This will be a completely new experience for me. I heard about this race from Brian Mullins, who is a bit of an encyclopedia of very interesting long distance ultra trail races. When he told me about Crossing Switzerland I was surprised I hadn’t heard of it before, since it sounded epic, and exactly my kind of race. And Brian is back to give it another rattle, which tells it own story. Once I read a little about it I knew I was going to enter it, and did exactly that as soon as I could.
The race Starts tomorrow, Sunday 19th July at 8a.m. Swiss time (CET). It covers about 400 kilometers with around 24,000 meters of climb. Non-stop of course! We have a little over 7 days time allowed to complete it. The route is what you would expect from the name! It starts in Bad Ragaz, and the eastern side of Switzerland, and makes its way along the Alps to Montreux in the west, on the shores of Lake Contrin (Geneva).
This is the previous route, but its quite similar to this year’s race.
The route looks amazing. The only parts of it I have seen before are exceptionally good looking locations. Even the train journey down from Zurich to Bad Ragaz was like passing a rolling series of scenic postcards.
Lauterbrunnen… I’ve been here before. Unforgettable location. I’ll hopefully see it again en route!
There are aid stations along the route very roughly every 30 km or so. 13 are standard aid stations, and 6 are “life bases”, where we will have access to our drop bag, and have sleep facilities. That sounds like pretty good support. We’re also likely to pass by more mountain huts, and few a few towns where there might be shops to raid!
The weather could make it interesting. Most of Switzerland is experience the current European heatwave. It’s a bit cooler in the Alps, but this could still be a good test of who can handle all-day sun. The potential complication is that in the Alps the heat can generate big localized thunderstorms, particularly in the afternoons and evenings. Last night I got to see a big one here in Bad Ragaz, with torrential rain and high winds, but all gone within an hour. So I definitely won’t be skimping on my storm gear, even if the general outlook is mostly blue skies and sunshine.
There is a gang of 4 of us from Ireland taking part in the solo race (There is also a pairs race, and a relay race). We’re all friends, so its a nice little gang, and is adding hugely to the enjoyment of the race. Brian Mullins could be competitive towards the front of the race, depending how his recovery from recent illness is going. No doubt he’ll be first Irish home, even if its not full speed Brian. He’s a top quality runner at multi-day mountain ultras, and hard as nails. Thomas, Padraig and myself will all be looking to get around and complete the course. I’d guess we’ll all start slow, but aim to maintain a steady pace the whole way.
My second big race of 2026 is coming up, with a new race and a new location for me. This Wednesday, 15th April, at 6:00am, I will be setting off to compete in the Wild Horse 200. This is a 200-mile (322km) race which routes along several major trails in South Wales.
I am very familiar with the mountains of North Wales, having hill-walked, mountain-biked, road-raced, and mountain-raced there multiple times over the years. However, I’ve never been to the mountains in South Wales, so this will all be new and exotic to me!
The course seems to cover all the areas I most wanted to see in South Wales. I’ve seen many pictures posted from there from friends (Particularly Dan Doherty, who must know the area inside-out), which have piqued my interest over the years. The Brecon Beacons in particular look to have some spectacular scenery.
Brecon Beacons (now named Bannau Brycheiniog)
The course works it way roughly East to West, starting in Chepstow, near the English border, and finishing on the coast at Worms Head, west of Swansea. There are 9 aid stations along the way, with full sleeping facilities at #2, #4, and #6.
Wild Horse 200 Route
The course has about 8000 meters, or thereabouts, of climb and descent. There are no massive alpine-style mountains, but it bumps along the whole way. These courses are always more difficult than they appear on paper, with the time on feet ensuring that every bump feels huge after a while!
Wilde Horse 200 Profile
The weather is looking distinctly mixed at the moment. It is Wales, so that’s not unexpected. This could be quite tricky to deal with, as it’s not too cold, but likely to have plenty of showers or longer periods of rain. That’s about the trickiest scenario to deal with, gear-wise. I have some great new gear, though. In particular, I have two new Columbia Outdry waterproof jackets that will be getting a good race test. One is a full-on heavier jacket, which I would use on races like the Spine. The other is a more mid-weight jacket that will be racier and should be good for less intense wet weather. Both could get used!
It’s been a wet winter, so I’ve no doubt the ground will still be wet. Being Wales, probably very wet! And there is lots of boggy ground out there. So I will be wearing Columbia Outdry waterproof shoes all the way to give my feet some chance of surviving reasonably intact. The latest Konos shoes have great cushioning as well, and I’m finding them to be really good for multi-day racing. (I’ll be using a combination of Konos TRS Outdry shoes).
There is live tracking, and the dots can be watched here: Wild Horse 200 (South Wales) – geotracks.co.uk. It looks like I’m number 12. It looks like there are about 125 or so competitors.
I don’t know too many of the other taking part, although there has been a lively WhatsApp group going since I signed up, and as ever with Ultras, they seem like a great group of people. There’s one other person flying the Irish flag, Lianne Van Dijk. She’s a really good runner and should do very well. We shared some miles together on the Northern Traverse a few years ago. Juha Lehtonen, from Finland, is another runner I know from the same race, where he finished a few hours ahead of me. So we’re not too far apart in our pace, it would seem.
