Can’t believe it’s been over a year since our last Miles Together interview 😱 Too long! Anyway, we hope you’ll agree this one was worth the wait. A couple of months ago Julie completed the Cardiff to London Ultra and along the way she met Aimee and Paul who were simply the best checkpoint crew you could ask for – very un-Cockbain Events 🤣 We knew it would be great to do a Q&A with them on the blog but both of us have had a busy few months, so here it is…
Welcome Aimee and Paul to Miles Together! Please introduce yourself to our readers.
We are Paul Betteridge and Aimee Tippins, a middle-aged couple who run ultra marathons together! We did our first ultra marathon in February 2023 (Run Walk Crawl’s Brecon to Cardiff) which was a 44 miler. We share our running adventures on social media as Solemate Runners.
Everyone has their own running stories, so tell us yours. What led you to start running initially, all the way up to ultras?
Aimee dabbled a bit in running in her thirties, but nothing serious – just the occasional Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Then in December 2014 she did a 5K Santa Dash then a 12K race in January 2015. She completed that race but injured her left knee in the process. This resulted in surgery in October 2015 and she assumed she would never run again.
Near the end of 2019, Aimee did a few experimental parkruns to see how her knee felt when running, but the novelty wore off in the New Year! It was lockdown in 2020 which led to Aimee taking up running properly. She was furloughed from work, stuck at home and found herself climbing the walls, so she started going out for little runs. Her knee held up okay and so she started running more and more. But at that point she had no idea that she would end up running ultra marathons – she didn’t even know they existed!
Paul had never run before; his background was in calisthenics and mountain biking. He started joining Aimee on some of her lockdown runs and for the next year or so he dipped in and out of it. This was mainly because he found it hard, and he also initially only purchased running gear based on fashion not functionality and had lots of issues with his footwear! Paul also had, shall we say, a ‘love/hate’ relationship with alcohol, which caused his enthusiasm for fitness to ebb and wane somewhat, often due to raging hangovers.
Aimee ran her first official race in July 2021 which was Compton Verney Half Marathon (she was gifted the place at the last minute which is why Paul didn’t run it with her). She hadn’t done any proper training for it and it was a blazing hot day so she didn’t quite hit her target of finishing in under 2 hours, but was chuffed to get close with her time of 2:00:47!
Our first official race together was the Alcester 10K on 10 October 2021. We started together but despite doing very little training, Paul got ahead and finished in 50:00, beating Aimee’s 51:38.
Then on 17 Oct 2021 we started the Sutton Park Half Marathon together. It was a horrible day weather-wise, very wet and windy. The race did not go well for Aimee, she started feeling unwell and also struggled mentally with the race being 4 laps of the park, so she pulled out after 2 laps. As she had done just over 10k when she crossed the finish line, the organisers very kindly allowed her to drop down to the 10K distance on the results, so she still got a medal! Paul pushed on and completed the half marathon – this (so far) was the last time Paul has beaten Aimee!
The only races we did in 2022 were the Alcester 10K spring and autumn races (May and October) – at both of these races we started together but Aimee finished ahead of Paul! During this time, Paul started watching YouTube videos about ultramarathons and becoming more and more fascinated with the concept. Numerous times he told Aimee he would some day run 100 miles, but he still at this point wasn’t taking his running very seriously, and Aimee never believed it would happen! Nevertheless he was able to persuade Aimee to sign up to do our first ultra marathon together in February 2023 (Brecon to Cardiff, 44 miles). That race was a massive eye opener for both of us and we learnt valuable lessons about the importance of fuelling and correct footwear – but we finished, together!
After doing another (smaller) ultra together in April 2023 (Run Walk Crawl’s Vale Coastal Ultra, 32 miles) for Paul’s birthday, Paul persuaded Aimee that we should sign up for Endure24 Reading in June. More on how that went later!
In August 2023 Paul decided to stop drinking completely and that led to him starting to take his running much more seriously. Since then he keeps finding more and more scary/challenging events for us to sign up for! A common pattern for us is Paul goes in with ambitious goals and feeling really confident but then things don’t go to plan for him, whilst Aimee takes a lot of persuading, goes into these races not feeling confident and then does really well!
Sounds like a very healthy competition between the two of you 🤣 and huge congrats to Paul on his upcoming two years sober!
Since your first few ultras we know you’ve gone on to some big events such as the Bridge 100 and Endure24. How did they go? Did you run them together, or was one of you supporting the other?
