 So it's Friday, and I am on my way to Scotland. I'm spending the next 11 days volunteering at the Cape Wrath Ultra, which is organised by Ure events. So I'll be up in Fort William and then traveling all the way up from Fort William to the top of Scotland via Ulapool all the way through the West Highlands. It's going to be an absolutely amazing adventure. I'm going to take you along with me right now. I'm at Stevenage Railway Station waiting to get the train up to Edinburgh. I'm very excited by the speed of these trains. The Cape Wrath Ultra has been a bucket list race of mine for a number of years. Being on the event team was going to be awesome. This is the very famous St. George's Square in Glasgow. Haven't got long here. Going to get the train up to Fort William from Glasgow Central. Which is just there any second now. Going to get to Fort William at about 10 o'clock tonight. It'll probably be dark and I'll have to set up my tent in a field somewhere. The further north I travelled into Scotland the more remote and mountainous the landscape became. Okay, that was a long journey. It is well after 10 p.m. I've been on the road since 10 a.m. So 12 hours, but we are here in Fort William. Got to go and find where I'm going to camp now. Good morning. It is around 6 30 a.m. On Saturday morning, so I arrived at Fort William late last night about half past 10. Eventually got my tent set up in the football club here at Fort William. And it was a bit colder than I wanted it to be in here. I'm going to have to wear clothes, I think, when I sleep because the sleeping bag is not as warm as I was expecting. My first morning in Fort William was spent meeting my fellow team members and listening to various briefings. Then we're getting split into smaller groups. The thing with the last runners is that they potentially spent five or six hours more on the hill again for the third day on the truck. And apparently there is only one efficient way to erect a tent. So it is a hive of activity here at Cape Wrath Ultra HQ. We have the whole of registration getting set up. So runners will come into here. This is where registration is. These are all the various teams that are doing different things. So we've got like the start, finish team over there. We've got the info point team here. We're the main camp team. So this is a few of our crew here. We're going to be doing registration this afternoon from one o'clock. Once erected, we were also instructed on how to pack a tent away. In 10 days time, I would be a leading expert on tent erection and tear down. So this is the registration tent. We're all set up. The runners are waiting outside, not all of them, but the first few runners are waiting outside to get registered. So we've got all the numbers here and everything that they need to collect when they come in. T-shirts, trackers at the end there. And you do need to know that my job this morning has been putting all of these banners up on the step ladder. That was my job. From early afternoon, 2023 Cape Wrath Ultra participants began filing through the registration tent. Look who it is. One of the race favourites. It's Debbie Martin Corsani. Registration lasted until early evening with runners arranging their own accommodation for the first night in Fort William. Right, that's it for day one of the Cape Wrath Ultra volunteering experience. All the runners have arrived and been registered. No running has happened today. That starts tomorrow. So I am up at six o'clock in the morning down to the ferry to see the runners off for their first leg tomorrow. I may have been to Tesco to purchase some snacks for this evening. So there are two waves of runners who will arrive here in a couple of hours actually in quite a while. We've got this signage here, Cape Wrath Ultra and then we've got the flags here and here which Pipper and I have put up. The runners drop bags are in there and then all the trackers that they need to get are here. So they pick these up, they put them in the top of their bags and they have to carry them with them for the rest of the journey. And that journey starts after a short walk from Race HQ at the football ground through Fort William and then a ferry journey across Loughlinney. So isn't this lovely? This is the first boat leaving for the Cape Wrath Ultra. They're going across the water and to start their adventure. That's fabulous isn't it? I'm so jealous. Where are you from? America. Where are you from? Washington. Washington, why have you come? Because I've been trying to come run this for three years and I'm finally here. It's going to be awesome, you're going to love it. It's beautiful here. Good luck. Hi Billy, hi, where are you from? Hawaii, Aloha. It's going to be a little bit different to the weather in Hawaii. Oh, I thought it was exactly the same. No, no, it's very, very different. There's nothing more beautiful than Scotland. And I'm an O'Sullivan so I've seen Ireland so I