it was a really nice afternoon. My only real concern was I was feeling very bloated and suspected me period was going to show up mid race rather than wait until the end. However this was completely out of my control so I just got on with it.
The first night also went fine. I reminded Iain to get in his fast laps for a nap when he got tired and otherwise just got on with it. I was maybe slightly more tired than I had hoped but thankfully not sleepy! The legs were a bit tired but nothing really unexpected so I just took it lap at a time. The nights do seem long in March and even for me, who likes night running, I was glad when it got to morning!
Iain: As usual at a backyard, the first few laps I spent getting used to the course – where to run and where to walk, where the climbs were, and where to watch out for trippy roots. It felt really easy and I settled in to a 13 min/mile pace, aiming to complete the loop around 52 minutes. At least on my watch, the course measured a bit short but this could be due to poor signal due to the wiggly section through the woods on the second mile. I do remember on the very first lap feeling some twinges in my right hip and thinking to myself it might be a long and difficult race. By the end of the first day my legs just settled into a rhythm – everything hurt a little bit, but that’s what you expect after 30 miles, and after than it never got any worse.
Julie and I mostly ran separately (didn’t want to waste our chat on each other 🤣) and the day passed really quickly, with loads of different people to talk to on each lap – both old friends and people I was meeting for the first time. We had formed a little bit of a pre-race alliance with Luke Carter, Andy Imms and Eleanor Gallon, so it was nice to see them from time to time on the loop and check in that they were doing OK. On yard 3, I took my phone out to take a photo recce of the route – the results are scattered through this post to give you a flavour of what to expect on the course.
The first night was actually surprisingly difficult for me. Not so much physically but I was really sleepy. Julie kept me right and I used my pre-planned “fast lap and sleep” strategy twice, once at 11pm (41 minutes) and then again at 5am (44 minutes). Both times I was able to get roughly 15 minutes of solid sleep, and it got me through to the morning where as usual I perked right up and continued strong through to the 24 hour mark.
Turn left at the junction…… up the first short climb…… past the trenches and memorial wood to reach the end of mile 1.The first significant hill with a suitably motivational sign.Over the top of the hill, a short distance to another right turn……leading to a narrow gravel track, leading to the entrance to the forest.A short section of wiggly singletrack through the trees……down first, then back up again……before popping out onto another track.A short uphill leads back to a junction, turn right to reach the end of mile 2.The second significant climb of the route, not sure how helpful this sign is 🤣
33 Runners completed 24 yards / 100 miles, but by the end of Sunday afternoon there were only about 10 left! How did the second day go for you?
Julie: Things started to go wrong for me at about the 24 hour mark. I was feeling really tired and beginning to get sore knees – this isn’t unusual for me and usually I manage it well as I know they clear up within a couple of days of finishing the race. I think the hardest thing was that my legs felt like lead and I felt like I was running through treacle. I said this to Iain a couple of times but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it. I kept heading out on each loop but as we headed into the afternoon my heart just wasn’t in it and then I became really emotional and kept crying uncontrollably on several of the loops (not something I have experienced mid race before). Iain tried to help but it was actually making it harder as I just needed some headspace to try and sort myself out. He headed off and I ran with several different people. Thanks to all those who listened to me and supported me on those loops, I know I wasn’t much fun but I really appreciated those around me being so supportive. I was really struggling with knowing what to do as I could still easily get round the loops but mentally it was becoming harder and harder – and I don’t quit on races. I ran a loop with Eleanor mid afternoon and had a caffeine gel. Chatting with her (and the gel) really picked me up and I came back in at the end of the lap and said to Eric “I am back in the game!” as I felt so much better.
Unfortunately it didn’t last long and a couple of laps later I was back wading through treacle. I decided I was going to get to the first night loop and see if that perked me up as I love the night loops. Also in the back of my mind was the fact it was hard without a crew as we weren’t really able to switch off between loops, if I stopped soon I would be able to support Iain who was looking so strong and focused. I started the first night loop and told myself I would make a decision at the bottom of the first long down hill. When I got there I was averaging a 15min/mile pace. I could have got round but I decided it was not my day to get the big distances I had hoped for. I was a bit emotional as it was a hard decision to make and I felt like I was letting people down. But I also knew it was the right decision for me on the day. I walked back up to camp and discovered my period had started – explaining the heavy legs, slow pace, tiredness and emotionalness.
Once back in camp I had a bit of a cry, but once I had let go of all the emotions I was really happy with the decision I made as I had made the right decision for me on the day. I was then able to switch to crewing Iain which I was super excited to do and really happy to be able to support him through the rest of the race.
Iain: The second day continued in much the same vein as the first for me – I was still keeping a steady pace, and just enjoying every single yard. It certainly didn’t hurt that it was another lovely sunny day! I was a bit surprised that “only” 33 runners completed their hundred miles – between us I had guessed at 50 and Julie and 40, so we were both overly optimistic.
The afternoon was a the most difficult part of the race for me, as I had a front-row seat to see Julie starting to struggle. Even worse, I wasn’t really able to help her. After a few more laps together, she asked me to run at my own pace and give her some space to figure things out. It looked by late afternoon like she had turned a corner, but as I know from previous races it’s possible to dig yourself out of a hole for a while but really hard to stay out of it! Julie was behind me on the first night yard, so I didn’t see she had dropped until I got to the end of the yard and saw she was back in the marquee. We had a big hug, but I was so happy to see that she was content with her decision and she already had her “crew hat” on so I was looking forward to continuing to race together, just in different roles.
The second night of a backyard has a fearsome reputation (and Iain has failed to complete it before). What was different this time?
Julie: For the second night I quickly swapped into crew mode and was able to have Iain in his chair with his eyes shut within 30s of finishing the lap. He would then have a quick drink, grab a couple of gels and be on his way. All in all it worked great. While he was out on the loop I had a lovely time chatting to other crews, Eric and Jonathan, Karen who was doing the timing and even the medics! It wasn’t until a few hours after I stopped that I remembered to properly look after myself and grab some food and drinks and the odd power nap! The night was really cold for crewing so I just kept adding on my layers Iain did amazingly well and only started struggling with sleep demons in the last few hours of darkness when we swapped onto the caffeine gels and Kendal Mint Cake which perked him right up! By this point I knew he had the win as he was looking so strong, it was just a case of how long it would go on for.
Iain: I really expected the second night to be really hard, especially as I had been feeling sleepy on the first night already! In reality, it was the opposite and turned out even better than the first. I’m not sure if it was having Julie crewing me, the sense that we were getting to the sharp end of the race as runners kept dropping, or a combination of things, but I had a distinct sense of clarity and focus that carried my right through till the early hours of the morning. I remember running through the forest trail section on mile 2 and seeing every twig and root in sharp detail like I had HD vision – I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I also remember there were a couple of photographers and bikers out and about the night which was a bit of a surprise! I’m convinced they were real too – no hallucinations this time 🤷♂️
Around 3am I did finally start to get tired. I was still hitting my target pace, but my run had slowed down a lot and it was starting to feel just a little bit hard. I thought about trying another fast lap to get some proper sleep (up to that point I was managing on 5 minute power naps each loop), but my legs didn’t have the speed to make it worthwhile. In the end I decided to finally go full caffiene – after all I only had 3 hours to make it through till dawn. A combination of a caffiene gel at the start of the loop, and then a sugar boost from a chocolate-coated Kendal Mint Cake bar half way round worked a treat, and I was even able to pick up the pace a little. Within a few hours it was morning!
