By Sarah Lund

Just imagine….…  you’ve been up since 4am, you’ve been running for 16 hours, you’re exhausted, wet through and covered in mud.  Your legs have seized up from 4000m of elevation over the most technical terrain you’ve ever covered – oh and let’s not forget 4000m of descent too.  And a steep mudslide of a finish where you’ve fallen over about 30 times in the dark and rain.  You know the last cut-off is going to be tight.  You make a sprint for the finish but it’s not to be.  You get into camp, cheered in by the amazing team of volunteers, but all you can see is the clock.  You’ve missed the 10pm cut-off by 23 seconds!

The Dragon ‘race’ is already over. Initial anger and disappointment.  With hindsight, there were loads of places you could have made up 23 seconds….  no point dwelling too long though, there are another 5 days to think about.

You’re hungry but the thought of eating is not appealing.  It’s cold and drizzling.  Now you’ve got to meet your tent mates for the first time (they’re all tucked up in bed already), get clean and changed, sort your kit and food for tomorrow, dry your feet out, tape them up again, set up your bed, get some food, wash up, repack your bags….. and all by the light of your headtorch.  And ideally without waking up your tent mates.  It’s midnight now.  Time to set your alarm for another early start.  Try and sleep.  My legs are aching and my mind is whirring!

Welcome to day one of the Dragons Back Race®!  

Why did I sign up?

To be honest, I hovered over the entry button a few times before actually pressing it!  There’s never going to be a good time to do this race…. and I was never going to be ‘ready’!  But there’s something so appealing about trying something that you’ve got no idea if you can do.  The added bonus, of course, is that it’s through some of the most amazing Welsh scenery, a fantastic A to B route, steeped in history.    

I was torn between the ‘Challenge yourself. See what you’re capable of.  Put yourself in uncomfortable positions and see how you respond’ argument and the ‘This is going to need lots of training. You’ve already entered lots of other races. How are you going to fit it all in? Is it fair on the family?’ argument. 

Stupidity won. Enter now, think later.  8 months to go.

How did I prepare?

In short; running, hiking and gym sessions.  I joined a gym for the first time in 20 years and did 2 sessions a week obsessively for 8 months, entirely focused on leg strength. Lots of single leg work, calf raises, squats, step ups and downs, hip and ankle strength work and general mobility.

I was already running 3-5 times a week with my club and with friends, so I kept this up, increased mileage and elevation gradually, lots of treadmill walking at max elevation, and built in hiking sessions and back to back long days out. 

I also made sure I got onto the Welsh terrain, did UTS100k in the May, another 3 weekends of long days in Wales and a 4 day summer holiday camping in the rain, with my husband, recceing more of the route.  He was fantastic support – he would run the first 10k of that day’s route with me and then turn round to go get the car, drive to the end meeting spot and run back to meet me.  Such great support and I think that he knew the route as well as I did!  I tested out all my kit, shoe choices and nutrition on the recce runs.

What was I nervous about?

I always knew the cut offs would be tight.  Whilst I’m an ok club runner, that means nothing over the terrain of Wales and it’s also so weather dependent! I’m fairly good at uphill hiking but really struggle to descend fast on rough terrain and knew that this would massively slow me down.  In all my recce runs, I hardly hit any cut offs, but hoped that knowing the route would help me speed up a bit on the actual event.

I was also nervous about my body holding up.  At 48 it’s fair to say that the body is creaking a little.  Not helped by tearing ankle ligaments at UTS100k in May, not managing to complete Lakeland100 in July due to blisters, subsequently losing 6 toe nails and suffering with plantar fasciitis in the 3 months leading up to Dragon’s Back Race! My toes were still tender, so I spent half an hour each day of Dragon’s Back Race individually taping each one!  It worked, with no foot pain whatsoever and not a single blister.  And amazing, the excessive loading of Dragon’s Back Race has pretty much cured my plantar fasciitis – bizarre but true! Dragon’s Back Race worked better than shock wave therapy!

Highlights

·       Day 1 was magical!  From the iconic start with the castle and Welsh choir, to the sheer joy of being on top of the mountains and the excitement of being part of the race community.  I loved it, despite the brutal ending!  The feeling of satisfaction and achievement of doing 50k and 4000m elevation over ‘that’ terrain was immense. 

·       My tent mates.  What a lovely bunch!  8 females, all so supportive of each other and providing encouragement and a hug when you needed it.  We had a laugh - the competition of who had the most K-tape on, the up-beat notes we’d written on our bag labels to remind us to have a good time, the ‘luxury’ items we’d brought, the endless collective faffing with our Ortlieb bags, the ongoing conversation about how we could design the bags better and the saga of who stole the trainers!  It was a real highlight of the week – making new friends and toughing it out together with smiles on our faces.

·       Day 3, running through Machynlleth with my tent mates…. And I spotted someone who looked like my husband….and then realised it was!  He’d driven 2.5 hours to see me for 10 mins – what a boost to morale!

·       Dragon Mail – this is the most fabulous way for your family and friends to send messages to you during the week.  You’re in this little bubble of Dragon’s Back Race all week and it’s so lovely to know that people ‘outside’ are watching your dot and willing you on.  I will always treasure the printout of my day 1 Dragon Mail (I took joy in having the ‘longest of the day’!), filled with wonderfully supportive messages and limericks (which continued all week in some sort of mini competition!). 

·       Day 5 - the Brecon Beacons.  One of the most beautiful places in the UK I reckon.  Pretty much the first time in the week that there was a view, and it was perfectly timed for when I was on the tops.  

