Jonathan Zincke - Northern Traverse
By Jon Zincke
The road is going on and on. It’s warm and I am not wearing the appropriate clothing. The will is faltering. Maybe a car will come along and take pity on my tortured soul. Maybe it will let me sit in the passenger seat and it can drive at 5kph. Just for 10mins as I have to keep moving. I can’t stop, must keep moving.
Of course the idea of cheating in a race is just absurd to me and the thought soon passes and I am back to bemoaning my clothing choice but more on that later. It’s Monday and I don’t even know the time, maybe it’s early afternoon but I know I have been moving since 8.30am Saturday. Why may you ask, well dear reader it’s because I signed up to a rather silly adventure last year.
Why this race?
I first heard of the Northern Traverse in 2018, I think. I heard about a foot race that crossed the country with minimal support and it went through the Lake District, the Dales and the Moors of Yorkshire. It intrigued me but there was no way I could do such a thing. How would I survive without an aid station every 10-12km. It scared me.
Fast forward to 2024 and I am sitting on the DNF train home from Spine Challenger South with friends Ilona and Phil. Initially they were going to cancel their entires to this race but changed their minds; well Ilona did and Phil was like ok whatever you want. We talked about the race a bit more over the next month and the spark appeared in my brain. I had DNF’d my A race of the year and I couldn’t go back for revenge in 2025, as I would be overseas at Christmas having a lovely holiday with he family. I just wouldn’t want to train those peak weeks while away, which is the right answer. The spark then became a small fire as I started to get scared about the Northern Traverse again, about the distance and the self reliance. Then the 2024 race happened and I think they had two named storms. It was carnage, mud, rain, wind and diversions. Oh jeeze what am I thinking. I actually thought, I’d do the lakes traverse (first 96km) then the full one later. I even pencilled in a hotel in Shap! The mind couldn’t stop thinking though, and that small fire took hold and became a bigger bonfire night stile blaze. After chatting with my coach’s and also Eddie Sutton it literally engulfed me.
I wanted an adventure that scared me!
Something I had no idea if I could complete.
So I signed up, sadly 1 day after the £100 offer for early reg ended 🤣🤦🏻♂️.
I was in though, paid the first instalment! I kept it to myself for quite a while as I had other fun things going on, like the TMB and a silly race in Bulgaria. Once October came round dit was time to start.
The Training
With the cost of the race at £900 and the enormity of the task, I wanted to go as all in as I could on the training. I have strength and running coaches. They plan along side each other as I moved from block to block, to make sure each part complimented the other. I knew strength would be key for this event along with stamina. I won’t go into details of everything here but it was intense. Probably the most intense feeling months of my training/running life. Relearning strength work to drowning in sweat on the treadmill. To 6 days a week running, countless 100km weeks. Two recce weekends, covering as much of the course as I felt I needed to and the parts I would most likely go though at night too.
I did quite a bit of run/walking in too. Knowing I would be doing this a fair bit in the race. I practiced hiking on long runs on sections when I would normally be running, to practice slowing myself down. It was hard but also kind of rewarding to have this self control. I remember doing a road section thats a kinda douche climb a few Sundays as I knew it was like a section of the course and just walling fast but steady. I did all this with my full pack on too, carrying extra water and food.
To be honest, the training almost broke me. By the time I got to taper I was a bit of a wreck so was, very happy to see everything drop down. Plus mentally it was hard, showing up again and again. In fact I was a little worried I would be a wreck at the start line but I believed in the process. I turned up actually pretty fresh, which was of course the plan all along.
Planning
I am a planner, a Virgo, its also genetic. I left this a little later than usual though. I wanted to get a feel for the course on the first recce (grassmere to Richmond, over 3 days). I chatted with coach Howard and Hannah Rickman about approaches to this. I didn’t really care about splits but they were both right in the fact I needed to plan food intake roughly to know what to take with me. I used ultra pacer (I have a subscription) to load in the gpx, then put in all the CPs and timing/Cut off points. I looked at last years times my friends did and made an educated guess if the weather wasn’t horrendous that it would take me around 3 days (72 hours). From this I came up with the two race goals
A: Finish on Tuesday
B: Finish
My primary goal was to have an adventure.
My process goal was to look after myself.
Ultra pacer is great in that it will do lots of wonderful calculations for you based on terrain, how you think you will go pace wise and how long you intend to spend at aid stations. I came back to the key thing here, I had not be over 23hrs and 45mins in a race before. I was effectively going into the unknown. I have worked stupid hours before often sleep deprived so I know how that feels. To do it while run/walking across the country was another thing. What I am trying to say is it was all a bit of guess work.