From the top of the hill, turn left and carry on along a long straight path (watch out for bikes – it’s narrow).Turn left at the end…… and head steeply downhill at first…… gradually bending right and levelling out…… onto a wide sandy road.Turn left at the end of mile 3 and follow a long, gradually uphill path on the soft forest floor to reach the playpark and Go Ape!Turn right to head back towards the camp site.Turn left to rejoin the route we took at the start of the lap.Turn right, back into camp…… past the marquee again…… and across the finish line!Inside the marquee was busy on the first day, but soon thinned out.We set up our own little area in a corner which was just perfect!
By morning there was only Iain and Lizzie left running, but lots of people returning to the campsite to watch the race unfold. Tell us what happened on the third morning!
Julie: Monday morning was great as a good number of runners and crew returned to camp to pack up and watch the end of the race. It was great to have so many friends around and the atmosphere was fantastic. I loved chatting with everyone and it was lovely when the sun came out. The amazing lady from Walkers catering also returned to site and did an amazing job feeding us all. The hash browns were particularly awesome and I ended up eating four 😋. Iain requested a cheese toastie which was kindly prepared ready for him at the end of one of the loops. It was great to see Iain and Lizzie get to the 48 hour mark and then the 50 which was the Scottish record. Iain was focussed on each lap at a time through the morning. He was super strong, had no real niggles and was enjoying himself. I loved seeing him have such an amazing race. Apart from a blister to deal with crewing was straightforward. Late morning I sat in the sun and promptly fell asleep for a lovely half an hour with the sun on my back. I made sure to set an alarm for quarter to the hour every hour just in case I fell asleep!
When we heard Lizzie had turned back on the 51st lap I wasn’t surprised as she had looked like she was having a tough time for quite a while. I had no idea if Iain would know he was on his final lap but suspected he probably would. So it was just a case of waiting for his return. All the spectators clapped Lizzie back into camp – she had had an amazing run smashing her PB and finishing as the assist on 50 yards. Impressive stuff.
It was brilliant to see Iain run strongly into the finish line as the winner of the 2025 Rasselbock Backyard Ultra on 51 yards. I couldn’t be prouder of him. He ran the race brilliantly and was strong throughout. What a start to the year 💪❤️🏃🏻
Iain: I always get a huge boost when the sun comes up and I describe it as feeling like I’ve got new legs! Combined with the fact that I was still feeling physically great, and we were now down to two runners, I just continued having a great time. Some people don’t enjoy being along on the loop, but for me I was just having some happy time in my own head. Compared with Saturday and Sunday which were really busy with walkers, dogs and bikers, I enjoyed having the trails mostly to myself, and having a bit of banter with Andy the marshal as I passed him on each lap. Having seen some video footage and Lizzie’s podcast it seems she was really starting to struggle at this point, but I wasn’t really aware of it. I was really motivated to make it to 48 hours (matching Julie’s PB) – this was a real milestone for me, and a few yards later setting a new Scottish record was just icing on the cake. At the start of lap 51 I passed Lizzie on the first downhill, looking back she was walking more than usual and looked like she was on her phone (not sure!). Anyway, this was the first time I really tried to play any games, and I put in a fast first mile with the aim of being out of sight by the time she reached the gravel road. I slowed down after that as I still wanted to conserve energy for many potential future laps. When I emerged from the forest trail section, marshal Andy told me that he’d heard on the radio that Lizzie had DNF’ed and was returning to camp.
The feeling you get when you know you’re on the final lap – I can’t put it into words. I just loved every second of the last few miles, and everything felt effortless, even running up all the hills. I even gave a final honk at the “silly goose” sign for good measure. Passing the Go Ape, Kit the race videographer met me, clipped on a mic and followed me in with a camera. I think I gave him a bit of a challenge keeping up with me 🤣 Running into camp and across the line was just the greatest feeling as a decent little crowd had come back to watch the end of the race. The finish of a backyard can be a bit anti-climatic as often the camp site has cleared out and there is hardly anyone left, but that wasn’t the case. The sun was shining and I shook Lizzie’s hand before trying to say a few coherent words and accepting the magnificent trophy. I think I was enjoying the moment so much that Julie had to remind me eventually to sit down!
How have you recovered from the race?
Julie: Once the race finished the exhaustion hit. I sorted our stuff and loaded the car as quickly as possible while Iain booked us a room in the closest Premier Inn. By mid afternoon we were all checked in and having a lovely afternoon nap – getting up for dinner was an effort but worth it to replace some calories! and then back to sleep for a lovely 11hrs. I had some dizziness from my Ménière’s Disease but managed to sleep it off, only bouncing off a few walls, without full blown vertigo thank goodness!
Since then my legs recovered really quickly, but it is taking a bit longer to get over the tiredness. I will gradually up my running over the next couple of weeks and get back to full training for the next race. I did manage pilates on Thursday which was tough!
Iain: After two complete nights without proper sleep, I was shattered! I was capable (barely) of driving but not navigating and made an accidental turn onto the M1 causing a 10 mile out and back detour on the way to the hotel 🙈. Anyway, a night of solid unconsciousness and a major dent in the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet sorted me out and the drive home the next day was a good chance to relax and talk through the events of the last few days.
After a couple more days with my feet up (at work 😉) my legs are feeling good. I did a 5k walk and the only real issue remaining is a blister on the base of one of my toes that hasn’t fully healed yet. I’m used to taking a full week off after an ultra, so I’m feeling ready to get back to some easy running next week.
Receiving the furthest male and overall prizes from Jonathan.They are heavier than expected!Winner, assist and RDs.Miles Together with Rasselbock Running 🤩Essential post-race recovery: chips and friends!The new Rasselbock mascot crocheted by Julie. Now living with Eric & Jonathan – we hope to see him at future events!The trophies, including an official BYU Bronze Coin 🏆
Every race is a learning experience – what did you take away from this one? And what’s coming next for you both?
Julie: There is lots for me to think about from this one. I have realised that day one of my period on race day is always going to affect my race performance and I need to think about how I mitigate that. I have also realised that I find it harder to perfom at my best when Iain is also racing – I become too invested in his race and don’t focus on my own. We both also agree if you want big numbers at a backyard having a crew makes all the difference. So in future we are planning to run different races and crew each other when we can. We will run the same events if it is a team event (e.g The Highlander BYU in July for Team Scotland) but will be mindful of how we run them.
For me nutrition and hydration went well and for this race I taped my toes for the first time and had no foot issues during the race and found only one small blister at the end. This is a big improvement for me as I usually have to manage multiple nail bed blisters in long races. I will be continuing with the taping for future races.
I have also realised that I need to work on my mental drive for Backyard Ultras. I have the mental strength but don’t always have the driving factor that you need to push through. I need to work on my self belief and confidence as I find when you get towards the sharp end of the race, starting all together on the hour every hour I find it incredibly hard not to doubt myself, especially if most of the others are completing their laps faster. I am the person that gets psyched out by the mind games! But as with all aspects of running this is trainable and knowing it is a weakness it is something I can work on. Interestingly it isn’t a problem in point to point races where I am usually on my own and don’t have to see the other runners around me.
