Cape Wrath ULTRA 2023 | What's it like to VOLUNTEER for Ourea Events?

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 organized by uray 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 other pool 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 s

peed 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 along here going to get the train up to Fort William from Glasgow Central which is just there any second now gonna 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 traveled into Scotland the

more remote and mountainous the landscape became okay that was a long journey it is uh 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 gonna go and find where I'm going to camp now [Music] good morning it is around 30 A.M 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 gonna have to we

ar 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 split into smaller groups so the thing with the last Runners is that they've 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 Ultra HQ we have um 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 there on the step ladder that is my job from early afternoon 2023 Cape wrap Ultra participants began filing

through the registration tent look who it is one one of the race favorites 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 uh 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 uh 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 rumors who will arrive here in a couple of hours actually we've been quite a while um we've got this uh signage here Cape wrap Ultra and then we've got the flags here and here which Pippa 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 picked 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 loughlini so isn't this lovely this is the first boat leaving for the cape wrap Ultra they're going across the water and to start their Adventure I'm so jealous where are you from America whereabouts Washington please 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 gonna love it it's beautiful here good luck thanks Mohammed Lily hi where are you from Hawaii aloha 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 yeah come on there's nothing more beautiful than Scotland and I'm an O'Sullivan so I've seen Ireland so I wanted to come over why he's beautiful Hawaii is beautiful best weather on the planet so I figured I'd come check out the worst

weather on the planet come on Mohammed where are you from I'm from North Carolina North Carolina okay why have you decided to come to this race I want to see Scotland and this is uh 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 oh I'm from the US but I live in Turkey you live in Turkey interesting yes what's your name my name is Maria and Maria why have you come all the way from Turkey by the U.S to run in Scotland uh because of

the adventure and the thrill of challenge what have you done similar before have you done anything similar before um I have done a couple Ultra marathons and us I actually did one in uh in the fall in turkey and Cappadocia which was incredible and so I you know just the 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 running so if it gets cold and rains you don't care I'm just gonna build an igloo yeah fair enough

I'm Anna I'm from um I live in Sheffield in Sheffield okay so not quite as far as turkey I did the Lakeland three day months ago I've done the Ring Of Steel and well have an absolutely great one well done it's a 37 kilometer run to the first camp at glenfinen 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 glenfinen which is Camp two or Camp one I suppose away from the start

look it's the Harry Potter bridge that is the 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 Berg house inflatable tents uh 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 first Runners are probably going to be i

n 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 glenfinen 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 gonna go in this water do you think so 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 I've looked kind of 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 thank you good effort today foreign we're pac

king away the camp at Glenn finnen so it's about nine o'clock in the morning people have been up since 6 30 but my shift doesn't start till nine so I'm about to go and join in the uh 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 hooray events coordinators go to bed at seven o'clock because they get up at three o'clock in the morning so it's just before one o'clock in the afternoon and we've just arrived at the next camp this is kinlochorn 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 and we are going to put all t

he 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 so every day it's it's put the tent up take it down put the tent up take it down and that's your own tent and then you've got all the runners tent so there are 20 odd Runners tents to take up uh put down and take up again put take down and take down and put up again each day I became mor

e 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 so

kind of agreed a meet and greet escort not an escort service but like an escort service but not an escort service all right Robin so Mr cousins how was it challenging yeah got it sorry I'm being a complete brick I'm sorry 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 be

cause 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 hold on awesome stuff 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 [Music] it's 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 traveling to the next Campsite in and then we get on our way to today camp three [Applause] [Music] we're just about to leave Camp to 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 s

o many different teams uh the the Marquee Team all of these teams have their own separate jobs and then we'll all make our way to Camp 3 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 you've got some quite nice little signs in here [Music] another beautiful Camp location this is Camp three and we're setting up tents and I've been giving strix instructions to Pub so that's what I'm gonna 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 wrap Ultra and our first finisher is coming in [Music] [Applause] so David was the first in yesterday as well actually the last one was quick Bluey yeah in fact both Hills were the weather was good today but it was a bit windy on top the last bit was the best Fair the rest was grin well it was quite technical it wasn't too bad I got a bit scared at

the 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 yeah I'm really not a mountain person so well you're doing all right for not a mounting person I think you're Miles Ahead you know you'll have loads of experience so right let's get you to your tents don't get cold come on go this way we can go off and do what we like for a bit it didn't get much of it right yesterday but today I'm just gonna go half an hour run down to the river f

ollowing the route that the runners are coming back in on day three great work [Applause] good effort do not come and volunteer at the cape wrath 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 it's been challenging it's been profoundly beautiful [Music] there is time most days for half an hour or so running on the hills an

d 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 foreign so there's half an hour to go before cut off here on day three at the cape breath Ultra [Music] but let me just show you a little bit around the site if I haven't done this already so this tent here is the participants tent where they can eat so team 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 and 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 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 track

