My Journey to 200 Miles
Wild Horse 200:
‘The ultimate 200 mile ultra marathon in Wales, Wild Horse 200 is one life changing adventure across the trails and mountains of South Wales’.
Well that’s a wrap with 2024! 2025 is going to bring some special adventures, one of them being my first 200-mile, non-stop ultra, Wild Horse 200. I have done a couple of 100-mile races now along with many multi-day routes in far-flung places such as Albania and Kyrgyzstan. Whilst these adventures have been amazing, I have a real passion for local adventures. There is something special about knowing your local area. Something a lot of us seem to forget.
What is the Wild Horse 200?
Here are the stats:
-21st-26th May 2025
-Chepstow to Worms Head
-120 Hours Cut Off
-200 Miles (322km)
-9,000m of Vert (Garmin thinks more like 10,000m)
It is a non-stop race which means that once the clock starts it doesn’t stop until you reach the finish line. Checkpoints are roughly every 25 miles, and I am allowed my own crew. Kelp and Fern did a fantastic video you can watch below.
To take a step back, at the start of 2024 I was on a family holiday in Scotland. I rolled my ankle on a run. My first real running injury. I got an x-ray and I had managed to break one on the bones in my ankle. I eneded up in a boot for 8 weeks and still doing physio to this day (roughly 11 months post injury).
It still doesn’t feel ‘normal’. I have learnt to deal with it now though and will continue to do the work to stop it from happening again.
Having my ankle gave me a bit more time to think about running, and whilst I have worked many events as a race director and route marker, I had never been a volunteer at one. I had already heard about Wild Horse 200 through friends, and it just sounded like the type of event I would enjoy. I put my name down to help at the 2024 event.
Whilst the volunteering was hard work, it was incredibly rewarding. I came away from those few days knowing that I wanted to attempt the 200-mile distance, and this was the perfect event. If you haven’t yet volunteered at an event yet, I would highly recommend it.
Back in 2012 when the Dragons Back Race had its revival, I remember looking at it in awe. I remember so clearly looking at the details thinking how epic an adventure it looked. I never considered I would take on a similar challenge. Signing up to run 200 miles just seemed like a logical progression from what I have already completed. I have the same feeling now as when I signed up to my first 100 mile race, The Cotswold Way Century. A feeling I didn’t get on the following 100 milers.
Training
I have 20 more weeks to train. For the past 15 weeks I have been focusing on getting my body into a position where it will be able to cope with the strain of my program. With recovery from my ankle injury, I had to train to train! The 200-mile distance is new terrain for me. Learning how to train, and what works for me is one big experiment. It can be hard to train if you don’t have a focus. On the backside of that, having a focus can lead to missing out certain elements whilst you train others. I have planned a dynamic training plan which encompasses:
Move More
Move Slow
Move Fast
Move Heavy
Recover Well
All of these elements combined are to make me Adventure-proof. Training to do a 200-mile race is not just taking a 100-mile training program and doubling it. You would end up running a crazy amount of miles, and not getting much benefit back. Between now and race day I will continue to keep this blog updated and dive more into the training and prep for Wild Horse 200 Mile Race.