Iain: Every so often a performance comes along that you always dream of, but never quite know when it’s going to happen. I had taken quite a lot of points for improvement from by last BYU as well as some new mental strategies and it’s really gratifying to have put them in to practice and finish with quite a lot left in the tank. I’m planning to run at the Highlander BYU / 4 Nations / Scottish Championship in July and also GOBYU in October. Neither of those courses is an “easy” one to do a PB, but you never know. At least I can go into both of them with confidence! Before that there’s the small matter of Cape Wrath Ultra in May – while I love BYU I also love long point-to-point races too. The Cape Wrath trail is 250 miles from Fort William to the Cape Wrath lighthouse at the far Northwestern point of Scotland, and the event tackles it over 8 days of racing with a camp between each days. Lots of off-trail and hilly training planned for the next few months.
Any final thoughts?
Julie: Rasselbock BYU is a fantastic event and I had a brilliant weekend even though my race didn’t go to plan. The reason for that was all the amazing, inspiring and all round awesome people that were there – other runners, crew, Race Directors, marshals and medics – everyone helped make it a super special weekend.
Iain: While I was on top form, I couldn’t have finished in good style without Julie’s crewing in the second half of the race. We’ve definitely learned that we do best when we’re supporting each other rather than competing. I’m not saying we won’t take to the start line together ever again, but I’m looking forward to returning the favour and crewing her later in the year!
We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did writing it! If we haven’t said it enough already, the ultra-running community is such a great bunch of people, and Backyard Ultras just bring out the best in that. Thanks to Eric, Jonathan and the whole Rasselbock crew of volunteers and marshals for an epic weekend. We love you all, and look forward to seeing you again soon at another event 👋
It’s said that running an ultra is 90% physical, and the other 90% is mental! However you choose to do the maths, it’s clear that there is a huge mental component to ultra running. We all spend lots of time training our bodies (and I wrote a post about my training approach last year), but much less training our minds. After suffering a complete mental collapse (a.k.a. losing my shit 🤯) at Thetford BYU last year this is an area I decided it was time to pay some overdue attention to. I put a couple of relevant books on my Christmas list and after reading them over the last few weeks, here’s what I learned…
P.S. You can find these books easily from your favourite bookseller, but if you click through the links below to buy at Amazon it will help (just a little) to support Miles Together at no extra cost to you. Thanks in advance 🙏
Matt is the author of several other books on endurance sports (not that I’ve read any of them), but this one is a collaboration with Professor Samuele Marcora, so it’s got two things going for it: it’s very readable, but also backed up by solid scientific research. The main idea introduced is the psychobiological model of endurance performance, which basically says that our performance in an event is not primarily limited by our physical ability, but by our mind. He uses the analogy of a fire-walking event where we must pass over a bed of hot coals to reach a wall. The wall represents our physical limitations – the fastest, longest or hardest that we could achieve, effectively our physical limitations which can only be improved by physical training. However, our actual performance in the fire-walk (how close we can get to the wall) is limited by our mind’s ability to tolerate the associated discomfort – known as our perception of effort. In a nutshell, our mind controls how much of our physical maximum performance we can achieve in an event. According to Marcora, it is perception of effort, not the actual effort itself that the critical factor that our mind monitors during an event and influences the level of effort the mind can direct the body to generate. As a result, by training our mind to either tolerate higher perception of effort, or to produce more actual effort for a given perception, we can increase our athletic performance.
The rest of the book consists of a series of examples of coping mechanisms – strategies which we can train our minds to use that will increase our performance. These are illustrated by real-world examples from a range of endurance sports including running, rowing, triathlon and cycling. Each coping mechanism is based on a specific psychological principle or effect, with summaries of relevant scientific studies as well as relevant anecdotes. Some of the ones I found most interesting were:
Bracing yourself, which means preparing mentally for an event by telling yourself that this will be hardest thing you’ve ever done, to expect it to feel tough (or even painful). It’s kind of obvious when you think about it but by setting out this mental expectation, when your mind perceives a high level of effort (things are getting hard), instead of responding by backing off, slowing down, or wanting to quit, it can go “OK, I expected this, its OK to keep pushing”. Putting this in practice for ultramarathons means expecting the race to feel hard! Combined with a sensible starting pace, every ultra should feel easy to begin with, but at some point it is going to feel hard. Exactly when that point is might vary, but I was really hit by this about 20 miles in to By Way of the Glen (180 miler) and finding it unexpectedly hard so early was really demoralising and made me start to think about quitting (and burning my running gear and never running again 🤣), This coping mechanism should also translate well to Backyard Ultras, which of course are well known to be easy… up to the point that they aren’t! When you hit that point, being braced for it means that it’s easier to keep going – after all this was what you expected.
The audience effect. It’s well known and scientifically proven that people can perform better due to increased motivation (performing for the audience), but also that the mere presence of the audience reduces perception of effort, making the same level of performance feel easier. Not only that, but having a supportive audience not only makes you perform better but even feel capable of performing better, creating a virtuous double-whammy effect! Applying this to running ultras, we all know the boost of seeing our crews at checkpoints, or other supporters along the course. Even talking on the phone to someone, or asking friends to send messages of encouragement as they “dot-watch” or follow your progress should have the same effect. At Race Across Scotland this year I’ll be (hopefully) taking part in a research study where the researcher will actually attend and observe my performance and behaviour at the event – I hope that will contribute to me having a great race 🤞
The group effect is when we produce an elevated level of performance due to either taking part in an activity as a group (such as a team at a cross-country race, which is one example given in the book), or from being part of a “group culture” which creates a social force leading to greater effort. Interestingly, this effect is biologically hard-wired into us, but we can arrange circumstances to benefit from it. A great example would be the Belgian team at the 2024 Backyard Ultra World Team championships – not only did every single member of their team achieve 48 yards or more, three of them set a new joint world record of 110 yards – and they all appeared to be having fun doing so! If you know me you’ll know I am quite a competitive type and tend to view other runners as my competition, but I’m looking forward to seeing how collaborating can improve performance – especially in the Backyard, where you always need at least two people in order to keep the race going.
The workaround effect is also a really interesting concept – it’s based on our brain’s ability to adjust dynamically to our body’s limitations. For example, as we become extremely fatigued or even injured during an ultra race, our minds can spontaneously develop new movement patterns (e.g. a modified running gait) that enable us to continue. I think this is strongly related to a concept I heard from John Kelly “it doesn’t always get worse“. It’s easy to think when things get tough (perception of effort increases) that we are on a downhill slope to getting slower and slower and eventually quit (or DNF). In reality (and I have experienced this a few times in races), if you push through, your can find a new lease of life, or a second wind. Knowing that this has a sound basis in psychobiological fact makes it easier to trust this and push through the inevitable low points in an ultra race.
There’s lots more good stuff in the book, relating to goal setting, dealing with failure and much more! In summary, I found “How Bad Do You Want It?” gives a lot of really interesting ways to think about and look at endurance sports performance. So if a good dose of science is what you like, then you’ll probably appreciate reading it. It didn’t have quite as much as I’d hoped in terms of specific, actionable strategies that can be practiced – but at least for me, understanding more about how and why my body and mind behave the way that they do gives me more confidence in my own ability to manage myself better in a race situation… at least, I think it will. I’m sure I’ll find out during the coming year!