My own form is, for once, pretty good, coming into this event, so hopefully I can go well. Unlike the last few races, I’ve managed not to break any bones or cause myself silly injuries in the lead-up (although I’m not at the start line yet… there’s still time!).
I can’t really title this post “loop 3”, since (as I currently type) there is still a runner on loop 1 and a runner on loop 2. I really hope the runner on loop 1 is not the human sacrifice! (Although it would be a great justification). It’s impressive dedication to still be out there long after the loop 2 allowed time has passed. Word is that he has been seen by other runners and is fine. Hopefully, no rescue will be required.
So it very much looks like the course will win again this year. We’re definitely back to situation normal (all fecked up). I still reckon the course was a little easier this year, but the weather is not athlete-friendly. Fog on top of rain will make life difficult for even the best. The fact that top class athlete like Mathiue Blanchard has returned from loop 3 due to cold illustrates the toll that conditions can take.
The firetower in Fog. The ground looks pretty wet!
But there’s also a big lesson there about taking enough of the right gear with you. One of the great things about the Barkley is that there is no mandatory gear. Indeed, it’s the reverse… some gear is banned (any electronic aids, GPS, etc.). Given that it’s probably the hardest running race anywhere, with plenty of opportunities to find ways to get injured or even die, it’s refreshing that grown-ups are left to work it out for themselves. So, of course, most people will try to get away with bringing as little as they think they will need. But to finish, you have to survive. It’s a very difficult balancing act to decide just how lightweight you can go, especially in changeable weather.
So that leaves 3 left on loop 3. Sebastian, Damian, and Max King. I’m guessing that Sebastian and Damian might be working together, since they have been in close proximity through the first 2 stops at the base camp. Given that it is very much athletes versus the course/weather this year, that is a good tactic. They still have a few hours left before the cut-off to begin loop 4, and a few more to get a fun run. If Sebastian and Damian do a similar time to their loop 2 time they should just about make it onto loop 4. But that’s a big ask, given the conditions. It’s very unlikely Max will make it though. Even a fun run looks to be a big ask, given he took over 14 hours to complete loop 2.
Some really excellent runners have been well beaten by the course this year. But as Laz said, Speed isn’t the solution to navigation problems. And its usually navigation that sorts out who will do well in Barkley (but as I proved to myself, you still need speed, no matter how good your nav is!). To quote Bad Mike, you need all the tools in the toolbox. If you’re missing one, Barkley will let you know!
It seems one female runner (out of about 10 or so) managed to complete loop 1, but has since been tapped out. It’ll be interesting to see who that was (I’m hoping it was Emma!).
As ever, no matter how critical these posts might seem, these are awesome athletes being pushed beyond their limits by the hardest running race in the world. Hopefully, they are all getting a great experience. I’d love to be out there! Even though I was thoroughly demolished by the course both times I gave it a go, the experiences of being out there were some of my best ever weeks.
The headlines write themselves here: Valentine’s Day Massacre! 12 runners completed loop 1. A quick update before I head out on my own little run…
A group of 8 tapped out over time. That’s a big group. I’d say they had a fun adventure out there. The rain started earlier than expected, so Loop 2 would have been wet and dark. The difficulty level always ramps up on loop 2, given that the first full lap will have had a big impact on everyone, but those factors multiply the effect. Particularly the rain. It would be hard to overstate how much more difficult the course becomes when it gets wet. A lot of the course is off-trail forest on steep slopes, and can easily turn into slippery mud. That slows everything down and increases the mental and physical effort, no matter how good you are!
3 runners completed loop 2 together in around 22 and a half hours. Those were Sebastian, Mathieu Blanchard and Damian Hall. They spent about 20 minutes in transition and then headed out at just under 23 hours. I’d say they’ll all get the fun run, but it is going to be touch-and-go whether they can be fast enough to make it onto loop 4. It’s theoretically possible, of course. They will benefit from heading in the easier clockwise direction. But it’s 3 laps in, so cumulative fatigue will be a big slowing factor. If the course dries out a bit for them, it would help enormously. But that’s a big ask.
(If anyone reading Keith’s feed really thinks that Damian headed out barefoot, then you’re not quite getting the Barkley madness! That’s Keith being Keith and responding to feedback on X).
An interesting observation is that two of those 3 are at the older end of the field. Sebastian is in his 50s, and Damian is just about hanging on to his 40s. The wisdom of age is useful!
Nobody else has a realistic chance. Max King made it in after lap 2 in 24 hours. He’ll be hard-pressed to make the fun run, and has no chance of getting on to loop 4.
Nobody else is going to make the fun run. In fact anyone left will do well to complete loop 2. Given the quality of the field, it shows how hard it is out there. My bell-weather runner, and 3-time finisher John Kelly, emphasises this. I’m guessing from the lap 1 timings that the course is a little easier than last year, but clearly not enough for anyone to have a good chance of completion with less than perfect weather.
I didn’t see that coming! Laz throws another curveball to catch everyone off guard with wildly different timing (The race traditionally takes place close to April fools day). It also seems like the normal campgrounds used as race HQ are under repair, so that’s all different. And the repair apparently includes the legendary Barkley yellow gate. So a temporary very baby brother gate is being used this year.