er removed once you go beyond here uh this is front of house uh that's back of house uh back there you'll find the control room comms room uh 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 cozy little tent it is Tiny this tent and it has been quite cold at night some of the night 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 uh the

final Runner came in uh with nine minutes to spare this evening so off to bed nice and early and uh we'll be back up in the morning to start it all over again [Music] okay that's camp three done onto Camp four this is a tight turn around today because the runners haven't got as far to go as they did yesterday so we are uh on a on a shift to get to the camp up at Camp five no camp Camp Fall race day five no no five race day four that's it thank you welcome to Camp four this is kinlock you 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 to have 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 and 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 it's like 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 [Music] one two three [Music] once you're in it's fine but you need to stay in because it's really freezing cold so it's better to stay in once you're in [Music] Mommy [Music] these are really long working days and I I feel really tired but the thing is you're just woken you're made so alive by this water and the Sunsh

ine When it comes out it's absolutely beautiful back in Camp the shorter 35 kilometer route meant Runners arrived back earlier than usual the sunshine and small cozy nature of the site made for a lovely atmosphere on race day four great work yeah 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 that's okay it was a great day a

bsolutely fantastic enjoyed that yeah good I would have I don't miss it for anything right that was our final Runner today so we are now going to bed or going to eat or don't going to shower or something anyway uh that is the day done here on day four at the cape breath Ultra good morning welcome to day five at the cape breath ultra um it is midgie day this morning we are up early because I've changed shift so the first four days I was on late shifts where we started at nine o'clock in the morni

ng today I'm starting at 6 30 in the morning uh I win the midges are really really bad so Midge net is on gloves are on because 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 seven and eight o'clock this morning so we're gonna check all their kits we're not all their kit we just get a check a couple of items of their kids 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 mustard here to and we check for three items each morning before giving them the all clear to set off for the day it's always it's always the one at the bottom no Pippa didn't know agadoo did she right so she won't know Superman either will she do you remember Superman so this is Joe Meek race leader at the moment and looking fresh every day no pre

ssure no pressure pressure how you feeling Joe yeah I'm all right actually good yeah yeah another day another day yeah I know it's amazing enjoy see ya look she started running already [Laughter] 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 other poo

l this is Camp five uh we're on about day six but uh the runners are on race day five uh this is a lovely site that we think might be midgie free so I've still got my mid net in my pocket just in case but we're in a beautiful Valley hopefully Midge free there's Shane we're about to set up the tents fingers crossed it's gonna be a lovely campsite Runners are doing just over a 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 t

ents up and ready in the next hour or so [Music] it's your favorite job John good exercise isn't it yes all those still to do [Music] all right 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 [Music] day hey buddy what up buddy how is today for you oh fantastic enjoyed it hyper terrain the flylander from Texas you know that's uh budget run today the Box section still kicked my ass [Music] [Music] it was a lovely day today dependi

ng the course we're just absolutely stuffed yeah it's just a brutal brutal pulse and you've only got I'm in a really long day tomorrow it'll be fine yeah yeah should be no problem at all enjoy it guys bye oh yeah [Music] oh well yeah it won't be long now well done guys [Music] next to our campsite he's 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 mountains in the distance there so we are about 10 mil

es south west of other pool so other pool is in that direction and the Isle of Skye is in that direction as well and our campsite is about uh set down into that field down there or near that field to stand there I've only run 3.3 kilometers to get here and 400 meters are sent 3.3 kilometers go down in a second I am loving this and I can't wait to do the cape wrap Ultra next year it's going to be absolutely [Music] 5 30 in the morning still need to be a little bit quiet because people are sleepin

g 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 make sure I do actually got potato in there lovely oh my gosh with the commentary I didn't swear would you like some sausage yes please thank you very much if you like too because you can't go for two yes that's delicious thank you very much thank you yes thank you go on then Tara thank you very much indeed yeah it's been really nice yeah t

he weather's been brilliant the views have been really good what is it 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 that's why I was cold Debs how's the team performing are we any good nice [ __ ] good 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 [Music] Debbie who are in uh fourth and fifth place respectively in the women's race [Music] uh day six this is Joe Meek who's in the lead setting up on her run good luck Joe 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 dismantling the start finish area all the runners have gone so that's it from this camp and we're mov

ing 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 locker since 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 for tonight so we're following the route that the runners are coming in to the Finish so we should see a couple on route hi buddy good work [Mus

ic] right leading lady in the cape breath Ultra 2023 he's coming to the Finish well then Joe tough one today again good work buddy so Joe's had Joe had a tough day yesterday and she had a tough day again today but she's got there and she's still Leading Lady thank you two looking all right well done guys how's it going feeling good yeah well done good job today right on YouTube made it did about 2k less than 2K to go [Music] 2K together see you later fall down those caves go that's cool it is al