The second book on my reading list is a a bit different as it tackles to topics of resilience and toughness in a wider context than just endurance sports. The author Steve Magness is an “Executive Coach” although he has a background in exercise physiology,and most of the examples he uses are taken from the world of sports. The main point of the book is that that traditional view of being “tough”, which involves gritted teeth, a “suck it up” mentality, and hiding any signs of weakness behind a façade of false bravado is flawed. It doesn’t actually help us perform at our best, and worse it can fail entirely under pressure, leading us to “freak out” and make bad choices (for example DNF’ing an ultra).
Conversely, he introduces a different type of resilience, illustrated by anecdotes and backed up by current psychological science. This new resilience is based on four pillars:
Embrace Reality. The foundation of resilience is developing an accurate appraisal of the demands of a task (such as a race) and an accurate appraisal of our own ability (our fitness, or training status). This immediately helps with realistic goal setting, leading to a positive cycle where our level of stress is reduced, our self-confidence is increased since we know we have the ability to achieve a task, and it can also help avoid the classic pitfall of a “macho” approach of going out too hard and crashing later in a race!
Listen to your Body. The thrust of this part of the book is that by becoming more in tune with the feelings and sensations that we will experience (during an event), we learn to respond to them more critically. For example, if your knees get sore after 50 miles of running (a feeling) we need to know if it’s just the normal sensation at that point in the race, or if it might be indicative of an injury. Having a solid baseline of information will help us respond appropriately. There are also some really interesting ideas about understanding and controlling your “inner voice”, which plays an important part in determining our mind’s response to feelings.
Respond Instead of React. This is about creating “space” between the sensation and our response to it, training our mind to make sensible decisions rather than triggering an immediate reaction like spiralling into unnecessary negative thought patterns, or giving in the urge to quit. This section (and the others, actually) has some interesting practical exercises that you can do to train these behaviour patterns. One example I have tried a bit in training runs is called “zooming” – consciously focussing on the task at hand (for example focussing on running form) is zooming in, and disassociating from what you are doing is zooming out. Steve recommends having lots of different strategies available to you so you can make use of them as and when required, depending on the specific demands of the situation.
Transcend Discomfort. This sounds a bit hippie, but really it boils down to thinking about the “why”, so that when challenges arise (and they certainly will at some point during an ultra) you can put them into proper context. If you see the bigger picture, you can make the “tough” choice to overcome difficulty rather than give in, and find meaning out of suffering.
I’m not sure my summary has fully done justice to the book, but hopefully it gives you a flavour of what it’s about! Handily, there are dozens of little “Toughness Maxims” scattered throughout, which were super helpful trying to recall the key points that I just explained to you. There are also lots of specific, actionable strategies which you can practice. I have tried just a few of them, but hopefully some good ones which I’ll be able to put to use when the going gets tough during upcoming races.
I hope you found this post interesting, I certainly enjoyed revisiting both books to write it! Please leave a comment if you’d like to read more like it – there’s plenty more on the Miles Together bookshelf that I could dive into. Don’t forget if you want to buy either of them you can find them both on Amazon:
If you’ve heard anything about Backyard Ultras you’ll know there are two races that are the highlight of the Backyard calender. First is Big’s Backyard Ultra, the original race in laz’s literal back yard in Tennessee and now the World Individual Championship Race. Second, the World Team Championships, first held during COVID travel restrictions in 2020. But did you know that every single backyard race is an opportunity to qualify for either of these races? Heard about bronze, silver and gold tickets and the “at-large” list, but confused what it all means? This post aims to explain it all as simply as possible – we promise!
Note: this is written from a UK perspective. The process is the same for other countries, but you’ll need to look up the exact distances and qualifying races on backyardultra.com yourself.
Note #2: all the graphics were produced by Rasselbock Running and re-used with permission.
Big’s Backyard Ultra
The Individual World Championship is held every other year in October at Lazarus Lake’s very own backyard in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, the site of the very first Backyard Ultra back in 2011. It alternates with the World Team Championship. You might remember that we were on the UK team for the 2024 Team Championship, so in October 2025 its the turn of the Individual Championship. Qualification for the race is open for a two year period (16th August 2023 to 15th August 2025) but it’s already a mammoth task to secure a slot. Of the 75 spaces at the event, 50 are given to the each country’s champion from the World Team Championships races. Winning your country’s Championship race with a minimum of 24 yards gives you a Golden Ticket straight in to Big’s. In 2025, the UK will be represented by Sarah Perry, who won the UK race with a total of 59 yards.
That leaves 25 spaces which are filled by the runners who record the highest number of yards at any Backyard Ultra event during the qualifying period (this is the global At-Large List). A big run at any event until the 15th August 2025 could earn you a spot, but beware! At the time of writing, the 75th slot is held by runners with 82 yards, so you’ll need to run 83 or more to qualify. The UK record holder Matt Blackburn is on the list with 87 yards, so it looks likely that 2 UK runners will be booking their tickets to Tennessee once the qualifying period ends. A few big results in the Spring though and Matt might have a nervous summer… You can find the latest list and watch it change throughout the year on backyardultra.com.
World Team Championships
If you don’t fancy your chances of running 85-ish yards, a (slightly) more achievable goal is to qualify for the UK team. The next World Team Championships will be held in October 2026, so we are quite near the start of the two year qualifying period which runs from 16th August 2024 to 15th August 2026. This qualifying period overlaps half of the qualifying period for Big’s, so any run between August 2024 and August 2025 counts for both. The key dates are shown below:
The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that qualification period is split into two halves. The first half (August 2024 to August 2025) contains some Bronze Ticket races, and the second half (August 2025 to August 2026) has four Silver Ticket races. Similar to the Golden Ticket to Big’s, if you win a Silver Ticket race, you book yourself an automatic spot on the UK team. Iain earned his spot on the 2024 UK team by winning Pig on the Hill BYU which was the final Silver Ticket races in the previous qualifying period. The 4 UK Silver Ticket races were announced last week on the Rasselbock Backyard livestream and here they are:
The trouble with the Silver Ticket races is they are already popular and often sell out quickly, and that’s where the Bronze Ticket races come in. If you manage to win one of this year’s Bronze Ticket race you automatically earn a spot in one of the Silver Ticket races – even if it is already sold out. It’s also common (at race director’s discretion) to offer Bronze Ticket holders a free or steeply-discounted entry. The Bronze Ticket races are grouped by region, so check the graphic below to see which ones will earn you a spot in each of the four Silver Ticket races:
All making sense so far? One last thing to mention… each national team for the World Team Championships has 15 members. Four go to the Silver Ticket holders and the remaining eleven are made up of the runners with the highest number of yards recorded at any event during the qualifying period. At the moment it will take you a run of 39 yards or more to get onto the team, but expect this to increase rapidly! There’s plenty of time for any of the runners currently on the list to be knocked off before the end of the qualifying period.
We hope that all makes some sense. It can be a bit overwhelming, but there are two key things to remember:
Long runs will get you onto the at-large list.
