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#Ep45 - British 50K Championships at RunThrough Trails Lake District Preview Show · RunThrough Trails

• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: All right, welcome back to the Run Through Trails Podcast.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We've got an extra special episode.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think I say that every time to be fair, but this one feels pretty special.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing a special deep dive into Run Through Trails, the Lake District, an event coming up for us next weekend.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: We are recording this on Monday, the 6th of April, and the event is this Saturday.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we're going to dive into, well, there's a load of reasons why it's interesting.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: But we're going to dive into the lead male and female competitors, have a little talk about how it could impact selection for European champs this year in Slovenia in June.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And also it's British British Trail Champs, which is pretty incredible for us at Run Through Trail.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: But we'll get into all the detail in a minute.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Joined by Lewis, my uh kind of previously regular co-host.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome back, Lewis.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, mate?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's good to be back.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like it's been a while since I've been on.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting into this one.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously Easter weekend, and then it feels just like a relentless uh weekend of races kicking off in the lakes, and we've got marathon season coming up as well.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm really excited.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to join you and the team up in the lakes this weekend.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's gonna be cool.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I mean we're both gonna be there on the day on site.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know Gemma's coming up as well.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and this wow, there's loads of people coming.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um we'll get into the the runners in them in a minute.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just touch on a couple of details about the event and kind of a bit of context for why this is an interesting one for us.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, first event that we ever did in the late district was this time last year.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was actually working that event um because Sam, who's leading this year, was was away at the time, went incredibly well.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: We got like the best weather you could ever hope for.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sun was out, blue skies.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was freezing cold, but it was really nice weather.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had a very similar route for both distances, so it's it's a 23k and a 53k this year.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if those distances are identical to last year, but they're very similar, same sort of class, 25-ish and a 50-ish.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the event went incredibly well, but we did get a lot of feedback immediately in the event village because I do the runner briefings before the races when I'm working them and kind of talk about the route and tell the runners what to expect, and everyone always comes and finds me afterwards.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I get pretty it's quite good, really, quite immediate feedback about whether they've had fun or not.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone had sort of loved hating it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like they'd loved everything about the event, they said it was so well organized, the course is amazing, the place is amazing, but the second big climb, which was up Great Gable, um, coming back from Wasdale halfway through the 50k or just past halfway, was horrific.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and very hard work and very loose and technical.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the descent off there, people had found very challenging.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of the runners who come to run through trail events, again, we get obviously very mixed crowd, all sorts of abilities and experience.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: But we were just talking, Lewis, like the type of running that you get in the late districts is very specific and it's very technical, it'd probably be the best word to describe it, but technical in a very specific late district way, and I think that had caught quite a lot of people out.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Although I do remember one particular chat that I had with a guy, he was ex-Army and he was from Keswick.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he was loving it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, oh mate, it's the best route ever.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you took us up great game, it was an absolute suffer fest.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, let me throw it to you, Lewis, because I know I know you weren't there last year, but I know that um Joe Fowley was running.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know you looked quite a bit into the course at the time, and obviously you've done a lot of research leading into this year's event for reasons which we'll kind of come to in a minute.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, what were your memories of last year speaking to me and Joe and talking about the the course itself?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I guess, yeah, memories.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had I had athletes in both uh races, 23k and the 53k.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And before Joe even went up there, I told him how technical it would be.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'd done a lot of that um course previously, you know, recceed Bob Graham round legs and things like that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you get a feel for the lakes.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest thing I remember is the weather, as you said.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the photos coming out and thinking, oh my god, well, what a what a weekend they've had.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, really lucky at that time of year to get that sort of weather in the lakes.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: But then I remember seeing a lot of the Facebook comments like, oh my god, wasn't expecting that.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, my first thought was like, well, that's on you because like you need to find out what these races are like.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Lake District, that's what you expect.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think from my own previous experience of being in the lakes, you don't quite know what it's like until you go there.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I'd always recommend people going and doing a wrecking of uh these races if they can, if they can get up there and see them.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but certainly don't expect it to be like anywhere else in the UK.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it is it is very unique.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is very unique.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what makes it so spectacular, isn't it?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that was a particular I think you know, going over Scarfell is iconic and a massive challenge for people in and of itself.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's a big tick, isn't it, anyway, just for people to hike or whatever, just to stand on the summit, especially on that nice of a day.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So to then descend down on very rocky, loose technical terrain into that third aid station at Wasdale, to come out of that thinking, oh, I've broke the back now, you know, like I've done the big climb, I've been up Scarfell, it's all done, and then to go up Great Gable, and even though maybe on the map it doesn't look quite as big, just the technicality and difficulty, it was just a bit of a soul destroyer.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: But then that's kind of the point.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, anyway, we kind of did get um convinced by popular opinion, I suppose, and we decided to to dial it back a little bit.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So Sam and I sat down back end of last year, um, made some changes to the route.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the 53k this year follows almost identical um trails.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So all the races start from the um Keswick School, right in town there.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is like a very short road closure, it's quite quick at the start, like super flat, a bit of tarmac, some some footpaths and stuff coming out of Keswick, standard kind of craziness with hikers and cars everywhere and stuff.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it is like a bit of a challenging race finish to manage.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not so bad in the morning when we're starting the race.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, down along the the coast of Durban Water, down through Seathwaite, big climb up Scarfell, drop down into Wasdale, into the third aid station, and this time skirting around Kirkfell, round to Honister Pass instead of going up and over Great Gable.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: So still a couple of climbs.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, it's all it's just a series of valleys, really, at the end of the day, the end of the day, isn't it?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um with lakes in the bottom, hence the name, um, before wrapping back around to Honister, and then big climb, like we said, back up to High Spy, over the top, over the catbells, which probably like, well, for me at least, probably the most iconic spot.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some great sections of Run in, some really technical big rock slabs as well, which are really cool.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are gonna like shuffle down on their ars, and some people are gonna just spring down them.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, some great views coming back into Keswick, big descent, and then rapid kind of last few K back into the finish.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's the 53k.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: The 23k, which we won't talk about as much today, but we'll touch on, starts and finishes in the exact same way, but runners just split off basically from the 53k course a little bit earlier.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: They do come up high spy, back around cat bells, and then drop back down.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they they kind of do it's like a perfect 23k, really.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a an excellent route, but it's pretty much one big climb, one big descent.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the 53k is probably made up of three significant ascents, but it's I mean, it's all up and down.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's like a lot of variation.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things I didn't mention last year that Joe spoke to me about afterwards, like he got lulled into a false sense of security because of that fast start.