News: Trail running

Brett Harrison founder of Red Knot Racing and Race Director of the Kili Trail Run and Kilimanjaro Trails Festival. In this interview series, Ahotu will be speaking with the people behind some of the most unique races across the globe. We’ll be discussing the history of the event, challenges and how to overcome them, attracting sponsors, reaching new runners and more! This month, we’re catching up with Red Knot Racing founder Brett Harrison. Having just hosted the inaugural Kilimanjaro Trail Run (half, full & ultra distance), Brett took half an hour to talk to us about the first edition of the event and the challenges of organising races on Africa’s highest mountain. Read on to get an insight into what it took to get the first edition off the ground! ‍ Thanks for joining us Brett. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us so soon after your inaugural event… firstly, how was it and for those that don’t know you or your race, could you briefly introduce Red Knot Racing? Hey, I’m honoured to speak with Ahotu; thanks for thinking of us down here in Tanzania! I founded Red Knot Racing Company as a mechanism for funding community development work in Tanzania; eight years later, we are the premier endurance racing company in the country. We specialize in organizing off-road and adventure events, currently in the disciplines of trail running, mountain biking, and gravel cycling. Kilimanjaro Trail Run (KTR) is the third event in our Red Knot Adventure Series. The inaugural KTR featured three event distances — half, full and 67km ultra marathon — all on Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. The event was a success, and we’re really excited about the future of this race. How did you wind up being a race director in East Africa? My wife and I moved to Tanzania in 2009 as missionaries and Christian development workers. My focus has primarily been community development in the areas of agriculture and livestock practices, while my wife specialized in teaching water, sanitation, and hygiene. Red Knot Racing Co. was born out of a desire to make our community development efforts more sustainable. There were three components to this approach to sustainability: Firstly, endurance racing is an opportunity for us to develop a long-term funding source for our community development work. Next, exercise and sport are incredible ways for us to assist youth in Tanzania to have better lives. Lastly, organizing races has been good for my own physical and emotional health, which ensures I can invest more deeply in community work, and over a longer period of time. Your venue / location needs no introduction, but it must be a challenging working environment. What’s it like organising an event on Africa’s highest mountain? All three of this year’s events topped out at 3,800 meters, and while it’s absolutely beautiful up there, it is quite a task to get everything done in Kilimanjaro National Park and with less vehicle access than other races might enjoy. We send teams up the mountain the day before, on foot, to set up camps from which we build out feed-zones the next day. Of course a great medical team is also key when running at altitude, and we’re thrilled to have Dr. Rian Jager with us; she heads up medical for all our events. The biggest unknown with races above tree line on Kilimanjaro is weather. Obviously it can be really cold up there, but even more difficult to deal with, perhaps, is how quickly the weather can change. We were lucky this year and had absolutely the best weather we’ve ever had on Kili; we’ve not been so fortunate in some of our other events. We set up large tent shelters on the mountain to keep finishers dry and warm, but didn’t use a single one of them this year! The inaugural edition of a race always poses a lot of unknowns, what lessons have you taken away from hosting the Kili Trail Run for the first time? We’ve been quite conservative when creating new races and events, in order to ensure the product we provide our clients is of the highest quality. So while this was Kilimanjaro Trail Run’s first year, we actually introduced the half marathon in January 2020 at our Kilimanjaro Trails Festival event (strangely enough, due to transport issues, the half marathon is actually the most difficult of the three distances for us to organize). Our test of concept went extremely well, though, and we got incredible feedback from our runners — so we decided to go ahead and give the race its own weekend, adding full and ultra distances. We certainly did still learn some lessons this year. Most of them fell into two categories: the organization team being clearer with our communication and us needing more redundancies and extra help than we planned for. We had a few small mixups which resulted in some needed documents not being printed and laminated by the time we’d wanted them; I also gave a tent to someone who’d not rented it, causing us to scramble to set up another one. These issues could all have been prevented with clearer communication on my part. We also had a few problems with our lower mountain feed zones, which caused us to place our extra car and driver at a feed zone, when his vehicle could have been used better elsewhere. Next year we’ll probably have three more vehicles and drivers than we feel we need, just to be safe! Your race is obviously fairly extreme in terms of its location, is it only for the hardcore mountain runners of the world or