As usual, information is hard to come by, with the traditional sources slowly getting information out. The closest we get to definitive information is Keith Dunne’s TwitterX/Bluesky feeds. Taka’s Barkley spreadsheet is the next best thing, which has better information, but it’s (very) educated guesswork. Normally its spot on though!
Keith
The race started at 6am on Saturday morning, local time. The first two laps will be anti-clockwise, which is a first. That’s the harder direction. So getting to do the hard direction on the first lap is a big advantage for the runners this year. (They get to get it done whilst still relatively fresh). It should help with getting the second lap done too, as you don’t have to adjust your mental navigation to work “backwards”. Lap 3 and 4 will be the easier clockwise direction. So potentially its as well set up as you could hope to get runners onto lap 5.
The weather seems to be reasonable at Frozen Head at the moment. It seems like it is neither too hot nor too cold. However, there is rain due on Sunday (Lap 3), and that will be very disruptive. But there could be a clear path after that if anyone makes it to lap 4.
So far the spreadsheet is showing a really interesting list of runners. It looks like some friends of mine have done an excellent job of keeping me uninformed!
John Kelly and Aurelian Sanchez are two previous winners on the list. It’s particularly good to see John there. He is a useful Benchmark! The fact that he could only manage 3 laps last year showed how hard the course has become.
There are two other runners who have been on lap 5. Those are Sebastian Raichon and Damian Hall. They’re obviously ones to watch as well. Sebastian’s Spine win last month is looking even more impressive now, given that he must have had to keep in mind the necessity to be ready for the Barkley only a month later.
The most interesting of all for me though is Emma Stuart. On my last trip to the Barkley, Emma was out there as well, as support crew for Nicky Spinks. So even though it is Emma’s first time running at Barkley, she has excellent knowledge of everything about the race. She is also Ireland’s best-ever ultra trail runner. She has the speed and the mountain ability to go a long way. I hope she is injury-free. Navigation is probably where things could go wrong (which applies to the vast majority of Barkley entrants). No doubt she has been working on it in preparation.
I’ve just seen Megan Eckert on the list. She is the fastest female multi-day ultrarunner on the planet right now. She absolutely smashed the World Record for 6-day running last year. But I don’t think she has too much mountain experience (from a Barkley perspective). Still, it’ll be interesting to see how she gets on.
But everyone in Barkley is a class runner. They’ve made there for a reason!
5 runners have finished lap 1 in just under 10 hours. That’s a relatively slow lap 1 time compared to previous recent years, but it is the harder direction, so I’d say that’s not too worrying. Now to decipher Keith’s names for them… Chiseled Jaw Guy, Knee Guy, Old Guy, Midnight guy, and The Path Finder.
I find myself in a very similar position this year to last year. For the second year in succession, I won’t be taking part in the Spine race, or any of its little brothers, which are starting this weekend. So similar that I can closely echo my thoughts from this time last year…
Overall, I’ve probably run in more full Spine races than anyone. So as a result, I’ve made an effort to drag myself away just for the sake of doing something different and seeing different parts of the world. But I’m really going to miss being at the event, and especially all the great people (Volunteers, Racers, organisers, trail angels, media, supporters) who are the reason the Spine is such a fantastic event.
Heading Away from Greg’s Hut
I usually write a preview of my race before the Spine starts, and throw in my race predictions. So I think I’ll try to keep that tradition going, especially since so many of my friends are involved.
Full Spine
The Spine Race Route
In the Female field, Claire Bannwarth on paper looks like a prime candidate to win. But that’s likely get no further than paper, as I don’t think she will actually start the race. She is recovering from injury at the moment. It’s great to see Sophie Grant on the roster. She’s competed at a very high level in many races around the world. My fellow super-vet Anna Troup is returning. She is very fast when she gets to race without an injury, so hopefully she is ready to go. The only other person I know in the race is Anya Campbell. I spent most of my most recent Spine race in the fantastic company of her husband Rory (Who is entered in the Northern Challenge). She is a good, solid runner who should be well used to wintery conditions.
Other names on the roster include Johanna Antila, who is a Finnish runner with a very good results history, including several wins in her own country, as well as impressively high finishes in Western States and UTMB (12th and 17th). Alice Kershaw is last year’s winner of the Challenger South, which is great preparation for the full course.
On the Male side, there look to be 2 big favourites to me. John Kelly is back again. A past winner, the Pennine Way FKT holder, multiple Barkley finishes… John will always be one to watch, whatever he does! The other big contender, in my mind, is Sebastian Raichon. He is a legend in the multi-day ultra-trail running world. He is a multiple winner of the Tour De Glaciers. He’s also been a member of a World Championship winning adventure racing team. John and Sebastian will be familiar with each other from the Barkley Marathons 2 years ago, where Sebastian retired on lap 5 on his first attempt (a very impressive performance).
James Nobles is a past winner of the Dragon’s Back, and the Northern Traverse. That’s great high-level multi-day racing experience. James Hargreaves is the current Summer Spine Challenger North champion. There always seems to be a good collection of “James” in the Spine!
No Spine race field would be really complete without Eugeni returning. He has made his customary late entry onto the Roster. Eugeni is both very fast and extraordinarily tough. One day he’ll put it all together again and have a super Spine race. Maybe this year? One thing for sure is that he will be out at the front end of the race from the get-go.