I then planned out my race kit, my camp kit and nutrition. I bagged up the nutrition by drop bag CP and labelled all my bags, with a bag of extras just in case. I had sleep bags, blister kit bag, electronics bag etc. I laid all my kit out in my office to know exactly what I would take. That way I could double and triple check it was there before packing into my 80L bag. It was a tight squeeze because I had a fold out sleep mat. This was a suggestion/tip from Ilona as it would save time and effort blowing up a smaller mat. I will do a full kit round up at the end but I took more layers than were on the mandatory and I was very grateful for that!
I had been tracking the weather for a couple of weeks and it had been looking dry and sunny, warm but not heat wave warm and cold at nights. I adjusted my shoes and kit accordingly. Could I really be this lucky with the weather?
In the build up to race day, I protected my brain by not thinking about it too much. I lived in a bubble of denial. I am not sure if that’s good or not. It seemed to work for me and helped me sleep better. Before I knew it though, I was waking up to the travel day.
The time before the starting
A day of travel, train into London, tube and a longer train to Carlisle. For me without incident, which is a miracle considering my luck. Alas the final train to st bees was cancelled so I had to wait an hour or so on the platform for the next one. It did offer the time to chat with Beverly, a fellow Teas and Trails podcast guest, plus Ewan. It’s funny how you just know who else is doing the race by a look and the type of bag you are carrying. On the train I also got chatting to Dom who knows my friend Shirin as they have the same coach and finally Petra, who I have been chatting with online for a year or so with. She was back for redemption after a DNF last year, I had a good feeling about her race.
The community vibes continued when I finally chatted with Serena in real life too. Then to kit check with some more familiar faces of Krisia, Hannah, Spencer (volunteering) and Shirin. The lakes traverse (which starts an hour before us) was registering at the same time. I passed kit check with flying colours, lols. I got the nod of approval.
Then dinner was spent chatting with a lovely guy called James, who it turns out is rather good runner, he finished 2nd in 47hrs29mins. We had a great chat though and he was super encouraging. I was in bed by 9 and asleep pretty quickly but woke up around 3am and struggled and dozed until I finally got up at 6ish. There was kit faffing before I decided to go to the beach and collect my pebble and dip my toe in the Irish Sea, while it was quiet. To reflect on the journey a little without the noise of others.
It is tradition that you do this, you carry a pebble from one side of the country to another and send it off into the North Sea. How did I pick my pebble though? I had no criteria, I just waited for one to come to me, it was quick, it was small, it had some colour and I just knew it was mine. Into the bottom of my dry bag it went, safely tucked away for the next few days.
Breakfast was eaten, teeth brushed and I headed out to drop my bag off. It only weighed 11kg, the limit was 15kg and I saw a few people having to take stuff out. Illona and Phil who had come to see me off after seeing all the Lakes start, said I must have forgotten something or not have enough food. I didn’t think so, well too late now!
Some photos were taken. I said hi to Serena and Victoria (who I had also been chatting to through training), then Kerry and Helen. It was 8.30 and 200 ish people were ready to start this adventure and I was one of them. I guess I was in it now, no turning back, no running away. Time to traverse the country!
I broke the course up into 5 gpx files. For the 4 bag drop support points and then to the finish. I thought this would be a good natural reset each time for me but mentally things took a little turn, which I will come to later. In my head I wondered if I could get away with going all the way to Richmond without sleep, thats 177 km and 39 hours ish (as per the plan). Like I just said, things took a turn.
PART 1: ST BEES TO PATTERDALE SUPPORT POINT
It may sound weird to many of you but I am not a huge fan of coastal paths. I do love looking at the sea but the fear of falling off the cliffs is real plus the constant up and down that is often the case just annoys me. Give me a big 1000m climb any day! The start of this race is of course, a few KMs along the coast, going up and down! I spent that time chatting with a few people to distract me before we turned inland.
To be honest a lot of this whole section is a blur, I hadn’t recce’d any part or it. I enjoyed being blissfully unaware, as I run/walked new trails that slowly weaved the way to Ennerdale water point, with the fells of the lakes edging closer. Pace was simple, walk some, run some, repeat. At the water point, I just topped up and applied some more sun cream. Some people got ice creams and Calipos from the shop. I just wanted to get moving. Before I knew it I was at Ennerdale water, what a beautiful day. Blue Skys, a little warm. What a difference to the previous year.
