Here are my 10 rules of ultra running. Some more explanation comes below.

1. Don’t run up the hills! (But see also rule 2.)
2. Spread your effort evenly over the run.
3. Eat to a schedule – for me this means eating something around every 40 minutes.
4. Drink to thirst – but bear in mind how much fluid you’ll need, based on experience, conditions, and effort level.
5. Look after your feet.
6. Work out your navigation plan: map and compass, GPX to follow or reccy – you need 1 or 2 out of 3!
7. Don’t try anything for the first time on the actual challenge – kit, food, tactics, anything!
8. Safety – what do you need with you, and what your options are if things go wrong.
9. Anticipate what the hard bits will be.
10. Train properly and know your pace.

Hills and effort levels – rules 1 and 2

Lots of runners beat themselves up for slowing to a walk, particularly if they have built up longer distances over flat or flattish ground. But from the point of view of a longer distance trail/fell runner, running up the hills is, basically, madness. If you’re starting out on longer or hillier runs, I’d recommend walking anything more than the mildest gradients. Running uphill is just inefficient: it takes a lot more effort than it gains in pace. And if you’re out for a long one, you’ll need that energy later.

There are obviously a few variables here: the steepness and length of the hill, what else is coming up, and your fitness. Hence I’m not saying it’s an absolute no-no. But on the basis you want to spread your effort evenly over the course of the challenge, think honestly about whether you’ll be running up something 4, 8, 12 or 20 hours into the challenge. If not, don’t run it now. Getting carried away is a bit like borrowing money from a loan shark: it will cost you. I have found it useful to base pace on the “effort units” you can manage per hour and stick to it, and effort unit being 1km or 100m ascent. (See my “nerdology” page for more on this!)

There is also a link between pace and eating, covered below. If you’re working too hard, your body produces excess lactate, which goes to your muscles and your stomach, where it causes acidosis. This makes it hard to eat, and your problems will start spiralling.

Eating – rule 3

You won’t do an ultra without eating. Which means you need to know what to eat, and when. This varies from person to person so the top piece of advice would be to experiment and decide what works for you. But there are some useful pointers which will be fairly universal. The main thing to point out to newbies is the common trap of needing food and not being able to eat it. There’s a physiological reason for this: your body is pretty clever and sends the oxygen-carrying blood to where it’s needed. So if you’re not eating, the blood leaves your stomach as there’s nothing going on there. But this means as you run low on energy stores and shove in a chocolate bar, your body can’t process it, and you feel sick.

The answer is to keep your stomach busy. On a (say) 1.5 hour run, you probably wouldn’t eat anything. But if you’re on a long challenge, eat regularly, including at the start where you don’t feel you need it. If you delay, it’s harder to get out of the hole you’ll create for yourself. As for what, it doesn’t need to be anything very sophisticated, but again, try things for yourself. I get through generally with a mix of chocolate, cereal bars, crisps and sweets. Fruit and sandwiches are amazing if you have pacers or support points, but not ideal for carrying, which is why God invented things like Babybel, Peperami, etc. I have been known to take baby food pouches to have some real food.

You can also feel sick if your effort level has gone higher than you can sustain. As mentioned under rule 1, this is the lactate tipping point, which leads to acid in the stomach. So if you’re feeling sick, slow down and eat more.

How much to rely on feed stations in a race is a tricky one. Carrying your own food incurs a weight penalty, but it’s also a risk if you find you’re not getting on with the checkpoint food. Most races give clear indications of what will be available at checkpoints: definitely have a good think about this and work out how much you need to supplement it with your own tried-and-tested race snacks. Having had mishaps by both over and under relying on checkpoints, I now aim to carry about half of what I think I’ll eat, and take the rest from feed stations: maybe less if it’s a really long event (e.g. Ultra Trail Snowdonia 100 mile) and the effect of carrying the weight of my own food will compound over the race.

Drinking – rule 4

There is lots of information out there about this. The easiest rule of thumb is “drink to thirst”, but as you gather experience, you should also factor in how much you think you’ll need, given the conditions, challenge, and your effort level.

The reason people say “drink to thirst” is that over-hydration is a real risk. So if you give yourself a fixed drinking target, like you would with food, things can go horribly wrong. But it’s also possible that you’d underestimate your needs, which is where a bit of experience comes in.

I prefer using soft flasks, which fit into the front of a running vest, are easy to refill, and you can tell how much is left. I generally will take water from streams (safety warning – this isn’t totally safe and filters or purification tablets reduce the risk), as long as there’s a decent flow and the stream is above all the farmland and dwellings.

Feet – rule 5

I think the biggest factor in how your feet fare is your shoe choice. I wear cheap socks, mainly because the left big toenail seems capable of cutting through any material, so expensive socks don’t last long. The cheap socks have never seemed to be a problem!

The two main shoe variables (lets assume you have options which fit you well) are grip and cushioning. A cushioned shoe gives a greater risk of rolling an ankle on rough ground, but will obviously help you out on hard-packed trails and roads. I tend to wear fell shoes because I prefer the grip and feel, but I know other similar runners who fare perfectly well in trail shoes.