wanted to come over and check. Hawaii's beautiful. Best weather on the planet so I figured I'd come check out the worst weather on the planet. Come on. Mohamed, where are you from? I'm from North Carolina. North Carolina, okay. Why have you decided to come and do this race? I want to see Scotland and this is, I think, the best way to see it. There's probably no better way. Have a great race guys. Enjoy it. Where are you from? I'm from the US but I live in Turkey. You live in Turkey? Interesting. Yes. What's your name? My name is Maria. Maria, why have you come all the way from Turkey via the US to run in Scotland? Because of the adventure and the thrill of the challenge. What have you done similar before? Have you done anything similar before? I have done a couple ultra marathons in the US. I actually did one in the fall in Turkey in Cappadocia which was incredible. And so I, you know, just the scenery is incredible out there and from what I've seen here. I'm from Alaska in the US and so like this scenery gives Alaska a run-up. So if it gets cold and rains you don't care, do you? I'm just going to build an igloo. Yes, fair enough. I'm Anna, I'm from, I live in Sheffield. In Sheffield. Okay, so not quite as far as Turkey. I did the Lakeland three-day, month-for-day. I've done the Ring of Steel in... Well, have an absolutely great one. Well done. It's a 37 kilometre run to the first camp at Glenfinnan. No running for us though. Once the start area had been packed away, volunteers in the event team climbed into our allotted vehicles for the short drive. Right, here we are at Glenfinnan, which is Camp Two, or Camp One, I suppose, away from the start. Look, it's the Harry Potter Bridge. That is the actual bridge that the train went across in Harry Potter. And this is our operation to get the tents up. They're all these blue burghouse inflatable tents. We have to lay them out on the ground and then get pumps and pump up the inflatable arches so the tents go up. You can see we've got about four of them up so far. And then we've got all these left to do before the first runners come in. It's now 11.12.37. The first runners are probably going to be in in around about two hours. We rushed to get all the tents up quickly, so we could stand and watch the steam train go over the bridge, made famous by this scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Tourists come to Glenfinnan from all over the world to watch the real thing. After a debrief, I was free for a couple of hours, so I decided it was time for a first dip in a river. We're not going to get much of a chance to do this. So I'm going to go in this water. Do you think so? Oh, it's nice. Now I am fully aware that many of you have no interest in seeing these gratuitous half-naked scenes. So I'll just leave it on screen for a little longer and warn you that there are plenty more swimming scenes to come. So everybody is getting out to see the train and look how many people are filming. After watching the steam train for a second time, the rest of the afternoon was spent greeting runners as they finished their first day in the Scottish Highlands. Well done, mate. Thank you. Good effort today. Thank you. Well done. Thanks. Well done. OK, so beginning of day three, we're packing away the camp at Glenfinnan. So it's about 9 o'clock in the morning. People have been up since 6.30, but my shift doesn't start till 9. So I'm about to go and join in the packing down of the tents and getting all the equipment back in the vans ready to take to our next campsite. All the runners have gone. They're all off on their 50-odd kilometer journey this morning. There were between 24 and 27 tents for our team to pack down each day before moving on to the next camp. And after every session, we would have a debrief meeting with Greg, one of the main Ure events coordinators. So much for the catering team to go to bed at 7 o'clock because they get up at 3 o'clock in the morning. So it's just before 1 o'clock in the afternoon and we've just arrived at the next camp. This is Kinloch Horn and this is completely off-grid. So there's no phone signal here. We are in a valley. There's a beautiful lock there. There's a river running just down here. And it is serene and very picturesque. We are going to put all the tents up for the runners. We're expecting the first runner to arrive in a couple of hours. So we need to be pretty quick getting these tents up. But yeah, what a beautiful place. What a beautiful location to be in. Every day it's put the tent up, take it down, put the tent up, take it down. That's your own tent. And then you've got all the runners' tents. So there are 20 odd runners' tents to take up, put down and take up again. Put, take down and put up again. Each day I became more in awe of what a huge logistical operation this whole thing is. During the afternoon, the catering team starts serving chips, soup and very tasty finger bites, which were