The hike around the lake was a slog, rocks and roots, a little scramble, more of the same. Take it easy, just move Jon. We caught up with some of the Lakes traverse runners, exchanged pleasantries. Wished each other luck and moved forward. Then I was on the fire road that slowly moves up to what I later found out was Black Sail YHA. I started chatting quite a bit with this Finnish runner called Jukka, who is a friend of Ilona. He was back again wanting a better experience than the previous year. With the weather we had he was hopefully in for that! We had a nice little chat before one of us left the other, I cant remember who, this is just the case of ultra running. A lovely surprise was stumbling across Sarah, who was fighting with her shoe on a log (also on lakes traverse). Its funny who you run into on these races, she wished me well as I ran on.
Soon after this though my stomach took a turn and I needed to jump into some trees, dig a little hole and well, you know. But what I didn’t know is that literally 2mins up the road was the YHA with a toilet. Doh! The YHA was a nice sight to see. I topped up on water, yes I was drinking lots, with it being warmer, plus we had the first of the 4 main lakes climb to come. I don’t remember much about this one, pretty much poles out and get it done, enjoy the views. Then it was down to Honister (I think). It was at this point our route joined another race (RunThrough trails), which was marked by blue flags. We were told about this and to keep an eye on our own GPX (our route is un marked) as it isn’t the same direction as this race. Phil and Ilona were down the hill cheering me on, which was super lovely, they had been out for everyone on there Lakes as well. I think it was 5Km to the Borrowdale support point.
Honister Pass views ©My BIB Number Photography
Running down to Borrowdale, is also a blur. I really don’t know why this is like this, sometimes I remember things so vividly and I do remember it being lovely. I do remember shouting at a runner that he was following the flags when he shouldn’t be, I think a couple went off wrong and I hoped they would be find the right way back. Thats it, then I was arriving in Borrowdale, 47km in. I didn’t look at the time. I now know it was 16.15, which is about 1hour20mins ahead of predicted. I apparently spent 29mins there, I had only put 10mins in the plan but thats ok. I basically had some lunch, sandwiches, crisps and fruit. It was 22km to Patterdale but 2 punchy climbs lay ahead.
The 1st climb up was long and tedious, with a few false summits. On the way up the Safety team were helping a woman who had taken a tumble, she was wrapped up in all the layers and had oxygen. One thing I noted about this event is that Ourea actually pay for Qualified Mountain rescue to be part of the team. They seem to have multiple people available to get to an issue if a runner has one. Even though its not nice to see, you do feel a certain sense of comfort in that you are being watched. The climb continued up and along and up some more, I got a little annoyed with it for some reason. One thing kept me going is that I knew as soon as we got to the descent to Grassmere I was in familiar territory.
©My BIB Number Photography
And so down we went, I was expecting it to be a little slippy but it was pretty much bone dry, I moved well. Trotting along the valley path, occasionally chatting with other runners. It was now a proper mix of Lakes and Northern, just all out enjoying the day, the light was fading though and I knew what was ahead of me. I was now in the recce zone as we hit the main road. I crossed and stopped to layer up and put my head torch in a place I could get to easily. I knew the wind tunnel that is the valley below Grizedale tarn, very well from the recce, races other adventures here.
The climb was fine, I moved steadily, keeping things ticking along. The last little bit is steep slog, but then you are up and what a view we had of the sun, just disappearing behind an edge, magical. I took a moment and put the head torch on. Time to get down to Patterdale. Clip clop down the rocky path. The wind wasn’t that bad, which is so unusual. I got chatting with more runners, I really have no idea who but I was in good spirits heading to the support point. 69km done and 3/4 of the lakes climbs done. Due to the size of the races now, they split the support points between the races. Ours was in a marquee, with some porter loos. When I arrived at 22.05, about 45mins ahead of schedule, my 80L bag was carried into the tent for me and I was sat at a table. It was busy and also quite cold, I added a layer. I was sad the soup was mushroom (my nemesis food), so I had a minestrone cuppa soup and ate a bowl of chips and cheese. I think I spent about an hour here, which was longer than on plan BUT I wasn’t looking at the plan, I was just dealing with my needs. I got my food bag for the next section, filled up bottles, still on 3 and headed out.
PART 2: PATTERDALE TO KIRKBY STEPHEN
The last climb of the lakes to go is up to Angle Tarn, then up to Kidsty Pike, the highest point on the course at 780m. I met a lovely women (again name is gone), who seemed a little worried about the nav once up. So I said we could stick together for a while as I was taking it nice an easy going up. There are a couple of weird nav bits once you go past Angle tarn, which was almost invisible in the darkness, apart form a couple of wild campers lights. It was cold and a mist had descended too, which made our head torch lights bounce back. It was funny, as the last time I was up here it was all ice and a bit of snow in February. Now bone dry but tricky to find some paths. We made a couple of small wrong turns but northing too bad, other runners caught us up as well and we seemed to move well as a group. According to the tracker it took 2hrs ish to get the summit, the track said it was 1am, again I had no concept of this as I was just looking at the nav screen. I had started running with this guy who was doing the race with a friend from Copenhagen. He had previously finished with his dad and gone pretty quick. He seemed like a good fell runner, His friend was struggling. I was in between them on pace so we just got chatting on the way down, talking the usual random things you do with stranger sin the middle of the night.
