Diary of a Crew Girl – Suffolk Backyard Ultra 2025

Back in March Kevin Munt crewed me to a 50 yard assist at Sherwood Pines BYU, now the roles were reversed and it was my time to crew Kev! Pro photo above by David Woods – Fellside Photography.

Kev picked me up at 6am and we drove to Thetford Forest, I honestly thought that the cars would be backed up queuing down the road as the gates for set up had opened at 8am. We were straight in, directed to a parking space and it was surprisingly calm, I really had anticipated a bun fight. We loaded up the trolly and headed on over to the field. There were two orderly lines, each person being directed to a pitch, the marshals were allowing for tent set up to start before directing the next person, this meant maximum use of space and very nice orderly tent rows. We secured a spot by the Portaloos and what we thought was the starting corral. We knew rain was incoming so we got the gazebo and cover up asap, chucking all the rest of the stuff underneath to keep it dry for if it did start raining and then put the gazebo sides on. Gazebo erecting is a fine way to not only establish team work but it showcases how some people can be naturally bad and naturally good at things. It’s safe to say that Kev and I work seamlessly as a team as we just did rather than discussed but it’s also safe to say that Kevin is as bad at putting gazebo sides on as I am at erecting the pop up frame. We did two further trips with our trolly to the car and then I made house whilst Kev and I talked through plans.

Kev had bravely handed over his podcast to me so the moment we were set up I went around the venue hunting for victims to interview! I spoke to lots of people including fellow Highlander BYU England teammate Luke Carter, Julie Bethune from the Scottish team and Vic Owens from the Welsh team. I chatted with England teammate Dom, wife Christina and their friend Lucy where we organised a cupcake for a hoodie deal. I also spoke with Tom and Daisy whom I’d met at Wild Horse 200 last year. Some pretty good pre-race banter!

Kev had a bit of lunch at around 11:20am, some pizza and a fruit pot and then midday was nigh. Such a great feeling seeing all the runners set off! In came the weather, it absolutely chucked it down on that first yard! Kev came in with great friend Paul Telford at 12:53pm, he had a Snack’d bar and some water. He told me about the course, lovely and wide, about a mile and a half downhill at the start, it didn’t zig zag, it seemed to go around the perimeter of the forest, he said it was a really flat, fast course. He also said that I would love it!

The yards sauntered by and I took the opportunity to go and chat with various people, sometimes recording, sometimes not. I was in the tea tent (funny that) recording an interview with Grumpy, he was telling me about Matthew Blackburn and John Stocker’s world record which he witnessed first hand and unbeknown to me, the wind picked up and my gazebo blew away and landed on someone’s head.

I returned to the gazebo and wondered if an earthquake had taken place, there was stuff EVERYWHERE! As I was tidying, I heard a voice call “excuse me?”, I stepped out and discovered that my neighbours, the parents and sister of a Daniel Flockheart celebrating his 21st birthday, had not only returned my gazebo but they had kindly re-erected it too, this was after the poor lady had been hit on the head by it, they all seemed in surprisingly good spirits! Paul (competitor Lee Edgington’s father) very generously had brought some better quality tent pegs over and secured the gazebo more firmly in place. I was very embarrassed and learned all about the need for the guide ropes. Flash back to when I showed them to Kev, we both shrugged our shoulders and thought they did not seem important so put them back in the gazebo’s bag, oops.

As the race continued on, the rain clouds came back and early evening we had a couple of hours of steady rain, this meant a stream and a puddle on the gazebo floor, I used a little sponge to bale the water out and erected internal washing lines to hang Kev’s wet kit on, not expecting it to dry overnight but it surely would come day time.

On the 8th yard after I did my crew admin and I settled down with a canned cocktail and packet of crisps, Vic joined me for this and we passed the time nicely having a bit of a giggle. In the same way I give myself little treats to look forward to after each yard when I am running a BYU, I also appeared to be using this same technique crewing a backyard ultra!

The 14th yard Kev came in a little bit too late for my liking and I had to run and grab his go bag, Kev did not get to enjoy the inside of the gazebo on that yard, not enough time. The following lap he sped up and on all accounts had a great time out there.