Paul became obsessed with running 100 miles and our first attempt at this was Endure24 Reading in June 2023. It’s a 24 hour race on a 5 mile trail loop, so completing 20 laps gets you to 100 miles. Aimee was dreading it because of her hatred of repeat laps and so she went in saying she would be happy to achieve anything between 50 and 75 miles. Paul of course was totally confident he would get 100 miles! There was a mega heatwave that weekend and unfortunately Paul did not cope well. We ran the first 4 laps together then Aimee went ahead. Paul had stomach issues and severe leg cramping and had to stop for a substantial period during the night. Aimee however found herself really enjoying the event and she was able to keep going. She did help Paul to get going again by walking a couple of laps with him. The end result was Paul did 13 laps (65 miles) and Aimee did 17 laps (85 miles) which meant she finished 5th female!
Not deterred, Paul immediately started looking for another race to attempt 100 miles at and he entered us for The Joust in September 2023. This is very similar to Endure24 but on a much smaller scale (300 runners rather than 3,000+) and the lap is slightly longer (it’s a bit over 5 miles) so at The Joust the 100 mile target is 19 laps. We thought being September it would be cooler, but how wrong we were! It was actually even hotter than Endure24 and more humid, so it proved to be a very difficult run for both of us. We very quickly realised 100 miles was not going to happen for either of us and stayed together for the whole race, just trying to keep moving as best we could in the heat. We finished on 13 laps (70 miles). Aimee was shocked to win her first trophy at this event – she came 2nd female!
2024 was a much more successful ultra running year for us both. We ran The Arc 50 in January 2024 together – that was a brutal race which we both underestimated, but we were over the moon to finish it. The Arc is particularly meaningful for Paul – it was seeing YouTube videos about the Arc of Attrition that first lit the ultra-running fire in him and gave him the desire to run a 100 mile race. He really wanted to sign up for the 2024 full Arc of Attrition (100 miles) but much to Aimee’s relief we didn’t qualify (at the time of signing up in 2023 the longest race we had done was our first Ultra, the 44 mile Brecon to Cardiff race). We crossed the Arc50 finish line holding hands, it was a very emotional one for us.
We had signed up to do 2024’s Endure24 Reading as soon as the 2023 event was finished and that was supposed to be our “A” race after completing Arc50. However, near the end of 2023, Paul persuaded Aimee to sign up to do The Bridge 100 which fell in May 2024, despite Aimee’s reservations about it being too close to Endure24! The Bridge 100 is 25 laps out and back over The Old Severn Bridge linking England to Wales – definitely a mental challenge as much as a physical one! Typically, it was another hot weekend and we were both very nervous. We started out together but after just one out-and-back (4 miles) Aimee went ahead as she had settled into a pace she wanted to stay at, whereas Paul felt he needed to go a bit slower. Obviously, as the race progressed we saw each other regularly as we kept passing each other on the bridge! The race went brilliantly for Aimee (other than a little wobble when she had about 6 laps left to complete) and to her complete surprise she was the first finisher and the only participant to finish in under 24 hours (her time was 23:14:05). Paul struggled, having made (by his own admission) some very poor decisions – i.e. the wrong footwear and failing to use Body Glide. Early on he developed blisters and some hideous chafing in very unpleasant places! Nevertheless, he battled on and completed it in a time of 27:24:57. We were ecstatic to have both finally joined the 100 mile club!
Endure 24 Reading fell just 3 weeks later. We pretty much rested up until then, as we were both feeling quite battered after The Bridge 100. We went into Endure24 not sure what to expect. Whilst we both would have loved to get 100 miles, we were unsure how are bodies were going to hold up, so we just decided to play it by ear. We ran the first 3 laps together then Paul decided he needed to change his trainers, so Aimee carried on without him. We then hardly saw each other until just after 1am Sunday morning, when Aimee came back to the camper to find Paul had stopped due to his legs just giving up on him – he had done 11 laps (55 miles) in 13:05:08. He said he would support Aimee to get her to 100 miles. At that point Aimee was feeling strong, but a few laps later she started to develop some issues (pain in her hip and shin, both of which had played up near the end of The Bridge). Just before 4:40am Aimee also decided to stop as she didn’t want to risk serious injury. She finished on 15 laps (75 miles) in 16:48:47.
