Guy won my mate’s Devon coast to coast this morning in sub 21 hours. Course is a good 110 miles across both Dartmoor and Exmoor! He’d done well at rhe Arc previously apparently, as well as some of the Scottish races. But I don’t know him.
My mate just finished second with a 23.30 which is very impressive. Perhaps more so is another of our crew who’ll be done in the next hour (for a 25-26hr finish) as he’s mid 50s and a tradey who works a very manual job. Absolute beast.
FML 11000m vert 
Home and done!
That last section was by far the easiest terrain, should have been quite fast, but sleep deprivation and painfully blistered feet made sure it wasn’t easy.
Well done Doug, amazing affort that I can’t begin to fathom! 
Absolutely herculean effort Doug. So much respect to you sir!
That’s good going!
Superb @doug
Stupendous effort
Brilliant effort, Doug! Seriously impressive
Have been dot watching for the last few days apart from today so finally catching up now. That is just extraordinary @doug . I can’t imagine how you must feel after 200 miles? Congratulations. An epic achievement
Just awesome @doug . Now time for you to relax .
What an amazing effort @doug definitely deserve a good rest. Looking forward to the race report.
I think that’s a distance record for our little ultra community here isn’t it?
I was listening to an older Ultrarunning Sam’s podcast yesterday re this saga and the Ultra X name came up a lot as a contender.
Honouring existing entries is an amazing result!
Wild Horse 200
I had planned for this year to be an attempt at going long and had entered the Northern Traverse (300km/190miles), I had previously done the Lakes Traverse (1st 100km of the route) and had good experience of Ourea events, so was a we bit shocked to find that with 2 weeks to go Ourea had home bust and the race was cancelled. I’d heard good things about the Wild Horse 200 across south Wales so when I saw it was only 2 weeks later and still open for entries, I put my entry in.
I didn’t have a chance to recce the route, but had done number of events across some of the course in the Bannau Brycheiniog, so was at least familiar with the type of terrain.
Drove down to park my car at the finish at Worms Head, met up with some old hands who had done the race before and then caught the race provided coach to the start line in Chepstow.
Checked into my room and went down to registration and race brief. There were a lot of returnees and everyone was friendly.
Weather for the first day looked mixed, with some heavy showers and high winds, but also some sunshine, things looked better later in the week.
Race morning, had a pb sarnie and coffee, wandered down to the startline, had another coffee and a banana and at 6am we were off. It was a little overcast but dry so good running weather, we went out by Chepstow castle and the racecourse, it was gently rolling trail. Tintern soon approached and I was settling into an easy rhythm, especially on the flat section along the River Wye. A couple of short hills through some woods and then down into Monmouth, stopped off in a bakery for sausage roll and a coke (no IrnBru !).
Sun was out and it was beginning to warm up a tad. More gently rolling hills, the when approaching a farmhouse, a rather upset lady started shouting at me to come over, I thought oh shit, have some runners spooked the livestock or left gates open or something else that she wanted to rant about. I went over to see what I could do to calm her down, and it appeared that it was her dog had run off and could I be on the look out for a collie and ring the number on its collar? I assured her I would and would spread the word, caught up with a couple of runners and asked them to spread the word. Down across some fields and onto a lane and what should I spot running towards us was that errant collie, it was very friendly so wasn’t a problem to detain, tried to ring the number but had no signal, luckily there was a farmhouse a 200m back up the road so two of us took the dog there and the house owner rang the dog owner and said we could leave it with them (they had apprehended the dog before). Back up the road and we met the dog owner in her car coming to collect the dog, we had a quick chat and she was so grateful.
I didn’t linger in CP1 and headed off for Skirrid, the first major climb of the race. It was quite breezy up top. Down, into a thunderstorm and into Abergavenny for a Greggs vegan sausage roll and another coke (still no Irn Bru). Out of town and over Sugar Loaf, it was getting dark and I can’t really recall much of the next few tops, just follow the path then descend into CP2 at Crickhowel. This is the first sleep stop so I had a good feed and found a camp bed to try for a 90min snooze. Didn’t get much rest as it was busy, but every little helps, had some breakfast and headed out for the next section.