available to the event team as well as the runners. In fine weather, it was a real joy to stand and welcome the runners back to camp, take them to their tents and get them a big plate of chips. Basically, we're kind of standing here and as runners come in, we're just greeting them and we're taking them over to their tent over there to kind of a meet and greet escort, not an escort service, like an escort service, but not an escort service. Am I allowed a few more? Thank you very much. Hi Robin. Hi. So, Mr Cousins. How was it? Challenging. Hi. Hi Robin. Oh, I got it. Sorry, I'm being a complete break. Well done. Well done. Well done. This is what it's like when you've run 35 miles in the Scottish Highlands. It is 6.30 in the evening. We've still got loads of runners still out there on day number two of the Cape Raffle Truck. Four minutes to 10 in the evening and we need runners to appear over there like now because if they don't, they're not going to make it in time. Come on, Luke. Hard as you can. Hard as you can. Hard as you can. Come on. Come on. Fantastic. In you go. In you go. Well done. Well done. Awesome shot, buddy. So, we got one of them in. There's 50 seconds left, but we don't think the others... Oh, one is crew, yeah. This is what it looks like as we're collapsing down camp. Pretty much all the tents. Just a couple more tents now left to collapse and then we're on our way to camp number three. So, every morning, once we've packed all the tents down, the camp team, we get our bags, put them in the cars that we're travelling to the next campsite in and then we get on our way to today camp three. We're just about to leave camp two. The final thing that the camp team have to do is just a sweep of the area just to make sure there's no litter left. So, we're all just walking up and down the field, making sure there's no litter. I mean, the camp team is only one team here. There's the catering team, tech services team. There are so many different teams. The marquee team, all of these teams have their own separate jobs and then we'll all make our way to camp three when we're done doing our job. But I'm in the camp team. We've just stopped for coffee on our way up to camp three. There's some quite nice little signs in here. Another beautiful camp location. This is camp three and we're setting up tents. I've been given strict instructions to pump so that's what I'm going to do. Pumping up the tents is the most arduous back-breaking job you'll do as a member of the main camp team. Why they don't invest in some electric pumps to help is beyond me. Day three at the Cape Rath Ultra and our first finisher is coming in. Well done. So, David was the first in yesterday as well. We'll get it. Actually, the last one was quite blurry. In fact, both hills were, the weather was good today but it was a bit windy on top. The last bit was the best bit. The rest was grim. Well, it was quite technical. I thought it was told there was a lot of fire track. There is a lot of fire track but all I remember is the technical bit. No, it wasn't too bad. I got a bit scared at top because you can't see and all you're following is a line and I was like, oh my God, am I going the right way? I'm really not a mountain person. Well, you're doing all right for not a mountain person. I think you're miles ahead. I don't have loads of experience. Right, let's get you to your tent. Don't get cold. Come on, go this way. Well done, mate. Oh, that's it. Well done, guys. You can stop running now. Well done. Well done. Yeah. So when we get a little break we can go off and do what we like for a bit. We didn't get much of a break yesterday but today I'm just going to go half an hour run down to the river following the route that the runners are coming back in on day three. Great work. Good effort, mate. Well done. Do not come and volunteer at the Cape Rath Ultra if you want to recce the course. You're just not going to have time for that. You have just under a mile to go. Brilliant. Well done. Good work. Hiya. Yes, I'm good. I'll be down in a minute. Good work. How's your day been? It's been challenging. It's been profoundly beautiful. There is time most days for half an hour or so running on the hills and there is always time to throw yourself in the nearest river. Working on the late shift the most rewarding time is greeting the runners as they finish their day and seeing the joy and relief on their faces. So there's half an hour to go before cut off here on day three at the Cape Rath Ultra. Let me just show you a little bit around the site if I haven't done this already. So this tent here is the participant's tent where they can eat. So tea and coffee for participants and hot and cold water is just here. The most important tent is next after hot and cold water is the catering tent. Today it is curry and rice and then for pudding is a roly-poly jam sponge with custard which is awesome and the medical tent is just here as