The Highlander Backyard Ultra Scottish Championships, Four Nations 2025 – Race Report

Date: Saturday 19th July – Sunday 20th July 2025

Strava miles: 130.8 miles 

Elevation: 15,108 ft /  4,605 m

Weather: Biblical rain followed by glorious sun

Start: Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, Scotland

Route type: 4.2 mile laps

Conditions: Mostly well drained course

Website link: Highlander BYU Scottish Championships by Run Ya Rocket

Describe the route in three words: surprisingly fast course

Highlander Backyard Ultra Scottish Championships, Four Nations 2025 – Race Report

Lap description: The Highlander takes place on a private estate around Blair Castle, some of the land working therefore, to my knowledge, every year the route has been different, and in 2026, the Highlander will be held at a new venue with only 100 ft ascent.

The 2025 course was predominantly first half uphill and the second half downhill, the total elevation being around 463 ft. We’d set off from the Target Field, turn right onto a stoney track, left across some tree routes then left on a hard surface track through trees and start the climb up, this first track up to the lane was mostly a gentle up hill. Once at the lane we’d have a short sharp hill bearing left to then remain on the lane until we began the main climb alongside the river. The river was there but not close enough to see. This trail took us all the way to a beautiful old stone bridge where we could at last see the river and then begin the route downhill. The downhill section was very runnable with a few easy twist and turns as though we were on a gentle roller coaster. The track would deliver us onto a lane, a short sharp uphill then it would flatten out, we’d turn right to rejoin the stick park of the lollipop shaped route and retrace our steps back to the Target Field.

Rewind to January!

I definitely need to rewind and start this race report from January 2025. 

I had just got timed out on Limitless Trails Trails and Tarmac BYU, I was ‘the assist’ to worthy winner Lee Arundell. Having run a strong 32 yards, the wheels fell off on the 33rd where my IT bands seized up and slowed me down to slower than a slow snail. My body totally seized up upon finishing and I had my coach and crew assist me to a chair and help with taking shoes and socks off, helping me change clothes and even offer to spoon feed me soup, I declined, I felt I was at least able to feed myself. Coach Stu then informed me of the ‘good’ news. England captain Mark had been in touch – my performance had earned me a spot on the England BYU team. I should have been delighted as it was what I really wanted, but honestly, in that moment, I was in so much pain I never wanted to run again. I forced a smile and said something along the lines of “that’s great!”

Funnily enough, around 24 hours later when all the DOM’s had gone and I’d had a decent sleep, I was super excited for the England adventure that lay ahead. 

What I then embarked on was an incredible journey of self improvement and dedication. I can honestly say that I put EVERYTHING into the preparation and training for the chance to represent England at Highlander. I was also incredibly fortunate to be supported by so many people.

• Thank you to personal trainer Ed for being one of my sponsors and providing weekly personal training sessions.
• Thank you to Lake Therapy, Farnham for being a sponsor and providing weekly physio with Muhammed.
• Thank you to ash Manor gym for putting me on the FLAIR talented athletes program and gifting me gym membership.
• Thank you to Protein Rebel for taking care of my supplements.
• Thank you to Fenix for lighting the night time yards for me.
• Thank you to Kyloe in the Wild for protecting my eyes on the day time yards.
• Thank you to Twisted Running for the INCREDIBLE England team kit!
• And a huge thank you to my generous sponsor Snack’d for taking care of my expenses and getting me onto the start line.

With so much support, I was able to up the ante on my training significantly: three times daily stretches and strength exercises, daily yoga, weekly physio, weekly PT with Ed and a run program from Stu that now incorporated the stair stepper thanks to Ash Manor.

Run up to Highlander

Team Captain Mark created an England WhatsApp group so the banter could begin. We got to know each other over the group and some of us were fortunate enough to meet up for a run. I took Dom and Paul on their first FKT route!

I had met Matt, Keith, Phil, Luke and Gav before. Nearer to the event we decided to have a Zoom call which was fantastic as I was able to finally meet Andy and Kim. We discussed our why’s, goals and shared some stories, it was brilliant. Being part of a team was an incredible experience and it was a big part of the event for me. Most of us got together for what was nicknamed ‘the last supper’ – the last evening meal before the race. We all had a great laugh.

In the lead up we discovered that it was Andy’s birthday on the Sunday. I asked him what time he was born, around 2pm. Perfect. I instructed AI to craft a birthday party invitation for the occasion and popped it into the WhatsApp group, all of team England were on the guest list!