Northern Challenge
The field in the Northern challenge is at least as interesting as the full Spine field, for me anyway. This race covers the “fun” northern “more than half” of the Spine. All the members of my lovely “gang of 4”, except me, will be racing here.
Rory Campbell, Elaine Bisson, Nicky Spinks, and myself… the gang of 4
Nicky Spinks and Elaine Bisson, as well as being superb trailmates, are both well able to win this. They both of long histories of great multi-day results, and know the Spine well.
We have an Irish-based contender with Lianne Van Dijk. Lianne is a well-known ultra runner based in the wilds of County Kerry. So despite her dutch up-bringing, she’s now a formidable competitor in multi-day mountain ultras.
On the Male side, we have at least one returning past winner of this event in the form of my sometimes training (and racing) partner Brian Hutchinson. I would love to see Brian win again. He’ll be well prepared for cold and snow from his time in the Alps in the last few weeks, and well prepared for bog under mud simply by being Irish! Another person I’m hoping to see do well is Rory Campbell from the “gang of 4” picture above. We spent more than 4 days working together and having a superb time during my last spine race. Harry Firth is a runner with some solid recent results, winning the Snowdon Ultra 100, and coming 9th in the Spine in 2025.
One or two other candidates I had picked out seem to have disappeared from the entry list, unfortunately. There’s bound to be quite a few runners who will make a name for themselves in this race. It looks quite open.
Challenger South
My knowledge doesn’t get me very far at all when it comes to trying to pick out favourites for the female race here. So I’m not even going to pretend to try.
On the Male front, there looks to be the makings of a cracking race. Mark Darbyshire and Jack Scott are both in the line-up. Those 2 are super fast runners, and this race will be right on the money as a fast, speedy event for them. They are both not only race winners, but record setters.
Finally…
As usual, there’ll be plenty of runners whom I know nothing about who will put in a solid performance, and possibly make their name by winning one of these races.
I’ll be dot-watching, at least until the middle of next week, when I set off on my own next race, running 300km across Portugal in Terra De Gigantes. The dots can be followed using Open Tracking’s great technology here: https://live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace26/ (with links to all the other races, along with social media sites available there too)
I rarely do runs for Charity, but this one is a little different for me. This particular charity is special to me as it was founded by my friend Maria, whom I have known since we were children. The way she reacted to being mugged on her Holiday in Kenya, and seeing the poverty that so many people suffer there, by deciding to change her life completely by doing something about what she saw, and setting up and running a charitable organisation to improve the lives of the communities she encountered, is inspirational to me. I’m proud to know someone so dedicated to making the world a better place in such a direct and effective manner.
So when I was asked if I could help out by doing something for Brighter Communities Worldwide on “Giving Tuesday”, which this year was 2nd December, I jumped at the chance. To mix things up a bit, this year I decided on a new running route for me. The plan was to start at Roches Point, with its iconic lighthouse, at the outer edges of Cork Harbour, and run a long route back to my original hometown of Cobh, finishing in Brigher Communities’ office in the heart of the town. This was close to a route of one of my bigger childhood adventures, when a few of us from Cobh cycled out there one day (quite a big adventure for our early teenage years back then).
This journey would take me on a very large loop around one side of Cork Harbour, one of the biggest natural harbours on the planet. It passed through many of the towns, villages, and points of interest that I would have seen so often in my childhood growing up in Cobh, and subsequently running around the Great Island on my training runs whilst visiting my childhood home. I made sure to take in as much water-side running as possible, often using “the road less taken”. Finally, I made sure it was a proper ultra distance by ensuring the route was more than 42.2km (Marathon distance) in length (Google was estimating 44.9km). My guess was that, given my declining flat speed (The non-fun bit of getting older), I would take about 6 hours, maybe!
The Planned Route from Roches Point to Cobh
It was arranged (By Rose in the Brighter Communities Worldwide office) that I would get picked up from Cobh by Garreth Williams, and he would drive us out to Roches Point in time to get started at around 10am. It turned out that it was Garreth’s 60th birthday, so that was particularly generous of him. If we were still in the car now, we probably would still be having a great conversation! It was a great journey out.
The weather was looking unusually promising, with plenty of blue in the sky. Quite good going for December on the Atlantic coast in Ireland. We made it to Roches Point in good time, and Garreth took a few photos before I got going. I made my way to the Gate of the lighthouse, turned around and set off running.
On the Beach with Roches Point lighthouse behind, just before starting
The road slowly climbs up and away from Roches Point, with slowly changing dramatic views of the mouth of Cork Harbour. This includes the two Iconic forts on the headlands on either side of the mouth of the harbour (Camden and Carlisle), constructed by the British to defend the strategically important harbour, back in British Empire days. Those forts are represented in the Cork coat of arms.
Looking back at Roches Point
Camden and Carlisle guarding the Mouth of Cork Harbour
Cork Coat of Arms
Garrth was waiting near the top of the short climb out, where he took a few pictures and wished me well as I headed on. I passed the entrance to White Bay, a lovely beach which was a treat to visit when I was a child. I remembered my first time going there, which involved a boat trip across the harbour, generously arranged by our new (back then) neighbours, not long after my father had died. In retrospect, as an adult, I realise how generous and special that was.
