On Saturday, Jennie Waters and her husband Darren took on the Midsummer Mortimer Trail Ultramarathon in tough conditions presented by the warm weather. Afterwards, Jennie was kind enough to write us this excellent report from the event:

The Midsummer Mortimer Trail Ultra is a 30-mile multi-terrain race following the historic Mortimer Trail from Herefordshire into Shropshire.

Starting in Kington, there are a few relatively flat miles before the first of 11 climbs. In theory, this should have given me a chance to settle into my pace and position in the small field of 37 runners. It didn’t quite go to plan. We took a wrong turn early on, adding around half a mile before retracing our steps. With a self-navigated race, that’s always a possibility, and it served as a useful reminder to stay focused on route-finding for the rest of the day. That didn’t mean everything was straightforward afterwards, but having Darren alongside as an extra set of eyes was a significant advantage.

It didn’t take long to catch up with a couple of runners who had passed us during our detour, and we shared a few miles with them. One was completing his first ultra as a training run for an upcoming 100k race. One of the things I enjoy about ultras is spending time with complete strangers, swapping stories about races, training and future plans.

The race featured some stunning views!

I particularly enjoyed the first 12 miles. The scenery was beautiful, with a mix of open countryside, fields and woodland. However, as the day warmed up, I started to struggle. There was very little breeze and the humidity was high, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a steady effort. I could have backed off, but I wanted a solid training run ahead of my upcoming 100-mile race next month. If I’m honest, I was also in race mode. I thought I might be the third-placed woman, and a sub-seven-hour finish seemed possible. So I put my head down and kept pushing.

The downside was that I don’t remember much of the course from that point onwards. There were plenty of fields with long grass and some lovely woodland singletrack, but not much else stands out. That’s slightly ironic, as one reason I chose the race was that it covered part of my upcoming 100-mile race route, albeit in reverse.

Towards the end, some of the miles seemed to take forever. Darren kept me moving, particularly on the long climb with around three miles to go. A sub-seven-hour finish was still within reach, especially after a strong descent on the other side of the hill. What I hadn’t factored in were a couple of navigation stops and an uphill finish that made me feel sick running, so I had to walk.

Jennie with her medal at the finish!

We eventually crossed the finish line in front of the main gates of Ludlow Castle in 7:00:58. Not quite the sub-seven hours I’d hoped for, but still a 50k personal best, third female (albeit from a field of 10 female finishers) and 19th overall. Darren kindly supported me throughout the race and crossed the line just ahead of me in 18th place.

Overall, it was a challenging but enjoyable day out on a beautiful trail, and a useful training run ahead of next month’s 100-mile race. Although I’m not sure that I would sign up again, the event was very well organised and support on route was good. There were even some toilets. Therefore, I would definitely sign up for another Andali Events race.