The descent of Kidsty starts easy, then gets very steep and technical, then grassy. I knew this from the recce, but its quite different in the dark. Things were going well until they were not. A slight loss of concentration is all it took and I had a slip back wards, this is usually ok and you get up and carry on, usually with a muddy butt. This time though, I landed weirdly and did something to my left ribs. Not broken but like a muscle jarring, which really hurt, I felt it immediately and was annoyed with myself and the pain. I didn’t know how it would affect me yet but I just carried on as you do, if not awkwardly.
©My BIB Number Photography
At the bottom you have the most tedious of traverses of Haweswater Reservoir, I am not sure how long that section is but it goes on and on. I hated it in the recce, In the race I just accepted it, my mindset was to not let it get to me. Its undulating, rocky, wet and cold at night. In fact it was getting colder and colder. I was still in my shorts, I probably should have been in my leggings, something to note for later. Just keep moving, thats the mantra. Get to the end of the lake, then do the next bit. Its a slog to Shap (finish for the Lakes traverse) and a support point (no bag) for us. There are some woods, a long road section, some fields and some more of the same there are a couple of funny nav bits here though, where the gpx doesn’t quite lock onto a path IMO. Some bits I remembered from the recce, others I really didn’t. Some similar mistakes were made. I do remember coming into Shap and seeing cars all frozen. It was 5.20am (30min ahead of schedule) and the sun was coming up. I was a bit tired and hungry, happy to stop for a little bit. Apparently I took 45mins here. I don’t know what I ate but it wasn’t enough. Some people had power naps under tables, I didn’t fancy that, I just wanted to be moving again. We had done 94km, we had 31km to Kirkby Stephen. When I did the recce, Jay and I really enjoyed this next section, hmm, is all I can say about that now.
Its undulating moorland, not that technical. The sun was up. It should have been a good section but it really wasn’t. My ribs were really hurting now and I just couldn’t run, I was tired, I was sleepy, the human battery was low. I caught up with Rob again, I had run with him a bit earlier. Rob was a guy I met on the Yorkshire Moors recce, he was just out for a run that day when Krisia and I had just started and we had some a nice chat before he turned round that day. He was struggling too, I think we build ourselves a tandem struggle bus as we talked then didn’t then moaned, then broke apart then joined again. It was a funny old ride.
I was still putting nutrition in and drinking but the dark thoughts about how the hell I would be able to do 200, 180km more came in. If I was in a mess like this now, how could I do it? I cant run, my feet hurt, I am tired. Who am I even to think I can do this kind of distance? I don’t like these moments, I don’t think anyone does but we all have them. I still moved, there were not sit down strops or hissy fits.
The only positive came, when I actually noticed the stile we missed on the recce, which takes you into another field. On the recce we climbed over a wall, much further up and it was a right pain. I def couldn’t do that today with my ribs, the stiles were bad enough. I got rob through that but a super keen other runner was out of ear shot when I tried to get his attention.
Something needed to change, I needed to re think the problem and change my mind set, to do that I needed to be on my own again, so I broke away from Rob. Mentally I said “Right Jon, Kirkby Stephen is the end of Ultra 1, thats you winning a race. You Eat, sleep, eat, reset. Then you have 3 more Ultra races to do and you celebrate each one of those! All you have to do RIGHT NOW is get to Kirkby Stephen and you have won” Doing this and saying it again and again, changed my mood. Then coming into Kirkby, I was almost smiling again. I was on Plan B, which was to finish. Finish smiling and enjoy the adventure.
We wont talk about how long it took to get to the School Support point, as its all the way round the back of the School! Boy was I happy to be there and again, the team were on it. Sat at a table, big bowl of food in me, Toilet visit then I got my sleeping gear out and was taken to a tent inside the Sports hall. Oh I came in at 12.53, which was only an hour behind the schedule but I had no knowledge of this as I was just focused on me and what I needed right now.
I spent 4 hours here, I ate, kinda slept but lay down for 2 hours ish and ate again. I had my one blister lanced by the lovely Madga and taped up. This blister was my own fault too for not taping my heel correctly! Compared to many others, my feet were in great shape. I was watching and chuckling as Victoria and Serena were there too have foot work done and quite enjoying all the banter. My ribs were so sore that I couldn’t even get my left shoe on without help, thanks to a wonderful volunteer too!