most done less than 4K to go enjoy see it to finish [Music] oh my goodness happy shut up I'm so happy that view that view you've got 4K 4K left yeah we've only done six with me four kilometers to the Finish I'm sorry for and here they come fourth and fifth place respectively it's uh Debbie and they care well done girls brilliant well done good job four kilometers just over four kilometers left smashing it at the park well done [Music] come on right not many people are allowed in here this is lik

e the secret place that people don't get to come this is the Ops tent so this is where the everything happens so here's Greg his Sue these they're in charge we have to bow when we come in here um like this yeah I should be on my knees but um every everything that's important happens in this tent a lot of it can't be revealed wedding girls [Music] [Music] it's the morning of day seven and we do finally have something more akin to what I would think Scottish where they should be like agamemon thum

bs up feel me right this guy's gonna finish today Agamemnon has been absolutely awesome all week you enjoying it yes yes yeah you're gonna finish today definitely definitely but we will start on the second half I would start yeah yeah of course yeah yeah awesome good some so some people are doing 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 breath Ultra so it's about 6 30 in the morning on day seven and we

are by lock Essence lock Ascent something like that this is kit check so that's my job standing there this morning uh waiting for the runners to come and drop their bags off to take it to Camp eight 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 will be dismantled by us and take it on to Camp eight so let's get on with uh gettin

g these Runners off on their next Journey their next adventure Debs has had a terrible night's sleep she's been tea all down herself thanks for that Steve she's not I'm gonna put this in the edit she's not functioning at all oh dear maybe that can't make the edit I say [ __ ] a few times I can't put it in if you say [ __ ] I can't put it in have a great day everyone enjoy it good luck guys have fun in general Runners could start anytime after 7am so there would often be something of a mass start

at seven with others trickling over the line for the next hour or so have a great one right there we go seven o'clock they're really faster Runners will have to start an hour or so later and what you find is that they will catch the uh these Runners up on the way around thank you hey John foreign [Music] looking forward to getting this done Elaine yeah how far are you ahead of third yeah a couple of hours okay fingers crossed then why is that cute yeah good luck good job well last night yeah go

od night okay this is David Parish who's in first place in the cape breath Ultra going into day seven this is the final long day so uh David's just got uh one long day and a short day left to do and then there's a waterfall which is um one of the highest yeah it's a bit buggy around there Fernando can you hold on to second place ah loving it lovely weather lovely event lovely landscape lovely people oh thanks by now we were getting pretty experienced at this tent packing business we naturally di

vided 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 countries that were here in Camp seven one day to go w

e're just putting all the bags now into the tents we are at kinlochbery this is kinlochbery football club here we're on their football pitch and they were very keen to stress that they didn't want the football piece 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 [Music] the rain has stopped it's almost this Sunday 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 [Music] it's about 13 kilometers from our campsite [Music] look where we are I know we're on an established path and there is a car park two kilometers away however if you look around there is nothing in sight 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 b

rilliant I can't wait to get to this beach I'm so excited [Music] 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 breath Ultra do run across this beach so it's good to come and see it oh that's enough I am so lucky here I am on a completely deserted beach sandgood beach sun is out completely gorgeous this is absolutely fantastic this run and swim was my favorite 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 25 kilometers once back at Camp I slept very well despite it staying light until well after 11 pm [Music] this is our winner unless he does something stupid today this is David here's David's loves here's David's gloves there's David's waterproof trousers waterproof top David is clear to go and run 16 miles today please with yourself please with your effort though I've been condemned to try and g

ive it beans every day but yeah I'm good with that you haven't you yes it's great you haven't suffered any major injuries and do major ones no just the niggles yeah the niggles we've also oh I'm not sure so we've got our first two Runners starting at seven a.m and they are the leaders so we've got Joe meek for the ladies and uh David Parish for The Gents have a great day guys [Music] don't don't mess this up now you two will you [Music] oh there they go they've got about 16 miles to run up to th

e lighthouse to win the cape breath Ultra today [Music] so guys enjoy your day good stuff [Music] so they're in second place for the men and women Fernando and Elaine apparently we've been brilliant all week not you Steve [Laughter] oh damn 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 it's been great you've run every day with uh Debbie was that a decision that you made early on uh I think from day two I tried to ditch her but it didn't wo

rk there is a Legends and uh yeah it's been working really well together so um yeah 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 so yeah recovering well yeah enjoy it have a great final day well done acre are you happy Sarah yes yes yeah you've done really well amazing what position are you in Japan good for you happy to be done now [Music] um we need to see waterproofs today I think waterproof jacket waterproof trou

