Greece Cancelled, So I Set an FKT Instead

I had a small race planned in Greece for June 3rd - small in terms of race organisation, not size. We're talking about a 250-kilometer ultra with 15,000 meters of elevation gain. It was going to be a proper multi-day effort, probably two to three days, and it was my big one for the year. I left myself well over 48 hours to get there, flying out Monday the 1st to arrive in Athens Monday night, which would have given me all of Tuesday to recover and check out the pickup location. 10am pick up Wednesday morning with an 8pm Greece time start.

But on Monday morning, Manannan's cloak descended on the Isle of Man. It's this incredibly thick fog and mist that usually lifts at some point. Not this time. The airport was chaos. Flights weren't landing, circling for an hour, unable to touch down. My flight got cancelled. I rebooked for Tuesday morning, thinking the weather would clear and I still had a decent enough buffer.

Tuesday morning, I got to the airport. More delays. My flight was due to take off at 10:05. We didn't actually leave the Isle of Man runway until 12:30. My connection was at 2:45. When we landed at Gatwick, they'd changed the plane size to accommodate all the backlogged passengers from Monday. Nobody told the ground crew properly, so there weren't enough buses. I watched two buses drive off as I got off the plane. We waited 10 minutes for new ones, then another 5 minutes to get to the terminal. By the time I'd collected my bag and made it to the gate, bag drop had shut. The gate was already closed.

There was nothing else leaving Gatwick that day. The only option was the next morning, which would have made me miss my pickup in Greece. There were flights from Heathrow, but they were getting me into Athens at 1am or 4am. Starting a 250-kilometer race after zero sleep? That wasn't happening. Realisation hits, I am upset, and try to get home. No space on the flight to IOM that day. Oh good. So nights worth of accommodation in London and a flight on Wednesday morning. Of course that flight got into the IOM ten minutes early as well...

So what now, I really couldn't just sit on it. I thought about another race but the thought of travel was just so depressing, plus more cost, that was a no. I had my eye on improving the RAAD time around the end of last year. As a joke on the Monday Orran and I had already discussed the Raad Ny Foillan as a backup. We hadn't formally set it up, we never believed I wouldn't make it to Greece. I did the Raad in 2020 as one of my first 100-milers. I had a great time, but I was new to ultras back then. My ability has come on so much since then because of structured training, coaching, and all the races I've done. I've always felt there was time to be taken off that first attempt.

The thing that made this work was that I already knew the route inside out. I'd run it before, supported others, helped set up checkpoints. We've got really good GPS tracking on the website, good structure. Although this was pulled together in a couple of days, we already had all the basics down. I knew I could do it. If I fuelled right, I just knew I'd get around. That belief was there.

We checked the weather. Friday was the best day. It was the sunniest, not forecast loads of wind (though that didn't work out). We checked the tides. The lower the tide, the easier the running on the beach section. There's about 20 miles of beach, and we needed the conditions to be right. The tides worked perfectly really so there wasn't a super early or super late start. This also meant I'd get lots of the route done in daylight. I start rounding up support crew and before I know RAAD 2026 is a go. Grateful that I have a crew that I can messaged and say " Running round the island on Friday...are you in? " and there's a resounding "hell yes when do you need me."

Harry and Sian kicked me off at 6am, which was ace. Sian ran for the first hour before heading back to her gym session and Harry for about 13 or 14 miles, then he turned back ( big day for Harry too!). It was such a blissful start which just flew in. After Harry turned back I had a bit on the beach on my own. I was expecting Dan around this point but it wasn't until the ayres when they caught up. I was feeling good. Although I knew leaving the point of ayre was always tough, fresh or not that section is rough. However the tide was really low which helped and it was over quick. Paul and Hazel the dog picked us up at the Point of Ayre and we cruised along the beach to Ramsey. It was at this point the wind direction changed and it was in our faces all the way around to the Sound. North to south, headwind pretty much the whole way.

We hit Ramsey prom and that really is one of the worst sections behind you. Paul left at the top of Ramsey Promenade and Dan and I continued through to Maughold. Sarah also known as G dog met us in Maughold for the first time. Sarah was car support for the rest of the route. Orran also met us before we headed up through the Brooghs. At the church Emily joined us and before I know it we are off onto leg 4 already!

We were about 30 miles in and I was feeling really good. Maughold is one of my favourite parts of the RAAD, the scenery is just brilliant going around the Brooghs heading to Port Mooar . There's a big climb which you also do part of on the Parish walk. You peel off right and kept going up and up and up on the Raad. There is a big descent down to Cornaa then you climb back out. At the top, Paul and his kids had driven up just to give us a wave. That was lovely. Then we headed towards Laxey, where Jane was waiting with her dogs at the bottom of the town by the bridge. More people just out to cheer on support and show love. Incredible.

Dan finished at Laxey after doing about 22 miles! Me and Emily headed towards Douglas. We were having a great time chatting away until we hit a horrible section behind all the houses coming into Onchan. When we got to Port Jack, Mick Lee was there at the top (he was on episode two). Carrie and her husband were also at the bottom waiting too. Emily finished on the prom after 30km! I knew I needed a shoe change. My feet were getting really hot I had waterproof socks and gaiters on because of how wet the beach is and I was feeling hot spots developing. Quick spot with Sarah and myself and Mick head off down the prom.