What had changed though was my mood, I was reset, I was energised and ready to go. 125km done, 175 to go. The next race was 53km to Richmond and I was going to win that too!
PART 3: KIRKBY STEPHEN TO RICHMOND
When I entered the support point, I knew I was going to continue. Sadly quite a few people dropped here or were driven here by friends/family to pick up drop bags. Including the man from Denmark who I ran off Kidsty pike with. We gave each other knowing looks. I felt sad but they all seemed ok with their choice, for whatever reason. I knew that feeling from last year, I have a lot of empathy for it. For me, my plan was to get up, over and down from Nine Standards Rig before darkness.
On the recce, it was snow, ice, snow and tricky. Today it was glorious weather but a with cold wind, which I knew would mean a colder night. I had changed into my leggings in preparation for this. The climb up was solo, its so odd that you can just spend so much time alone but I was ok with that. I had the poles out on the road part and just worked my way up until the track takes you on a meandering climb. Its not steep but is the longest climb for quite a while. As I neared the top a couple, who I presumed were just out for a walk said hello and mentioned that “I would be able to smell Richmond” from the top. This was quite funny, seeing as I was only out of the CP an hour and had many KMs to go.
It was like a different place being up there. Obviously no snow or ice, but there were some more flag stones laid down, but even on the long moorland sections where there weren’t any, it was so dry. Almost scarily so, from an environmental point of view. The workmen had also put in some new bridges as well, which helped get over some of the deep peaty areas. I can see why they are doing it, to protect the landscape from man made erosion as this section is quote long and you can easily take random paths.
Again the next part was a little bit of a blur, you are in the Dales now, a mixture of little ups and downs sweeping along to Keld and the cross over with the pennine way at the Tan Hill road. Again I didn’t really notice this. I just trucked along. Accepting that it was fast walking, easy walking and the occasional jog down a steep hill as it cant be helped. As darkness started to set in I actually caught up with a woman called Phillipa (I think that was her name) and then Gordon joined us. We had some lovely chats about life and races and things. It was dark now, we were in the more technical parts of this section. Occasionally Phillipa needed to have a 5min nap on the trail side. She would just stop, set a 5min alarm and fall asleep. Gordon and I would continue on. There are some quite rocky traverses here as you wind your way up a valley, then some steep descents. A lot of old mines are around here, again in the daylight it is stunning. At night quite foreboding, especially the “Mordor climb” as it is now known to me thanks to Ilona. Its short but steep, and as we found a little tricky in the dark too. I took us on a slightly wrong path, luckily Gordon pulled us back to right one. Once you are up the top, it is just desolate, it was weird in the clag of the recce and just as much so in the dark. It was at the top that I parted ways with them though as they both needed a trail nap at the summit pile of stone. Me I had a personal race to win, keep moving!
Its a big long gravel road section to Reeth, again it was frustrating not to be able to properly run as I felt I could have, so just walked as fast as I could. Just keep pushing on and on. At some point I caught up with Rob and another guy called Daniel. They were. It’s in a bit of a state and as we got to the very much closed Dales bike centre at around 1am Monday morning, they decided to have a nap in the toilets corridor. I just filled up my water (I had drank 2L of liquid to here) and headed out. Apparently it was 15km to Richmond. According to the tracker, it took me 3.5hours to do this section. It was painful, I was so tired, my feet hurt and my mind was now up to mischief.
Going into a 2nd night is a new thing and of course the hallucinations came. They first started with audio based ones, I thought I was being chased, like really closely by someone/something along the road. It was just me and my own noises, from my feet and pack. Then once heading up into the farm fields I saw a man flying a Jetpack across a field. It was just so normal, that I accepted this and thought, wow, that’s pretty cool. I could do with one of those right now.
Then, when I passed through a farm which had some sheep in a shed, I saw a small man cuddling a lamb in a weird way. Like crouched down and just staring out at me. This freaked me out, as it was out of a horror movie. I walked on, I couldn’t put my earbuds in as I needed my wits about me for the freak-show. This section of the race soon just became a real drag, lots of little ups and downs, bits of track, bits of road, Richmond not getting any closer. I must just get there though, then I have only two races to win.