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it is about 10 miles, 15, 16k down to kind of C Toller and C thweight farm, and then um, you know, you you then start this climb, which for Joe and the front end runners is quite runnable, even though it's rocky.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: That that way up to Scarfell is a runnable climb.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he said he ran every step last year, and he thinks that was a bit of an error because um he paid for it later on.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it'd be interesting to see how it plays out.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think based on the reckies I've seen my athletes do recently, that high spy catbell section.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think from Honester, there's still about 700 metres of climbing in that last section.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that'd be a big part of it, won't it?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, you're right.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like from Seattle, from that second aid station, which is I'm just checking on the map now, it's it's about 10 miles in.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've pretty much run flat and it's really nice.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it you feel good running it.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um you are climbing slightly, but it's very gradual.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then that big climb up Scarfell where you're probably feeling super warm and fresh, big descent.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And like you say, I think that that's going to be a key for a lot of people is coming into Aid Station 3, fresh enough to really push on in the back half of the race.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, which again, classic 50k strategy, right?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to give it all too soon.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at the profile of the course, that that obviously Scarfell stands out.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you're right.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: When you climb up from 250 up to 650, up onto high spy, so 400 meter climb, which is pretty steep, um, and quite grassy and stuff.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what conditions are going to be like underfoot.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think you said Bertie had been up in Wrecky, so maybe we'll touch on that afterwards.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it'd be a little bit wet.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but definitely could be slippy up through there, and then just those little bumps that seem like nothing but uh 40k into a race feel like death.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, probably at least five, six hundred metres left of climbing after descending from Honester and starting that high spy climb, and then the last what yeah, couple of miles pretty much flat back into town.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So classic, classic.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: So why are we bothered?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we doing such a deep dive into this particular race?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because we obviously don't do this for all of the all the run-through trails races.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: This year we've got about 20 significant run-through trails races split across Europe and the UK.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Lake District really being the first of this year.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: It would have been Lulworth Cove, but unfortunately that was postponed because there was horrendous flooding all over Dorset and the south coast.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it, I mean, the event village was literally underwater, it wasn't passable, so we've had to push that one back to September.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, this is gonna be our premier event for this year.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um but what makes it extra special this time is that we're actually hosting a few different kind of national competitions, which is super exciting.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's British Trail Champs, and it is also the qualifier for the European Off-Road Running Championships, um, to essentially allow the selectors to choose the team who are gonna go and race in Slovenia in June.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we've also got a bit of a home counties, home country's presence as well.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know there's an England team, I'm not actually sure about um Scotland and Wales, but uh I know there's gonna be a bit of presence there as well.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: So Lewis, do you mind for people listening, maybe just filling them in a little bit on how this works with regards to selection for Europeans and the the type of athletes that we're seeing coming to this race and what what it even means to have a have a trial race, like how they pick these people?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think firstly it's amazing that they have selected a trial race because I think it always brings out the best in people and it brings the best people to compete against the best people, which is what I like to see.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's one thing, you know, selecting a team off current form, it's another thing selecting a team when it's an actual race.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the first two across the line at the trials um will be automatically selected if the selection uh panel feel it's uh beneficial to take a team to the Europeans, which I assume they will do because we'll have a strong team.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the GB team is usually strong, and the team from the late district at the weekend will be selected in what they call like the the trail race, uh which is the one that you represented GB in in Annecy.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just what was that, two years ago now?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 2024.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so there'll be uh four women and four men selected for that team, and then three of those will score as part of that team when they go out to the European.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what they're looking for is the first two across the line at the trials, which we'll get this weekend, and then there's two discretionary spots which will be picked after the trials, and they'll be picked on um the people who have come third and fourth will obviously take preference, so they'll be the people who take preference if they feel like they have um earned their spot and they can add value to that team.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what people can do who aren't attending the trials is they can put in an expression of interest and they can say, Look, I'm not gonna be at the trials for one reason or another.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to put in my expression of interest, and I would like to be considered for that team.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that team, I believe, is gonna be picked on the 13th of April.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So on the Monday, they will have the team ready to go for Slovenia, which is on the weekend of the 5th to the 7th of June.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exciting stuff.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for that to be at one of our events is is absolutely class.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of thing we wanted for a while.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know Chris and the rest of the guys over on the top flight side of things have been doing a great job over the last two years, two and a half years now, um, really getting that up and going with the live streams and the prize money, and we're starting to see some properly competitive races.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: This for me is the first properly competitive trail race that we've had at our run through trails event.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it's something that you and I are both passionate about.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: It might not be a main focus of the brand, because obviously we're much more focused on putting on the best possible events that we can and inspiring people to get outdoors and and try new things.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but secretly we're quite into the elite side of the sport as well.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And this is, yeah, I mean, a huge honour to be honest, and very, very exciting for for me and for the whole team.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so on top of the European qualifier um or trial race that Lewis has just described there, it's uh it's also gonna hold its place as as British Trail Championships.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um middle distance British Trail Champs.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: I should have probably looked a lot more into this because it it can get a little bit confusing sometimes with the different classifications.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know that when I raced at the Forester Dean, um, which would have been start of last year, that was British short trail champs.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that was over half marathon distance, pretty much, wasn't it?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, and that's just been again, so that's that's already happened, yeah.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just happened again.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it'll be the the kind of like the mid-distance, which usually falls between sort of 40 and 50k.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, they've had it in different venues over the years, but it'll be good to have it a run through trails.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I think there's something about that for the the mass athletes as well, you know, the people who are going there to be part of that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the beauty of this sport, is you get to compete against the best people, and you're all there, and like, you know, they might drop out and all of a sudden you beat the best in the world.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: This for me is the most exciting thing about this entire by far the coolest thing is there'll be people on that start line that don't even know anything about what's going on.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we're going to do the best job that we can to promote it and talk about it and make a big fuss because it is a big deal.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can actually see my phone pinging off Sam's chatting to Angela in the WhatsApp group.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: So plans are being made, things are happening.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: But you could just have a rapid local rock up, and if he places first or second, he's getting first dibs on those spots to go to the Europeans, he or she.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is an open race, so it doesn't you don't have to have expressed interest in taking part in the trial to be considered in the British Champs race or the European qualifier.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to take part and race.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So that that is just pretty cool.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that it isn't like this slimmed down field of people who are being considered it's every all five, six, seven hundred people, well, not in the 50k, but whatever who however many people take part in the 50k could earn that spot, could win a place on the podium as one of the fastest trailrunners in Britain.