I wasn’t even supposed to be at this race! After Barkley my next race of the year was going to be the Northern Traverse – 185 miles across the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Moors on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path (recently announced as England’s newest National Trail). After Race Across Scotland last summer, I was looking forward to “racing across England” and catching up with many of the people I had met over three years volunteering and racing at Cape Wrath Ultra. My recovery from Barkley had gone well and the nasty ankle sprain I had done there was nearly fully healed. I’d completed two 50+ mile weeks and was about to start my taper when out-of-the-blue the news filtered out that Ourea Events, organiser of the Northern Traverse (as well as Cape Wrath Ultra, Dragon’s Back, Skyline Scotland and more), had gone out of business with immediate effect. It wasn’t until the next day that an official email confirmed it but it was immediately clear that the race would not go ahead!
I was down in the dumps about this for a few hours till I had a chance to speak to Julie, who immediately said “you’ll be going to Rasselbock then?” and within five minutes I had contacted RD Eric, secured a last-minute entry and started to plan. Julie said I was more excited about the chance to run at Rasselbock BYU – and she was right! While I had been fully committed to the Northern Traverse, I was very aware of the likely scenario that I would finish the race in under 48 hours and have to watch as potentially several people from the very strong starting field at Rasselbock overtook my course record of 51 yards from 2025. The FOMO would have been unbearable 😬 At least this way, if someone wanted to take my record they’d have to beat me in the process!
As the two races were on exactly the same date, I already had time booked off work, my training was done, the only thing to be arranged was a crew. Unfortunately Julie wasn’t able to be there but I was massively grateful to our friends Meagan Milić and Ross Watson were both free and willing to support! Based just a few miles away from Sherwood Pines, they would tag-team throughout the weekend alongside their childcare responsibilities to make sure I was well looked after. I stashed all my Northern Traverse pacing and plans, and quickly revised my planning that I had used successfully at God’s Own Backyard in November. My taper was a natural opportunity to fit in some backyard pace run/walks and everything came together just in time to pack up on Thursday night, finish work at midday on Friday and head down the motorway to Sherwood Pines.
As I was a last minute entrant I never appeared on the official start list and Eric even teased on Facebook that there was a late entrant who might shake things up a bit – I was happy to play along with this and I think it was a bit of a surprise to many people when I arrived on site on Friday evening and pitched my gazebo! Hopefully a nice surprise in most cases 🤣 Having looked at the start list I counted around 12 runners with PBs of 40 or more, as well as many in the 30s, many of whom were talking about running 50+ yards and qualifying for the UK backyard team. It was certainly one of the deepest fields I have seen at a UK backyard race, if even half of them had a good weekend then we were in for a long race… and I intended to be a part of it!
The camping area was supposed to open at 5pm, but by the time I arrived at 5:20pm there were already about twenty fully pitched tents and gazebos and more in progress… clearly more than a few had arrived early! I found a good spot about 10m away from the corral, on the opposite side from the main participants marquee, sound system and timing tent and a decent distance from the generator – so good enough. After pitching the gazebo I had time for a wander around site and to chat with many people. As darkness fell, the pre-ordered pizzas arrived and we had a great time chatting in the marquee. By about 8:30pm I decided it was time to head to bed – I’d done half a day’s work, 5h30 of driving and expected to be missing most of the next couple of night’s sleep at least. I set up the back of the van for a comfy night’s sleep and was fast asleep by 9pm.
I woke at dawn, just after 5am feeling well rested and ready to get started. First job of the morning was to tape up my ankle – as I said it was 95% fine after recovery from Barkley but I felt like it was the “weak link” and I didn’t want to take any chances. There was still a bit of fluid and swelling but the ligaments appeared to working fine again so I decided it was good to go. Once the tape was on I hid it away under my sock and put it out of my mind – the issue was handled and it would either hold up or not, nothing else I could do about it. Being a backyard of course, my poker face was on and to everyone else I was fully fit and healthy 🤣 I hoped 95% of my best would be enough and I was mentally prepared to go as deep into the “pain cave’ as it took rather than be beaten!
It was a bright but chilly morning. The forecast for the day promised a dry start to the race at 10am, followed by a band of rain, then clear and cold overnight – pretty much standard for the end of March in the UK. I made breakfast (cooking up extra bacon to make some rolls for during the race), sorted out my kit and chilled out while the event field filled up around me. In total there were around 230 runners on the start line, which I think is the largest BYU I had ever been at. Mid-morning, Ross arrived and I showed him how all my gear and food were organised. He was going to crew for the first few hours before he had to head off and then return in the evening before handing over to Meagan for the (first) night shift. The morning had just started to drag on a bit when it was time to get changed, listen to the race briefing and then pack into the corral for the start. 3 whistles, 2 whistles, 1 whistle, and an 10am the bell was rung and the race had begun.