If your feet stay wet for too long, they can get macerated (waterlogged). This is painful and has ended peoples’ races/challenges. I have found it isn’t a problem on anything up to 24 hours (but experiences vary here) – beyond that having somewhere to change socks, or socks and shoes is worthwhile.

If you’re doing a lot of this, you’ll need to look after your feet. Moisturising them after a shower keeps them in good condition.

Navigation plan – rule 6

Firstly, know your event. These range from fell races (and some challenges) where GPX or equivalent navigation is not allowed, all the way through to fully-marked trail races where it’s largely impossible to go wrong. Read the details, rules, and know what you have to do to follow the route, whether the line is mandatory or open to choice, and where the checkpoints are. It’s always worth having a map as backup, even on fully marked routes, in case the marking is poor or some scallies have nicked an arrow.

I’d suggest you need two out of the three main options: map/compass, GPX and reccies. If you are good a with a map and compass then that will do, but relying only on GPX or route knowledge is a risk.

Map and compass feels a bit old fashioned in modern ultra races but has one big advantage – you can see what’s coming up. On the Dragon’s Back Race, because of the largely open route choice, there are several places where judging the landscape from the map allows shorter routes, whereas people slavishly following the GPX track waste time and effort. Of course, if GPX is allowed, you can create your own route to optimise the line and follow it.

There’s no doubt that GPX will be faster, assuming your route is the right one and nothing runs out of battery. It has made the difference between success and failure on BG support duties, with clag down and other things to think about. But, because I am a bit old fashioned, I’d recommend not being 100% reliant on it.

Reccies can also speed things up, allowing memory to take over from having to make choices. People also like them for route familiarity, and sometime to check pace over the actual terrain you’ll be running. I’m not a fan of reccies, but am in a small minority here! (I prefer the sense of exploration, and am confident in my nav abilities. Although there are a few occasions this has backfired!)

No new stuff! – Rule 7

That is basically it. No new food, kit, tactics. Don’t listen to someone else’s bright idea about what you should do, if you’ve never done it before. Have confidence in your training and practice, and stick with it!

Safety – rule 8

There are a lot of things to think about here. How far and how remote is the route? How long would it be before anyone knew you are missing? What’s the weather, in particular is it wet, cold, windy? There was a fascinating experiment where 3 fellrunners set out, in autumnal weather, to replicate what happens if you have to stop due to injury. One had just his running kit, and reported feeling extremely cold after stopping for 10 minutes. The runner carrying full FRA kit (waterproofs, hat, gloves, food being the relevant bits) was ok for about 30 minutes. The one with the survival bag did a lot better! So the things I always carry, for big runs whether it’s on a kit list or not are a phone (in a dry bag), survival bag, and basic first aid kit (wound dressing, crepe bandage, painkillers). I also leave a route description with Mrs K, and check in when down safely. If running overnight, I’ll use a tracker or send updates via whatsapp periodically.

The hard bits – rule 9

On a long challenge, you will probably suffer. What makes a big difference to success rate is being able to diagnose the problem and adapt. Often its a problem with eating or drinking, and you can dig yourself out of the hole. You should expect to find a big run hard in places, but be confident that it’s not all going to get worse from there. The course profile is another factor – spotting the things you won’t like will help on the day, whether it’s a big climb, technical descent, scary ridge, boring road, or whatever. See these things coming, by studying the map, even if you don’t go and reccy.

Train properly – rule 10

Let’s adapt a cliche: train hard; complete easy. There’s no “it’ll be all right on the night” in ultra running! Most of the time, by the time you reach the start line, you’re either fit to complete it or you’re not, and the number of people who are “maybes” and need a heroic performance, or totally ideal conditions, will be relatively few. You’ll feel far better if you’ve trained to a level where a few things can go slightly wrong (weather, minor nav error, tough day, etc) and it isn’t game over. On these things, something often goes a little bit wrong, and having some spare capacity to cope, and adaptability, will get you through. Understand what the challenge is, and train appropriate. In particular, if its something that is fairly new to you (e.g. if you’re a trail runner trying the Bob Graham, or a fell-runner turning your hand to a trail 100 miler) think about your areas of relative weakness and focus on those.

Once you’ve trained, the next thing is understanding the pace you’ll be able to sustain, and sticking to that. Remember that this needs to take account of the elevation on the route. Ideally you’ll have a sense of how much “spare” pace you have when taking on an ultra challenge, for example if you can just about run 12 mins/mile over hilly ground for 30 miles, you’ll have to slow down to cover 50 miles of similar terrain. You might like my “nerdology” section, for more on training and pace-setting.

In the first section I mentioned excess lactate in the body, which is comes about if your body is working too hard. A key aim of ultra training is to adapt so that this happens less readily, i.e. you can go further, or faster, before this becomes a problem.

Finally, a plug for running coaches, including me! You will build up your endurance and capability by following some simple rules, running more, further, hillier, faster, whatever. You can get a generic training plan off the internet or through AI. In most cases, the increases will be incremental. If you’re looking for a step-change in what you can achieve, or how comfortable it feels, get a coach, to get individual training advice.