Overnight I tried to practice napping, not to much success but also the night was very short. The first birdsong was before 4am and the sky was definitely brightening. I found it interesting how overnight there was a lull all round, the runners were quieter, the crew were quieter, it was as though everyone was in sleep mode.

Kev had only tried to close his eyes once overnight, that was not in his game plan and I was worried how tired he would get, he had planned to get shut eye on every night lap.

After hearing the birdsong I gave up with sleep and went over to the forest toilets as the forestry staff had kindly left them open for us all weekend. I had a freshen up, washing my face and brushing my teeth and felt much more awake for it, I got myself some cheesy chips on the way back, I’d promised myself some at midnight but had been caught up doing other things, generally faffing and trying to nap. I found it interesting how hungry I was most of the time, it seems that I am just as hungry crewing a BYU as I am running in one!

As the runners set off on that first day time lap, I shouted out to them, “good morning everyone, welcome to Sunday!” I was shocked at the reaction, there was a real surge of energy amongst them, it really seemed to fire them all up! It was a wonderful sight to see.

On the 21st yard I hatched a plan to move the gazebo, there were not many competitors left now and pitch vacancies were cropping up all over the place. An ideal position was about to be released as prime spot Ray was dismantling his gazebo, I reserved the spot and enlisted some volunteers. I told Kev there would be a big surprise for him when he came in off 22. As Kev was due in, I suddenly thought how he might panic when he saw the gazebo was no longer there, I went to stand in the empty spot and as he came in he told me what he wanted (pretzels and nuts), totally oblivious to the moved gazebo!

When Kev set off on his 100 mile yard (23rd) I celebrated on his behalf with a real coffee from the catering van and a cupcake courtesy of Dom and Christina (as agreed, I had given Christina a beautiful Twisted Running Manchester Marathon hoodie that I had acquired).

One guy turned back on 23, we were screaming at him to keep going, why would you stop that close to 100 miles? “You’ll regret it!” we all screamed at him, okay, maybe not all, mostly me. He knew his own mind and he stopped shy of the 100 mile marker.

I could see Kev was tiring so I rallied the other competitors to keep them in the loop (see what I did there? Loop?!) and let them know that Kev was drawing in on his PB. As he came in off 25 I was shouting out “Kev’s matched his PB!” and on the start line of 26 “PB lap for Kevin Munt” it was great to see everyone supporting and encouraging not just him, but each other too.

Kev was delighted with his PB and now he was just 2 yards away from a UK age category record. It seemed all the other competitors were really keen to help him achieve this, and in fact, on that record breaking yard, Stewart Deadman ran with Kev to pace him to the record breaking yard!

I was really worried Kev would want to stop once he had the record so I made sure he did not have a choice and shouted encouraging words at him to ensure he went out again on 29 and again on 30.

Coming in off 30 though, it was clear that Kev was done, and no amount of me shouting at him would get him to go out again, he set off on 31 and then turned around to cross the line for the final time, he came in to a huge amount of cheering and support from all who were there.

It was a fantastic experience for both of us, really great for me to experience what Kev had been through crewing me and it felt good to be able to return the favour. All that was left was to pack up the gear and get ourselves home!

Some crew tips I picked up:

• Have a washing line and pegs to dry / air clothes inside the gazebo / tent
• Bring a mallet for the tent pegs
• Ensure your gazebo / tent is wind and water proof!
• I found having an umbrella was really useful to escort Kev to the gazebo, and to keep me dry whilst waiting for him
• Having a ground sheet for the floor was a great idea – but think about water direction from rain. Jan’s crew tent had an outdoor carpet which looked like a greta idea
• Keep all food safe from ants with ant proof containers!
• Having a flask to keep hot water in the gazebo saved back and forth to the tea tent
• Take plenty of food for yourself
• Bring lots of layers so you can keep wrapping yourself up overnight to stay warm

For a real feel of the event you can listen to the Aid Station podcast: Ep 45 – Kev does Suffolk Backyard Ultra while Lizzie does everything else!

For Kev’s post race interview: Backyard Weekly Episode 5

It was great to see Jan Voorspoels take the win, he and I were at my first ever backyard ultra at Faccombe!

A mention to Tobias Taylor for a 42 yard PB, he and I were at Trails and Tarmac BYU in January where he got 31 yards.

Suffolk Backyard Ultra – click here for 2025 results.