The first day passed quickly, as it always does. With such a big field it was a bit congested but I was able to settle into my “go-forever” pace of between 50-52 minutes which I stuck at consistently throughout. From the first lap my body and mind dropped straight back into “Rasselbock mode” where I left off last year and I felt absolutely “in the zone”. The expected few bands of rain came and went, but the strong breeze meant that none of them hung around for long. For most of the yards I had my jacket with me but most of the time it was tied around my waist. I enjoyed good chats with many people including Eleanor Gallon, Andy Imms, Mike Raffan, Hollie Jones, Peter Johnston and many others (sorry if I forgot to mention you 😳). Most of the time people wanted to quiz me about my experience at Barkley, and I was more than happy to retell that story over and over. It was also great to see Claire Croll who I met last year going strong (she would eventually extend her PB from 10 to 15 yards), as well as Dan Sonnadarage, a student from Sri Lanka who was running his first backyard and eventually completed 24 yards to set a new Sri Lankan record!
At midday, Ross had to leave so I was crewless for the afternoon but that early in the race I didn’t really need anything. When he returned in the early evening he brought chips – not even french fries but proper fat chippy chips! I knew I would be well looked after by this crew. Shortly after, he swapped out with Meagan who would see me through to the morning. At 8pm (10 yards) I had my first Cadbury’s Creme Egg of the race – I planned to have one every 10 yards as a little reward and I came prepared with a box of 8…
As night fell, the course grew quieter as it always does – not only do runners start to drop but the chat dies out as people settle in for the hours of darkness. The night was dry but quickly got cold and I changed into my FLANCI tartan leggings, as well as a thicker base layer and jacket. It was still above freezing, unlike last year, but when moving relatively slowly you don’t generate a lot of heat so layering up is required (at least for me). Around 10pm I switched to my night nutrition plan – a mixture of KMC bars, Enduo pouches and KMC ISO-Mix. The Enduo pouches were a new addition that I started using over the winter on long training runs and for they hit the sweet spot between being easy to stomach but being more calorie dense than gels. The only issue is that they get quite thick when it’s cold but we quickly solved that as Meagan stored them in the inside pockets of her dryrobe between laps, pre-warming them nicely 🤣
I was having 5 minutes of rest (eyes shut, reclined on my chair) every lap and although I wasn’t fully asleep it definitely gives me a little reset. Three times during the night I did a faster lap (around 45 minutes), and was able to get maybe 12 minutes of actual sleep, which was great. The night went by quite fast, helped by the clocks going forward and “skipping” 1am, although it meant dawn broke an hour “later”. I did feel a bit sleepy on the last few hours of darkness, which is normal for me so I put on my headphones – first time using Julie’s Shokz – and enjoyed a little private party for a few hours until the dawn arrived and I got my usual morning boost.
For whatever reason, my stomach wasn’t quite ready to accept breakfast just yet and I had a little puke at the start of yard 20. After that I felt much better and got stuck into porridge, banana and sausage rolls to kick-start the second day. Fortunately I had the good sense to save my second Creme Egg for a few hours later! Meagan swapped out with Ross again and by 11am the field had thinned out to 42 runners at the 24 yard / 100 mile mark – still a good number. As usual many of them either refused to continue or dropped over the next two yards but it seemed like plenty of us were in it for the long run! It was good to see Chris Parry and Phil Derry push through to reach new PBs before stopping.
The day was another blustery one, but the forecast heavy rain didn’t amount to much. I was back in my shorts again as it warmed up, although with a jacket on for much of the day. I had a couple of laps with Alex Sweet (more Barkley chat) and Paul Fenn but largely just ticked the yards off, still sticking nicely to my 50-52 minute pacing. Many of the runners who had dropped late on Saturday or overnight were now packing up and the campsite gradually cleared out and before long I had no more tents in front of mine and unobstructed access to the corral, which was nice! With much fewer runners still in it was no longer such a squeeze in there either. Eleanor Gallon and Peter Johnstone both stopped in the early afternoon after struggling from quite early on for various reasons, but the majority of the expected “contenders” were still going well as afternoon turned to evening and then to dusk. Ross headed off and Meagan returned to crew me. I was still feeling good and looking forward to getting stuck into (and through) the second night… this was where things were expected to get “interesting”!