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, pretty cool, pretty cool.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right, well, let's touch quickly before we get into the fields um on conditions because we're still obviously we're a week out pretty much.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: You and I are going to be out there on Friday afternoon, um, and the operational team will be setting up all day, all day Friday.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And as I said, the event starts Saturday morning.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward at the long-term weather forecast.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking like maybe some showers in the morning, but pretty much cloud, bit of sun, moderate temperatures, no crazy wind.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of perfect conditions.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: But you did mention Bertie, who's someone we're going to talk about um in this podcast who's taking part, had been out for a bit of a recce, and there was some some snow still on the on the ground and stuff.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, what would he fed back in terms of course conditions at the moment?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think one of the big things was it is is still wet up there.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: They've had a lot of rain.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, a lot of the the UK has.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: As you mentioned, Lulworth was cancelled not that long ago due to flooding.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it is still wet, it's still sloppy.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there was snow at the top of Scarfell, but it was more of a dusting, it wasn't thick snow, so that wasn't too bad.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the good thing about water is like I know I think run-through trails events are very generous with their aid stations, by the way.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think the amount of aid stations out there is sufficient, but it's also worth knowing that there's a lot of running and flowing water.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do have a filter on your soft lask, which I would recommend for certain people, there might be opportunities to fill high up as well.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you could technically get some more water on.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's going to be too warm, so I don't think you need to think about jumping in streams and that type of stuff.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, the the general feedback from the athletes who I've had go up there is the the first part is still very runnable, it's starting to dry out, it's a bit wetter as you get up the top, and there are some swappy sections, uh particularly through the grass sections.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, a bit of a mix, which is nice, isn't it?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't just play into somebody's hands if it's one where what if they're suited to one the one dimension.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean that's what you want it to be.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, I was chatting to Simon the other day, um, one of the venue managers at at Run Through.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: He'd just been out and raced Bill in half last weekend, and uh we were chatting about Manchester coming up because obviously I'm racing Manchester in a couple of weeks now, um, and he was having flashbacks to taking part at Manchester Marathon last year.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: People with sponges and ice packs.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: He said it was like 20 23 degrees when he finished at midday, like it was absolutely boiling, and I I can't even like I can't even comprehend that in Manchester in April.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So he you just never know this time of year.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's odd.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm in Annecy right now, I know Annecy's not Keswick, it's quite a bit further north, but it's 25 degrees.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nico and Amelia have just gone off to the beach, like it's absolutely boiling.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so yeah, you don't know what you're gonna get, do you?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, London last year was extremely hot, wasn't it?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: The week after Manchester.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Same day, same day, of course.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, same same day as Shakespeare.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Look, they all fell on the same day.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if I remember rightly, that was also the same day as the three peaks.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Which possibly it was, I think.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Ben Rothery, who's one of the guys we're gonna chat about here, he won that last year in hot conditions, and then obviously went on to be he was one of the people actually who didn't um do the trial race last year.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He put in an expression of interest, so there's a good example of somebody who showed form, you know, and then was picked off the back of something that was very good.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, um yeah, I remember it being hot actually, and it it will play a part.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have people who are bare in the heat and people who aren't, but doesn't look like it's gonna play a part this weekend.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, quite likely not.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: That I mean, that day last year that was also uh Canyons, we're not because you could be doing the three peaks, wouldn't you?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was like every race happening on the same day.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to be fair, with the expression of interesting, it was the same as when I ended up racing in Annecy that year for GB, we'd gone out to Grand Canary, hadn't we?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because they'd selected that as the trial race, the the 42k or whatever, like transgrand canary, and I had a niggle and couldn't race, but you could still kind of say you'd like to be part of the team.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, end of the day, it's just messy, isn't it?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: People have niggles, people have injuries, people have commitments through sponsors and all sorts of stuff going on.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: But um, regardless of that, whoever crosses the finish line, first, second, third, male, and female in the 53k on Saturday are gonna be the British Trail Champs for 2026, which is pretty spectacular.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and are going to kind of have that first dibs on on the first and second selection spots for Europeans in in Slovenia.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do they choose to take that up?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: So let's have a quick look at our field then, mate.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Should we start off with the with the women's field?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know they're they're both super competitive.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I was going through them and you know, picking out who are potentially favourites and ones to watch, like one thing I want to say here is inevitably I listen to these podcasts all the time when people are previewing races and they always miss someone.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sat at home screaming, going, Why are you not talking about this person?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're sat at home thinking, why are James not mentioning me or somebody I know, we can only apologise.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we get as much information as we can.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: We troll through Itra and UTMB to look at scores, we then look at past races, but there'll probably be somebody we miss, and that for me would be great if we have, because then that shows us a bit of a surprise in there.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So apologies if we don't mention your name.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that we've overlooked you, it's probably that we've just kind of missed it or wasn't on the start list that we were given.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I mean, I've gone with two sections, James.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone with like ones to watch who are kind of like a little bit of uh what I would you know describe as like the dark horses or maybe names that have come up quite late.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I've also gone with a list of kind of five or six women who I think will be super competitive based on a number of factors, whether that's recent form, whether it's more past history, whether it's just a big name, which there are a couple in there.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, who who took you by surprise who you saw on that start list?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because the one that took me by surprise.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, pretty pretty cool to see that Beth Pascal's racing.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, yeah, big name.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, Holly met her in Anna C Chelsea, met her a few times now.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great runner.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can't you can't say names without missing people out, like you said, but whatever.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, obviously I knew Bertie was racing.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was hoping Lou could make it up.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's cool to see Keith there.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Keith Keith's on a bit of a hot streak.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, like Ben as well.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that finish at the arc was was great.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: So well, let's let's dive into it.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let's dive into it.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's let's go with the women's first off.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So at the top of my list, and this is in isn't in order.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's more that I've just gone through the start list and picked them out.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I've gone Scarlett Dale, she's been up in the lakes, she's been training well, uh, she's been on the course.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen some of her recis come up.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I must say, like, you know, you never quite you can't grasp everything from a recce.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the thing with Scarlett is she does have some more experience over the long.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Longer distances, especially 50k.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: She had a good run at OCC a few years ago, and she was past she was part of that past Euros uh team as well.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe she did the up and down that year, I think, or might have even done both the up and the up and down.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go back and check that.