well. Oh yeah the most important part of all of course is the start finish line so runners are still coming in here it is 21-28 now so they come in here at the end of day three they go into this tent here and once in this tent they'll get their tracker removed once you go beyond here this is front of house that's back of house. Back there you'll find the control room comms room you'll find the catering where they actually cook the food and also where we sleep our tents are over there as well. Okay back in my cosy little tent it is tiny this tent and it has been quite cold at night some of the nights so I've been waking up at four o'clock in the morning in the freezing cold trying to wrap myself in as many layers as possible. The final runner came in with nine minutes to spare this evening so off to bed nice and early and we'll be back up in the morning to start it all over again. Okay that's camp three done on to camp four this is a tight turnaround today cos the runners haven't got as far to go as they did yesterday so we are on a shift to get to the camp up at camp five no camp four race day five no no night at five race day four that's it Welcome to camp four this is Kinlock Hue and it's a very small site so it's going to be a squeeze to get all the tents on the site and all the vehicles but it's beautiful here absolutely gorgeous and the sun is shining when the rain comes or when the midges are out it's just so depressing but when the sun is shining there's a bit of a gentle breeze to blow the midges away that's when it's beautiful so it's time for me to turn the camera off and help unload these tents and get them set up so we've built the camp tent and it's now time for us to have a swim we've got about an hour or so off before we need to go and start meeting runners so we're just going to go and dip in the water for a minute or two once you're in it's fine but you need to stay in it's really freezing cold so it's better to stay in once you're in it these are really long working days and I feel really tired but the thing is you're just woken you're made so alive by this water and the sunshine when it comes out it's absolutely beautiful back in camp the shorter 35km route meant runners arrived back earlier than usual the sunshine and small cosy nature of the site made for a lovely atmosphere on race day 4 it's days like these that runners envy kicks in and I wish I was out there on the course running it's a hard life though standing in the sunshine eating chips and cheering weary souls across the finish line well done you it was a great day, absolutely fantastic enjoyed that I would have missed it for anything right that was our final runner today going to bed or going to eat or going to shower or something anyway that is the day done here on day 4 at the Cape Wrath Ultra good morning welcome to day 5 at the Cape Wrath Ultra it is midgy day this morning we're up early cos I've changed shifts so the first 4 days I was on late shifts where we started at 9 o'clock in the morning today I'm starting at 6.30 in the morning when the midgies are really really bad so midget net is on gloves are on cos it's actually quite cold as well this morning but it's going to be a lovely day and we are on bag, drop and kit check this morning so the runners will leave around between 7 and 8 o'clock this morning so we're going to check all their kits, well not all their kit we're just going to check a couple of items of their kit and dump their bags in the vans to take to the next camp each day runners pack their dry bags and deliver them back to us before they start running there is of course a mandatory kit list which runners must adhere to and we check for 3 items each morning before giving them the all clear to set off for the day it's always the one at the bottom right Pippa didn't know Agadu did she right so she won't know Superman either will she do you remember Superman no I don't know so this is Jomi Grace leader at the moment and looking fresh every day no pressure no pressure how are you feeling Jo? good another day enjoy see ya look she started running already hahaha hahaha with the runners on their way and the camp dismantled it was time to get into our vehicles I was always in MPV 38 with the same gang quite often we would stop for coffee on the way up to the next camp and there was always some good banter on the journey welcome to Clacken which is not far from Ulapool this is camp 5 we are on about day 6 but the runners are on race day 5 this is a lovely site that we think might be mid-gee free so I've still got my mid-net in my pocket just in case but we're in a beautiful valley hopefully mid-free there's Shane we're about to set up the tents fingers crossed it's going to be a lovely campsite runners are doing marathon today about 27 miles so it won't be too long before the fastest runners are back so we need to get this load of tents up and ready in the next hour or so it's your