We had completed one full lap in the dark (8-9pm, yard 34), when the wind started to pick up. I remember noticing the walls of the gazebo gusting a bit and the hanging lamp fell off its hook. I was still strangely mild though and I felt warm and still in shorts. Running down the long straight in the first mile of the loop the wind was definitely whipping up and I got some grit in my eyes. Into the second mile we turned off the track and into the section of woodland single-track and almost immediately found a tree blocking our way ahead – the strong wind had brought it down. A few of us broke branches off to make a way through, but as we headed through the zig-zag section, another tree had fallen parallel to the path and it was becoming clear that things were getting dangerously windy. Just behind me Andy Imms yelped as he was hit on the head by a pine cone or small branch. We were glad to reach the relative safety of the track again. A group of 6 of us formed up and we made our way round to the final mile of the course, where we were met by a marshal who informed us we were to go in to the Foresty England classroom (a solid building next to the Go Ape site) for safety until all the runners were accounted for. After a few minutes RD Eric joined us and informed us that the race was stopped for safety reasons – not only was there the possibility of further high winds and risk of further trees falling, but what we had felt on the course was only half of the story…
Back in camp, shortly after we left extremely strong winds blew through (over 60mph according to reports) – a localised weather system called a Mesoscale Convective Vortex apparently! Crew and race staff had to physically hold down some of the marquees but still several gazebos were blown away, tents flattened, most of the barriers blown over and various other damage. In between gusts, they all scrambled to retrieve as much as possible and got everyone into the main marquee for safety. I believe my gazebo took off, landed on top of another tent (with crew inside), and much of by kit and food was scattered around on the grass.
Although my initial response was disappointment that the race was over, it was absolutely a sensible decision and the remaining 12 of us who were still going on yard 35 walked back together to the camp and joined the rest of the group in the marquee. Many people chose to leave with their crews if they had nearby accomodation, but a few of us stayed on site. I had some food, moved my van into the middle of the field (away from trees!) and got off to sleep. Meagan headed home, but not until she was sure I was OK (thanks!) In the morning light we were able to survey the damage and locate the my gazebo which had suffered two broken poles but was otherwise still intact with fairy lights and bin bag still attached 🤣
Looking back on the race, despite the sudden and premature end there are a lot of positives I can take from it:
- My ankle held up perfectly. I had two hotspots that could have developed into blisters if left untreated, and a bit of a strain in my right calf (probably as a result of “protecting” the ankle for the last month), but otherwise unscathed for 140 miles of running. Who knows what might have happened but I certainly felt like I could have gone past my previous PB of 51 yards had it been required. Will need to wait for another backyard to find out!
- Nutrition and hydration worked well. In total I averaged about 220 calories and about 200ml of fluids per hour. Both a little bit lower than I’d ideally have liked but on the other hand it was not hot, I was peeing regularly, I never felt hungry and had plenty of energy. The enduo pouches worked really well overnight as I had planned and definitely helped my to keep my calorie intake up during the night hours.
- I made good gear choices throughout the race – I was never too hot or too cold. I ran the majority of the distance in one pair of shoes, swapping to another for the last few hours. I had taped my feet to stop the hotspots developing and everything was feeling comfortable at the point the race was stopped – so all my systems worked well.
- Crew and all the logistics went flawlessly – Meagan and Ross did everything I asked of them (and more). Thanks to them, and also to Julie for looking after things at home so I could focus on racing for a few days 🙏
After a week of complete rest and recovery I’ve been back out for a parkrun – almost exactly a week after the start of the race, and feeling good to start ramping up my training. As the race would almost certainly have had some implications for the UK team qualification I do have mixed feelings about how it turned out. On one hand, no-one was able to overtake me in the rankings, but neither did I have the opportunity to shore up my position with a big total. I feel 50% confident that my 51 yards will be enough when we reach the end of the qualifying period in August, but with several big races including the four silver tickets, plus Suffolk BYU there is still every chance of an upset. However, my overriding feeling looking back on the weekend is the warm afterglow of quality time spent with likeminded people doing what I love to do – even if something that means running in circles for days at a time 🤣 Team Rasselbock – staff, volunteers, crews and of course the runners – are a special bunch (in a good way!) and I look forward to my next chance to run with you all!
For now, I’m going to switch focus away from backyards to run the Ultra X Scotland 110km and I’m looking forward to doing something a bit faster than all of the super-long stuff I did during the last 12 months. Not too long till I’m back in the backyard though as I’ll be heading to Ireland in June as part of the Scotland team for the Four Nations Championship race at Florence Court. With teams from England, Wales and the host Ireland it’s sure to be a great race and might just go long enough to trouble the at-large list. Can’t wait!
Photo/video credits: Ross and Meagan