sers and can we see your backpack please I'm not joking it's on the kit list [Laughter] 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 yeah it's incredible like my body held up it really has hasn't it yeah I'm really really pleased well done have a great one gab see you later Rihanna once all the runners had gone it was time for one more breakdown and reset of camp it's hard to adequately port

ray the scale of the operation the 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 Wi-Fi 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 wrath 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 let's stay quite hard [Music] 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 thi

s 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 foray's head I think I pronounced that right frayed head Bay [Music] it's stunning never been this far north before absolutely amazing it was too far to go to the tip of fairaid head so I turned off and ran to the nearest town which is Dennis it was actually quite busy there with lots of Camper vans and motorhomes but it was still fabulous to feel like I wa

s so near the tip of Scotland absolutely beautiful beaches here in Dennis aren't there gorgeous [Music] how many years have you been doing this now uh fifth edition first one was in 2016. probably the smoothest in terms of operation highest success rate a lot of people are broken horse records and I think um David perish was slightly behind to be honest everybody who's completed full course it's a completely phenomenal achievement why should somebody come and do what I've done like a crazy lunat

ic and spend eight nine ten days volunteering for array events car two simple answers so first of all it is just good fun full stop we want our crew to be um have a great time so we get 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 is all the tents and purposes means you can do the same event for free at any point in the next two calendar years and actu

ally that credit is transferable against any of our events so you could come to Cape wrap to do dragons back vice versa you've got this amazing kind of circular economy that you volunteer one vent they come back and race another volunteer again and they race at another event it's really interesting they really hold that ethos and culture of the business organization models and I have eaten more food this week than I have eaten in my lifetime it is really well stocked you had a good time I've had

a brilliant time yeah I've really enjoyed it I do recommend the volunteering to someone then oh absolutely yeah I mean don't come here thinking you're gonna have an easy ride it's hard work especially if you're on the team I'm on the cam team rebuild 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 you are essentially getting paid I mean the cape wrath you know for us normal people wh

o don't earn a ton it's a lot of money to pay for an eight-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 organization thank you very much 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 um where did you come from Texas so I heard about this race back at Coastal challenge I was running w

ith Marcus scottney and he told me about this epic Race Across Scotland and uh figured I'd give it a go and so glad I did uh three years in the making with Kobe deferrals and everything okay breath open done with yes eight days of running in the Scottish mountains enjoyed it yeah it was amazing it's a wonderful experience it's nice I don't think many people from Scotland compared to the cake breath too and I don't know about many people who have been on it and so to be part of the race and actua

lly experience the more and wildness and inaccessibility it's just it's absolutely phenomenal and it's uh the way that God's delivered and I don't think I've ever been so afraid to be Scottish 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 um so yeah it's great to look around and see there's so many people that come so far and seen how it was a lot of stuff are you pleased with uh I mean d

id you come here with any expectations are you pleased with what you've achieved I'm giving you 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 seven days solid yeah um it wasn't even planned I think on day two that we decided to sit out together and then maybe later we're kind of just moving at the same piece and we worked really well together and we kept each other going through some some difficult patc

hes and yeah it was amazing to experience she's probably blocked me and everything now to get rid of me oh Debbie martini thank you very much well done on your fifth place at Cape breath Ultra thanks 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 breath

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 [Music] there we go one down 23 to go how are you what did you commit what did you come here to achieve okay let's do as well as possible because you you by day five you were saying gosh this is hard day five was creepy up when you know six was a nightmare because the navigational issues with my Garmin catastrophically failing and then day seven was just

tough day eight you just have to get done so it's really six and seven yeah go to some Dark Places yeah you you've you've kind of gone beyond like physically and mentally where you know sometimes you beat me forward yeah I mean I haven't done an eight-day race before and I haven't really done a continuous race um so our body's in a different pace I mean I can push each day and luckily during the tents was amazing yeah you had you had a good tank you might check for it you know they make you laug

h um brilliant and then um yeah just yeah it'll take some process would you recommend anyone come and do this and why why should they come and do it I highly recommend it I mean the scenery the only you can only visit the scenery offer and it really is exceptional the camaraderie and just a sense of achieving in an A to B races are fantastic for them 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 it seems like forever but it's been eight days of running for the competitors and about nine 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 we're on the way home we've stopped in ullapool because it's a very long journey from the top of Scotland

at Dennis all the way down to Fort William so it's about a five hour drive in the coach so we just stopped in other pool which is about halfway down the ice cream [Music] 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 rathultra 11 days of volunteering it's done if you have been inspired by this if you think that you would love to volunteer then go and have a look at th

e uray events website and sign yourself up for volunteering at either the cape wrath Ultra or the dragons back which is another event they do or um the GL 3D the Great Lakes three days all of those would give you fantastic experience volunteering on multi-day events it was my first time volunteering an event like that and yeah 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 enjo

yed the video and we'll see you on the start line next time bye bye [Music]