Winning Bronze gets you in to Silver, winning Silver gets you in to the UK Team, and winning the UK Team Gold gets you to Big’s.
Simple!
Julie is already on the UK team list for 2026 thanks to her 48 yards run at the Team Championships in October, but it’s far from secure with many big events coming. The 2024 Backyard Ultra season has already started with the Longbridge and Trails & Tarmac BYUs taking place last weekend. We’ll be starting our own season at the Rasselbock BYU in March. Looking forward to seeing some of you there 👋
We’re writing our 2024 year-end post from the comfortable position of taking a little bit of a break. Both of us took on run streaks up to Christmas and arrived there feeling flat-out knackered, so a good rest was definitely overdue. It’s been nice to put our feet up for a few days and just relax, ready to hit the ground running again (literally) in January.
It’s been a busy year for both of us, but as always it’s been great to catch up with our “running family” at various events around the country, and I’m sure that will continue in 2025! However this year has gone for you, we hope you’re enjoying Christmas time, and have a fantastic New Year when it comes. For now, let’s look back what we got up to in 2024 🤔
Giving the shoes a rest for a few days after many, many miles between us in 2024 😌
Iain
2024 started out great for me, feeling strong, getting stuck into a good training block and improving my time at three early-season hill races – I was pretty much in the best shape I’ve ever been in. Unfortunately disaster struck in March and I sustained a hip injury which meant I lost almost 3 months of running, and had to miss out on two of my big races for the year. The Cow Shed Backyard Ultra (April) was postponed due to the weather… luckily for me, otherwise I probably would have made the bad decision to try to run anyway. I made the hard decision to defer my entry to the Cape Wrath Ultra to 2025, but at least had the silver lining of bagging a last-minute space on the event team so got to hang out with a great bunch of volunteers, runners, and Ourea Events staff. I’m very much looking forward to finally making it to the start line this coming year 🤞
By early June I was making a decent recovery and I managed to string together several weeks of training and regain some fitness, just in time for Pig on the Hill Backyard Ultra, which was my last chance to qualify for the UK Backyard Ultra team. Although I hadn’t run more than 15 miles since February, everything went to plan and I managed to grab the win (and Silver Ticket) to secure my place! This proved to be the high point of the year, results-wise, but it was also just a great feeling to be back racing again, not to mention it’s an absolutely spectacular location 🤩 Three weeks later I completed the Run The Borders 100k race around the Borders Abbey way. Definitely not fully fit / recovered, but nice to tick that route off my bucket list.
The final big race of the year was the Backyard Ultra World Team Championships – looking back it was absolutely a highlight of the year to represent the UK alongside Julie (and 13 other worthy team members), but from a performance point-of-view I completely screwed it up and barely matched my PB from 2022. Chalk that one up to experience and hopefully I’ll be able to earn a chance to try again in two years’ time.
Although I ended up running the fewest races I have ever done in a year (barring COVID), having the last few months “free” I’ve been able to get stuck in to my winter training block “early” and am already finding my way back towards (I hope) my best. Julie and I have both been enjoying going to parkrun now that family commitments allow us more Saturday morning freedom, and I have managed to improve my 5k PB down to 18:45 – not too shabby for an old bearded guy 💥 In the end, not the year I had planned or expected, but plenty to feel positive about.
2025 I have some big races planned:
Rasselbock Backyard Ultra – aiming to give Julie a run for her money. We’ll see how that goes, since her PB is 11 yards further than mine 😱
Cape Wrath Ultra – this year is going to be the year. More than just a race, this is going to be an epic adventure.
Race Across Scotland – inspired by watching Julie smash this one in 2024, I’ll be toeing the starting line. Having never run 200+ miles before I’m going to do it twice next year 😁
God’s Own Backyard Ultra – had major FOMO this year, so going to put that right and aim to finish off 2025 on a high… with a little added motivation to have a crack at reclaiming my course record!
I’m sure a few more things will sneak their way on to the list, we’ll see! It’s going to be a busy year, that’s for sure… and that’s just my half of the race calendar 🙈
Julie
2023 was a hard year to follow and 2024 has proved to be a year of learning with mixed results. I started the year with high expectations of Rasselbock Backyard Ultra hoping for the win and a silver ticket place on the UK team for the World Team Champs. I had to go on a solo expedition as Iain needed to work and look after the kids, and this definitely made it harder. I had knee pain from early on and with Cowshed Backyard Ultra and a place on Team Scotland planned in April I called it a day before I should have at 38 yards. It was an absolutely fantastic event, Eric and Jonathon put on a brilliant race with a great atmosphere and it was a lot of fun running with friends old and new. Unfortunately I walked away feeling disappointed with my result, especially when Cowshed was postponed because of the weather. 38 yards left me with a nervous wait to see if I made the UK Team for Oct.
Withe Cowshed cancelled I booked a last minute place at Mapledurham Backyard Ultra to see if I could improve on my backyard ranking and make my place on the UK Team more secure. It was another great event, with some strong runners, a great atmosphere and really fun race. I took the win with 31 yards but was disappointed not to be able to improve my ranking… in fact I dropped into the reserve placings after a strong race at Portland pig that saw Andy Imms and Luke Carter both improving their backyard results. The summer was going to be a long wait to see if I made the team.
In June I ran The Whopper looped event put on by Greener Miles. It was a lovely course in Whinlatter forest and was meant as a training race before Race Across Scotland to get some elevation in my legs (something I am not great at in training). Unfortunately I had a nasty virus just beforehand and was well below par. I called it a day after 6 hours feeling I had got all the benefit I would from the race and to continue for another 6 hours would be miserable with no real benefit. It wasn’t the race I had hoped for but was the right decision to make.
July was a really bad training month still recovering from illness, with summer holidays to factor in and a nasty fall on the West Highland Way during a training run. I went into Race Across Scotland feeling very under prepared and nervous in case I fell again. However it is the most stunning race and I am so glad I took part – the organisation is fantastic, runners and volunteers lovely and the scenery breathtaking. I managed to finish first female despite the poor training but the last day did not go to plan with serious sleep deprivation kicking in and my period unexpectedly starting – without Iain’s crew support I am not sure what would have happened. I was pleased with the results but disappointed with how I raced the last day – another learning opportunity.
In September I was diagnosed with Ménière’s Disease – an inner ear condition that causes vertigo and balance problems. Luckily I do seem to get plenty of warning before attacks with a blocked ear and tinnitus but it is still a challenge I am learning to live with. I am very much hoping it stays relatively mild.
At the end of August I was relieved to find I had made the UK BYU team as the second reserve and would get to run at the Backyard World Team Championships. It was the highlight of the year and an amazing opportunity to run with such fantastic athletes. I managed to improve my backyard record to 48 yards which I am really proud of but still feel I have more to give. I was again plagued with knee pain which was disappointing and something I am looking to address over the winter – I am having to accept that the perimenopause is causing challenges with joint pain (among other things!)
So overall, some good results and great races with lovely people and lots to learn and take away for 2025.
Next year looks to be a busy year starting in March with a return to Rasselbock Backyard Ultra to see if I can improve on last years result (and keep going until I time out). I also have a place booked at Cockbain Events Cardiff to London race in May – I am really looking forward to this one and as it starts where Lon Las Cymru finished, making a great link-up of the two routes. I will also be returning to Thetford in June for the Suffolk Backyard Ultra to see how far I can go – it will be interesting to run at such a large Backyard event.