I came into the support point at 4.40am Monday morning, frickin freezing! The plan was to follow the same as Kirkby. Eat, sleep, eat and escape. Dave and his partner were at the CP, Dave had hoped to be doing the race ( he was planning on coming on a. Recce with me) but sadly got an injury and had to pull out so volunteered instead to earn a place for next year. They were both so lovely. I had some soup and some food before being taken to my tent. I was told by another runner how cold it was so kept all my layers on. He wasn’t wrong, somehow I did manage to get to sleep but then as I awoke due to rib pain, I was then kept awake by a very loud snorer (yes I know I can sometimes), I tried to lay there and doze. After a while though I just started shivering uncontrollably, I decided it was best to get up and eat. It was breakfast time, I had a bowl of beans, hash browns and scrambled eggs, then another bowl. I sorted out all my food for the next race. Bottles filled up, shoes changed, toilet visited and out I went.
PART 4: RICHMOND TO LORDSTONES
I hadn’t recced any of the section before the North York moors, basically most of this section as I heard it was pretty rubbish…story checks out!
3 things happened right at the start though. First I noticed my butt was a bit sore from some chafing, urgh, the sudacream was in my drop bag. Then, that my warm montane gloves were not in the side pocket of my bag where they were supposed to be. I 100% came into the CP with them and packed in the little stuff sack. It was annoying but I had a back up solution for the next night. Then the gps on my watch went all screwy, my position. Was way off the track, I had to use the mapping on the free app they gave us for a while. I think about 30mins. I guessed me starting the course before it had re acquired position caused the freak out. These things are sent to test us!
I had been rejuvenated by the rest but obviously not running on 100% and it was still cold at a 8.30am so I had a few layers on top and my leggings. This section fools you though. It started off quite nicely with some woodland and reasonable farm land running but this quickly changed to roads and more roads. It also started to warm up quite a bit. I shed layers but couldn’t shed my leggings as I hadn’t packed my shorts! This was an error and it annoyed me. I put on the tea and trails podcast to alleviate the tedium but that only lasted 2 hours. I also ran into a couple of hikers sat by the road having a snack. I think I confused them as they said, where are you going? My response “Robin Hoods Bay”. Well of course they said, as that’s where the trail finishes. I guess they were asking where I was going today. Truth be told, I had no idea. Just keep moving, keep eating.
I got to the village of Danby Wiske, the pub was shut, of course it was. So I sat and ate a cheese and pickle sandwich the volunteers had made me in Richmond. I enjoyed that moment on the village green. Taking these moments are important, I hadn’t had too many of them.
Off I went into more tedium, the only key things I remember from this section are going past a reservoir with some sheep who thought I was coming to feed them, being overtaken by very cheery Italian called Ercole, passing though a weird Halloween themed farm with talking plastic rats on a stile. I am 90% sure this wasn’t a hallucination. Then kinda accidentally lying to a guy about how far the garage of dreams was. I was hot and a little grumpy. Still applying suncream, still drinking and eating though.
The garage of dreams came. I was excited, I bought some water and a calypo and was just as excited to sit inside an air conditioned room and consume those products. I had a chat on What’s App with Ilona, which as ace and she distracted me with discussion of a silly race she had entered for 2026, before telling me to get on. I stumbled out of there in a slight daze, preparing to cross the A road. Out of the heat haze came a woman, who at first I thought was another runner in the race but no it wasn’t, it was Mel.
It was Mel!!! I met Met last year at Pennine 39 and since then we’re chatted a fair bit and shared the running banter. She had been out cheering a few other runners but had made the time to come and say hi before heading home. This was such a lift to me, that hug meant the world. I said I would be good once I got into the trees of the first Moors climb. She wished me well and we parted.
Crossing the A19, wasn’t too bad, a short trundle down the road and I was there, into the North York Moors. I was now on home ground again. It was a gentle climb up through the woods, turning left and right on long and wide switchbacks. I cooled down and put a jacket on. The descents were steep and technical, I took them slowly being careful not to fall. As I neared the end, I ran into the same two “walkers” that I had seen on the way up to Nine Standards. We had a chuckle and said hello, they said they best go see me at the finish line then. At this point I guessed they were out cheering someone in the race. It still confused me, in a good way.
I got into the Lordstones Support Point just before 7pm. Looking at this now, I was only 4hours behind the arbitrary schedule. My mind now focused on the last race and how best to get ready for it. I remembered they had showers here, which I thought would be a great idea. Again, amazing CP volunteers.
Food, big bowl of vegan chill, wedges and cheese. Followed by a lush shower to help ease the ass chaffing. Then some cream on that area, followed by a sleep. It was cold again but not quite as cold as Richmond at this point because it was still early. I think I slept for an hour or something but was horizontal for 2. I then had breakfast, beans and hash browns, with a cup of tea. I then guessed it would be around 12 hours to the finish. With around 64km to go. I ditched all the waffles as hadn’t eaten one for a while. Filled up on caffeine gels, chews, chocolate and some rice crispy bars. I also put all my layers on, it was 11pm and I had a full night ahead of me. Tee shirt, dart warm mid, primaloft mid, primaloft jacket, wind jacket and warm hat. As I had lost my warm gloves, I had to use my goretex overmits for warmth, so glad I had these as spare to use with my regular gloves.