favourite job John size isn't it yes although still to do once we've got all the tents up we have to carry everybody's drop bag and put it in their tents can be a long walk have a great day good effort buddy fantastic enjoyed it the flower lander from Texas I could run today the bog section still kicked my ass it was a lovely day today as in the course we're just absolutely stuffed it's just a brutal course and you've only got I'm in a really long day tomorrow it'll be fine should be no problem at all bye hiya oh well yeah it won't be long now well done guys keep it going next to our campsite is a beautiful climb and I thought I'd come to the top of it so this is as high as I think I want to get before I go back down fantastic view of the mountains and the distance there so we are about 10 miles west of Ollipool so Ollipool is in that direction and the Isle of Skye is in that direction as well and our campsite is about 400 metres to set down into that field down there or near that field just down there 300 kilometres to get here 400 metres to set 3.3 kilometres so we'll go down in a second and then back over for next year it's going to be absolutely awesome 5.30 in the morning still need to be a little bit quiet because people are sleeping just got to get up there have breakfast and then start taking runners drop bags off them and sending them on their way for their run today it's a long one today oh yeah just to make sure I do actually eat you have to prove it to someone else in your family I am eating how about some egg oh it's frittata today so we've got potato in there oh my gosh we're doing commentary I didn't swear would you like some sausage? yes please thank you very much I'll go for two that's delicious thank you very much go on then Tara thank you very much indeed yeah it's been really nice the weather's been brilliant the views have been really good it's been awesome but you're getting up at 5.30 in the morning mate yeah I know I'm tired I didn't sleep well as I was cold Debs how's the team performing are we any good? nice shit thank you very much we were so lucky with the weather this year apparently last year it rained every day for the entire event it was also really nice to be on early shifts to be able to see the runners off and to have a little extra time in the evenings to enjoy the surroundings right so we've got Eka and Debbie who are in fourth and fifth place respectively in the women's race day six this is Jo Meek who's in the lead good luck Jo have a good one today so as well as my team taking all the tents down there are loads of other teams dismantling everything else so this is the start finish team funnily enough start finish area all the runners have gone so that's it from this camp and we're moving on to the next camp as soon as everything is packed up it was time to move on from here at Clacken an hour or so north to Locke Sint where some of us were about to get a nice surprise we've looked out because on day six we can stay in a lodge so the campsite is down there and that's where all the runners are going but tonight we're staying in here so we're following the route that the runners are coming in to the finish so we should see a couple on route ah buddy good work right leading lady in the Cape Wrath Ultra 2023 he's coming to the finish well done Jo good work well done buddy so Jo had a tough day yesterday and she had a tough day again today but she's got there and she's still leading lady well done buddy are you two looking alright well done guys good job today doing you two made it just did about 2K less than 2K to go 2K to go see you later I don't know how far down those caves go that's cool it is almost done less than 4K to go enjoy see you at the finish happy you've got 4K 4K less 4km to the finish I'm sorry 4 and here they come 4th and 5th place respectively it's Debbie and Eke well done girls brilliant well done guys good job 4km just over 4km left smashing it at the park well done not many people are allowed in here this is like the secret place that people don't get to come this is the ops tent everything happens so here's Greg they're in charge we have to bow when we come in here like this I should be on my knees everything that's important happens in this tent a lot of it can't be revealed well done girls I'm running running I'm not slowing down just here it's the morning of day 7 and we do finally have something more akin to what I would think Scottish weather should be like Agamemnon right this guy is going to finish today Agamemnon has been absolutely awesome all week are you enjoying it? are you going to finish today? definitely but we will start on the second half yeah of course awesome some people are still on the full course other people have dropped down to what's called the Explorer which is a slightly shortened version of the Cape Wrath Ultra so it's about 6.30 in the morning on day 7 and we are by Loc Ascent Loc Ascent something