That’s all I have booked at the moment but hopefully we’ll both get a chance to run for Team Scotland at the Highlander BYU in July. I am also considering the Ochil 100 in September and there are a few other races I have my eye on – watch this space!
Winter has definitely arrived over the last two weeks… we’ve had several days of sub-zero temperatures, 24 hours of slushy snow, and quite a bit of rain in between as it’s warmed up again. It’s that time of year when it’s time to dig into the winter running kit. My thicker baselayer, winter gloves, extra neck buff and warm hat have all been worn (in various combinations). One other invaluable item is my Geckowear waterproof socks. I say “my” but technically they are Julie’s – although as with a lot of her kit I tend to “borrow” things 🤣
Geckowear are are makes of “100% waterproof, breathable and insulated” running socks. The pairs we have are the Knee Length Ultimate Waterproof Sock – usually £39.99 a pair, but currently on Black Friday discount for £20. They also do various other options for length, compression and colour, but all of them are based on the “triple-layer” design which seems to be woven inner and outer with their “AirSkin” membrane in between, which is waterproof and breathable. These are the XL, equivalent to UK size 12-14 and they come up to just below my knees, which is perfect.
Geckowear sock selfieGood weather for a test!
I’ve been wearing them mainly to keep my feet warm when out in freezing conditions, and they definitely do that! They are a little bit thicker (maybe 2mm?) than normal socks so if you wear particularly tight shoes you might notice but for me they work just fine in my normal shoes.
I wore these socks for one particular run last week where there was about 5cm of freezing, wet slush lying (see the video)! We only did about 3 miles around the village and though my feet were initially warm I found that they did get wet so the “100%” waterproof claim doesn’t quite hold up. Neverthless if I was in ordinary socks I my toes would have been freezing, so it was still worth wearing them!
I’m not really a big fan of waterproof socks for really long runs or ultras, on the basis that I think it’s better to accept your feet will get wet and let them drain dry! But I totally recommend these for short winter runs, especially if you know you will get a bit wet from a short boggy or flooded section. Just maybe not if your feet will be immersed in liquid the whole time. I’ll be packing them for upcoming work trips to Sweden and Finland!
I’d be interested to hear of other people’s experience with these or other brands of waterproof socks!
As we sit down to start writing this, we’ve now had two full night’s sleep and been home for over a couple of days, while three Belgians have only just finished setting a new World Record of 110 yards – inspiring stuff! In the end it took us another week to finish writing 😴 Even given a few days to chew over our own personal performances everything is still a big mixture of emotions. Hopefully it will all settle down over the next few days and weeks and we’ll be left with a sense of achievement and pride at having run for team UK but right now things are still feeling quite raw. Julie is of course delighted to have completed 48 yards, which has been one of her goals for some time now, but Iain DNF’ed without being able to extend his PB of 37 yards on what should have been an easier course. Perhaps the worst part which might not have been apparent to anyone else, was that our planned strategy of working together failed for the first time and that hurts. Nevertheless, there are lots of positives, learning experiences, and plain old funny stories from the race, so here’s how it all panned out from our point of view…
After a long and nailbiting wait we finally got confirmation in August that both of us had made it on to the UK Team for the 2024 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships, Iain by virtue of winning a Silver Ticket at Pig on the Hill and Julie via her 38 yards from Rasselbock earlier in the year. Of course we were honoured and excited to have been selected, and we quickly worked out a plan. Due to the October holidays and various other reasons our usual friends and family were unavailable but in the end we had a combination of Auntie Fiona and Uncle John, followed by Nanny Robertson looking after the kids at home, while Christine Caldwell travelled with us to support during the race as our crew. We (well Julie mainly) planned the logistics and packed enough food and gear to support us for 5 days of backyard racing and on Friday morning we set off for journey down to Suffolk, picking up Christine on the way. It was great to be able to fit everything in the van without needing to take a trailer! After a good day’s travel, stopping for dinner somewhere near Rugby, we stayed overnight in Brandon, a town right next to Thetford Forest, where the race was to be held.
The BYU Team championship consists of a single race taking place simultaneously in each country, all starting at midday UTC on 19th October. In the UK that translated to a very civilised 1pm start, so we had a good full night’s sleep on the Friday night, a full cooked breakfast at the hotel and plenty of time to make the short drive to Thetford Forest to set up for the race. Christine even had time for a bit of Parkrun tourism, taking in the local Brandon Country Park Parkrun between breakfast and camp setup!
The race was hosted at Forestry England’s High Lodge site in Thetford Forest – this is a new venue which is planned to be used for future runnings of the Suffolk Backyard Ultra, but Challenge Running RD Lindley (also UK team manager) was using this race as a bit of a test event prior to running a BYU with up to 500 runners on the course next year. The start/finish area is in the middle of a large open clearing – big enough to fit 500 runners and their tents, but with only 15 of us we used a small area marked out by temporary fencing containing the corral, gantry, timing tent, race HQ and space for the runners and support crews. We arrived around 10am and set up our gazebo in a good spot not more than 10m away from the corral. A few of the team were there already but most arrived over the next hour or so and we tried to say hello to everyone and figure out who was who! Many of the team we had never met, only exchanged messages with on social media, or recognised them only from their official team bios. The time passed quite quickly, and we had a short briefing from Lindley and received our official team kit (race shirts and hoodies). We got our gazebo well organised, prepped all of our supplies and made sure Christine knew where everything was and what we were likely to need. Before long it was time to get changed and join the team on the start line for the official photo-shoot. At 12:57pm the first of many three-whistle blows was made and at 1pm on Saturday we all set off (along with runners in 60 other countries), the 2024 Backyard Ultra Team World Championship race had begun!
Pre-race crew photo 🤩Official team lineup (photo: Challenge Running)
A bit about the course – the new course was expected to be even “faster” than the original Suffolk course at Knettishall Heath, with less elevation and generally better terrain. Leaving the corral, the route cuts across the grassy meadow and joins the Accessible Heritage Trail which it follows gradually downhill for the first mile. This is a very smooth and runnable trail, but the surface is made of very fine gravel which inevitably gets into your shoes and had to be emptied regularly. The second mile started with a short run along a gravel road to reach the bottom of the only real climb on the route. Named “The Beast” by Lindley, it really wasn’t that beastly (even after many, many repeats) it was just a gentle rise of about 20m over a third of a mile on a grassy path. Reaching the top the rest of the second mile was good grassy/earth paths, with only a small knobbly / rooty section. The rest of the loop consisted of three sections of gravel road, broken up by grassy forest rides which were mainly dry and runnable. At the end of mile four you passed a statue of the Gruffalo’s Child (pretty much every Forestry park has one these days!), and back out into the meadow for a short run to the finish. Overall a very runnable course, plenty to keep you interested without having to concentrate on navigation. Being in the forest was very sheltered, we had a little bit of wind and rain over the weekend but it was never extremely wet, blowy or cold in the trees. The camp on the other hand was noticeably colder, with cold fog settling over it during the night and a chilly breeze blowing across at times. Basically, it was a pretty much ideal setup for anyone planning a long Backyard Run.