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: So Scarlett has past European form, she's made teams before, she's good over the 50k, and she has almost like what I classes like that course and distance experience of being in the lakes and getting able being able to get out on the course.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I would put her in there as like a you know, uh definitely somebody who's one of the favourites.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, yeah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh 100%.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, 690 are these itra or utmb?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: These are itra, and I went with it because I feel like they're fairer scores in the non-UTMB races.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um they give me more of a yeah, 690 is pretty high, isn't it?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah, and and like you say, that coming down in distance is gonna help because it's not an insane total amount of elevation over the entire course.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it's it's hard to gauge, isn't it?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because every tool is gonna give you a different a different readout, and this is a new route for us, but well over two and a half thousand metres over 53k in challenging technical terrain.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: So not not an easy 50k route whatsoever.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but also not mega on the long side like Annecy, where it's 59k and 4,000 metres.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, yeah, maybe a happy medium.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to say whether it's gonna better suit people coming up in distance with a bit more speed or people dropping down with a bit more resilience.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, actually.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't maybe the faster guys, to be fair, which is is is quite a good point to lead on to like Hollywood and obviously won the Dragon's Back race last year, which unfortunately might not go ahead now this year.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um doesn't get much longer.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get much longer than that.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Had a bit of time off uh to the back end of the year.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I believe that was for health reasons, uh, not for me to go into.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, she's back racing.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think she was super happy with a recent race.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was a sky race that she took part in.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but she signed with Ultra, she's part of that elite trail team.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know from being friends with Doug, who runs the elite trail team, she'll be super prepared, she'll be ready.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and Holly's got loads of experience, so I'd suspect she'd be up there.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other Holly who I've put on there is Holly Page, and it's great to see her back because she was in Annecy as and ran the same race as you did in Annecy.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, she had a bad injury last year, I believe she went over on her ankle around the time of UTMB.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she is back racing, and that's good to see.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: But she did suffer as well a little bit with concussion um towards the back end of last year, I believe.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the bit the the big news is here, she's back racing, she seems to be in a good place, and she's on the start list, and she is, you know, looking at her score 7-3-4.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you were just going off scores alone, Holly would be the kind of the standout favourite, but we know it doesn't just come down to scores.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't, but yeah, definitely Holly very strong, very experienced, and um yeah, be very interested to see what she can do.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do the Itra scores deteriorate over time if you're not racing in the same way that the UCMB ones do?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe they probably do get affected in the same way as Beth Pascal's being affected with no ranking because she's not competed for a while.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, like her her second last well, her last scoring race, but Beth's on Itras is is Western States.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, it shows how far back that goes.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, Beth has had some time off because she's um had a family and she's become a mum, and she was back racing last year.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've seen she competed in like quite a few fell races.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think I read somewhere she'd done like nine fell races, but they were all short, so they weren't particularly long.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: So this is like a bit of a step back up for Beth, which is interesting.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Fee, her sister, has been an unbelievable four, like fifth at Western States last year.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, this is seeing Beth amazing.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't wait to see how she does.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, yeah, Beth Beth and Holly.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: You'd gotta just based on score and like past pedigree and results and stuff for me would probably be your two two favorites, but yeah, there's not enough in it for there to be a mega clear favourite here.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's enough factors in there that make it just super interesting.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, obviously Beth, like well, uh let's see.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean shortfell races coming back after some time off makes some sense, feels like something you'd do, right?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Get a bit of speed back, get a bit of intensity, kind of like you know, run a bit harder, um, build back into it.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, kind of cool that she's chosen this race.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if this is just suits well and she knows it's a good field, or if she's got her eyes on Europeans.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it'd be interesting.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't find out Beth was running until I seen Fee last week in London.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's oh yeah, she's gonna run run through race.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because I'd been sent like an elite entry list, and then I realised Beth was in kind of like the mass entry list, so I was like scrolling through.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh yeah, there she is, and got quite excited because yeah, obviously a class, um a class apart when it comes to winning races like Western States, but as you said, I don't think um past history just counts for everything.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of other factors that come into it, yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then we've got Emily Carper Cole's who interestingly has proven form like in the last year, was third at last year's trial race, actually did go to the worlds as well, so she's got championship experience.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I can't remember if Emily was one of the ones who went the wrong way last year, but there's a few who went the long wrong way last year in the trial race as well.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't know if she was affected, but ultimately, you know, she's pushed that score up towards 700.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: She has got good form over the last year and obviously can run well in the lake, so I dare say she'll be in the mix.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know if she's is she a lake district local?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're not sure.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Good question, good question.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't note down their clubs.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, based on how she ran last year, I would have said yes, but I'd I'd be guessing.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So uh apologies, Emily.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've not looked into where your club is or uh where you're currently living, um, but she's clearly good on the technical stuff.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just interesting, isn't it?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of the a lot of the we've talked about it in the past, a lot of the stronger British runners are obviously late district based, and there's a huge, huge contingent just around yeah, around the lakes in general.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I remember chatting to have one in Annecy at the time during Europeans, and a lot of people were down in bonus or Kendall or up in Keswick or whatever, but it's definitely um like growing up and running on this type of terrain and doing all your training on this type of terrain really does help a lot with that specificity.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Whether or not that then carries over into a course like what we've got in Slovenia, which uh it's not that I know the details of it, but from what I've heard, way more runnable and way less technical.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not so sure.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I have been advised that the profile of our race is very similar to the to the profile of Slovenia at least.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: So in terms of distance and elevation, there's a bit of a matchup, but it it did sort of sound like from chatting to the guys, um technicality is not going to be the same.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's true.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think, but it's really hard in our country to get the elevation without the technicality.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I know the first climb in Slovenia is like a thousand metres, um, so it's a huge climb.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then it drops down, and then there's some kind of punchy climbs in the second half, so it does replicate this really with Scarfell and then some punchy climbs, but yeah, the technicality I think is a lot different than what we'll see out in Slovenia, but I generally think you you tend to still get the fittest athletes getting picked.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think it's a good enough course and it's a runnable enough course in the lakes that it's not it's not like the sky race last year.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a sky race, yeah, yeah.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, um, so I think it will still filter out the people who would be better on that technical terrain.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's always the worry when you go to a fast runnable course that you get the people who are better on the technical stuff.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if it was like last year, we wanted more technical runners because Can Frank was a lot more technical than this was gonna be.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think they did the right thing last year with that trial race.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think that made a lot of sense last year.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was uh yeah, it's an insane, apart from the up and down, which was odd.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: But we're talking, I think we talked about that one.