E86. Mountain Ultra Special | Racing among the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan

08/11/23 • 123 min

In this brand new episode, Will Roberts chats to Jon Shield and Kristina Madsen. Hear all about how they went about winning the recent Mountain Ultra, Beyond the Ultimate's inaugural race through the remote and beautiful Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

You'll also hear from Race Director Kris King about his experience of creating and directing one of the toughest races in the BTU Global Race Series.

This race saw a first batch of pioneering runners take on 200km of technical trail with more than 10,500m of climbing over 5 gruelling days, all against the stunning backdrop of the breath-taking Tian Shan Mountain Range. Our winners will talk you through their time among those stunning peaks.

For anybody considering the Mountain Ultra - this is a must-listen. You'll hear some excellent advice on how best to prepare and plan for an adventure among the summits.

You'll also sample the winning mindsets of these two exceptionally driven runners as they reflect on the massive goals they've reached in their relatively short careers in ultra-running so far.

Enter Mountain Ultra 2024 here: https://www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk/race/mountain-ultra/

*Please note - Jon Shield's audio is occasionally lower quality due to signal problems when recording.

Time Stamps:

Kris King: 0:08:29

Jon Shield: 0:40:29

Kristina Madsen: 1:25:55

You'll also hear from Race Director Kris King about his experience of creating and directing one of the toughest races in the BTU Global Race Series.

For anybody considering the Mountain Ultra - this is a must-listen. You'll hear some excellent advice on how best to prepare and plan for an adventure among the summits.

You'll also sample the winning mindsets of these two exceptionally driven runners as they reflect on the massive goals they've reached in their relatively short careers in ultra-running so far.

Enter Mountain Ultra 2024 here: https://www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk/race/mountain-ultra/

*Please note - Jon Shield's audio is occasionally lower quality due to signal problems when recording.

Time Stamps:

Kris King: 0:08:29

Jon Shield: 0:40:29

Kristina Madsen: 1:25:55

Previous Episode

E85. Highland Ultra Special | Racing and Legacy Building in Knoydart

Knoydart is a perfect backdrop for the Highland Ultra in so many ways. As well as being the ideal place to build a course for a 3-day, 125km race, full of technical climbs, breath-taking views and tranquillity, it is home to a positive and inspiring group of people working together to improve their community and the environment around them. We are proud to support that work through the Highland Ultra and also to be able to give these fantastic people a chance to talk to you via this podcast.

In this episode, we will talk to the winners of the 2023 race in April. Lauren Gregory, Axel Jannson and Fredrik Pettersen speak about their training, their experiences on the course, what did and didn't work as they prepared for this race and, in the case of our duo of Scandinavian winners, their unconventional route to the podium.

We then go into interviews with Lorna Schofield of the Knoydart Forest Trust and Finlay Greig of the Knoydart Ranger Service where we unpack some of the massive conservation projects being undertaken by members of the Knoydart Community and how the Highland Ultra supports them through donations from race fees, trees planted for t-shirts, and more.

Enter Highland Ultra 2024 here: https://www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk/race/highland-ultra

Learn more about the Knoydart Forest Trust and the Rangers from the links below:

Knoydart Forest Trust: https://www.knoydartforesttrust.org

Knoydart Ranger Service: https://knoydart.org/ranger

Time Stamps

Axel Jansson: 14:45

Fredrik Pettersen: 34:55

Lauren Gregory: 1:05:55

Lorna Schofield: 1:47:50

Finlay Greig: 2:07:55

Adam Kimble: 2:40:30

Next Episode

E87. For Rangers Ultra Special | Running for Ranger Welfare in Kenya

Will and the team at BTU have recently returned from Kenya where the For Rangers Ultra was taking place. This is an absolutely unique event that offers runners the opportunity to run in East Africa’s beautiful scenery in open wildlife conservancies teaming with iconic wildlife. If the race itself weren’t awesome enough, all profits go to projects that support the welfare of wildlife rangers and so far almost £600k has been raised.

The 5-day, 220km race puts runners face-to-face with Kenya’s beautiful wildlife, an immense privilege and something almost never done on foot. Beyond that, it is an opportunity for the rangers to meet and interact with the runners who are pushing themselves through this ordeal to raise funds for them, and to hear directly what the life of a ranger is like.

In this episode we chat to Edward Ndiritu, the head of Lewa Conservancy's Anti-Poaching Unit about what the funds are used for, then with Race Director Kris King for an insight into what juggling 70 runners and uptown 200 rangers at a time is like. We then spend some time with our winners Lou Cole and James Hassan before, finally, we talk to seasoned race medic and ultra-runner Chris Hewitt who gives his unique view of the race as a medic and as a finisher.

Time Stamps as follows:

Edward Ndiritu - 0:12:05

Kris King - 0:16:55

Lou Cole - 0:53:10

James Hassan - 01:34:10

Chris Hewitt - 02:06:16

You can find Chris’ excellent race blog here: https://www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk/for-rangers-ultra-we-arrive-as-strangers

Learn more and enter For Rangers Ultra 2024: bit.ly/ForRangersUltra