I think it’s finally starting to sink in now, the enormity of the race I’ve just completed. The Race Across Scotland 2024 was an immense challenge and my biggest to date. I thought I had trained well and thought I was ready, but must admit I was getting a little nervous and anxious inside in the lead up to the race with fear of failure. My main “why” to take on these ultra distances is to test myself mentally and physically to breaking point, and I wondered if this would be the one?!

I travelled up on the Friday with my crew Dave & Ric, we had pre-booked hotels in the area so the plan was to arrive in the afternoon, register, eat then sleep. We took in the atmosphere at registration for an hour or so. I had a quick catch up with Wayne, Oli, Laura & Ian and a few friends from the GB ultras community. Then it was time to get some food in and rest up.

I was hoping for a good nights sleep in the hotel, but think I only got a few hours, the usual a night before a race. Alarm was set for 4am. Got up and fuelled with some oats and fruit and a coffee. Then hydrated with some electrolytes on the 5 min walk to the start line. Checked my mandatory kit and collected my tracker and got race ready. Quick catch up with matt, Wayne, Jon as we waited in the starting pen. Then we were off!

The buzz was immense as we set off. All the months of planning and training had lead up to this point and now we were setting off from the West coast of Scotland with the challenge of reaching the East coast via the unknown of what lay in between. The early miles up the coast out of Port Patrick were easy going, with beautiful scenery. The weather was clear, mild and sunny. I soon found my pace along with Matt and it turned out we had the same time goals and pacing strategy so we teamed up and ran along together.

CP1 came quickly, a quick refill of the bottles and a little food and we were away again. CP2 was the same. The terrain was good and so was the pace. My crew met me between CP2 & CP3 as the day got hotter and more humid. An extra chance to take on some more fluids. The run into CP3 was a tough one with the humidity being a big factor and hydration key already. We re-set at CP3 taking in some hot food and cold drinks, re-stocking our supplies and setting out for the evening shift into CP4 – St. Johns town of Dalry.

Up until this point the terrain under foot was good and easy going. The head torches came out midway to CP4 as the sun began to set around 9:30pm. We pushed on in the dark and arrived at CP4 at 11pm. We were going well and on target for our time. We had a good reset at CP4 with hot food and hot drinks a change of socks and warm clothes for the night run.

The next leg CP4 to CP5 – Sanquhar was a long one, 27 miles, so we arranged to have the crew meet us midway so we could restock on supplies. I felt this leg was going to be one of the toughest due to being wet and boggy underfoot and through the dark which made navigating a little harder. It was made a little sweeter with the clear night sky, with no light pollution at all, I turned off my head torch and admired the millions of stars lighting up the sky. Absolutely stunning! We were then treated with a stunning sunrise around 5am. It’s amazing how awake you feel again once the sun comes up after having no sleep.

We arrived at CP5 around 9am Sunday. I sat down exhausted after the night shift and didn’t feel well at all. Cheese on toast, a pot noodle and a coffee followed by a quick 10 mins lay down did the trick. I think I was maybe a little dehydrated so also got some extra electrolytes down. Slapped on the factor 50 and restocked the supplies and we were soon out and on our way to CP6. This was only 8 miles and seemed to come and go with no issues.

We arrived at CP6 at lunch time Sunday. Matt started getting some issues with blistering on his feet at this point and got the paramedic to check them over. Taped up, fresh socks and he was good to go again. We didn’t hang around to long before setting off to CP7 – Beattock

We met the crew midway to CP7 due to humid heat again, which was zapping the energy out of us. Probably one of the hardest factors of the race, we looked forward to the sun setting to try and take advantage of the cooler weather. We pushed on to CP7 and agreed we would try and sleep for 30 mins. We landed at CP7 around 9:30pm as the sun was setting for the day. Cheese on toast, a bowl of chilli and a coffee was scoffed down before I tried to get 30 mins sleep on one of the air beds provided. Matt had his feet looked at again and re-taped before also trying to sleep for 30 mins. I didn’t sleep but it was good to lay there for 30 mins and reset the mind. My alarm went off, so woke Matt up gathered my things and we checked out for the 2^nd night shift.