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um shame they couldn't find somewhere with 8,000 switchbacks in the UK to kind of model that because that's the main thing that everyone talked about.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, okay, cool, perfect.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: So they're they're our highest rated based on Itra score.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've put Beth in there, like it's saying they shouldn't have a score right now, but you win Western States, you're on that list forever, it's just the way it goes.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, some some super elite athletes there, which is very exciting.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then in your ones to watch list, Lewis.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll start with Chelsea.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um Itra score of six, seven, nine.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, had Chelsea on the podcast in the past.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um actually met Chelsea out in Gerona a couple of years ago now, and she was also at that Forester Diem Race.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've actually seen her all over the place to be fair.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Sall of an athlete, and has had some great performances.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: You've got down here top 30 at Zagama.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think she's also part of the Elite Trail team, right?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: I believe.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, she is, and she's kind of the reason I put Chelsea on here is because for me, she's one of the ones who's continually progressing, even though the scores seem to be getting harder to get.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: She's continually moving up and through.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I think she will be one to watch.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And generally speaking, she's had some decent results over like longer distance as well, like Zagama being in their top 30.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that is a good result, and we know Zagama can be quite technical and punchy as well.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I think she will be there.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I put Julia Davies on there as well, um, because she's had some good results in like Mallorca, for example.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh usually seen over the longer distances, it's fair to say.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I do think she stepped in for Sarah, um Forbes Smith, who unfortunately turned her ankle on a recce in the lakes in that England team.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Julia's now stepped into that team, so she'll be part of that England home nations team, I believe.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um could be wrong.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I threw her in there.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then Eve Pannone, who's like one of the younger athletes in the race, and yeah, she's got a good score.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: She's got like 7.15, but a lot of the shorter distances on her like scoring um system, and she did do a 30k on like the 14th of March this year, which is for me, that's probably like a bit of a I need to do some distance before this race.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's how I'd be thinking as a coach.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, you need to get something in, but I don't think that probably went as well as her shorter stuff has.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like a one-to-watch with interest of she could just come and you know smash it, but I'm also she's a bit unknown when it comes to longer stuff.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, exciting, yeah.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: So strong, strong women's field.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um flicking over and looking at the men, some more big names, and some people that we know quite well mixed in there as well.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um go on, I'll let I'll let you take it away.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's your list.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start out with Grant and go down from there, shall we?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Grant Grant ran really well at the trials last year, and I think he had a fall as well.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I think he you know he was in a really strong position.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: He had a good solid run at worlds as well.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, quite quick, Grant, as well.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he uh he's not too shabby over like the shorter stuff, so he's got some speed in the legs and good on the fell, so very good, like technically from when I when I've seen him run.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have heard that he might have been carrying a few niggles in though, so I don't know.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's a bit of like Chinese whispers type stuff, um, but there's usually no smoke without fire.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, not sure if he's in as good a shape as he was last year, but he was third at the trial race last year in a good solid at the world.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So he's gotta be you you can't discount him, definitely not.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's just one of those ones as well with Grant, he just puts himself out there, so he'll he'll go with it and he'll give himself the best shot.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean that that's the cool thing about this as well, is like we're not talking about people trying to run times or scores or qualifiers or whatever, it's just a race.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like the the lead packs are gonna go out, and all these guys are gonna be in them, right?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I I don't really see a world where these five men on the on the first list you've got here, the highest rated, aren't in that lead group together from the start.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see it, so it's gonna be a bit of a war of a war of attrition, proper race.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and obviously Grant Grant and Bertie would have won to get run together over at Worlds, wouldn't they?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, yeah, they did actually.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Grant Grant went off a little bit faster.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Grant for you know three or four hours that race was having a great run.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: He just faded a little bit towards the end, but he looked super strong early on.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Bertie uh came back and and finished 51st, and yeah, he was second scorer in that team at the Worlds.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he obviously won the trial race in in the lakes last year.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: He now lives in Annecy, so he's been able to get the climbing in, he's been able to work on the technical stuff.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but being honest, we we did focus a little bit more on the running at the start of the year, and he ran ran a half marathon.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if anything, he's he's coming in a bit underprepared when it comes to the racing on the technical stuff because he's ran a 65 half.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason for that was because he did a lot of 50ks last year as part of a very jam-packed calendar.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I I don't I don't think that matters at all.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, I what do I know?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I just don't think it matters.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like he won that trial race last year, it's basically a sky race, mega technical.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's training on technical trails all the time, and then he's done a block where he's got quick and run a half PB or close two or whatever.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, nearly a minute PB, yeah.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right, so like as fit as he's been, coming off the back of probably the best year he's had last year, he's been out to look at the route.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like he's um you know a foreigner to the type of terrain that he's going to be racing on.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: He had an amazing run there last year, beat Tom Evans's course record and won the trial race.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like that was that was an amazing run.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and also I think probably got a little bit of want in him as well after last year, where I know that he had like a load of good results, but maybe a few that were just a little bit behind what he'd hoped for.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: He definitely seemed motivated anyway, coming off the back of it.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like you certainly wouldn't say disappointed, but coming out of races thinking, yeah, it was good, but just haven't quite pieced it all together yet.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, I I I don't know.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's a bad move at all coming into this.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like you know, the season's young.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a lot of running to do this year.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that I mean a minute PB and a half just tells you that he's as fit as he's ever been.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you lose the technical skill, I really don't.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think it comes back very quick.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's like riding a bike.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we'll see.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that will be the that was the coaching plan.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see if it works.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I I buy it, I buy it.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, interesting.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, um, Bertie and Luke, like obviously Luke's got a higher score.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: So Luke Grenfelshaw, um, friend of the podcast, Luke's been on at least once, but I want to say a couple of times, maybe not.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we've had quite a lot to do with Luke over the years.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've just recently um started doing a little bit with him.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: I know he was out in Grand Canary as well.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's been over and done some talks for the run-through team and stuff, so yeah, we we both kind of know and love Luke Grenfelshaw.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he's down there with a score of 885.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so obviously significantly higher than anyone else on the list.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, was part of the GB team at the last Euros we ran together.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um recent DNF in Keanti, but he's had to be fair, like and to be transparent, like a lot of up and down results over the last last couple of years, really, hasn't he?
