Race Director Diaries | 003 | Our First BYU: This is LSD

Well well well. What a complete vibe that weekend was. I feel like I’d taken LSD, never mind directed it.

Honestly, this has been one of the best Heart and Soul Racing events to date.

My weekend started early on Friday morning with setup at the beautiful West Benridge Farm. A lot goes into putting on any event, but even more for one like this. First the event village had to be built, then the rave barn decorated, gazebos up, signage sorted, and the course marked out. All that hard work, only for the wind to come in and blow half of it down.

Friday kicked off with a recce of the route with our friends at Geordie Run Club, then it was back to HQ for pizzas and a social. No sleep was had on Friday night because I was stressing that the route wasn’t absolutely perfect, so at midnight we got the yard stick out and walked the full course again. Standard behaviour really. We got back to camp only to have to reassemble the gazebos again after the wind had gone to work on them.

By Saturday morning, the vibes were strong. Athletes and crews were arriving, all smiles, nerves and excitement. There was a real buzz around the place. The race started at 11am sharp, but not before an interview with BBC Look North and a live radio interview. Me and Logan have finally made it, and not for being reprobates either.

Then it was go time.

We had 92 runners toe the line, all set to take on 30 yards of pure backyard ultra madness. And what a race it turned out to be.

The final five, or the Famous Five as we started calling them on the livestream, were Ryan, Danielle, both Jacks and Ste. What a battle that was. They all fought right to the bitter end and at no point did it look like anyone was ready to quit. Every single one of them kept going out there and getting their laps done like absolute machines.

Danielle completing her 29th yard was a massive moment because it meant Ryan had to head back out for one more yard on his own before he could officially be crowned the 2026 LSD champion. That is backyard ultra at its purest. Brutal, simple and brilliant.

I was absolutely buzzing to see Danielle take the assist and Ryan, aka The Terminator, take the win.

Ryan was unbelievable all weekend. He kept a near constant pace for the full 30 hours, pretty much always coming in around the 40 minute mark. Then, in the final yards, he ditched the serious, calm, locked-in ultra runner look, turned up in a SpongeBob flamingo shirt, dropped the hammer, and banged out a sub-30 minute loop. After 125 miles. Just ridiculous.

And Danielle taking the assist was incredible. Properly special. It felt like such a huge moment, especially off the back of our Beat the Boys campaign and everything we’ve been trying to do to inspire more women into endurance running. She never stopped cooking all weekend and put in one hell of a performance.

Then there was Ste, aka Stella Ste. One of the great side plots of the weekend. It is apparently his tradition to have a can of Stella every 50 miles, so naturally he kept that going at LSD too, cracking one open at mile 50 and again at mile 100, then still managing to go out and knock out a few more yards. Breaking the stereotype of the string vest and beer belly in some style. Incredible stuff.

We also had the famous bromance of the Jacks, who ran nearly every lap together, supporting each other and cheering each other along the way. The biggest bromance since Brokeback Mountain.

A special mention too for Al, who was not exactly over the moon with the rave music, but look, LSD was always going to be rave themed. Loud, bouncing tunes all morning, the barn pumping, and plenty of questionable song choices depending on how sleep deprived you were. It would not have been LSD without it.

Joe Larkin was another big talking point all weekend and always a firm favourite. He eventually had to stop because of injury, and honestly we were glad he did with Moab 240 coming up this year. He actually apologised to me for stopping, which tells you everything about his mindset. That guy is so mentally strong. Most people would have tapped out hours earlier.

Pip also deserves a massive mention. We had a big push this year to get more women into the BYU format because when entries first opened we were sitting at just 8 percent female participation. By race day, that had grown to 39 percent of the field, which is something we are really proud of and something we want to build on even more next year. Pip was a huge part of that story. She came in targeting 100k and was absolutely class all weekend. She said to me that the longer she ran and the harder she found it, the more fun she had, which pretty much sums up backyard ultra in one sentence. She picked up a knee injury and then her head torch ran out of batteries, which meant she missed the cut off, but she gave it everything and will no doubt be back next year to go round again.

On a more serious point, a backyard ultra really is one of the purest and fairest formats in running. It is the most even playing field of them all. I loved standing there and watching every single one of you cross that finish line again and again. To witness the joy, the pain, the determination and the emotion, over and over for 30 hours, was genuinely inspiring.

Whether your goal was 3 laps or 30, everyone pushed themselves to their own absolute max, and I am proud of every single one of you for that. That is what made the event so special. If you can take one more step, you can go again. That is the beauty and brutality of the format, and so many of you proved exactly that.

I am not sure how many distance PBs we had across the field, but from the messages we’ve had and the chats with so many of you after the event, I know there were loads. That is class to see.

LSD was everything we wanted it to be. Tough, weird, loud, funny, gritty, emotional and full of moments that you just do not get anywhere else. It had that proper backyard feel but with the full Heart and Soul twist. A bit chaotic at times, a bit sleep deprived, but packed with heart from start to finish.

And if you got the bug from running in circles, remember we have the festival this summer with our 24 hour event. It is basically backyard ultra energy without the strict rules. More vibes, more fun, and you can even do it as a team. We really do love running in circles.

A weekend like that does not happen without a lot of people behind the scenes, and there is still plenty more to say, but for now I am just really proud. Proud of the team, proud of the athletes, proud of the crews, and proud of what LSD is becoming.

What a weekend. What a race. What a community.

See you next weekend! 

Paul 

@Trailrunpaul