Wrapped up like I could easily be rolled out the door I exited the tent!
PART 5: LORDSTONES to ROBIN HOODS BAY
I don’t think its bullish to say but I was confident of finishing now I was on the last ultra of this adventure. It was just a matter of when, not if, in my mind. Running was still not an option but I wanted to move quickly. I decided I would 100% adhere to the 40min “eat” timer on my watch and a lot of it would be caffeine based as even though I was pumped I was still 235km into a race.
The first part of the moors I knew well fro the recce plus also Hardmoors 55 (albeit in the reverse direction). We had 3 ups and downs before a climb up to the fire road. These climbs were around 100m each, one of them had the actual lord stones to clamber through (its much easier now its marked with reflective signs), Most of the paths are flag stones or easy to move on. It was cold, it was dark (apart for the lights of Middlesbrough), I was on my own again, I was used to this. I think I wanted this adventure to be about me, to be selfish, to be self reliant. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed every interaction with the other runners, volunteers and public. The idea of teaming up with someone on this race just didn’t really appeal at this time.
Before I knew it I was on the fire road that traverses slowly down and around valley, which in the day is stunning. At night though it was kinda bleak and my mind started playing tricks on me again. Am I being chased down by torches, are those lights ahead people? What is that sound? Oh its still me! I tried to run but it was still hurting and I just had to accept it again. Keep moving, keep eating. Again I was really happy with my hydration, Peeing had been regular not too much, just enough for the effort level.
As I neared the turn off for the Lion Inn (a Pub which welcomes racers and was of course closed, story of my life on this race), I thought I saw torches again, bobbing around up the hill but then they just vanished. My poor mind.
Up the hill onto the road, I remembered this from the recce, we got hailed in the face on. This time it was just desolate, until a car came past. Then I saw two torches ahead, 100% real though. It took a while but eventually I caught up with them. This is when I met Hannah and Pip.They had been running together for quite a while, maybe Shap or Kirkby. We got on instantly. In a funny way, Pip had heard of me as he recognised my name as we had done some of the same races but never crossed paths (It has since turned out that we have quite a few mutual friends, funny how these things happen). Weirdly we were joined by another guy for a minute before he ran on ahead, he literally came out of know where! It seems he was quite tired and would just fall asleep on the trail randomly as we witnessed this after he ran off ahead, then his torch would just go off as he had a nap, then it would appear again. Not for me but whatever works for you mate.
This next section just rolled along as we talked about all kinds of random crap. I took toilet breaks and then caught up, they stopped to take photos and I went on and they caught up to me. As the sun started to rise we could see the sea ahead of us, it was far away but it was there. We were in good spirits. At some point in the moving around I went ahead on the way into Glaisdale. The last Official Check point (no drop bag) but a warm hall awaited. A volunteer came out to meet me, he said, where are the other 2, I said just up the road, so he hung around to bring them in. I also told him about the other guy who kept falling asleep too. I suggested they keep him in the hall to have a sleep.
I was looking forward to this CP as my friend Spencer was volunteering here. It was indeed warm but I was still cold, so he made my 2 cups of tea (more caffeine) and I had some flap jack and banana to eat too. To be honest, I was getting a little tired of eating and drinking, I knew I would carry on as I had to fuel my way to the finish but my mouth was tired and a little sore. The best thing though is that I remembered to pack my shorts, I changed out of my leggings here and it was a great decision.I shed one layer as it would slowly start to warm up. At some point Pip and Hannah had come in, there was a lot of banter here. A couple of other women had left the CP just after I arrived, after having a nap. I was in a good mood as well. It was daylight and I had less than 30km to go, I also knew this section well from the recce. I just wanted to get on with it and finish on my own so I said thank you and left.
Out of Glaisdale and through the woods to Eaton, down a boring fire road to Grosmont, everything still closed. I knew the last big hill was coming, its a doozy as its all on a road and goes straight up. At this point I made the choice to put music on (I know we had been told to keep music off on the roads but I turned the noise cancelling off and just didn’t care at this point), I needed a playlist to take me to the finish, I wanted a one man party and it worked. It felt like I was up the 250m+ in no time, then I was off across some moorland heading down to Littlebeck and into the woods of Falling Foss. I was amazed at how well I was moving, without running. Into the woods there was no one around, I was singing, smiling and crying a little. It was perfect. I then passed the two women who had left Glaisdale ahead of me, we shared some words and I moved on. At the waterfalls a couple of other people were just starting a morning walk, the cafe was of course shut but I didn’t need to stop. I made my way up the road, said hello to a bunch of sheep and headed out onto the last sections of moorland, still singing, still eating, still drinking. Shedding tears and smiling my way KM by KM. At some point I passed the Italian guy from the previous day, he looked tired but was just moving at his pace. Then another guy, who fist bumped me and said, “we’ve done it” I wished him well for the last section.