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: Luke's one who he seems like he either has an incredible race or blows himself up, and I think he'd probably say the same.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um but with this field in this length of race, because Luke isn't someone that I would put down as like a late district guy at all.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's not to say he's not good at technical running, because he definitely is, but he isn't like uh you know, I don't know.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's not Ben, he's not national fell champ.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's probably not his his bag, and he tends to do tends to do probably more on the longer end of stuff.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think Luke and Luke and Bertie's a pretty good race, to be honest.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's some different skill sets there.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there is definitely uh obviously coached them both, and there are different skill sets to to them, and they've got similarities as well.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, Luke didn't finish in Keanti, he was running really well until about 80k, he had a really bad um allergic reaction.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I saw that, yeah.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know what to two types of plants out there, but ultimately um he could barely see, his eyes were so swollen and his legs completely locked up, and he had reactions down his arms and fingers, and yeah, a really weird sensation.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's hard to judge that that race in isolation.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: What I do know is he's in a good place and he's recovered well, which is why he's gonna go there.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's got um, you know, there's there's sentiment to him being in the lakes, which I won't go into on a podcast, it's not for me to talk about.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but he really feels like he wants to be there for that reason, and that's why he's gonna go.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not ideal to come back after, you know, an attempt at a hundred mile, well, 120k, 100 mile category, and race a few weeks after, but based on what I've seen from his training, he has recovered well and he's bounced back well, so he's gonna go there.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of a free hit for Luke.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna trial some things that we want to trial, so it's a bit of a race where we can go and trial some stuff and just see how it goes.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, looking forward to him being there.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you did mention Ben, like, yeah, Ben's like national fellow champion.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Really cool story with Ben.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know Ben too well.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: I met him at the arc this year, he seems like a really nice guy, and everyone says he's a really lovely guy.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he won the British Fellow Champs last year and or English Fell Champs, and he he's put on his post.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think the first time he ever ran that, he was like 49, and then over like the years he's just progressed.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: And like, I think there's a story in that for anyone, you know, a bit of consistency, keep showing up, you know, and now he's national champion, so yeah, he'll be he'll be one to watch.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: He was first team G by male scorer back at Worlds, and he was third at the arc, which is a fast race, James.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know that's a fast race, so he clearly has some speed as well.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he's very, very good on the downhills.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I believe when you went to Euros, he was in that up and down team.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: There was a video of him a reel doing the rounds of him absolutely flying down this descent, so good on the technical stuff.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're not fell champ, if you're not good at descending, he he definitely is rapid downhill, and like you say, Ark, short, fast race, 25, but 25 miles, not 25k.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of comparable, obviously in good form.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Who who won the 25 at the arc?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of putting you on the spot, but you were there.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Robbie Simpson won.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was a really good race.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Raoul Rouse, who's uh, you know, top three podium at Marathon de Mont Blanc as well.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, really good company.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like that the scores were not reflective of that race.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was such a good race.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't actually looked at the scores.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: That was what I had in my head, was it was third, but it was a bloody good third because I knew that he was racing some some real people.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I mean Robbie's ridiculous.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, cool.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Ben in the mix as well.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely not going to be uh put off by the by the terrain and the technicality at all, like we said.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and a ton of experience competing for his country, competing abroad, in good form.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it's it's pretty stacked.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: The men's race, uh it on the face of it for me feels more evenly competitive, where all these guys on the right day could win it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the same applies to to Keith, obviously, bottom of our list here, but not by ranking.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: So he's actually the second highest rated, just a little bit higher than Bertie at 853.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: So Keith Wigley took second at the Arc 50 behind Chris Jones, who we know Chris is absolute world class.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so incredible run by Keith.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: He again, someone who's just been like on the on the up and up.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: I met him through Tom a couple of years back at Keswick Mountain Festival.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: So again, someone who's done a lot of running around uh around the Lake District and also another member of the elite trail team.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um long course at worlds, so it's a bit of a step down in distance.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Keith tends to do is he more 100k class?
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Has he ever gone up to 100 mile?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would say Keith is definitely more renowned for like the longer stuff, um, but he's he's clearly worked on his shorter stuff as well.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'll be honest, I think this might be a bit of a tactic to work on the shorter stuff because he's doing um Snowdonia 100k, and I've seen him recce in that.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not so sure that if Keith was in the top two, he would actually go to the the Euros because Snowdonia is only three weeks away from Euros.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm I think this is more of a training run for Keith based off what I've seen of his social media, but I wouldn't discount him.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's good technically.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, not at all.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's I think you know he spends a lot of time up there.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as you say, he's he's part of that elite trail team ultra athlete, and yeah, he's he's pretty good on the technical stuff based off what I've seen.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think Keith will be definitely in the mix, and I think you are right, James.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like almost like throw a blanket over them at the start of the race because I think they might all be together for quite a while.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I think so.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and oh god, a part of me's sort of glad I'm not racing because I know what Luke's like, and I know what like oh I don't know, I've not racing with these other guys, but it's not gonna go out slow, I'd say that.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's gonna be a horror show, isn't it?
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be interesting.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think the place to be, well, no, no, let's let's go into ones to watch now and then we'll have a little chat for anyone who's out and about um coming up to the event or who's gonna follow along because we will have GPS tracking.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna have a live stream or anything, unfortunately.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit a little bit complex at the moment and difficult for us to deliver um at such short notice.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: But that is something we want to look at at doing in the future, although obviously just a lot of a lot of technological challenges, but we will be doing a certain level of kind of coverage on the day through the run through trails Instagram channel.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think you and I may be going to do some some story posts through the day.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that we're going to have some some race recaps and some like on course videography which Jamie and the team are organising coming out the following day.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll definitely capture some of the some of the action out on course and we'll definitely be getting you guys updates on Instagram and we'll have the tracking link which is live.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you can you know you can follow along but let's get into that in a second.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: First of all let's go through your your ones to watch so these are the people who weren't highest rated in the men's field but you think could have a good chance at sort of stepping up and and having a good race I'm just going to touch on Daniel Connolly first of all because we talked about him when we first started recording um just earlier Lewis so Daniel pretty sure he took first place in the in the 23k at the lakes last year he definitely podium I'm pretty sure he won it and we had we had a good chat afterwards great athlete obviously ran an amazing race and was very confident on the terrain in fact I'm pretty sure he's he's late district based um if I remember rightly when we were chatting you've got a note here that he was fourth at the Arc 25 um last year in 2025 so again another another solid result and if I remember rightly chatting to Daniel he was going up in distance um this would have been sort of yeah spring last year so he'd he'd been erased the arc and then done the 25 and he'd mentioned that he wanted to come back and take part in the 50k I actually have a sneaking suspicion that he was off to OCC last year but I I'd have to go check the the results.