Our next big race was The Joust again in September. This race actually went like a dream for us! Everything just seemed to come together and we ran together for 19 laps (101.6 miles) which we completed in 21:51:25. Aimee then carried on to do another lap on her own, so she finished on 107 miles in 23:00:42. This meant we both got the 100 mile buckle and we both won a trophy! Aimee won 1st Lady (she was 2nd overall) and Paul won 2nd Male (3rd overall). This race is definitely a special one for us now as it is local for us, and being able to run 100 miles together made it so much more meaningful.
Our next two big races did not go to plan (Escape from Meriden Chained and Arc of Attrition) – more on both of those later!
Our most recent ultra distance race has been Endure24 Reading again in 2025 which was a month ago now. This was our third attempt to get 100 miles at this event! The weather was awful, as it was really warm but we had heavy rain for most of the first half which caused a lot of the 5 mile course to be horribly muddy and slippy. Paul stopped running after 9 laps (45 miles) as he was having issues with his ankle, but Aimee’s race went brilliantly. By midnight she had run 13 laps (65 miles) and had been leading lady from pretty much the beginning. Paul became her support crew when he stopped running. Aimee did have a ‘wobble’ after her 15th lap (75 miles) where she felt dizzy and sick, so Paul persuaded her to take a little rest. With hindsight we could see her fuelling had slipped during the night, she was eating and drinking less without realising. After a short break (it was about 25 minutes in total), she was able to get going again, but in that break another lady moved into 1st place. Just as Aimee was finishing her 18th lap (90 miles), a nasty blister very painfully announced itself on her right big toe, so she had to take another short break to deal with that. But she carried on and finished her 20th lap at 09:17 on the Sunday morning, meaning she had run 100 miles in 21 hours 17 minutes. If it wasn’t for the blister, she would have carried on running as the race didn’t finish until noon, but it was making her limp and she was worried about causing injury. So we decided that we would just walk another lap together, to get Paul to 10 laps (50 miles). The end result was Aimee finished on 21 laps (105 miles) in 22:59:50 which won her 2nd female and 9th place overall
Congratulations on breaking the 100 mile barrier, although I’m not sure most people would have chosen The Bridge as the one to do it on! Great to see you’ve found ways to support each other at events even when you’re both on different race paces or strategies, whether by choice or not.
Outside of racing, do you do most of your running together? How important is running as part of your relationship?
Running has become a crucial part of our relationship, as it has become a hobby that we can enjoy together. It has become obvious that we both have that crazy gene that all ultra runners seem to have and we relish taking on these massive tests of endurance as a couple! However, we don’t do all of our running together. Because of a combination of work commitments and personal preferences we do some of our weekday training runs separately. For example, Aimee does a Pilates class every Wednesday morning and so on a Wednesday she always runs to that class (just varying her start time and route accordingly, to fit with whatever run is required on her training plan for that day) – it has become almost like a therapy run for her! Paul’s work can involve travelling to site jobs which can be anywhere in the UK, so it is sometimes difficult to fit his runs in. It is also true that Paul also takes a little more of a ‘lackadaisical’ approach to training! He does not stress about missing the odd run on our plan or following our Coach’s instructions to the letter, whereas Aimee is stricter with herself! But pretty much all of our weekend training is done together, that’s when we usually do back-to-back long runs.
When it comes to races we always start together, and the intention is usually to stay together, but on loop races (like The Bridge, Endure24 and The Joust), it usually ends up with Aimee leaving Paul behind! The only exception to that has been The Joust 2024 where we did run the 100 miles (19 laps) together, Aimee then did an additional lap on her own.
On A to B ultras, for the most part we stay together. There has only been one race so far where we have separated which was the Run Walk Crawl Vale Coastal Ultra in April 2025. We did the first 17 or so miles together and then Paul started slowing down after slipping down a step and aggravating his weak ankle. As Aimee was feeling really good, we decided to separate as Paul felt he was holding Aimee back. She ended up winning 2nd female!
If you’re anything like us, all that running together will have left you with some stories to tell… What are your best (and worst) or funniest moments?
In terms of best moments, we would both have to say completing The Bridge 100 as our first 100 miler – that was very memorable. For Aimee she would also say crossing the finish line on her 20th lap at Endure24 this year – with the commentator calling out that she had done 100 miles and was 2nd lady, the crowds cheering and Paul waiting for her to give her a massive hug – it was a fantastic moment that will stay with her for a long time. Paul is particularly proud of his performance on The Joust in 2024 as it went so well, he felt strong all the way round and he crushed his goal of running 100 miles in under 24 hours.