Onwards, and down past the old holiday centre, Trabolgan, before turning and heading down towards Whitegate Village. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions. Bright blue skies, low winter sun, and whatever wind was around was a tailwind (for now). Whitegate is where I returned to the coast, and would run along the length of the harbour here, running the view I spent so long looking at from Cobh.
Even though Whitegate has significant industrial infrastructure on either side (Ireland’s only Oil Refinery on one side, and several large power stations on the other side), I still think it is a lovely setting, with a great view across the harbour to Cobh. Being a bit of an engineering nerd, I find the big infrastructure interesting too.
View from Whitegate, looking at Cobh, between the Refinery and Aghada Power Station
View of Cobh, further along nearer Aghada power station
The road from Whitegate can get busy with HGVs, due to the fuel movements from the refinery. Thankfully though, there is a superb walkway along the length of the waterside all the way to Rostellan village, which is great to run on. I was very much enjoying the run and the harbour scenery. So much so that time and the kilometres were flying by. There were some great views of East Ferry, the cut through the ridgeline made by the River Lee (actually the sea) on the east side of The Great Island (the island on which Cobh sits). Needless to say, given the name, there was once a ferry connecting the island to the mainland.
Looking Across towards East Ferry, before Lower Aghada
I even learned something new about the history of this area as I ran past Lower Aghada when I saw a plaque noting that the area was an American airbase during the First World War. (I already knew another interesting piece of history there, in the form of the old abandoned hovercraft factory.)
I reached the village of Rostellan, where the lovely greenway path ended at Thomas Kent Memorial Park. Here I took a left turn away from the main road. This turned out to be a lovely road section. The road crossed between the sea on one side and a lagoon on the other side. The walls on the side of the road on the seaward side had a castle effect, and it seemed like one gull was claiming each castle for itself!
Looking back down the harbour, with Cobh in the distance
Seagull Castle wall, with sea on left and lake on right
The road was very quiet, and the original plan was to follow it all the way until it rejoined the main road. However, after five or ten minutes, I came to the entrance of Rostellan woods. Looking at Google Maps the night before, there were no trails to provide an alternative route to the main road again. But the words of my favourite poem from school were springing to mind… these woods were lovely, dark and deep (and I did happen to have miles to go before I sleep). I decided to consult my offline maps App on my phone, and saw that there was a weakly marked trail that might work. I had to go for it!
The start of the trail in Rostellan woods
The initial run through the woods was lovely, and nice and fast too. It helped that I was running in Columbia waterproof trail shoes, which had had their first outing only 3 days earlier on the IMRA AGM race in the Ballyhoura mountains. That had ensured they were no longer remotely near their original bright white colour! Those shoes meant I bounced along the rougher ground with ease, and could happily ignore the puddles here and there.
As I got close to the edge of the next major inlet, the main track veered away from the direction I wanted to go, so I headed “cross country” through the woods directly to the water’s edge. This is where the routing gamble really began, and if I couldn’t find a workable route, I’d have to reverse back to the road. Thankfully, I found a trail at the edge of the woods above the water. But it was a very faint trail, which clearly didn’t get used very often. Still, this was all fun and non-competitive, so I pressed on.
My speed slowed significantly, since this was semi-bush-whacking, undulating technical ground. But it’s more fun than road running! At one point, the trail was impassable, but there was a reop leading down to the estuary itself, so I followed it down and ran along the shoreline for a few minutes, before spotting a likely spot to ramp back up from the estuary shoreline to the wooded area. That worked, and it was back on a much more obvious and wider trail.
I thought that would take me to the road, but it soon turned back to semi-bush-whacking again. That fun and games lasted for another kilometre or so, before finally popping out onto forest road again, which took me right up the the edge of the main road again at Saleen Village. Yay! No need to reverse back, the trail diversion had worked. And as it happened, I was able to make an immediate left turn to head off down the next waterside road heading in the direction of East Ferry, without having to run along the main road.
I was really feeling like I was tracing around the water’s edge all around the harbour (which wasn’t far off reality so far). This East Ferry route is a long way round route, which you would never rationally use except for its own sake, or if you were going to somewhere on the road. It was the former for me.
After all the off-road adventures, I was starting to feel the effort, and it took me a while to get back to a reasonable road running cadence. The great views of the harbour had returned, this time from the opposite side to the way I had come so far. The road itself was a great running road, following the water’s edge, and with very little traffic.
The views changed again as the road turned left and headed up through the fabulous carved valley of East Ferry. Across the water is Marloag woods, where I usually make sure to run through (in a big out and back loop) when I do a long training run in Cobh, and up ahead, I could see the Marina at the edge of the woods.
Heading North up East Ferry
I really enjoyed running through this section. The views were lovely, with a lot of interesting houses here and there, adding to the interest. Just as I was about to reach the end of the valley, where the view opens up again into another big expanse of water on the Northern side of the Great Island, Garreth came by on his motorbike (He had been telling me that was one of his hobbies), and stopped to take a few photos of me struggling along! It was very nice to see him again, especially on this lovely, quiet section.