How did the race go? We’ll spare you a yard-by-yard account, firstly it’s really boring, and secondly they all blur into one and we really can’t remember it all that well 🤣 To begin with we settled in to our planned pace of 12:30 per mile, walking large parts of the course and taking it easy. That pace works out at 52-53 minutes for the whole loop, with about seven minutes rest before starting the next one. We were spending most of our time at the back of the pack along with Luke Carter who generally started out ahead of us and finished the loop a few minutes behind us. Although the majority were in front of us, the field was never very widely spread barring Mike Raffan and Andrew Jackson who were well below 50 minutes per loop. We got a few chats here and there with others as our paces converged briefly, and spent one entire yard with John Stocker which was nice as Iain had never met him before. As the afternoon went on we were both eating well, moving well and feeling good. There was a little bit of rain and wind around, but nothing to cause any issues. After a few yards of even splits, we decided to go a little faster on the downhill first mile, banking time for the second (uphill) mile which was naturally a bit slower.
With the relatively late start we had only completed five yards when it was time for head torches. We carried on into the night with the same plan and ticked the hours off one-by-one. We had agreed there should be no negative chat between us on the course, but at some point it became clear that we were both starting to feel it. Julie’s knees began to hurt around yard 13 (2am), and Iain was starting to get a bit dozy. The positive chat that had made the first afternoon fly by dried up and we did several loops mostly in silence. We still had the possibility to put on some music, but planned to keep that to the second night. Iain’s singing kept Julie (and everyone else within earshot) entertained. At 5am we both started on the paracetamol, which helped a bit and after 14 hours of darkness dawn broke and it was time to take head torches back off again for the 8am yard.
Morning was a nice boost as always, Iain’s stomach came back to life after the usual night done mainly on gels and energy drink, Julie had been eating well throughout. Luke dropped out after yard 19, but apart from that the day passed largely uneventfully. We stuck to our pacing, and before we knew it we were approaching nightfall again. The downside of having started on the paracetamol was that every 6 hours you’d have a cycle of the pain being dulled for a few hours, then gradually ramping up again until it was time to take some more. A few people had started to slow, including Karen Nicol, who was now running at the back of the pack with John Stocker for company.
Returning from a yard together (photo: Challenge Running)
As we started on the second night, Iain started to really struggle to stay awake. He hadn’t been able to sleep at all between loops during the first night and the sleep demons came back pretty much as soon as the sun went down. We put our headphones in and had a good lap, motivated by the music but unfortunately it didn’t last. Julie wasn’t enjoying feeling isolated – although we were running together we were in our own individual bubbles. We compromised on having one earphone in and the other out so that we could still talk to each other, but since Iain was by this point barely awake it wasn’t much of a help. Julie was taking more and more of the lead, deciding where and when to run, and for how long – basically managing the race for the both of us. Iain could still run at a decent pace, but every time we slowed to a walk he would stagger from side to side like a drunk, eyes shutting involuntarily. Pretty much his only contributions were describing some of the hallucinations which were starting to appear – an ornamental rockery (complete with water feature) in the middle of the path, a random giant Toblerone, big metal barriers across the path, and a large farm outbuilding that mysteriously appeared ahead!
On yard 34 he had a major wobble… just mentally beaten down and wanting nothing more than to lie down and sleep. Julie and Karen were keeping up a good stride ahead but he just kept dropping off the pace. At the top of the climb he decided he was done and planned to walk it back to the finish and time out. Julie of course was having none of this, but he wasn’t listening so she decided to rope in John Stocker to deal out a dose of advice, maybe he could “fix” Iain. She waited for him (he was starting the loop slowly as he had been doing for many hours) and left Iain to dawdle on but before the two of them could catch up something clicked in Iain’s head – if sleep was what was needed, the only way to get it was to run full pelt back to the finish and get 15 minutes of shut-eye! He started running flat out, finishing the last two miles at under 8 minutes per mile, arriving back at 43:30. The rest of the team were very confused (and worried there was an emergency) as he dashed past. Unfortunately, even with more than 16 minutes under a sleeping bag, sleep still eluded him. But on the plus side, he knew that he could still run!
We set out together again on yard 35 with a few more issues to contend with – the hard running meant that Iain was now being sick whenever he tried to eat and drink, and Julie’s knees were now being made worse by running down the first mile. We agreed to go a bit slower on the downhill, even walking sections of it, and accept that our overall time for the loop would be a bit slower. It was actually a good plan and did give her knees a respite, but it also meant putting more walk breaks into the runnable sections on the gravel roads in the second half of the loop. Overall we dropped a couple of minutes, finishing the yards in 54 minutes rather than 52. Still enough time to rest and refuel, so that was a worthwhile trade-off. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the negative voices to creep back into Iain’s head and after a few yards of puking in the corral and “dead-man-walking” around the yard, he decided it was time for him to quit. At the end of loop 37, he rang the DNF bell and was out of the race.
Julie wasn’t ready to stop yet but was aware Iain stopping could have a negative affect on her race if she went into a negative mental spiral. With that in mind as she entered the corral for lap 38 she asked Andy Imms if she could tag along with him for the lap if she could keep to his pacings! It turned into a great lap enjoying the company of Andy (and also Damian and Wayne who Andy had been running with for several laps). It was great to hear how others were getting on and also made sure Julie wasn’t inside her own head too much! Knee pain was still a problem, the general fatigue of hours on the feet and it being night time.
Julie’s laps slowed over the next few hours to coming in with about 5 minutes to spare – still plenty of time but it was making Julie feel quite stressed. Daylight didn’t give much of a boost and laps were spent trying to stick to a pacing and chatting with different people that were running at similar pace. Julie discovered running up some of the one and only hill was a lovely relief on the legs and also banked some time as her walk up the hill was getting slower and slower. Thomas, Wayne, Damian and Andy (before he stopped) were all great company and helped pass some of the miles.
Each lap seemed to get harder and harder and Iain (who had had four hours sleep and was now wide awake again!) and Christine moved her chair and a box of food and gear down to the edge of the corral to save a bit of time between loops. On yard 46 she had a wobble of her own and came in looking distraught – not just by the amount of effort it was taking to get round the loop, but also by the possibility that she might fail just short of the 48 yard mark. Yard 47 was even slower, and it was an anxious wait at the finish, but with less than 90 seconds on the clock she made it over the line and we quickly turned her around for one more lap. This lap had been a massive mental challenge as 2 and a half miles in Julie’s pacing was slower than what was needed to get round in the hour. A good cry and talking to herself and Julie upped the running to just get back in the hour. She knew that the 48hours was doable and set out on the 48th loop with determined focus.
The 48th loop Julie went round the loop with Thomas and Wayne (thanks guys 🙏) but by this time she was not about to quit. In under 55 minutes, she completed her 200th mile, becoming one of only 8 people in the UK to do so 🎉 Having pushed so hard to reach a milestone, she was absolutely done, but Iain, Christine and various onlookers twisted her arm to get her back in the corral for yet one more lap! She made it about half a mile into the course before having another good cry and a sleep on a bench. After about half an hour she was found by a pair of dog walkers and brought back to the camp. Fortunately they were aware the race was on so weren’t too perturbed to find someone in running gear asleep on a bench in a forestry park! They were a lovely mum and daughter (the daughter is running Suffolk next year) and Julie enjoyed a great chat with them walking back to camp.
