Saltire 24 Ultra – 20/06-21/06/2026
Some background:
I signed up for this Ultra in December. Furthest I had previously run was 100km in a back yard ultra last August. Before that it was 60km.
The goal for this was to stay out for the 24 hours and get experience at seeing day turn to night and night turn to day and how that feels, looks and what happens during those weird hours.
The course was gnarly. Each lap had 2 big kicking hills. Over the 24 hours I covered 1800m elevation – Ben Nevis is 1300 ish. The ground was off camber, slippy, rooty, sandy and garvely.
There were options for 6, 12 and 24 hours and everyone was taking on there own challenge. For me these events are me v me.
Song of the event Loch Maree Islands – Manran, Ruairidh Gray
Playlist link – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eTwyrbMaff7Ksxukg8AWS?si=1b3f42bb16f043ef
Immediate thoughts
Like always the pre race is never super restful – new flat mate moving in, painters painting my flat and a busy spell at work means training and rest is never fully optimised.
Getting to the start line always feels like a sigh of releief – you get to just focus on the thing in front of you for a wee while – or in this case 24 hours. There was no phone singal as well which was both a good and bad thing.
Good in the sense that I had to just be in it. Bad in the sense i had to be in it. None of my playlists had properly downloaded, i couldn’t doom scroll to take my mind of it – i was locked in!!!
I am so buzzing with my efforts. To run the furthest i’ve ever run and do it on such a tough course.
My goals were pretty clear – run the furthest i can, try staying upbeat and positive and figure out some things that work and dont work. It is always unknown, so trying to document as much of this as i can and take anything i learn forward.
Laps 1-12
Honestly – this was the buy in.
Laps 1-8 felt noisy, both in my head and on the course. I wasn’t really vibing with it. I was getting scared by the bigger picture, thinking too much about my perfect plan of 24 in 24 hours.
I hadnt experienced this before – I think its because i had expectations. I had a line in the sand of 100km from my previous race and I was worried I wouldnt hit that.
It was also soooo warm. One of my main challenges was staying hydrated. I could feel a sore head coming on, i had my hydration vest on, but that caused a lot of heat to stay inside. I felt so warm from the inside out.
I think it was maybe lap 7 or 8 mum poured some water over me and it felt like a nice little reset.
Laps 1-11 I was on track for 1 every hour.
This was the plan. I had to be so structured – with the BYU you have the buzzer telling you to leave – I only had my own clocks, which were sometimes wrong because we forgot to time the first few laps – I was kind of going of feel and just being pretty strict with myself to meet this loose goal.
I specifically remember lap 9 though. I allowed myself some tunes and man did it hit. Music is such a powerful tool. Every single song in my small playlist transported me back to that moment, with those people and made me cry.
There was a moment at the top of the first climb where – So Sweet (Spriitzz Remix) Regularfantasy, Spriitzz came on. The moment it took me back to was being in Vancouver in this hotel room before going to a festival with people I had literally just met and feeling super grateful for that experience, but also all the others that led me to there. The song wasnt a big deal then but there was many songs on that playlist that did a similar thing and made me think of all the amazing things ive done in my life.
By Lap 12 the course thinned out – It was just 24 hour solo’s or teams but it was now quiter, both internally and externally.
Laps 12 -20
There was a huge drop off here, some people went for longer rests or decided to pack it in. I started to climb the leader board. I wasnt focusing on it but mum was fascinated by it and would tell me every lap where i was.
Its a bit of a blur but I was so thankful for the cold. I looked forward to going out to it. It was so cool to see the sun light setting behind the hills. There was this warm glow just simmering behind the hills.
I went for a 3 minute nap on lap 13. It was perfect. I kind of now knew i was in the night shift and my body accepted this was what we were doing now.
at 4am – 6 hours left – I had said if i can do a lap every 90 minutes that would get me to 20 – and thats what i settled on.