Biggest challenge

I know some people don’t like the term of ‘dropping down’ to the Hatchling.  But for those, like me, who started intending to do the full race, there is no other way to put it!  Yes, I knew there was a good chance of ending up as a Hatchling, but there was no way I was going to think about it until it happened!  So, ‘dropping down’ was exactly how it felt.  Regardless, I was grateful the Hatchling was there – it wasn’t a few years ago.  Imagine your race being completely over on Day 1!  This way, it means you can still enjoy a fabulous running holiday through Wales. 

And there’s the problem.  I didn’t sign up to enjoy a running holiday through Wales.  So – the biggest challenge for me was my own mind! Coming to terms with being on the Hatchling, feeling like you’ve ‘failed’ and making the decision about what routes to do was hard!  As long as you get to Cardiff, you get your ‘Hatchling’ momento.  How many km you do is up to you – you’re still a Hatchling regardless and can never be a ‘Dragon’ again, so the decision making of how much distance and which half of the day, especially when you’re so tired, is hard! 

The day after you time out (or make the decision to ‘drop’) you have to do a half day.  After that, you can choose whether you do a full day or half day of each day’s course.  So, having timed out on Day 1, I had to do the half day of Day 2.  That turned out to be a fun day, meeting new people and finding my pace without the pressure of the cut off timing. 

From Day 3 onwards I had the choice of full days or half days.  This was a challenge – I mostly felt good – should I push it and do the full days still and risk getting injured and not making it to Cardiff? Or should I do half days, potentially enjoy it more and stay injury free?  The truth is, I really enjoyed the half days!  They were challenging enough, but sociable too and it was a far more relaxing way to enjoy the journey through Wales.  It also meant you had far more time in camp to sort admin and meant you got more sleep.  I can truly say I loved the Hatchling experience!

Tough moments

I love camping normally but camp admin on the Dragon’s Back Race is hard and especially when the weather is against you, your body is exhausted and your brain has stopped working through sleep deprivation! 

You come back to your tent late, in the dark, wet and muddy each day.  Washing is either in a cold river in the dark or with baby wipes. And then there’s the faffing with all your kit, unpacking and repacking, in and out of the tent to get food, wash up, clean teeth, go to the toilet etc, each time trekking across a muddy, wet field!

Next morning, similar routine.  Sleep in the next day’s clothes to save changing, toilet, breakfast, pack up your sleeping kit, pack bags, wet shoes back on, kit check, bag weigh in and you’re off.

It’s a tough routine and I’m not sure it’s easy to prepare for without doing it for real! 

Advice to others

·       The Hatchling is a brilliant experience – if you end up ‘dropping’ to it, enjoy the journey, make friends and relish not clock watching.  Yes it’s not the full competitive race, but it’s a great fun and a good way of checking out the course for next time!  

·       Recce the route.  A lot.  And do it in different conditions (the route looks entirely different in the dark, fog and rain!) If you’re going to be tight on cut offs, knowing where you’re going makes a big difference. 

·       Be prepared for Dragon’s Back Race to take over your life for a few months.  Try and involve your family a bit, it makes you feel less guilty!

·       Don’t be too organised!  I’d packed all my food in different bags for each half day.  It didn’t work! Even though I’d got a mix of things, each day I’d want something different to what I’d packed. Next time I’d just lump it all together and pick out what I wanted each day.  Take less than you think – I don’t know anybody who ran out of food!  Oh, and start packing weeks before – it’ll take longer than you think to fit it all in and get it under the weight limit!

·       Take a plastic bag to carry the things you need round camp (headtorch, charger, plate/bowl/cup, flasks to fill up for next day). It means you can just grab this one bag and not need to keep going back and forwards to your tent.

·       In your support point 2.5kg bag, have a small collapsible bowl and a sports bottle with recovery powder in.  You get handed your 2.5kg bag when you cross the finish line and you can immediately then go and get chips and your recovery shake and take them back to your tent with you as a pre-dinner snack whilst sorting your kit out. Saves a bit of time and energy.

Reflections on finishing

Ultra runners tend to be a unique tribe. We like to beast ourselves, like to push to our limits, are ok with being ‘broken’, are prepared to ‘give it all’ and take the consequences. 

I didn’t do any of this on Dragon’s Back Race and I’ll be honest in saying that I’m a bit sad about that and feel that I let myself down a bit!  I wanted the Dragon, and I missed the opportunity to keep trying for it by 23 seconds on Day 1 through my own fault.  I learned that I need to be more focused.  I think I lost my mo-jo a bit after that, despite loving the Hatchling experience.  Once on the Hatchling, I could have done full days when I had the option, but found it too hard to motivate myself to do them. I’m annoyed with myself about that; even though I potentially had a more enjoyable time and finished injury free!   

I felt way too fresh at the end.  220km and 11,000m vert and I could have done more, but what was the point? You’re still a Hatchling!  That’s hard to reconcile.  I learnt that I want more.

Thanks to the whole team – it’s a great race, an amazing route, the best organisation I’ve ever seen, incredible volunteers and a real community with everyone willing you on!  When I finished in Cardiff, I pretty quickly said ‘never again’!.  But only 3 days later I was already thinking about going back.  There’s definitely a bit of unfinished business with Dragon’s Back Race for me.  So, let’s see…..

Feeling inspired to take on the full Dragon’s Back Race or The Hatchling in 2025?