The week of the race Patto from Backyard Weekly invited myself, Mike Raffan (team Scotland) and Vic Owens (team Wales) to do a Q&A with him. This was hilarious as I managed to be my usual dappy self and prove the point that I am just winging it in this sport and don’t really know anything about it. When it was my turn, Patto asked about my painted nails and I explained that I had England fingernails because I am on the England team, and GB thumbnails to remind myself that winning means a guaranteed spot on team GB.

Patto asked if Highlander was a silver ticket event (honestly, I had no idea what that was) so I started nodding and then I spotted Mike and Vic shaking their heads, I like to think I styled it out so well by rotating my head from a nod to a shake, luckily Mike stepped in and saved me, explaining that Highlander was not a silver ticket event, not until 2026 and therefore no guaranteed GB spot, he also kindly said that with my yards I’d likely be on the team anyway. I consulted my fellow England teammates later on as to whether I had embarrassed myself, they nearly all said no, Andy (thanks mate) said “it was so cringe I could not carry on watching”. Oh well.

The day before the race Fran and I did a very easy 3 mile shake out run. The previous morning I managed to hurt my back by doing my daily yoga a little too enthusiastically, I couldn’t believe that I had done this, it was really bad, the odd spasm making me wince with pain. The shake out run loosened things off and made it feel better. Miraculously it recovered in time for the race.

Snack’d had given me a Go Pro to get some footage over the course of the event so Fran and I practised with it on the shake out run. Much hilarity later we made it back to the Airbnb having learned a few things: I run differently the moment a Go Pro is filming me (Fran wetting himself saying, “why are you running like that? You never run like that?”) and more useful learned information, it was really humid! We discovered a lone standing stone, the significance was not lost on us.

The set up was a fun experience, RD Bill had said we could set up from 4pm, he was careful to point out that this did not mean 3:45pm or 3:59pm, but 4pm and after. Francis and I arrived at 4:04pm. I was surprised at just how many were there already!

As Francis drove in, he totally missed the fact there was a queuing system and drove past two queuing vehicles, to be fair to him, it was probably quite distracting having a passenger bouncing up and down in the seat non-stop chatting about how excited she was. To my horror I realised one vehicle had my coach at the wheel, I promptly adopted the airplane brace position in the hope he wouldn’t see me queue jumping.

I screamed an excited “hello” at my fellow team mates and I had a nosy around, I spotted what I felt was the perfect pitch for our gazebo. Just one problem, there was a truck in the way. I politely enquired if they would be staying there or moving, moving. Then RD Bill came along, I double checked if it was ok for me to pitch camp here. It was. Result. Francis and I were very smug erecting our base for the next few days. My thoughts on this being the best spot were confirmed when Iain rocked up and set his tent up behind mine, I felt as a veteran of BYU he would surely know where was a good spot. I got to meet two of his children and Spud the dog who is soooooooo cute!

I said “hi” to a few people I knew, had a pre-race chat with Stu, then Fran and I set off back for the Airbnb for a short downtime before heading into Pitlochry for ‘the last supper’.

Let’s Go!

Race day morning was awesome. My alarm was set for 8:00am but having had a solid 9 hours sleep I was awake much earlier, I was upstairs, Fran downstairs. I wasn’t sure if he was awake or not and I did not want to wake him so I tried as hard as I could to stay in bed but I was pretty much the equivalent of an excited child on Christmas morning. Turned out Fran knew I was awake but kept quiet about it to try to make the most of his calm before the storm! 

We had a really relaxing morning eating breakfast, chilling and then loading the truck. Best race morning ever! I love a midday start!

We arrived at the venue around 10am and were able to get the truck really close to the gazebo to unload before parking it. We unpacked our things and I had an early lunch at around 11am. We did an England team photo as well as an Obree Coached Athletes photo. Race brief was at 11:30am and then finally it was time to start. I had been working towards this moment for 7 months.

I ran the first yard with team mate Kim. We had a really good chat and towards the end of the yard there was a bubble machine, we ran through simultaneously shrieking “ooooooo bubbles!”. As I came in I glanced at my watch. Then I glanced again. 43 minutes? Are you kidding me? That is my all time fastest BYU yard and I’d really felt like I was taking it easy.

On the early yards I ran each one with a different person. An early highlight was just before heading out on the fourth yard, Phil Gore tagged me, Mike, Vic and Patto in an Instagram story, very exciting!