A couple of little lumps in the dark, then it was sunrise and down to CP3, quick stop here and onto Tor Y Feol, down to a dirttrack and then over some bog. Down to Taf Fechan reservoir for a gentle pootle round the lake. Then up onto the ridge heading towards Pen y Fan, wind was picking up again, then it started raining , then it became quite stinging rain blown head on. I was beginning to get bowel pain and was seriously questioning my life choices, but I had at this point I had gone further than I had ever gone before. Struggled on over the rest of the range and wind and rain eased as I descended, though bowel was complaining that it might not make it to CP4. Had to keep stopping to keep things under control. Onto the road and burst into CP4 ignoring all offers of food to head straight to the loo. Feeling relieved, I had a good feed and a slightly better 90 minute nap. Had the medic tape my blisters. Breakfast and out into the night to Brecon and onto Storey Arms, this was flat on canal and then road so was able to pick up the pace a little. The next section after Storey Arms was difficult to navigate bog, frequently no obvious path in the rain and dark, not my favourite. Eventually hit a dirt track and started heading town to CP5 at the Caving Club. Still having bowel issues and had to make an alfresco stop, I knew my trowel would come in handy. Pot noodle and bacon buttie later, felt better and headed off for CP6.
Over Fan Foel and then onto the CP, this the last sleep station and has proper bunk beds and a pizza oven! Had pizza then found a bunk and a really good 90 min nap, had my feet retaped by the medic who was teaching a girl for a Chookey Embra thing and grabbed some immodium, more pizza and was off again. Bowel was fine from this point on.
A few more tops, I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep catching up on me so had a 20 min nap in the sunshine before down into CP7, had a massive bacon, egg and cheese buttie, and was able to grab another 20 min nap. No medic here so I retaped my own feet.
Stopped at a minimart on the way into Pontardulais and found IrnBru at last ! Terrain should be easy from here on, no major climbs, but my feet and sleep deprivation were making it slow going. One section of trail obviously had had any maintenance - broken gates, barbed wire, missing stiles, and then suddenly proper gates and good trail. However I was falling asleep on my painful feet. Seriously considering dropping out at CP8, but my plan was to eat and see if I could get a decent sleep, even though it’s not an official sleep station. Luckily they were happy to let my use the back room for a couple of hours and I felt a lot better for it. Bacon buttie, quick checkover by the medic and out into the dark for the last stretch.
Route starts along easy coastal path and road and I was still moving then it turns inland over fields and I was really starting to flag again, I was micronapping every gate. Eventually the sun came up and it lifted my mood, but didn’t lift my pace by much. I spotted a bench on the overlook next to a caravan park and decided to have another nap, it was probably only 10 mins but it helped for a while. Along Rhossili beach past the surfers then the final push to the finish gate.
I obviously looked bad as the medic insisted he check me out, then took me off to the bunk house to patch up my feet and made sure I slept before I was allowed to drive to my airbnb.
101hrs 22 mins, 57th place out of 74 finishers and 115 starters, but I had the slowest last leg.
Sleep deprivation was weird, I never actually fell over, but did lose consciousness briefly as I walked, never had any full blown hallucinations but did have my mind interpret shapes in the dark as something they weren’t for brief moments.
My feet are in tatters, I’ve been to the local medical practice and had them checked over and dressed.
Many thanks to the course medics and checkpoint volunteers, without whom I would never have finished. From now on I’m sticking to shorter stuff or stage races.
Not read the post yet, but just scrolled and liked immediately for an epic performance.
Amazing effort and an brilliant account of such a tough race.
Interesting podcast by James Ellson this week, sounded like Centurion bid on some Ourea races but were out-bid.
awesome stuff.
Llongyfarchiadau
Mate. Hats off to you. That’s epic.