is it accessible for runners with less experience? We specifically created the half marathon with beginners in mind. While the race does exist entirely above 3,400 meters, the climbing involved (510m) is very doable for beginners, and the cut-off time was around 8 hours this year. Although the event was harder than some runners imagined it would be, all our 2021 participants finished — and with plenty of time left on the clock. We really like that our half allows less experienced runners to enjoy a course which might not otherwise have been accessible to them. Not only is this a positive for newer runners, but it also can make travel to Tanzania a lot more fun for a family or group of runners, as there’s a race for everyone involved While the half is within reach of most runners, the other two events might not be…. We had one full marathon runner tell us he didn’t know whether to be disappointed or impressed that he ran Comrades (90km) faster than our 42km race. That said, our cut-off time for the marathon was 9 hours, and most determined marathon runners — who are wise about slowing down at high altitudes — will finish fine, albeit worn out. With nearly 3,000 meters of climbing and a 12 hour cut-off, our 67km ultra might indeed be designed for a different breed of (hardcore, or even masochist) runner. We do encourage participants not to enter this event lightly! Your first event was launched and took place amongst the challenges of the pandemic, which has been a huge challenge for races globally, how do you think Covid affected this edition? We did not see the international involvement we’d expect for an event of this sort, but we knew going in that 2021 wasn’t going to be a terrific year to start a new race due to travel restrictions. We have a history of growing events organically and for the inaugural edition having fewer participants is somewhat of a blessing as it allows a chance to see how the races go in practice. We aim to grow over the coming years of course! You promote your event via World’s Marathons (& Ahotu) and we’re delighted to promote your race, are there any other tools / software you use to help manage the event? E.g. reg platform etc. We have always handled registration for our Kilimanjaro 2 Natron MTB race ourselves, but for Kili Trails Festival and Kilimanjaro Trail Run we use RunSignup for registration and are happy with them. We have used Agee Race Timing’s software and reusable timing chips in the past for some of our events, and this year we used Sports Timing Solutions’ Pro Score+ iPhone (free) app to record feed zone / split times at KTR. What does the rest of 2021 and 2022 have in store for Red Knot Racing and what is your next race that people can check-out? We are already working hard on our events for 2022 — creating new run and cycle routes, updating websites, and seeking partners / sponsors for the events! We’ve got the Kilimanjaro Trails Festival in January, a 3-day weekend on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro with a host of different distances and events. As well as the Kili Trail Run scheduled for later in the year! Thanks for your time Brett. We’re proud to work with Red Knot racing and your unique events in one of Africa’s most beautiful and intriguing countries!‍ Interested in taking part? Keep an eye on the upcoming edition on Ahotu – Kilimanjaro Trail Run To feature in our interview series you can drop us an email on blog@worldsmarathons.com Interested in promoting your race with World’s Marathons or Ahotu? Contact us on partners@worldsmarathons.com

Ed Flood co-founder of Trail Pursuit at the inaugural event in the Lake District In this interview series, Ahotu will be speaking with the people behind some of the most unique races across the globe. We’ll be discussing the history of the event, challenges and how to overcome them, attracting sponsors, reaching new runners and more! This month, we’re catching up with Trail Pursuit co-founder Ed Flood. With the inaugural event taking place back in May, this race was one of the first to go ahead in the UK after the most recent lockdown. Read on to get an insight into what it takes to launch a trail running festival in the midst of a global pandemic! ‍ Thanks for joining us Ed. Trail Pursuit is a new race on the UK running circuit and in the trail world, for those that aren’t familiar with your event, could you tell us a little bit about it? We launched Trail Pursuit to make trail racing accessible and fun for both new and experienced runners. Our first event took place in the Lake District in May. Our aim was to create a trail race festival with other outdoor adventures like, yoga, wild swimming and with a range of distances available, from 5k all the way up to the marathon, to allow runners of all abilities to take part. It was a special weekend which brought together runners from around the country, many of which were running their first trail race. For the more experienced runners we had some really challenging routes which took in the stunning scenery of the Lake District. We supported the Brathay Trust, a local charity focused on empowering young people with life skills and had a great range of exhibitors at the race village. The race was a real success and had a great energy, particularly given it was one of the first larger events back post lockdown! How did you get into the industry and what led to you creating Trail Pursuit? I’ve always been interested in experiences and