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was I I bet you remember the conversation now we're having it I think he was actually he qualified for the Golden Trails World final so he was in that final one and he he'd qualified through the series for that and he had a solid run out there as well he had a generally a really good season and I think Dan is one of those ones that if he's fit if he's on form he's always going to be in the mix so I put him on there because I really like him as an athlete I think he's he's shown enough over the years and being in the lakes I think he'll be he'll certainly give himself a chance yeah so yeah just flicking through some of his results he has still been on on shorter stuff it's my thing De Mont Blanc he did the short race yeah he beat Bertie there beat Bertie there interesting brutal race that net uphill thing what a horror show but yeah anyway so definitely Daniel returning champion stepping up in distance and see what he can do he's got a lot of experience on the on the big stage racing against proper fields um who else have we got on your your list here Lewis how about your name's sake yeah I got Lewis Lewis Boness I was really impressed with him at the Art 50 ran a really good race and was like closing in on Keith.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Keith and um Chris had a big lead but Lewis ran a really smart race there he came through and I think openly said you know afterwards it was probably his best resort to date very familiar as he lives in the lakes so he's going to be good on that terrain and obviously the art 50 was a good kind of you know seven to eight hour race so you know this will probably be more like five to six for the elite men and women so I think it's a little bit of a step down for him but if he handles the terrain well he's clearly strong on it I'll be interested to see how he goes so he's kind of like my one to watch in terms of I'm just interested to see how he gets on because it's another it's definitely another step up but if he steps up again then I think he'll be right in the mix.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah then the other ones like longer distance guys probably the two more longer distance out of everyone like Andy Berry so he's very well known Andy Foabrari so ninth at Transgrand Canary in 2025 which that is a good run in Transgrand Canaria.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the classic in the 125 or whatever yeah okay yeah so that's a very good run and obviously being second at Snowdo only a hundred miler I believe he had like the you know Andy had one of the 100k records I believe or one of the records for like the fastest distance done on UK soil so like very very good very competent runner um and then the other Andy the Andy Simons uh definitely suits the longer distances you know you regularly see him at some of the big long distance races like the UTMB races um he was at UTMB famous he ran across the line at UTMB holding a hook cap from a car if people remember that it's like yeah running through um but no Andy I think oh I think I've got this right he ran actually the French trials just last weekend because he lives in France so he ran the French version of these trials he didn't do amazingly well there so I think maybe that was a bit of a tune up race but I'll be interested to see how he does on more like suited ground because again he's more familiar with this type of terrain over here so yeah just a couple of people to add to the mix from the uh the longer distance guys yeah no definitely um do you think they all go out together?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think like Lewis and Daniel and Andy these guys are going to be straight in that lead pack with Luke and Keith and and the lot I'm I'm trying to get my head around what how it plays out.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things that everyone's gonna have to be a bit conscious of is um you know it's gonna feel fairly you know fairly swift down that flat section and people who are genuinely fast uh are probably going to be cruising down there whereas I think people can get dragged into what is a cruising speed for people who are fast and they're just working a bit too hard to stay with it.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the smart people might hang back and might pick up what you described as like the the end piece is the war of attrition at the front and someone someone will run into the top four or five who's come from further back.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: It it will happen there will be like some of the names if if assuming they all start and everything hopefully they do um not all I don't think that top five will be the top five because someone will get blown up because they'll be going for a podium because it's it's a race and like you say the back end of the course is not forgiving and if you are cramping and seizing up and your feet are knackered because you've been running down on talus and loose crap all day long and you're exhausted trying to scramble down to the sections on the catbells and up to high spy and stuff like it's slow going man it you can't really just survive it and cruise it.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's not cruising terrain it's like it's a battle so yeah I think it makes for some really interesting racing I mean whoever comes over catbells in the lead is going to be hard to catch because you know the descent off there isn't that significant where it's going to make that big of a difference and then it flattens out and you basically they finish so yeah that would be a really interesting spot to be up in between high spy and catbells to see who's coming through towards the end but I don't think the order people come through aid station three in Wasdale is going to be the order they finish in at all.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: No definitely not I in fact when I'm looking at the route I'm like race starts at Wasdale like you know you've you've got a yeah well I'm not gonna give all my coaching philosophy away because I've got athletes in there.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not I'm actually not going to say anything about that.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well well I I I will I will I think you you know that you've got technical big climb up over Scarfell and a descent down into Wasdale you know that they're gonna push it on a little bit and for some people traveling through that type of like loose crappy slippy terrain that's that's steep and like you say it's runnable but it isn't runnable in the same way that like a European trail through the forest is it's it's sapping you know it's it's tiring and especially if it's windy and cold up there as well it's it's just just a harsh place.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and I think yeah trying to hang on to people who can move well through that sort of terrain up that 750 meter climb up Scarfell will be the the undoing of a few people where I think if you're smart and a group's pulling away that's probably not the place to push it on too much and to really come through Wosdale feeling good and you've got a lot of time to pull it back like as you said another another two two and a half hours um so yeah interesting no I'm I'm I'm very excited for it I've I've not even like thrown I could have like my I could have gone forever on this list because I I get so excited when I see people racing and you know Harry Bolton for example who had a good run at a trial last year you know top six at the trial last year I've not even put him on this list but that shows how strong it is like it's really really strong and I I think it's class that so many women and men are getting together and they're willing to put each put themselves on the line and compete against each other.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a shame we don't have an Naomi Lang in the women's race because you said there's no standout favourite but you throw an Naomi Lang in there we've got a standout favourite you throw Chris Jones in the men's who was meant to be running unfortunately she's got a bit of a niggle we have a standout favourite but I think by pulling them two out it's made it almost more interesting yeah it you know it does I mean yeah like Chris would be amazing Naomi be amazing it'd be amazing to see Gemma race in there.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's not her cup of tea and she's doing different things now but there's I mean the scene is just class there's so many people that you could throw in there now even even like a Tom like why not depending on what his plans are for the year and stuff.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah I mean for me from a we've got different sort of like skin in this game I suppose haven't we you've got athletes racing um who you want to perform well because they want to make it to Europeans and they want to kind of whatever get get a bit of mojo back get a bit of momentum coming back into the summer season and stuff so you've got to sort of think about it from that perspective for me is an interesting one because this was on my long-term plan for probably 18 months or something this was one that I was going to raise to try and go to Slovenia.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: We've had a change of plans which I actually I'm happy about and feel good about um but obviously this now happened at a run through trails race is just super exciting from a professional point of view for me working with the guys working with the team making sure that we put on the best possible race like there's definitely some some pressure there obviously and the more big names you see on the list and the more you want to get it right but uh but I've got complete confidence in the guys that they're going to absolutely smash it um and hopefully I'll get to just rock up and and kind of follow along and and watch it all unfold but yeah super excited to be there.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also sort of glad that the weather isn't horrendous because it takes a bit of something away I mean the one thing with the lakes is if it if it does piss down and go 50 mile an hour wind at least it's the lakes and so it feels appropriate.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: But no one wants that I don't think they they got quite bad weather for the the sky race last year and like you say people just kind of accept it because it's the lakes and you're like oh what it lakes yeah but no I I think yeah I'm I'm I'm super excited by it I think maybe we should just touch on who could put in an expression of interest because that's like for me that's where my head's at I obviously know Gemma has put one in and she's made that public so I have no problem talking about that.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe I think Chris Jones would have but I believe he hasn't because I think he's just trying to focus on the back end of the year now.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it leaves the question as to who could they pick if somebody put that expression of interest in or are we just going to see the first four across the line like and it is it it is an interesting question.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I mean I'm not as good at this whole following the sport thing as you are but for me names that sort of spring to mind in terms of the big names who could jump in and want to take part in something like this it's Tom Evans, Chris Jones, Robbie Simpson um like they're the three first people that spring to my mind that I could see going and taking part in this in this race.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: I guess part of me kind of thought maybe uh Tom might jump in Tom Jolly might take part but I know he's obviously focused on on longer stuff and he he's he's living a bit a bit far away so it's probably not ideal for him.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah I mean that they'd be the first three names that would spring to my mind um what if they put the names in the hat you'd have to consider them.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: One who I thought who you know I think would be amazing over this distance by the way tends to go to the longer stuff is John Albin.