Looking back South, where I had run along East Ferry
A little further along, I passed a nice area with some great mature Scots pine trees, which made me look back towards the sea at “the back of the Island”. Now I had to continue back towards the main road along the side of this estuary/inlet. I enjoyed running along the water’s edge while I still could!
Scots Pine Copse, looking towards “The back of the Island”
I reckon I was closing in on being about 3 hours into the run as I rejoined the main road (from Midleton to Whitegate) again. This turned out to be the busiest section of road I would run on all day, but thankfully it was only for about 10 minutes, before I reached Ballinacurra, a village which is effectively a suburb of Midleton. There was a new “active travel” greenway from there, which made it much more pleasant to run beside the road.
After a small up-and-down, I crossed past the edge of another inlet and turned left, following the edge of the inlet away from the relatively busy road. This brought me past a lot of old mills that had been converted into apartments, and looked very good. It was actually a very nice inlet, with woods on the opposite bank, and it looked very tranquil in calm conditions. Even though this was near the house where my aunt lived in Midleton, which had been my grandparents’ home where my mother originally lived, I had never been in this part of Midleton, so it was good to see this area.
Just as these sideroads head towards a large national road, which is a busy dual carriageway, I took a left turn off down a footpath/greenway which made its way parallel to the main road. This was another pleasant section to run, but it was taking me away from the water and more inland. The greenway ended on the far side of Middleton, and the location that, from my map memory, was the “far corner” of the route. I was definitely more than halfway, which was good, since I was feeling the effort.
The next major section of the route was a “back road” between the main N25 road and the sea. This would bring me all the way to the more familiar territory of Fota Island (Which isn’t actually an Island… No bridges would be crossed on this route!). I was thankful that I had such good weather, as this section could easily have been quite a slog in wet weather. Even so, it felt like relatively slow going with the great water views to distract me, even though it was perfectly pleasant Irish countryside. Without doubt, it was the section that felt longest.
I was very glad when the tree belt of Fota Island came into view, and I knew I would be returning to more interesting running. There is only one road into the Great Island, and it runs along the eastern edge of Fota Island. As a result, it is quite busy. It’s also just a single carriageway road, with walls and trees on either side, with no footpath or hard shoulder. So it would be quite uncomfortable and a little hazardous to run.
However, I knew there was a private road that runs most of the way in parallel to the public road, on the other side of the wall (Which marked the boundary of the original large private estate on Fota Island. So I darted across the main road (my timing was good, finding a break in traffic both ways) and went through the big old entrance gates to what is now Fota Island resort and golf course. Once inside, I turned left and headed down the little estate road.
This worked out very well indeed. It had been at least 35 years since I had been here, if ever (Before the resort, or even the wildlife park on the island had been built). The road is used to access a complex of houses that a rented out as part of the resort. Just as the road itself turns sharply to the houses, I was able to continue straight along a much older section of path (un-tarmacked), that continued on in parallel to the wall and the public road. This was lovely to run, and I had it completely to myself,
Selfie looking back on the track inside Fota Island
My target was to reach the”Scouting Ireland” gate in the wall (which is used to access a scout hut on the far side of the island… more childhood memories). It is not always open, but I had seen it was open when we drove past it earlier in the morning. So when I finally got there, I was able to “escape” from the inner private tracks back out onto the main road. And for this last short section of the main road before the entrance to the wildlife park, and the bridge to the Great Island, I knew there was a hard shoulder, so it was relatively OK for running again.
I enjoyed reaching the Belvelley Bridge over to the Great Island. I was heading back to home territory, and also the views are actually quite interesting here, with the very old bridge, A Martello Tower guarding it on the far side of the Island, and the recently restored and occupied Belvelley Castle. The tide was high and the sun was out, so it all looked great, even with the traffic.
Selfie after crossing the bridge, with Belvelley Castle
After crossing the bridge, I turned left onto the less busy “back road”, and a few hundred yards on from there turned left again at another junction, taking me onto the lovely, quiet road which runs along “The back of the Island” (The Northern edge of the Island). Now it really felt like I was on the closing stretches, which in turn upped my energy levels again.
The distance seemed to pass a bit quicker now, and I felt like I was making good progress. It’s quite rare for me to run this section of road in this direction, and I was enjoying the altered perspective. The Rossleage Peninsula, with another Martello, was looking nice in the low evening sunlight.
Heading towards Rosslegue
On the other side of the Peninsula, I was back on my familiar “back of the Island” section, which I try to use on most training runs I do when I’m in Cobh. This time I was looking back down along the Northern edge of the island and onwards towards the inlets I had run around earlier in the run. Not long afterwards, I turned right and uphill to get onto one of the two ridgelines on the Island. This was the steepest climb of the day by far, and I put in a solid effort to get up as quickly as possible, since I was feeling so good. It’s a very rarely used road… one of the Irish “grass down the middle” variety.
The Back of the Island
Reaching the top of the climb, I could see Ballymore Church off to my right, which is roughly where I was heading. Again, the run along the ridgeline towards Ballymore seemed to fly by. Once reaching Ballymore, it was back downhill towards Cuskinny, a nice little inlet which is the main sea-swimming venue used by Cobhites (there’s also a big Bird sanctuary there). It has great views out over the harbour. There were some swimmers there, and I asked one of them to take a picture of me running past.
Running along by Cuskinny (Picture taken by Sea Swimmer!)
