7 days ago
Builth Wells duo ‘climb Everest' by completing Wild Horse
EVEN though I hate the term 'bucket list', climbing to Mount Everest Base Camp is on mine, and my girlfriend's.
However, I'm not sure that you really need to make the odyssey to Nepal now, Michelle Woods, after completing the Wild Horse 200 last weekend, organised by the fabulous Pegasus Ultra Running.
Starting from Chepstow at 6am last Wednesday, May 21, she and her friend Izzy Watts spent the next four-and-a-bit days running, walking, climbing and at times crawling the 200 miles to the finish line in Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsula, collapsing onto the finish line gate, overlooking Worm's Head, just after 1pm on Sunday.
During that gruelling trek, the Builth Wells duo amassed 31,644 feet of elevation. For reference, the summit of Mount Everest is 29,028ft. She's already climbed higher than Everest… so is there really any need to go there now, babe?!
To put their feat into even more context, a friend's son mused in the pub on Monday: 'That's the sort of height planes fly at."
Izzy 's partner, Gary, and I, had a bird's eye view of the event, as their support crew. Together, we traversed over 500 miles of roads, lanes, dusty tracks, car parks, fire roads and lay-bys in support of the girls – some, though definitely not me, would say our achievements were even more impressive.
Kidding aside, their gargantuan slog was truly epic and inspiring. Despite taking every ounce of sweat, blood, tears and effort they had, a cohort of family and friends waiting for them at the finish line was ample reward. There were plenty of tears.
Izzy and Chelle at Ponsticill Reservoir. (Image: Matt Jones) I've become something of an ultra marathon runner myself in the last 12 months, completing two.
But there's no way I would take on one 200 miles in length. Izzy completed a 100-mile event last year, which almost broke her. So, what on earth possessed her to do one double the distance, I cannot possibly fathom.
But, they're made of stern stuff, this pair. It pushed them to physical, mental and emotional breaking point – fuelled by a combination of energy drinks and gels, cake, sweets, cups of tea, salty snacks and bitesize bowls of cheesy mash and beans.
Gary and I? Our bodies remain largely constructed of junk food, after we gorged on Maccies, chippies and bacon and sausage baps to get us through the week.
The gang at the penultimate checkpoint in Penclawdd, Swansea, ahead of the girls heading off for the last leg, the 17 miles to Rhossili, on Sunday morning. (Image: Matt Jones) It was rewarding experience for us in the van too. Crew life was a mix of keeping the girls fed and watered, bandaged and dosed up with ibuprofen, and keeping them motivated. There was a real camaraderie forged with other runners and the dedicated individuals and teams keeping them going as well.
If you like stats, here's some more eye-watering numbers from Chelle and Izzy's Wild Horse buffoonery.
Chelle clocked up 446,669 steps over the course of 200 miles. It took them a little over 103 hours to reach the finish line (achieved on the event's fourth day, well ahead of the 6am cut-off on Monday morning).
They passed 10 checkpoints, three of which were designated sleep stations, even though they only slept for around six hours in total.
The winner, New Zealander Damian Watson, finished in a remarkable time of 51 hours, 51 minutes – smashing the course record by more than four hours.
Of the event's starting field of 103 runners, 71 finished, while there were 32 DNFs (did not finish).
This included one man found sleeping on a road; so delirious he told paramedics he was sleeping on a bench – he was immediately pulled from the race for his own safety… and sanity.
You have to be slightly insane to enter a race like this in the first place. Our girls are recovering this week… but Chelle is already talking about entering the Mid Wales version of the Wild Horse, which is returning next year.