like that this is Kit Check so that's my job standing there this morning waiting for the runners to come and drop their bags off to take it to camp 8 all the runners are getting themselves prepared they're all here having their breakfast washing their cutlery up and they're all eating in that tent there and then in about an hour or two's time all these blue tents are dismantled by us and taken on to camp 8 so let's get on with getting these runners off on their next journey their next adventure Debs has had a terrible night's sleep she's dribbled tea all down herself thanks for that Steve I'm going to put this in the edit she's not functioning at all this is only tea and dribble done myself oh dear maybe that can't make the edit I can't put it in if you say fuck I can't put it in have a great day everyone enjoy it have fun in general runners could start any time after 7am so there would often be something of a mass start at 7 with others trickling over the line for the next hour or so have a great one right there we go 7 o'clock we're going to start an hour or so later and what you'll find is that they will catch these runners up on the way round not going to lose her today are you see John just tell me how you feeling on your last big day come on looking forward to getting this done Elaine how far are you ahead of the third a couple of hours why they keep you good job this is David Parrish who's in first place in the Cape Rap Ultra going into day 7 this is the final long day so David's just got one long day and a short day left to do and then there's a waterfall one of the highest people it's a bit foggy it's a bit foggy Fernanda can you hold on to second place second place see Fernanda and the Greek God Agamemnon lovely lovely weather lovely vent lovely landscape perfect by now we were getting pretty experienced at this tent packing business we naturally divided ourselves into small teams and each of us knew what needed doing to get the tents packed away as quickly and efficiently as possible however in the morning we had what was without question the worst weather of the event thus far you wouldn't believe about two hours ago it was absolutely torrential rain here pouring and we were in full waterproofs and still getting soaked while putting all those tents up but the tents are up the Finnish gantry is up, we're here in camp 7 one day to go we're just putting all the bags now into the tents we are at Kinlock Burvey this is Kinlock Burvey football club here we're on their football pitch and they were very keen to stress that they didn't want the football pitch ruined so we've had to be very careful not to drive trucks on here we did have one truck go on trying to deliver the toilets and it got stuck so we've already ruined their football pitch the rain has stopped it's almost the sunny afternoon I've finished work for the day we are right at the top of Scotland almost and I'm on my way running to Sandwood Bay which I'm hoping will be beautiful it's about 13km from our campsite look where we are I know we're on an established path and there is a car park 2km away however if we look around there is nothing inside so there's no electricity pylons no telephone cables and no houses no nothing there is nothing around at all where in the country do you get to see that nothing absolutely brilliant I can't wait to get to this beach I'm so excited right I think we might have to go for a quick dip even if it's just a couple of minutes or 30 seconds the runners in the Cape Wrath Ultra do run across this beach so it's good to come and see it enough for me hey Paul and so look here I am on a completely deserted beach Sandwood beach the sun is out it's completely gorgeous this run and swim was my favourite of the whole trip getting to see Sandwood Bay deserted in the sunshine once everyone else had left was very special it was also my longest run of the week at 25km once back at camp I slept very well despite it staying light until well after 11pm this is our winner unless he does something stupid today this is David here's David's gloves here's David's waterproof trousers waterproof top David is clear to go and run 16 miles today please with yourself please with your efforts put yourself under pressure to start by going out fast and now I've been condemned to try and give out beans every day you're good with that it's great you haven't suffered any major injuries no major ones just the niggles the niggles we've all suffered so we've got our first two runners starting at 7am and they are the leaders Joe Meek for the ladies and David Parrish for the gents have a great day guys don't mess this up now you two will you? there they go they've got about 16 miles to run up to the lighthouse to win the Cape Wrath Ultra today well done guys enjoy your day good stuff so they're in second place for the men and women apparently we've been brilliant all week not you Steve I've got to use that now haven't