It took a number of yards to dial back the pace, I kept adding more and more walks in until I got my desired yard time of 52 – 53 minutes. I hit 52 minutes on the 8th yard. This was a much faster course than I had anticipated.

I often started my yards with Matt, Matt played a big role in helping me achieve 50 yards back in March at Sherwood Pines BYU, we ran 12 yards together and had a blast doing it – chatting, singing, being silly, screaming ‘hello’ really loudly to the marshals. I was so happy that he and I would be England teammates. Highlander was his second BYU and he’d achieved 40 yards at his first so he is definitely one to watch!

Matt is one of those genuinely warm hearted people, I learned this back in March and was reminded again at Highlander. During the early yards when it was super busy, even though the path is wide it was still hectic at the start of each yard, so much so every time we wanted to walk we would call back “walking” to make sure runners behind did not leap frog over us. Matt and I always ran to the right hand side with Matt on my left, turns out there was a reason for that, he told me how he felt very protective towards me and was essentially acting as a human shield for me.

I’ve given this a bit of thought since, and I realise that I have never felt unsafe in the ultra running community. I love the fact that we are all there looking out for each other and looking after each other. I am so proud of just how awesome the community is in this bonkers sport.

The heavens had opened very early on in the race. We had around 13 hours of biblical rain. There were frogs hopping about all over the place, and one squashed frog on the road. As the day was drawing to a close the weather was playing on my mind. It was warm but chucking it down, this meant that I couldn’t wear a waterproof as I would sweat. But then I was going to get cold on my down time. I opted to run in a poncho, my thoughts being I could change into a fresh one on a regular basis. This worked to a degree but as the deluge persisted I was varying degrees of soaking wet and damp. I did a full outfit change after the 8pm yard as I wanted the chance to be dry when the evening closed in. Overnight I would lie on my bed and Fran would put my increasingly damp blanket on me. It wasn’t great. It was a tough night and I was relieved when the sun came up as I would be less likely to get cold.

Another problem I faced overnight and into Sunday morning was the nearly constant need do a poo! Normally my bowls are very considerate and I only ever need to go when the timing is right and a Portaloo is nearby. I seemed to be having to clench more than I would like to. So on top of the weather and body temperature problem solving, there was the toilet problem solving too. I came off solid food and moved onto baby food and milkshake in the hope that would help the situation.

As I seemed to be getting on top of these problems a new one presented itself. I was definitely slowing on the hill. I gave this some thought and felt the best option was to fuel before it so I got in the habit of taking a Cliff Bloc on the road before the hill. This worked really well.

At some point Fran and I changed my socks and shoes, having never done this on a BYU I felt a bit anxious about this so gave Fran a one yard warning along with a shopping list of what I would need (towel, talc, socks, shoes). The two minute whistle went as we were doing the shoe change but we kept our cool and moved efficiently.

A highlight on Saturday was the chip and mushy pea butty off the 5pm yard, this was exceptional. There was pizza too after 7pm which I enjoyed a couple of slices of.

20 hours in saw my first proper cup of tea of the race, I’d been off the caffeine two weeks prior. It was delicious! I went bounding off on the 21st yard on a real high.

When I came in off the 22nd yard there was a pan au chocolate and latte from the local Watermill Bakery waiting for me, Fran was a star getting them for me!

I came off the midday yard to learn that Fran had dropped his phone down the Portaloo – opps! I gave him my phone’s passcode so he could continue to keep the Whatsapp group updated with my progress.

The rain dried up on Sunday and the sunshine shone brightly, it soon warmed up to quite a hot day. I do not usually race in shorts (because of chub rub) but due to the mild weather I had taken the risk and the shorts had been no problem at all. I ended up running in a vest but had to wear my waterproof around me as a cape (it was annoying around my waist as it would slip down). Initially the waterproof cape was because I didn’t trust the Scottish weather, I then discovered (having owned this jacket since 2019) that the jacket had an inside zipped pocket! Result! This became my little goody bag. Note to self, buy a race belt for when it’s hot! I could have worn my race vest but I felt that it would have just made me sweat even more.

Coming in off the 1pm yard I was thrilled as the next yard would be Andy’s birthday party! We all donned party hats, had some cupcakes, sang happy birthday and off we went, wearing our hats the whole way round that yard, it was a good laugh and a good energy boost for the team.