Before I knew it, I was at the coast, 6km to go. It was late morning now, it was Tuesday. It was the weirdest thing moving along that coast path with the morning walkers. I don’t think anyone knew what I was doing, why I was crying, why I was singing, why I was a bit haggard. The path was hard though, back to the start and why I don’t like coast paths just up down, up down etc. I just wanted to get to the view point looking over the the bay. When it eventually came, I took a moment here, took out my ear buds and actually chatted with a couple who did know about the race, they took my photo for me, which was lovely, before wishing me well. I then saw a finisher with his hoody on, enjoying the sunshine at the top of the last hill, I stopped for a few mins to chat, then he told name to get my ass to the finish.
The run down to the finish was amazing, it was lunchtime and Robin Hoods bay was busy. Some people knew what was going on. Many didn’t but I did. I was moving my way to the the finish of a 300km adventure, having traveled across the country on may own two feet for 3 days and 3hours and 43mins.
The team at the finish were great, I thought I was having my photo taken, it turns out it was video, I was given my medal, I sat down, took a moment and found my pebble to return to the sea. That was a special moment, a finisher, a professional pebble mover, for real!
The aftermath wasn’t too bad either, I was walked back up the hill to the village hall, my drop bag given to me at a table and waited on hand and foot again by amazing volunteers. A vegan sausage bap and a cup of squash. I was high on caffeine so needed to calm that down! I had a sink wash and changed clothes and sat chatting with other finishers, the volunteers and staff. Ate a cheese and pickle sandwich and drank a protein shake, while waiting for Gillian & Poppy to come and get me (they were travelling up from our home as we planned to stay in Whitby for a few days). I chatted with Mikey B, Joe, Shane, and a bunch of just lovely people.
Going back to my goals. I did indeed finish on Tuesday. It may not have been 72 hours but that doesn’t matter. Did I have an adventure? You bet I did, wow, what a few days. And did I look after myself. I am going to give myself a solid B+ here. A few small errors but on the whole I did and the state of my body at the finish is testament to that.
Drinking, yes
Eating, yes
Sleeping, yes
Issue management, yes
For me this was an amazing experience and something I will be proud of for all the above.
RECOVERY
To be honest, its been weird. The rib issue has had a knock on effect on sleep massively. Its still hurting almost 2 weeks later. I had two blisters on my feet, which were not that bad really, some black toes nails which is to be expected. The first night, my lips swelled up massively and they were really cracked and weathered, which then made them bleed. My legs and feet were store for days and are still a little. I have a weird tingling in both my big toes which comes and goes.
Mentally its been ok too. I’ve not had a massive dip, I think because I am just immensely proud of myself. I put a lot into this adventure but I got a lot out of it too. It proved to me I can do hard things still, that I can look after myself when sleep deprived, I can problem solve and move quickly when walking 9often 5-6km an hour. I have a small hole of disappointment at not being able to run as much as I felt I could physically. Its frustrating, when you have trained so hard but in the grand scheme of things, what would it have given me, maybe 5, 4 hours quicker time and I would have spent that waiting for the family. I am a runner though, yes I know there is a fair bit of hiking in ultras for people like me but I was sad not to have run, its a small hole but a hole still.
When I signed up to this event, I thought it was quite expensive but I have since seen where the money has gone. The event organisation is amazing and Ourea have a lot of staff working on it and paid for safety teams, plus all the kit needed to set up the support points. Everyone was amazing, a massive shout out to the volunteers too, wow, they are great. So organised and helpful, nothing is too big (within reason lols). I just had the best experience. My only minor gripe is that the cola, was unbranded. I just wish they had real Coke there. Its a small thing but for me its a thing. Other than that the food and drinks were great. A really good spread, which I definitely got my fair share of.
I also want to shout out all the amazing runners I chatted too, I cant remember all your names here are some: Hannah, pip, Clare, Emilie, Ercole, James, Sean, Chris, Rob, Gordon, Robin, Graham, Phillipa, Kerry, Helen, Bev, Petra Serena & Victoria.
The question comes now to would I do a race like this again, maybe. Right now I want to run again, I want my rib muscles to be fixed and feel the joy of movement again, while I think of all the amazing memories from this Coast to Coast traverse.