I I actually I have to use that oh it's been epic yeah enjoyed it yes you've been great you've run every day with Debbie was that a decision that you made early on I think from day two I tried to ditch her but it didn't work Debbie's a legend and it's been working really well together so it's been amazing I've learned so much from her and you look so comfortable still on day eight yeah but it's keeping up well yeah we're covering well enjoy it have a great final day well done Acre are you happy Sarah? yes yeah you've done really well amazing what position are you in don't care do you good for you happy to be done now cheers I'll carry that we need to see waterproofs today I think waterproof jacket waterproof trousers and can we see your backpack please I'm not joking it's on the kit list so this is Debbie who's been running with Acre for the past six billion years in fifth place enjoy your race are you pleased with yourself third place incredible what he held up it really has hasn't it well done have a great one Gav see you later once all the runners had gone it was time for one more breakdown and reset of camp it's hard to adequately portray the scale of the operation that Uri events put on here it really is a case of erecting a small town every day with housing catering, medical facilities plumbing, electricity and wifi the only other things runners might possibly want are hot showers I just find it amazing that this whole setup is built from scratch every day eight days on the trot there are two sets of marquees which bunny hop along the route but other than that it's all taken down and rebuilt every day one last time getting in the car and one last time welcoming runners home on the final day runners reach Cape Rath lighthouse and then have a one hour bus journey and a short ferry ride back before they cross the finishing gantry in camp there's only a small team sent out to the lighthouse to see the runners over the actual finish line love days one to five days six to eight quite hard I was incredibly tired by the final day and after finishing my shift I fell asleep in my tent for a couple of hours unfortunately this meant I was quite late going out on my run but I just had to see one more beach and try to run as far north as I possibly could so this is for aid head I think I pronounced that right for aid head and bound the keel bay stunning never been this far north before absolutely amazing it was too far to go to the tip of fair aid head so I turned off and ran to the nearest town which is Doness it was actually quite busy there with lots of camper vans and motorhomes but it was still fabulous to feel like I was so near the tip of Scotland absolutely beautiful beaches here in Doness aren't they gorgeous how many years have you been doing this now fifth edition first bombs in 2016 probably the smoothest in terms of operation high success rate a lot of people broken Joe meek has set a new women's course record and I think they've perished slightly behind to be honest everybody who's completed the full course it's a completely phenomenal achievement why should somebody come and do what I've done like a crazy lunatic and spend eight nine ten days volunteering for ure events car two simple answers so first of all it is just good fun we want our crew to be have great time so we give lots of agency responsibility we let them run the event for us so it's very fulfilling work and then anyone who volunteers also gets a race credit equal to that entry fee for that year which to all intents and purposes means you can do the same event for three at any point in the next two calendar years and actually that credit is transferable against any of our events so you could come to a cave rat to do dragons back and you have this amazing kind of circular economy people who volunteer one vent they come back and race another volunteer again and they race another vent it's brilliant and they really hold that ethos and culture of the business organization and I have eaten more food this week then I have eaten in my lifetime it is really well stopped you had a good time I've had a brilliant time yeah I've really enjoyed it would you recommend the volunteering to someone then oh absolutely yeah I mean don't come here thinking you're going to have an easy ride it's hard work especially if you're on the team I'm on the camp team we build and dismantle 24, 28 tents every day it's hard work but you know for people who think well why should I come and do something for free like Shane's just said you are essentially getting paid I mean the cave rat you know for us normal people who don't earn a ton it's a lot of money to pay for an 8 day event but we're getting paid essentially that amount for coming to volunteer here so it's well worth doing and a brilliant event and well organized shape thanks Shane the extra perk for runners on the final day was a bar that's a long queue for beer isn't it have you