In November 2024 we took on a particularly crazy challenge, with Paul setting us a ridiculous target (there is a bit of a theme here!). We did Cockbain Events’ Escape from Meriden Chained. [MT: More about this race in Heather and Geoffrey’s post] You start on the Friday at midnight in Meriden (the centre of England) and you have 36 hours to run as far away as you can, in as straight a line as possible. But you are also chained together at the wrist with a 1 metre chain and are wearing orange boiler suits! There is a special medal for any Chained runners that go over 130 miles, so that was Paul’s target. He plotted our route and with hindsight he made a few key mistakes: firstly, he took us west towards Wales which meant it got extremely hilly! And secondly, he routed us on quiet, country lanes through tiny villages with very little in the way of shops, garages, or any places at all to get supplies! It didn’t go well and at 9pm when we happened to stumble across Leominster Golf Club, Paul insisted we go in. That is probably our funniest ultra running moment – it was certainly an experience crashing a rather posh, private Christmas party at a golf club looking like very bedraggled escaped prisoners chained together! Aimee wanted us to stop for an hour or so to rest and refuel then carry on, but Paul had completely crashed (insufficient nutrition being the main cause), he refused to go any further and asked the lovely staff at the golf club if they could call us a taxi. So we ended our race after just 21 hours having covered 74 miles. The most frustrating thing for Aimee was when we woke up at home at 8am on the Sunday morning (bearing in mind the race didn’t finish until 12:00 noon on the Sunday), the first thing Paul said was “we should have carried on”!!
Our most heartbreaking experience so far has been the full Arc of Attrition (100 miler) that we attempted in January 2025. Paul in particular was so excited to be on this start line as this race means so much to him (Aimee was absolutely terrified!) The weather leading up to the race had been horrendous, with lots of rain, and major storms were forecast for that weekend. We were actually lucky that the race itself ended up falling between two storm fronts, so we only had a bit of rain during the Saturday night, but it was extremely windy and the terrain was very treacherous with hideous mud and extremely slippy rocky sections. The race was going well for us initially and we felt that we had it in the bag, but we got caught out by the St Ives cut off unfortunately. We thought we had been well ahead of the cuts off at earlier checkpoints, but we had completely underestimated the section from Botallack to St Ives (despite having done it on the Arc50 the previous year). That section is absolutely brutal and slowed us down so much we missed the cut off to St Ives by 21 minutes. Although we were able and willing to carry on, rules are rules, so we were timed out at just under 80 miles, which we had done in 26.5 hours (the cut off for the finish is 36 hours). We had realised we were going to be timed out on the approach to St Ives, so we ended up just walking into the town. It was a really bittersweet moment as there were a lot of supporters there for the 50 mile and 25 mile runners – they could see we were 100 mile runners from our bibs and were really cheering us on, saying things like “you’re doing amazing!” and “only 20 more miles!” etc, but they didn’t realise we were going to get pulled out at the checkpoint and we did! Paul got emotional first, which then set Aimee off, so we walked into the checkpoint holding hands, crying!
Our Arc of Attrition failure got to Paul so much that he decided for his 50th birthday he wanted to try to run it again, unofficially. So on the Easter weekend in April this year we took ourselves back to Cornwall, with some lovely friends as our support crew, and we tried to run it again. We had horrendous weather (heavy rain and gale force winds) but we were going brilliantly. We did the first 50 miles in 14 hours, so we were well on target for a 30 hour finish. But then 1.5 miles out from Lands End, Paul lost his footing coming down a hill on some slippy rock. He hurt his ankle, twisted his knee and thought he had possibly broken a toe. This resulted in a slow hobble the rest of the way to Lands End and we had to call it there – we had done 55 miles. So the Arc of Attrition remains very much unfinished business for us!
That’s such a shame, but you definitely have it in you both to finish so hopefully it will work out some time in the future.
We both know that running together with your partner can be an amazing experience but not without its challenges too. What would your advice be to a couple thinking of starting to run together?
If both beginners, start out gradually and incorporate Jeffing (run/walk technique). Don’t get sucked into focussing on pace, it’s not important when you are starting out.
