This January I got the disappointing news of not being selected in the lottery for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) CCC race. For ten years I have been running other exciting races that would qualify me for entry into the lottery. These other races have been immensely enjoyable in their own right. However I realise that my desire to also get in to UTMB races has influenced what races I run. How many UTMB qualifying points does a race have? Despite the hurdles it has been a great adventure to be able to enter and complete 3 UTMB series races. You can read my write ups here. However I now feel these races are getting so popular one could spend years just trying to get a place. The training is hard enough! What the UTMB is to ultras has now become what the London Marathon is to marathons. A victim of its own success where gaining an entry place becomes as big a challenge as doing the race!

My ballot disappointment in January has led me to not enter anything this year just because it is a qualifier for UTMB. Instead why not think a bit ‘outside the box’ in terms of endurance events? This spring therefore I hope to do a ‘backyard’ ultra. “The Cow Shed Backyard Ultra” starts at 12 noon on Sat 16th April on a farm in Northumberland, England. It follows the same format as the notorious “Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra” ** started by Gary ‘Lazarus’ Cantrell. The ‘backyard’ concept embodies his idiosyncratic way of designing endurance events. Lazarus is also the founder of the even more quirky ‘Barkley marathons’. 

For the ‘Cow Shed’, as with other backyard races, competitors must complete a 4.17 mile trail loop (6.7km) on the hour every hour until only 1 runner remains. The ‘Cow Shed’ also has about 150 m ascent/ descent each loop. The bell will be sounded exactly on the hour and if you fail to make the starting area before the bell rings, then you are  disqualified from the event and become one of the majority who ‘Did Not Finish’ (DNF). There will be only 1 who does not receive a DNF and she/he is the winner!

How has my training been going? I have been practising running on similar terrain and same distance loops as the event will be. A mixture of farmland, single-track trail and woodland dirt tracks. Most times I have sat in the car on breaks. On its own I can complete a loop fairly comfortably in under an hour and have been generally doing 50 minute loops. This gives me 8-10 minute breaks before starting again. I can lie or sit, eat or whatever during the break time. Problem is as I tire and go slower my breaks get less. This is just when you want more rest! It sounds like the experience on the day will be quite social. Unlike normal ultras the field will not be stretched out over many kilometres as everyone still in the race is back together on the start line each hour.

During training the most I have done is 7 ‘loops’ (or ‘yards’ as they are known). Doing that same route over and over every hour you could get tired of the same views. However on each of the 7 ‘yards’ on my recent run I took the views shown in this blog. Each taken at a different point on my route each time I went round. I hope you will agree it was a scenic route.

During the event disqualification will be by either not making a loop in an hour or not starting to do another loop. Deciding not to begin a new ‘yard’ is the most common way people get knocked out. As Lazarus says ‘it’s easy until it’s not’. 

4.17 miles each hour sounds an odd distance to cover but that is 100 miles (160km) in 24 hours. I have ran more than 24 hours but never at such a pace. I usually slow down considerably with stomach problems and fatigue after 10 or so hours. So it is an open question as to how many ‘yards’ I can complete. Maybe getting hourly breaks is something that changes how I cope. For better or worse! 

** The BBC have done an article on Big Dog’s. A 15 minute youtube video also gives a good feel for this type of race.