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah would you you'd have to pick him right if he oh yeah yeah yeah so so John I didn't even say Thomas Roach either that's and that was the other one well which isn't on there yeah yeah but but can you select Thomas after he dropped out at Worlds um I would I would you see I I probably just after staying in a room with him and seeing him race in Annecy that year like well he just he he went out he's there to win the race he's like you you're taking a team based off potential to place highly and he has a lot of that potential and someone like Luke who's incredible Thomas smashed him on the day right so that I know it's a couple of years ago two years ago now yeah couple of years ago and he's he's on the older side but I just ran a PB and I'm 40 next year so you know um dilemma isn't it for selectors like I look at his recent race results and I say there's nothing there that warrants a pre-selection anymore whereas there was stuff there before like he was pre-selected last year for the world and he didn't finish the world so like for me it's like yeah interesting goes against you then um but he's a class act like you say and selectors need to sit there and go could he help us win a medal and if the answer's yes he probably needs to be picked so it's tricky so it's so difficult do you gamble on a team that could podium or do you go with a team that can you know whatever like you can have a number of people in the top 50 more exciting when you gamble well yeah it's more exciting when you gamble and go big but like then again for me I think from a from a fairness perspective unless someone's run and if I guess they they'll have ways of obviously working this stuff out but if it was me sat here now going to the trial and winning is worth a lot and so unless you've had an out of this world performance or two in the last 12 months that make it very clear that you're capable of pushing out the type of performance to compete for top ten overall in Slovenia then you shouldn't really bump someone who made the effort to go and take part in the race so I I'd probably see it that way.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you if it's very likely you're in shape to re to place top ten in June you gotta take you but if if there's any question mark you've got to go with the guys who went and performed on the day I suppose yeah very true.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and on and on the women's side you know we spoke about Naomi Lang I believe I'm not 100% certain but I believe Naomi Lang's more interested in the up and down.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Scout Adkin would probably do the up and the up and down so again she'll probably stick to those Elsie I don't know about Elsie Elsie would be one you'd you'd throw in there if she expressed interest I believe she would you know certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons there.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: Gemma's obviously expressed interest so I won't comment on on her because she's my wife and it seems a bit inappropriate to do so but she's put her name in there as well Fee Pascal but I know she does want to do it she's doing Western States so that's her not in there.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if there's anybody outside of that list who have missed who would warrant a pre-selection I feel like we've covered everyone there and out of all those I don't know about Elsie Naomi and Scout I'm pretty certain would do the others and Fee is definitely doing Western State so I think that just leaves Gemma um so who knows let's see interesting you said some good results anyway um yeah cool well I mean we can sort of leave it there let let's maybe just touch we spend two minutes talking to the people listening in case obviously I'm imagining some of the listeners right now are going to be there on Saturday.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is going to come out quite close to the race.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: So final tips and prep you like you said you've got a few athletes racing in this specific event is there anything particular that you've been looking at strategically that doesn't give too much away that's maybe useful for the for the mass field?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've got to be really careful with that first climb because I think you can get lulled in as Joe did last year to a false sense of security of oh this is being great and that climb may come early on where you're still feeling fresh but it's like still within the first third of the race and there's a lot of steep hard climbing to come in the back end.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say as well like one thing to be aware of is that descent down into Wasdale can get quite busy because it's a really popular tourist path so just be aware of that and focus on your sighting a lot of people tend to look down as they're descending you know that's a big no no James like try and look sight up and down up and down so you can see what's coming that'll really help with your rhythm and take advantage of the aid stations you guys have got some great aid stations out there like make sure you are filling up and making sure like even if it's cold make sure you get enough fluid because you don't want to go short in the lakes you you get high up and expose very quickly so yeah make sure you stock up on food uh fluid and and your fuel and then if you come in to watch there's some great spots like aid station one two and four are like really close to each other so if you've got a car get down to Seathway Sea Tollen and get up Honester you'll get some great things up there.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah don't be taking drop bags or gels to your wife or husband who's racing and say you're gonna meet them at Wazdale because it's like a two hour drive from Keswick.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's another easy to get down to aid station three um which makes the setup kind of interesting but yeah don't do that aid stations wise as Lewis just mentioned so 7k 16k 29k 38k 49k so five aid stations total last one obviously very close to the finish but just to add it in there for people who are kind of just just beat those cutoffs and I think my main advice for people in that situation who are coming out to take it on as a challenge and try and try and beat the cutoffs which are generous but not ridiculous I was about to say what the cutoff was then and I thought I'll double check it because I I don't want to misspeak um but yeah cutoff of 13 and a half hours in the 15k um which is very reasonable and very doable don't try and get time back descending that path to Warsdale from down Scarfell because it's all rocky and it's a massive descent and if you destroy your quads there you are going to be hating life climbing up high spy trying to make those last couple of cutoffs so take it nice and easy all the way over Scarfell first bits of perfect warm-up ease into it you'll have no issues at all with the aid stations there.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like bearing in mind that these cutoff times are like fast hike you know jog fast hike you don't need to run any of the climbs to make these cutoffs if you hike them with intention and then you jog when it flattens out so I would say that I would say take it super cautiously all the way round to Wasdale and then see how you get on but do not run that Scarfell descent too hard because if you blow your legs up there's a long way to go that'd be my main probably tip yeah yeah I agree with that I think if you try and go too hard at home thing I want to take advantage of the running and the the first descent and really enjoy myself down this first descent and go mental um you'll pay for that later on because people people sometimes look at a course and think oh the harder stuff's in the back half so I'm gonna go harder in the first half so that um I take advantage of the running all that does is it zaps your energy in the legs for the harder section which makes the harder section even harder um which is where you learn leak time so yeah be very careful with that.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah your first first third of the race is flat so just remember that when you're a third of the way you're feeling like a god I'm gonna give one tip actually there is a section in the flat section which isn't too far from the hotel we usually stay at for our runners retreat which comes aft between the youth hostel and uh the Glarimara hotel which is where we stay and it's got like a a chain or like a rope chain and it's not like super technical but you cannot run it.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've done that plenty of times you can't run that section it's very flat but you can't run it I I tried I tried I know what you mean you know what I mean it's yeah yeah it's like it's a little scramble I mean it's flat and like nothing you can't hurt yourself but yeah you you can't you can't run it.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you've just got to be aware that that is a walk that even the leaders will walk across that so yeah I know I've said to the guys around with don't just don't let it take you by surprise and it's not super technical it's quite flat but it's quite fun as well that section I quite like it add something.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's great yeah it's really nice before you pop back out onto the into the field and down onto the road yeah um cool well I mean I I think that'll that'll do it.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_01: Super excited for the weekend if you are coming along like Lewis said on top of all the fluid and hydration and everything the guys do an amazing job of marking the trails but especially up on Scarfell and stuff you're very limited for locations to place trail markers and a lot of races do like self-navigation and Orienteer style races for those reasons.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be marking the full course as we always do and I know the guys who do the best job they possibly can but this is one that I'd highly recommend a GPX track for some of the trails aren't particularly clear you get so much walking traffic and so many sheep and livestock everywhere there's just bloody paths everywhere.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_01: Take the GPX track it's gonna save you a lot of headaches there there are a load of places no matter how well it's marked where you can make a wrong turn and end up 50 metres down a trail you didn't need to go down.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely worth a GPX track and take your time on the navigation and outside of that rest up and have a good taper this week and uh I suppose we'll see you all there on on Saturday morning.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_00: Any any final words Lewis or that's pretty much everything covered the only thing you can do now is overdo it.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: So chill out people you know if you're racing chill out enjoy the rest of the week we'll see you in the lakes we'll give you a cheer out there and uh yeah enjoy the adventure because it'll it'll be tough but just embrace the adventure and you'll absolutely love it.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_01: All right well if you are going to follow along and you're not gonna be there on the day make sure you check out the Run Through Trails Instagram channel.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be sharing the GPX track in and like I say all the all the updates and stuff are going to be on there.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can follow along all the athletes not just the elite athletes with the GPS trackers through open tracking.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, outside of that, good luck to anyone who's taken part.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: Come and say hi if you're there.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lewis and I will both be there.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, can't wait to see some racing.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for that mate.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_01: That was very enjoyable.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um super excited for Saturday.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you there.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: See you there.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_01: Cheers everyone.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: See you all soon.