Max King and Jo Meek ran out the respective winners of the gruelling 236-mile (380km) Dragon’s Back Race in Wales.
The six-day event is often called the toughest mountain race in the world and takes runners all the way from Conwy Castle in the North of Wales to the stunning conclusion in Cardiff Castle, with over 16,000 metres of climbing in between!
Here’s how it all panned out this year…
Men’s race
Despite the gnarly terrain, American star King got stronger and stronger as the race progressed and emerged a clear-cut winner.
By the time he crossed the line in a cumulative 45 hours, 39 minutes and 18 seconds he was nearly an hour and 40 minutes ahead of runner-up Simon Roberts, the 2021 winner.
Gabe Joyes rounded out the podium in third, a further two hours back.
King’s success was all the more impressive given that he hadn’t had the opportunity to recce the route.
And speaking to race organisers Ourea Events afterwards, he said: “It’s such a cool experience and the team has put together an absolutely amazing course.
“There’s everything on it. If you walked into a bar and sat down with a mountain runner, an ultra runner and a stage race runner, and they all came up with the hardest race and put them all together, you’d get this.”
He added: “I’ve known about the race for a couple of years now and I love this area, I love the country, I love the terrain, and I just wanted to experience it! I saw the films with Simon and Russell [Bentley] battling it out in 2021 and I became really frightened for what I was getting myself into. I was thinking, I don’t know if I can do this! I’ve never run that far in a week!”
Welsh athlete Roberts won that 2021 race but always felt he was an underdog against King, explaining: “I’ve followed Max King since I got into trail running. I saw Max King on the entry list and I asked, is that the Max King? It was – I can’t beat him! I had to bury myself deep every day.
“I’m not disappointed [with second] because it was against Max King!”
Women’s race
It was a hard-fought victory for Meek in the women’s event in what was a rollercoaster ride.
It started with a tussle with Zoe Murphy early on in the week but she then built a substantial lead and the cushion proved important in the challenging closing stages.
She crossed the line exhausted in 63 hours, 30 minutes and one second.
And there was drama in behind as Elsa Morgan overhauled Murphy to take second place.
Dragon’s Back results 2024
Monday 2 – Saturday 7 September 2024, 236 miles
MEN
- 1. Max King – 45:39:18
- 2. Simon Roberts – 47:18:16
- 3. Gabe Joyes – 49:31:27
- 4. Jon Shield – 52:05:23
- 5. Matt O Keefe – 52:51:35
WOMEN
- 1. Jo Meek – 63:30:01
- 2. Elsa Morgan – 64:22:17
- 3. Zoe Murphy – 65:25:38
- 4. Katherine Hargreaves – 67:07:32
- 5. Brooke Cox – 67:35:29