Whether you are new or experienced runners, accept that you and your partner are likely to run at different paces and have different strengths. We find that when we run together, Paul is faster on inclines and Aimee is stronger on roads. Generally, Paul gets to the top of hills before Aimee and waits for her at the top, and Aimee ends up waiting for Paul to catch her up on long road runs! But on training runs, pace really doesn’t matter, it’s all time on feet! Probably 80% of our training runs are easy-paced (low Rate of Perceived Exertion / RPE), so that means we can have relaxed, chatty runs and just enjoy the time together.
If you have conflicting goals (for example, one of you may be training for a half marathon PB and the other training for an ultra) you may have some different sessions to do, as speed training is very different to endurance training. But there will be some common elements and our advice would be to at least try to do your long, easy runs together. Or if one of you has some speed work to do (such as strides) and the other doesn’t, add the strides to the end of the run you do together and the runner not doing the speedwork can time the strides for their partner.
But it is important to do some runs on your own as well! We both find we enjoy doing some solo runs. It is nice to have some runs where you can run completely at your own pace without worrying about slowing your partner down or running too fast for them. And it’s good to have that “me time” for yourself!
If looking to do ultras together, we have learnt that there are three elements to focus on: fitness, fuelling and your mental strength. It is astonishing how much our bodies are capable of and more often than not it is your head that stops you from going further not your body. We often set ourselves training runs that will mentally challenge us – for example, we will do boring repeat laps when training for loop races and we go out for runs in the middle of the night when our brains are telling us we should be asleep!
That’s great advice and totally chimes with our own experience too…
So let’s jump back to where we started. How did you come to be running a checkpoint on Cardiff to London where you first met Julie? And did you know that Mark’s CPs are normally minimal (what you had was awesome by the way)???
We know Mark Cockbain from doing The Bridge 100 in May 2024 and Escape from Meriden Chained in November 2024. He was calling out for volunteers for Cardiff to London so we offered to run checkpoint 7 for him. Having participated in The Bridge we are very familiar with the Cockbain approach to supporting his runners – ‘minimal’ is definitely a good word for it! However, we know from experience how important checkpoints can be on ultras, so we risked being told off by Mark and made our little checkpoint as luxurious as we could without breaking any of the race rules!
We love being able to help out on events like this. Volunteers are so important on any races and we really value being on the ‘other side’ – seeing how much is involved in organising these events and being able to give back. On ultras checkpoints can literally feel like lifelines and so when we are volunteering we like to go all out to help runners as much as we can!
It was fantastic to meet Julie on Cardiff to London and our pleasure to be able to help her and see her on her way for that final push. She did absolutely brilliantly!
You seem to have a really busy calendar of events, and I’m sure some big things planned… What’s your next adventure together?
We have 2 ultrarunning adventures still to come in 2025. In September we return to The Joust 24 hour race, where Aimee will be defending her Ladies’ Champion title and Paul is going for the Men’s Champion trophy!
Then December 2025 will bring our biggest challenge yet – we’re doing Centurion’s Winter Downs 200. This will be our first 200 mile race and we are both excited and terrified!
We do already have a race lined up for 2026 – in March we are both taking on Cockbain Events’ The Tunnel. This is a 200 mile race in a 1 mile long tunnel so it’s going to be a huge mental challenge!
But before all of this, Paul’s biggest challenge is to sort out his problematic ankle! He has been given some specific exercises by his physio to strengthen it and he is mixing up his training at the moment to include some cycling and hiking to reduce some of the impact on his ankle while it heals.
Exciting! Julie will see you there at the Tunnel in March 👋
We hope this post has helped all our readers get to know you a bit better… we certainly have. If anyone wants to follow your future adventures, where can they find you?
We are @solematerunners on both Instagram and Facebook, we regularly share reels and posts about our training and races and a lot of them feature Paul messing around – there is never a dull day with him!
We also recently started a podcast – ‘Solemate Runners The Podcast’ which is on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We have done an intro episode about our journey into ultra running and subsequent episodes deep dive into specific races or events. So far we have covered The Arc of Attrition, Run Walk Crawl’s Vale Coastal Ultra and Big Bear Events’ Elephant Challenge. The next episodes to launch will be about our unofficial attempt to run the Arc 100 route on our own in April 2025 and our experiences at Endure24 Reading in June.
Awesome, please give Paul & Aimee a follow!
Well it was great to have a chat with the Solemates, we hope you all enjoyed it too. We have a busy summer of races and family holidays coming up, so keep your eyes on the blog and our socials for updates. Hope you are making the most of the summer weather too – see you out there on the trails 👋