bringing people together, whilst my co-founder David has a lot of experience organising races. We joined forces to found Trail Pursuit back in May 2020 and wanted to create an immersive experience, which wasn’t just about turning up and racing, but also spending a bit more time in the area and appreciating the great outdoors. I’ve previously organised running tours to unique destinations across Europe, but wanted to bring a new and exciting race to the UK trail scene. You launched Trail Pursuit in the midst of the biggest crises for endurance sports in recent memory, it must have been quite a challenging lead-up to the event with the turbulent nature of lockdowns across the UK. How did you handle that? In some ways, the pandemic allowed us the opportunity to launch and offer runners something to look forward to. We were lucky that our event was always planned for May 2021, so we essentially spent the whole of last year and the pandemic raising awareness and promoting the event. We rallied a great range of ambassadors and sponsors who have all been very positive and helped create a supportive community around the event. Obviously the threat of lockdowns was always there, but luckily the timing worked out well and we were able to hold the event on the planned date and offer a great return to racing experience for around 1,500 participants! All in a Covid-secure manner of course. Your inaugural event took place in the stunning Lake District, which is a hugely popular destination for Brits and overseas visitors. Where did your runners come from for this year’s edition? Honestly all over, we had runners from Brighton, Cornwall, Scotland and even some sign-ups from overseas. We also had a real mix of runners with varying experience on the trails, the age range was something like 18 – 65 for the longer distances and we even had a kids mile which brought a family crowd as well. It was really rewarding to see such a diverse audience and exactly what we wanted when we created Trail Pursuit, we want our events to be as inclusive as possible! Online feedback and reviews for your event were very positive, how did it go for you and the rest of the organising team? We were, on the whole, very pleased and proud with how the event went, especially given the extra challenges of making the event Covid-secure and managing restrictions. Of course as it was our first event we learnt a lot as well and there were a few lessons to take away from the event, particularly around managing volunteers and managing multiple routes. We had really great feedback on our half & marathon routes and the race atmosphere in particular, the overall vibe of the event was spot on. The weather definitely helped as we were blessed with sunshine for the weekend which always puts everyone in a good mood! We’re excited to see what we can do with for future events as the pandemic eases and using the lessons learned at our inaugural race. What can participants expect from a Trail Pursuit event and what kind of runners do you appeal to? Energy, inclusivity, good-vibes, beautiful scenery, challenging routes and hopefully an opportunity to share it with like-minded people. We want people to come away from our events having tried something new, made some new friends and of course having appreciated beautiful parts of the UK! Because we’ve got so multiple distances at each festival, we hope the events are appealing to both newbie and experienced trail runners, regardless of ability. Aside from Ahotu (for extra visibility and online reach), what other tools/platforms do you use? We use a range of tools, Easol is our booking platform, whilst we also use marketplaces like Ahotu, World’s Marathons, FindARace and Let’s Do This to raise awareness for new runners. We’re very active on social and use Instagram in particular to help like-minded runners find us and get involved in the community we are building. You’ve got a range of sponsors and partners listed on your website, how have you gone about finding like-minded brands to work with? If the values are aligned and there is a natural synergy then it can happen quite organically. We had a great range of exhibitors and sponsors for our first event including Exhale Coffee, Hill Country Collective, Fractel, Raven Hill Brewery and others. We are always open to working with like-minded brands and hope to continue to do so for our race festivals in the future. What is your next event on the horizon and where can people go to learn more about Trail Pursuit? (E.g. Instagram, website etc). Our next event is our Brecon Beacons Trail Running Festival on the weekend of the 1st-3rd of October. We’ve got a range of distances available from 5k up to 50 mile Ultra, with camping/glamping, yoga, workshops, music, great food and all set in the heart of the beautiful Brecon Beacons national park. Runners can check out our instagram to see what we are all about – https://www.instagram.com/trail_pursuit Thanks for your time Ed. It’s great to hear how well the first edition of Trail Pursuit went and we look forward to working with you for future Trail Pursuit events across the UK!‍ Interested in taking part? You can register for upcoming Trail Pursuit events on Ahotu – Trail Pursuit Brecon Beacons – Ultra, Marathon, Half & 10k To feature in our interview series you can drop us an email on blog@worldsmarathons.com Interested in promoting your race with World’s Marathons or Ahotu? Contact us on partners@worldsmarathons.com