Down to the final 6 runnersComing in to complete the 48th yardJulie accepting her DNF coin after 48 yards.
And with that our races were over. We stayed around for a few hours, Julie mainly sleeping while Iain packed up the gazebo and all the gear around her. It was mid afternoon by this point, so we made a last-minute booking at a some local accommodation (The Annexe, Mildenhall) and by 6pm we were showered and scoffing takeaway pizza while following the end of the race via the live stream like everyone else! We all slept for 11+ hours and then headed out for a much-needed breakfast at Angel’s Cafe – the breakfast burrito is highly recommended (and probably contains about 2000 calories). After a day on the road we were back in Scotland and back to the real world. The Belgians of course, were still running!
As we said at the outset, there are a huge mix of emotions still swirling around. Absolutely, it was a huge privilege to be invited to run for our national team, and spend a weekend in the company of some of the the best Backyard Ultra running in the UK. There were lots of positives to take from the race too:
Logistics, organisation and crewing was top notch (thanks Christine 🙏). We had everything we needed, and plenty of time between loops to do everything, including emptying lots and lots of gravel from our shoes!
Footcare was great – Julie pre-taped some of her toes and changed shoes at one point, and Iain just swapped socks but by the end of the race neither of us had any significant blisters, certainly none that would have stopped us continuing.
Food and hydration went pretty much to plan, we both had a good variety of food and managed to keep eating at roughly the right rate throughout the event. Later on, Julie took a race pack with some food and energy drink out on the course which worked well when the time between yards was getting tight.
Julie absolutely smashed her PB by 10 yards, and is in rarified company now having completed 200 miles in 48 hours, as well as finishing 10th woman worldwide in this year’s championship 🎉
But also lots of points of improvement:
Iain definitely felt that he underperformed – he matched his PB, but that was set on a more difficult course (God’s Own Backyard) and he had much higher goals for this one. The main cause of him quitting was sleep deprivation, and that is something that needs to be managed better in future but both of us struggled with the fact that the race felt a lot harder (and was a lot less fun) than we expected. Running a race with only 15 runners, all of whom are capable of huge distances is a very different experience to a normal backyard. Not only are there fewer people around to talk to to pass the time and provide a welcome distraction, you do not get the constant reinforcement from other people DNF’ing that you’re doing well!
Somehow, we didn’t manage to work that well together at this race. We both were struggling with either pain or tiredness but since we had agreed not to bring any negativity on to the course, that just meant that conversation almost dried up between us. When we put headphones in that made things even worse and we ended up with the worst of both worlds – running to each other’s pace but stuck inside our own little bubbles. Towards the end of the race Julie’s knees meant she couldn’t run for as long or as fast as Iain, and Iain couldn’t walk as fast (or in as straight a line!) as Julie. We definitely needed to have a more flexible strategy to allow us to work to our own strengths as the race went on.
Stomach issues affected Iain a bit towards the end of the race, caused by two things. Firstly was wearing a waist pack (to carry a phone and gels during the second night), which was uncomfortably tight. In the end he took it off and just carried a few gels. After the fast loop on yard 34 he started also being actually sick. Most likely that would not have been a reason to quit by itself but it certainly didn’t help.
In the end the UK race was won by Sarah Perry with a fantastic 59 yards, with Alex Sweet providing the assist – huge congratulations to them both 👏👏👏 As for us, it’s time to fully recover and get stuck back into a big winter training block to be ready to bring extra motivation, fitness and mental strength to Rasselbock BYU 2025 and see how far we can go! And Julie has already signed up for Suffolk BYU too, so we’ll be back at Thetford before too long 😵💫
Julie uses all different kinds of shoes – Brooks, Scarpa, Salomon, Altra, Hoka (many different models) – and when she finds one she likes it inevitably gets discontinued. On the other hand I know what I like and stick to it. At the moment I have five different pairs of Salomon Sense Ride in my shoe rotation, plus another four pairs that are now retired!
Sense Ride 4 (Orange), 1067 miles – rarely used now except for short runs
Sense Ride 4 (Blue), 918 miles – occasional use
Sense Ride 5 (Red/Orange/Grey), 616 miles – general purpose shoes, used most days
Sense Ride 5 (Green flash), 69 miles – prime race shoes, run in a bit, ready for the BYU World Team Championships
5 pairs of Sense Ride – oldest on the left, newest on the right.
I’ve reviewed the Salomon Sense Ride 4 a few years ago so let’s have a look at the Sense Ride 5. The Sense Ride 5 has been out now for more than a year, so while there are still new colours being released you can find them at reasonable prices, well under £70 at places like SportsShoes.com or Amazon for specific size and colour combinations. You might even be lucky enough to find some Sense Ride 4’s still for sale at bargain prices.
So what’s been changed between the 4 and the 5? First up the outsole has been tweaked – it’s still Contagrip rubber with a “ProFeel film” but there are more lugs (6 per row), each being a bit smaller and shallower (3.5mm compared with 4mm). The grip is more-or-less the same – maybe not ideal for proper hill racing on grass and mud but excellent for most trails you’ll find in the UK at least. So far I’ve found them to be exactly as durable as the previous outsole, and expect to get roughly 1000 miles of usage out of them.
The midsole has been updated, it’s now Salomon’s new “Energy Foam” compound. I would say it’s a little bit more cushioned than the previous version, which is a nice-to-have, but since I ran 170 miles in one go in the Sense Ride 4 it was already more than adequate in my opinion. Inside, the construction is much the same, with the “Sensi-Fit” fabric linked to the tongue and combined with the quicklace system it definitely still holds your foot nicely in place. I used to occasionally get blisters caused by my feet moving around in shoes, or bashed toenails and I don’t get either of these in the Sense Ride 4 or 5. Please don’t mess with this system in future editions, Salomon!
The upper is very similar, mostly a very breathable, quick-draining mesh. This edition has removed a little bit of the plastic weld from around the front end, which improves the breathability at a cost of a little less splash-resistance. There have been a few changes around the heel, with the addition of a ‘tag’ at the back – pretty useless unless you like to hang your shoes up? The padding at the side of the heel has been extended all the way round the back which is probably a better fit if you don’t have very narrow heels like I do. As far as I can tell, the heel cup appears to be a little bit stiffer and I found it can become a bit uncomfortable on very long runs. However, it does appear to be a bit more durable than the Sense Ride 4, on which the heel lining has started to split – there’s no sign of that issue on the Sense Ride 5, so I suppose the issue is fixed!
The official weight from Salomon is up ever so slightly from 290g to 293g, but I doubt you’d even notice that. It’s still 8mm drop, although apparently 2.5mm shaved off front and back. I guess that’s 0.5mm off the lugs and the rest due to the midsole change – however, I simply don’t feel the difference and it looks and handles like the same shoe. Overall, the Sense Ride 5 is pretty much the same as the previous edition, certainly similar enough to keep me as a happy customer. Sense Ride will remain my go-to “do-everything” shoe for the foreseeable future and I recommend you try them out if you haven’t already! Click through to buy on Amazon.