enjoyed it oh it's been fantastic just an incredible experience where did you come from from Texas so I heard about this race back at coastal challenge I was running it with Marcus Scottney and he told me about this epic race across Scotland and I figured I'd give it a go so glad I did 3 years in the making with Covid deferrals and everything Kate Brath over and done with 8 days of running in the Scottish mountains enjoyed it yeah it was amazing I don't think many people in Scotland have heard of the Kate Brath trail and I don't know that many people who have been on it so to be part of the race and experience the route remote and wildness inaccessibility it's absolutely phenomenal and it's the weather gods delivered and I don't think I've ever been so proud to be spotted it's great to look around and see people that have come so far afield yeah because you're basically a southerner now aren't you I'm aware of this now yeah yeah it's great to look around and see there's so many people that have come so far and seen how wonderful Scotland is I really appreciate it I mean did you come here with any expectations are you pleased with what you've achieved I came here to do my best and I can go away knowing that I definitely did and you came 15th yeah and you basically ran with Acre all the way didn't you 7 days solid yeah it wasn't even planned I think on day 2 that we decided to sit out together and then we realised we were kind of just moving at the same pace and we worked really well together and we kept each other going through some difficult patches and yeah it was amazing to experience it with her so she's probably blocked me and everything now to get rid of me it's Debbie Martin thank you very much well done on your fifth place Cape Wrath Ultra we're packing up and going home it's the last day everybody is thinking about getting on coaches and getting back to normality tense I've got to get those tents down in the next half an hour because I'm supposed to be getting on a coach to go home so this is how to collapse a tent at the Cape Wrath Ultra they've got air tubes here and the air tubes are controlled by this valve here and you just press the valve and then the tent collapses there we go one down 23 to go how are you? I honestly feel pretty battered but happy that's the main thing what did you come here to achieve? I came to do as well as possible I left something out because by day 5 you were saying gosh this is hard day 5 was creeping up on you day 6 was a nightmare because of the navigational issues with my Garmin catastrophically failing and then day 7 was just tough day 8 you just had to get there so it was really 6 to 7 really go to some dark places you've gone beyond physically and mentally where sometimes you've been before I haven't done an 8 day race before I haven't really done a continuous race before so my body's in a different place I mean I can push each day and luckily when I was in the tent it was amazing you had a good tent they make you laugh which is pretty brilliant and then it will take some process would you recommend anyone come and do this and why should they come and do it? I mean the scenery you can only visit the scenery and it really is exceptional the camaraderie and just the sense of keeping A to B races are fantastic for that Joe first place and course record well done right that's it that's me done we're on our way to get the coach to go home saying goodbye to camp for the last time after gosh forever but it's been 8 days of running for the competitors and about 9 days of work for us but we are now on our way home of course the end of the race did not mean the end of the trip I was 700 miles from home and we were about to board a coach for a long journey to Fort William where I would get the overnight Caledonian sleeper train to London and we've stopped in Ullapool because it's a very long journey from the top of Scotland at Durness all the way down to Fort William so it's about 5 hour drive in the coach so we've just stopped in Ullapool which is about half way down for ice cream after a sleepless night on the train a tube journey across London and a train down to the south coast I was finally there back in Worthing back at my local train station Cape Wrath Ultra 11 days of volunteering is done if you have been inspired by this if you think that you would love to volunteer then go and have a look at the Ure Events website and sign yourself up for volunteering at either the Cape Wrath Ultra or the Dragons Back which is another event they do the GL3D, the Great Lakes 3 days all of those would give you fantastic experience volunteering on multi-day events it was my first time volunteering at an event like that and it was tiring really tiring but such good fun and got to see an amazing place in the Highlands of Scotland absolutely superb thank you very much for watching hope you enjoyed the video and we'll see you on the start line next time bye bye