CP7 to CP8 included the climb over Croft Head. Matt J had told us about the steep technical climb so we had an idea of what was coming. We linked up with Libbi and Helen who had left CP7 at the same time. We made our way towards the summit. When we passed Gateshaw Rig we felt the wind picking up, as we pushed on it intensified to the point it got a bit sketchy at times. Almost blowing us off our feet. The four of us gathered together and pushed on, up and over Croft Head and down into the valley out of the wind. We would find out after that the low level route was brought into place as a safety precaution because of the wind after our accent.

We made our way through the forest trails towards CP8 – Ettrick. We were tired at this point, we hadn’t had any sleep yet and were literally nodding off shuffling along. We decided to try 15 mins sleep on the forest floor. Libbi & Helen continued on. We put on our coats and packs on the floor as pillows and set my alarm for 15 mins. The cold really started hitting, and after 12 mins we decided we had to move to lift our body temps. We moved a mile or two further down the trail and came across an emergency shelter. It looked like a scary abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Not deterred, we went inside and found two sofas, we tried to sleep for 30 mins again, I set my alarm. We probably got 15 mins or so before again deciding it was to cold and we had to move. A big push was needed to get to CP8. We took it in turns to pace, both encouraging each other to keep moving. We finally arrived at CP8 just after 6:30am Monday.

I managed to get my first sleep here for around 45 mins. Matt had sorted his feet out again which were causing him real pain now, eaten and was ready to go. I told him to push on whilst I had some hot food and drink and would catch up with him. As Matt left the heavens opened, along with thunder and lightning. I was glad to be still inside. I waited 30 mins before setting off to catch up with him.

It’s amazing what a little food and drink and a reset of the cognitive system can do for you. I left CP8 feeling re-energised and strong. I felt like I was clicking km’s off easily and probably as fast as I was at the start. And soon enough reached Matt who was feeling the same. We continued to run with the revised strength around St. Mary’s Loch and towards CP9. I felt this was one of our strongest legs with some good time made up. The rain helped as it was a refreshing difference from the humid heat and direct sun on our backs.

As we arrived at CP9 – Traquair the rain had passed, and the sun was out again. The food on offer was superb and plentiful. I put away a big bowl of Irish Stew with 2 slices of bread and butter, obviously had the customary 2 slices of cheese on toast and a couple of ice pops. My feet were starting to blister at this point so a quick check over by the paramedic was needed, dried them out and dry clean socks. A couple of pain killers took the edge off for me. We pushed on towards CP10.

It was a tough climb and decent out of CP9 and we were both feeling the affects of the race by now. As previous we would take it in turns to lead the pace and push each other forwards, but now we were on auto pilot, it was almost telepathic like, we knew what each other was feeling or if the other was going through a low point and needed picking up or if they needed to eat or drink something without even speaking to each other at times, we just knew.

We arrived at CP10 – Galashiels around 9pm after getting a little lost over the last few fields and woods into the checkpoint. We decided to try and get another 45 mins sleep here. Dave had everything ready for us as usual. I had a baked potato with beans and cheese followed by a cheese toasty and a coffee. I sorted my feet out and brushed my teeth and got ready for the 3^rd night shift of the race. Matt was struggling with his feet again but there was no paramedic on hand to help him here, so he did what he could with our supplies and we pushed on into the night. We were both hurting at this point but kept moving forward with resilience.

The route to CP11 was generally river side and tarmac cycle paths which we took advantage of to pick the pace up a little. We were met by Dave at the river crossing with hot coffee and snacks which was a little morale booster. It was a good job he did. The remainder of the route from the river to Lauder was horrendously monotonous and boring and killed the feet. If any leg was going to break us, I felt this was it. Heads down and shuffling forwards, we were passed by Gregor and then by 2 ladies who checked in on us. We were out of nutrition and fluid and Matt was in a bad way. Thankfully the ladies came to the rescue and gave us supplies. This picked us up and got us to CP11 – Lauder.

We arrived into CP11 around 5:30am Tuesday and decided to try 15 mins sleep. First I nailed down 2 x ham and cheese toasties with pickle and tomato and a coffee. Matt did the same and had his feet checked again by the paramedic, who advised him to not continue. Matt said no way, he was determined to finish. Absolute warrior! I washed down some pain killers with a red bull and again I was feeling strong for the day ahead, I just knew we would reach the finish line today!