The final climb of the day takes me up Cuskinny Hill onto the second ridgeline and up towards home. Reaching the apex of the hill, just before the turn towards my home, Roches Point, the standpoint of the run, came into view again. But home was not the planned finish today, so I carried on heading downhill for the last time and towards the Cobh town centre.
I stopped at a great viewing point near the top of the hill (East Hill), to get a few pictures of the harbour from a higher viewpoint, before heading down some quiet backroads towards the shoreline again. There was a cyclist at the viewing point taking in the view, and I asked him to get a shot of me with Roches Point in the background.
The town was looking great in the evening sunshine, and I delayed myself a few times, taking a few pictures in the lovely evening light.
Just short of my “finish line” I stopped to get a selfie with Cobh’s most famous runner (well, her Bronze Statue), Sonia O’Sullivan, with Cobh Cathedral dominating the view in the background, as ever!
Me with Cobh’s most famous runner Sonia O’Sullivan (looking very bronzed)
Finally, it was on into the Brighter Communities offices, and the official end of the run. I had been running with two watches, as I had been doing a reasonably good job of trying to kill my primary Garmin watch. So I had a second, much cheaper Amazfit watch, testing how good it was. That turned out to be lucky, as the Garmin had decided of its own accord to stop recording the run at some point. When I stopped recoding on the second watch, the time came in as 6 hours, 6 seconds. My estimate wasn’t too bad 🙂 !
With Maria and Rose at the Finish
Thankfully I had the trace of the route I actually used, which turned out to be within a hundred meters of the original estimate, despite the forest diversion at Rostellan.
Last year’s running of this race was fantastic. This year looks like it could be even better. My favourite part of Ireland is the Beara Peninsula. But the west coast of Ireland is notorious for its very wet and windy weather. This year’s Beara Way Ultra starts this Friday 16th at 8am, and the weather forecast is ridiculously good. Blue skies, sunshine, high temperatures (by Irish standards), light to moderate winds. I seem to luck-out on my infrequent trips down here.
The views are going to be epic! When you’re up on the hills in the west Cork peninsulas you see a series of beautiful mountains cutting into a series of bays. That’s when they’re covered in clouds and you can actually see them. And the feeling of being at the edge of the world when you’re out along the end of the Peninsulas is fabulous. I can’t wait to be in the middle of it all. It’s also nicely wild and rugged on the Beara Peninsula.
This is an IMRA race. IMRA is an entirely volunteer-run organisation, so their races are always brilliant value for money (and usually brilliant in every way). And last year’s race proved to be so, with superb volunteers supporting us at the aid stations and elsewhere, and a great atmosphere amongst the races.
Beara Way Ultra route
I had an enjoyable race here last year. I was far from racing at the front of the field. In fact I was dead last at one point early in the race. It took me about 28 hours (exactly) last year. In the end I worked my way through the field to finish 12th, which I was happy with. That gives me something to aim for this year. We’ll see if I will be slower or faster as a result of my 300 miles of racing at the Arizona Monster last month! At least I’ll be prepared for blue skies and sunshine.
Heading towards the finish during the 2024 Beara Way Ultra.
Tommorrow, Friday 4th April I’ll be setting off on a new adventure in every way, when I set off to race in the Arizona Monster 300 mile trail race. I’ve never raced on trails in Arizona, and this is the inaugural edition of this race. I think (but I’m not sure) that it might be the first 300 mile trail race in the U.S. as well.
My first multi-day race was the Across the Years 3 day fixed-time race in Phoenix Arizona, which was more than a decade ago. That was a very different race though, as it was a classic looped ultra on a 2 to 3 kilometer course, with a permanent aid station on the loop. As it happens, I became the 4th person to run 300 miles in that event (and the only one not to win the race whilst doing so), so I know something about the effort requried to run the distance on road surface in the Arizona climate. A trail race will be much more “interesting” though.
The Arizona Monster follows a more than 300 mile section of the Arizona trail from Superior, east of Phoenix, skirting past Tuscon and down to near the Mexican border at Patagonia. Most of the course is through classic American desert landscape. I’m a huge fan of that landscape and environment. Probably my favourite race I’ve taken part in was in a similar American desert landscape in Utah (Primal Quest 2006).
Arizona Trail near 2nd last aid station
There is the potentuial to see some interesting wildlife out there. The race is named for the Gila Monster, which is a giant lizard with poisonous skin that is native to the area. There are also mountain lions, bears, and of course rattle snakes around. But they all are rarely sighted, so I’d be both very lucky and unlucky to get close to any of them, or even see one.
What I’m guareented to see plenty of, but hopefully not get too close to, is a wide variety of Cactii. There are a lot of mazing looking ones, and one or two that are particularly hazardous. There is a lot of Cholla “jumping cactus” in the early part of the course and I have some special equipment with me to hlpe me get rid of any that jump on me (A comb and tweezers!).
Detail of a colourful cactus on the trailside
Since this race has never been run before there are plenty of unknowns. There’s no previous race reports to get ideas from. However there has been some nice videos posted by people recceing sections of the course. It actually looks a lot more runnable than I was expecting. Reality could be different though, we’ll see.