As we ran towards the fair I could see an ESTR top on the prom in the distance - that was Brogy. When we got up to the fair, there was a whole gathering: Paul and his kids were out again, and one of our athletes Aalin. They all ran some of the prom with me, Mick, and Brogy. That was brilliant and really perked me up! I was so buzzing to see them. It actually probably gave me too much adrenaline because my energy started to fade about 20 or 25 minutes after that.

I bumped into my boss Paul and his wife Sarah on Marine Drive, just by sheer chance haha! I thought he was making hand gestures to shoo away the drone that Orran had got , but he was actually cheering me on. Then I met Sarah again at Port Soderick for a couple of bits of fuel. By this point I was around 50 miles in and getting close to 60. I was starting to feel a bit off. When I got some sweets at Port Soderick, as soon as I put one in my mouth it started to make me gag. That wasn't going to work, hmmm. However was still moving well and Mick and Brogy were keeping me going. The wind towards Port Grenaugh was pretty intense - Neil nearly lost his hat!

Once we got onto the trail towards Port Grenaugh, Mick was behind and Neil was in front - we were just in a little train. The trail runs on top of an old dry wall and it's all overgrown. I wasn't feeling amazing and my carb drink wasn't going down well anymore. At Port Grenaugh, I ditched the carb drink and asked for Coke instead. I sat on the wall for a bit and had some new potatoes , some proper food that actually went down fine. I probably could have eaten more of them in hindsight.

Mick was finishing up there , he had a big run to do on Sunday ( standard!) so his son picked him up. Brogy stayed with me, and I'm really glad he did. He kept me moving even though I could tell my pace was dropping. That next section from Port Grenaugh was genuinely tough. I was wilting, it was windy, the trail wasnt great at points and things were unravelling a bit.

We were moving along past Santon George and then had a moment with a cow. There's a section where you could double back on yourself, and as we came through the gate, Brogy clocked this cow that had also clocked us. She was staring us out properly. I've got a thing about cows anyway, but Brogy was quite concerned by the way she was looking at us. Maybe she had a calf nearby that we couldn't see, or she was about to give birth. Either way, instead of going through the field like you normally do, we just went through the bog to keep away from her. Better safe than sorry.

After that we went around the airport runway. I was still moving, I hadn't walked much other than obvious uphill sections but I knew I wasn't running as well. Everything was starting to hurt and I was feeling nauseous. Then came Langness, the peninsula on the island. It was so windy. It just feels like it goes on forever. You come back to the same point and it's quite demoralizing. However Jan picked me up there, which I hadn't expected. She had a little window between a gig and other things, which was really nice.

I had to have a little walk in the square because I felt like I was going to be sick. However we got moving again towards Scarlett. When we passed Jan's house which is just off the RAAD Jan's husband Chris met us at the bottom of their drive with some water and a banana. I took the banana and tried to nibble on it as I shuffled up towards the top of Gansey where Sarah was waiting.

The road from Scarlet down to Port St. Mary is demoralizing - Port St. Mary looks close but there's miles of road to cover. At the top of that section, Sarah was waiting with paracetamol, melon, and Coke. I took the painkillers, kept moving, and didn't stop for long. That made a massive difference. The painkillers helped, I started being able to take on more fuel, and I felt a really good second wind as I was moving along gansey towards Port St Mary.

Orran and Sarah met me at Port St Mary and I was feeling good again. At that point, Orran ditched the van and started running with me. He'd made a plan with Sarah so she could support from then on. Orran took my backpack and made it easier. As we headed out of Port St. Mary, Mike Guelpa came out to say hi and gave me a gel and some water. I had been feeling like my water was tasting like perfume , Orran was like ...mmm no it isnt ha. Taste was changing as often does on longer efforts.

I felt really, really good on that section. Still pushing on, still making good pace. When we got to the Sound, Emily and Jack came out again to say hi, and there were quite a lot of bikers there because of TT week. I wanted to make back the time I had lost in the Port Grenaugh section so we didn't have time to stop. So we decided Orran would grab what I needed at crew points and I would keep moving. FINALLY the wind was back behind us. Nothing like a good 50 mile headwind ha...a tailwind to get me home though!

At Port Erin, Ollie was there with words of encouragement. We kept moving the same way I'd call out what I needed and just keep going. By Bradda, Carrie was there again and Sarah had made it up there too. By the time we got down to Fleshwick, it started getting dark.

We didn't have a spare head torch for Orran since he wasn't expected to be running at that point but that's a bit of a rookie error, I should've had one in my kit! No problem though because Jan was back and jumped on with me so I could keep moving. Orran gave Jan my poles and backpack and she caught up with me. Chris headed back to their house to get a head torch for Orran so he could catch back up from Niarbyl for the finish.

After the Sloc, I was very focused. Jan and I had been chatting away for ages earlier in the but this time I asked her how her gig went but not much after that - ha sorry for me Jan! It was getting close to the end now and I was feeling a bit more worse for wear again. Descending off Cronk Ny Laa is quite technical, it was very dark now and had started to rain. It was tough to descend. Everything hurts at that point. Your whole body is screaming at you to let go, but you just have to push through.

Orran and Sarah had gone to Niarbyl to wait for us. They could easily see myself and Jan's head torches dropping down the hill. I kept moving and Orran joined back on, Jan came up to the top of the hill and then was picked up by Chris. " I will see you at the finish!" I knew I had to run the whole way back to Peel. Orran was pushing me to try and get in as quick a time as possible. I was trying my absolute hardest. I'd hoped for sub-19, but it was just a little bit over - 19 hours and 10 minutes. First female FKT though, which I was really happy with.