CP11 to CP12 was a gradual ascent and seemed to go on forever we pushed forward with renewed strength even with the pain of covering nearly 200 miles already. Eventually we reached the summit and I could see the Watch Water Reservoir in the distance. I had heard about the legendary breakfasts on offer here and couldn’t wait to get there as I was running on empty. As we arrived, I was gutted not to bump into Martin, but the rumours about the breakfast were true. I polished off a full English breakfast, Bacon, Sausage, Spam, beans, egg, mushrooms, potato cake, toast and a coffee in 2 mins flat. I was still starving so polished off another serving which the guys sorted me out with. Top team! It was good to see Wayne at CP12, but sad to see he had been medically pulled from the race with a sprained ankle. Still 140 miles is some effort mate, well done.

As we left CP12 I knew this was the last push to the finish, the start of this leg was on road and a good chance to eat up some miles, albeit very painful miles. Sleep deprivation was now well and truly real. Hallucinations were more real. My mind was starting to play tricks on me, I had to question myself 3 or 4 times before making a decision. The miles felt longer. We felt like we were going in circles for ever. At this point I felt the sleep deprivation could be an issue and potentially dangerous. We were told our trackers had stopped working. Our GPS seemed to be on track but it seemed others were passing us as we circled the forest. I don’t know if we were lost or our sanity was going. I don’t know if this was real or our minds playing games with us. We ran out of fluids and food soon enough. Luckily, we passed Nathan who kindly gave us pizza and an overview of the route ahead. The rain started and we were getting cold. I managed to get phone signal and dropped a location pin for Dave to meet us with supplies. We re-stocked with food and drink and pushed on. We had Dave meet us 5 miles further on. We hit some road, all downhill and let gravity do its work. I think we recorded some of our fastest km splits here as we passed 3 people and reached Dave at the A1 cross over. He had hot coffee waiting for us. The rain had stopped now so we took our coats off and set off on the final push. We knew that next time we saw Dave we would have completed this epic journey.

The section through the Aitkieside woods was tough, a gradual incline, zig zagging upwards. The mind playing tricks with us as we didn’t feel we were on the right path. We thought about returning to the A1 and trying again as we were sure we had taken a wrong turn. We couldn’t have. Sleep deprivation was really an issue now. You start to have no sense of realism. We stopped at every turn and questioned each other on which to take. We finally reached an opening and couldn’t believe our eyes! The sea! We were in touching distance.

We made our way through the final wooded area. The steps were a delight for the quads and calf’s at this stage! We reached the costal path. This was it, the final 2 miles. We worked our way around the winding costal path, greeted by media team along the way who congratulated us for our efforts. The emotions were high at this point. I tried to contemplate what I had done, what I was about to achieve. What I had been through along the way. I had set off from the West coast of this country 3 and a half days ago and had now reached the other side with very little sleep or rest in between. I can’t put into words how it felt, but the 64 people who reached the finish line will know.

The costal path ended, and we had 1km of roads to navigate to reach the finish line. We were running, maybe not as fast as we set off, but we were still running. We rounded the corner and were met with cheering and applause as we crossed the finish line together. We had made it. We had completed this epic race, this brutal adventure. We wanted to quit at times. We had many low points, very low points. But we kept each other going. Kept pushing until the very end. It’s amazing how your body adapts and continues to operate when your brain tells you to quit. The mindset to overcome pain keeps you moving, and your body will listen to you and perform.

I’m glad we shared the journey Matt. Only you will truly know how I feel on completing this challenge and the journey we went on together, the pain we overcome to succeed. The almost telepathic understanding we built made the miles mostly enjoyable and manageable. Thank you, brother.

And a massive thank you to Dave & Ric, the crew. We couldn’t have done this without you guys. Always attentive and on hand. Always understood what we needed. Knew when we needed space to clear our thoughts. Giving up your free time to support my passion is humbling, Dave – cutting your family holiday short to support me, I’m forever grateful and in debt to you both.

And thank you to my family and friends for the phone calls, messages of encouragement, words of encouragement along the way to keep me pushing. And thank you to the volunteers, media team, paramedics team and many friends in the GB Ultras community who have given their time to make this event a success and support every single runner that toed the start line. And finally, a thank you to Wayne, Laura & Ian for putting on such a memorable race.

The stats:

374km / 233miles.

86h 39m / placed 33.

9,137m elevation.

Less than 2 hours sleep.

31k calories burnt.