It also looks quite benign from a climb and descent point of view. There’s “only” about 7000 meters of “vert” over the course, which is what you’d expect for a 100 mile trail race. So overall it’s relatively flat, but there is one big 2000m climb in the middle. That climb and descent to Mount Lemmon looks like the most technical part of the course. It will also have significantly different climate conditions.
Arizona Monster Route
The biggest challenge here is likely to be the heat. This is a proper desert race. There are 17 or so aid stations, but over 300 miles that leaves plenty of big gaps. Many of the sections between aid stations will have no water sources of any kind. So that’s going to be a huge stressor, and a potential area for people to get badly wrong.
I’m familiar enough with racing in similar conditions. The southern sections of the 360 challenge in Gran Canaria are very similar. But the good thing is I prefer being too hot to being too cold. I might change my mind about that over the course of the race though!
At the moment the forecast is looking quite pleasant for the start of the race. However the longer term forecast is showing the tempertures steadily ramping up all the way to the race cut-off next Friday.
There is a huge field of 300 or so entered. There will be 4 waves of starters each seperated by an hour, with only people in the last wave eligible for prizes. The downside for the later starters is that the cut-offs are absolute, not relative to start time, so late starters have less time to get past each cut-off. I’m in the last wave.
I’ll have a support person for this race. Mike Dobies, who has supported me once or twice before, and I have met at many great events over the years, has agreed to be my support crew for this race. He also thought this was a great opportunity to see the Arizona desert landscape. Mike will be able to meet me at 7 aid stations. He is one of the best analysist of ultrarunning around (and has tons of experience himself, having raced both Barkley and Hardrock multiple times). We both enjoy racing, and maximising whatever skillsets are available to get the best performance, so I know we’re going to work very nicely together. We’ve been having a blast in the lead up to race day.
Mike at the trail head talking to his favourite.
We checked out a few short sections of the trail today on our journet back from race registration, and the trails were most very runnable. I loved the scenery around us, from the big vews out over the desert plains to the “Sky Island” hills on the horizon, to the range of grasses, trees and cacti everwhere. There was much excitment when we spotted our first road runner yesterday (They really do make a kind of meep-meep sound!).
My aims for the race first and formost are to get around comfortably and enjoy myself. But I’ll also be aiming to get as high a finishing position as I can. I’ve done much better than I expected in my last two races, so if I can continue to bring the same kind of form into this race I’ll be very happy. Neither Mike nor myself reecognise many names entered in this race, or know who the potential race favourites are. Plenty of unknons there, so we’ll be figuring out the dynamics of the race as we go.
I’ll have my phone camera nearby during the race, so I’ll be hoping to get a few good photos along the way. Over 300 miles I should be going slow enough to notice the views as I go, hopefully.
Lap 2 appears to have been brutal. No runners made it back in the 24-hour time limit which would enable them to get a full 5 lap finish. Once that happened the best result available for the remaining runners is a Fun Run (3 laps), which has an overall 40-hour time limit.
Only 4 runners were able to make it back out in time to start loop 3 for a fun run. I definitely wasn’t expecting Tomokazu Ihara (Tomo, or Japanese Laz) to be the first of them. It looks he might have overtaken John Kelly on Lap 2. John wasn’t too far behind, but it appears that they are not running together on lap 3. They are the most experienced runners that we know of in the race (6 and 8 attempts).
The other 2 runners who made it back out were a pair of French runners, Sébastien Raichon and Maxime Gauduin. Sebastien was close to finishing last year, and Maxime had a fun run. But according to Keith Maxime has returned early from loop 3 without any pages and tapped out. So now a maximum of 4 runners can get a fun run, and it looks like that will not be at all easy to achieve. If there is a similar degree of slowdown as they had in loop 2 then they will all probably time out. But I’m hoping at least one will make it.
Sebastien heading out on loop 3 in the sunshine. Note 2 Bugles!
The rest of the field seems to have all dropped out now. Some of the Loop 1 runners appeared to have taken an enormous amount of time, even for Barkley. A lot seemed to have struggled with navigation and the elusive art of finding books in forests! Nightime won’t have helped with that, even though there doesn’t seem to have been visibility-hindering weather conditions.
So, again, what has caused the carnage? I’ll take a guess, but we’ll know a lot more once the reports start coming in post-race.
From what I can tell there was a shortage of veterans to try to follow, and too many people had “follow someone” as their primary navigation strategy. That would definitely explain a lot of the carnage, and what would seem like particularly stark finishing times and high numbers of mid-loop abandonments.
The anti-clockwise direction is generally considered harder than the clockwise direction, and that is often considered a reason why loop 2 is generally much slower than loop 1 for pretty much everyone. This year the slowdown appears to have been particularly stark though. But from what I can gather the first 2 loops were both Clockwise, with loop 3 being anti-clockwise (as loop 4 would have been, but there will be no loop 4 this year). So it’s probably just an indication of how much tougher the course is this year.
From what I can gather the main contributing factor to the increase in toughness is that two extra “bumps” have been added, without anything being removed. So a definite increase in the amount of downhill running! The weather appears to be pretty good at Frozen Head, and is unlikely to be a factor (up until this evening anyway… things could change for the worse on loop 3).
Less than 12 hours remain to complete the Fun Run. We’re reverting to normal with a short year this year!