I remember sitting there bargaining with myself on that. Like as soon as that thought entered my head i knew it was getting done and I hated it.
How do i mentally break 4 laps up? Lets do 1 fast, 2 and 3 will suck and then its only one left. I did that 17th Lap in 1 hour 10 which was pretty quick, that gave me almost 5 hours to do 3? maybe i could make 21? a crazy thought that only really shows up now in the comfort of my home.
The only real thought i had of quitting or sacking it off was on lap 20. I kept thinking, It is basically done, could i just cut the course? But obviously i was just tired and fed up and fully done in.
There was an irish guy- David – who managed to spur me on for those last 2 laps. He kept saying you should be really proud, but lets get out there, you’ll be thankful to get moving and not lie here.
The marshals were awesome. They knew your name by the end and were so invested in seeing you and your state. So grateful for that because the midgies were pretty crazy and it was cold during the evening. Thank you to them.
My Prep
My training is not super conventional. I am an endurance athlete who trains CrossFit? I am a CrossFitter who does Endurance? It doesnt fit neatly into a box
I dont really have a structured training block or coach to run my crazy ideas past – I do put a lot of trust in myself and my visions for what health looks like for me.
We have training blocks at the gym and I see progress with them but they arent something I anticipate, I just turn up.
I train because I love it – training consistently – like 5/7 days and staying injury free is my philosophy. It doesnt matter the intensity of the block because if you can stay in it long enough your going to see progress when you zoom out.
Okay sometimes i might not PB a lift or time but i’m better at some other things, so maybe it doesnt matter.
On paper it doesnt make sense: I can Squat clean 120kg and run 140km. Snatch my bodyweight and run a sub 20min 5km. My back squat is 157kg and front squat 133kg. Less said about bench the better… but I wouldnt say I am gifted, its just showing up.
Its more than ‘hybrid’ that people talk about because that is just strength gains and endurance. CrossFit is directly competing with the energy systems I need for endurance.
My training started after a winter of getting seriously strong. I increased my running to 2x a week for hyrox where we went and got an hour in Pro Doubles.
From there I slowly crept up my weekly km’s. Nothing crazy, aligning it with the seasons and the weather getting slightly better.
I did a 70.3 during a work day. Did training runs after club nights. Did training runs after cycles and around adulting. Cycled far. Slept poorly on purpose. It was all so much fun but underneath it was prep for this.
I’ve realised I can only sign myself up properly for one race a year and this was it.
The joy for me is not in the outcome of these things but the fact I get to do this and I have a body that can. It can because I look after to. I do my yoga and mobility. I eat good food. I trust myself to do the thing. Its a privilege, because I know not everyone can do this.
My wins
Nutrition – we nailed it this race. I felt hungry in a good way. I was able to not think about my gut all the time.
My nutrition was a mixture of things but mainly SAP gels and precision chews. For me it is difficult because I dont like fruit flavoured things so my options are pretty limited.
I also had a carb drink mix that I would sip on throughout my laps.
So between those main sources and a bit of texture variety provided by mum it stayed down.
Caffeine was also a tool that we nailed and I could tell when I was needing it a lap before so it gave mum time to organise herself.
Music as a tool worked well to pull me out of some pits.
Not ever quitting and staying out there when it could have been so easy to say that was enough.
My Learnings
Get moving – it will feel better again soon.
If it feels great – just know it wont last either.
Taking the positives out of situations takes work, for now.
Final Thoughts
Epic – its always good to do something that scares me. It only broadens my horizons of what is acceptable.
To set crazy goals you need to kind of earn the right to dream them up.
You can dream big – but you also need to have some grounding in it and that comes over time with experince.
I couldn’t run a 5km a few years ago, ive always done endurance stuff but it got away from me for a few years when i focused on rugby.
It starts with a few km and then your on the start line of these crazy races.
It doesnt really matter what your goals are, they should scare you jsut enough to keep you moving.
Summit Seekers 