I chatted a bit with someone on the 31st yard and was alarmed to hear that they had been vomiting the previous yard. I often hear of people who vomit during races and then choose to carry on. I’ve always been very lucky and have not vomited during a race before. I’ve always thought that I would stop though, surely it cannot be good to continue to run when you are depleted of all energy. Perhaps during a normal race without time restrictions you could spend time sorting yourself at a checkpoint but I would think during BYU the best thing would be to DNF. It’s been playing on my mind a lot so I did a little bit of research and I hope that you will find this useful.

Vomiting During an Ultramarathon

I had a little look into the dangers of vomiting during an ultra marathon, and certainly the best thing to do is to stop. Vomiting can signal underlying issues that require attention and rest is preferable to continued exertion.

• Vomiting increases the risk of dehydration. Dehydration and electrolyte imbalances can lead to further nausea, cramps, fatigue, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause dizziness, confusion, and even collapse.
• During strenuous exercises your body will prioritise blood flow to working muscles and the heart, this can hinder digestion and absorption and after vomiting it can be even harder to process much needed fluids and nutrients.
• Vomiting is a symptom of hyponatremia (a low sodium level in your blood caused by over hydrating), and continuing to drink excessively without adequate sodium replacement can worsen the condition, leading to severe confusion, seizures, or even coma.
• Vomiting can be a symptom of heat stroke, ignoring vomiting could delay crucial medical intervention.
• The risk of weakness or dizziness after vomiting is increased, therefore you are more likely to fall and injure yourself.

Rehydrating with electrolyte-rich fluids and getting adequate rest is crucial for recovery before resuming any intense physical activity.

How it Unfolded

I felt pretty good on the 31st yard and realised that everything was finally coming together, the toilet issue had resolved, I was a great temperature – I was not wet with rain or with sweat! I was fuelling well and had a good pace up the hill. I’d been topping up with salt tablets. Nothing really hurt. I’d napped well overnight and did not feel tired and I was ready to start the race now that we were 31 hours in with 9 people left. It was a fantastic feeling. I planned to put music on for the 32nd yard (an old PB yard of mine). To be honest, I was feeling pretty epic.

However, things were about to make a dramatic turn for the worse. As we came in off the 31st, RD Bill informed us that there was a distressed athlete on the course and there was a chance the race would need to be stopped. I looked around to see who it could be but as we’d all scattered to our various crew I could not be sure.

Fran and I went about our business as usual and I stood on the start line with my headphones in, checking to see who was missing, I still wasn’t sure as there had been a DNF too. 

Seven of us set off on the 32nd yard: Lee (team Wales), Andy, Julie, Lukasz (team Scotland), myself and Andy (team England) and Christine, a solo runner, big shout out to Christine as this was her first ever backyard ultra! I was super excited for the field as I think I have been very vocal about my desire to move up from number two UK female to the number one spot, I need 60 yards to do that and I was confident that would happen with this fantastic pool of runners.

We set off, I had a great song playing in my ears and Andy and I urged each other on with a few well done’s. As I got to the first turn I heard shouts and looked back, we had been called back in. The race was over. The distressed athlete needed privacy. It suddenly dawned on me who the athlete was, I was distraught, all sorts of things were running through my head, surely if the race was stopped then they had gone into cardiac arrest? (To be clear, it was not cardiac arrest.) Fran reiterated what Bill had told us, they had some of the best medics in Scotland in attendance and the athlete would be fine. Fran handed me a cup of tea with sugar to help calm me down, Iain popped his head into our crew tent and also reassured me. Fran and I kept busy by packing our things away and waiting for news. The athlete was brought safely back to camp, everyone was safe and well. We were kept busy organising a place to stay, loading the car, sourcing a meal (Indian take away) and then to bed. It wasn’t until a few days later when I was home that the post race blues hit me, something I don’t usually have.

Afterthoughts

I was torn emotionally. I 100% support the RDs decision to halt the race, runner/event crew safety is number one and I was so worried about my friend. However, I had put 7 months of hard graft into that race, it was all I thought about, talked about, dreamt about. I lived and breathed my opportunity to represent England, work as part of a team and strive for the UK number one spot. I had sacrificed so much: time away from my husband and beloved girls and time away from home to train, a reduced social life to ensure I was fitting in training, sleep and eating well, the financial costs too were huge despite all the generous support I had received. I was at the absolute peak of my physical fitness. And after all that, all that hard work, it was all for nothing. I know that it wasn’t really ‘for nothing’ – the training is still there for the next one, many lessons have been learned but I feel that that was the perfect race to achieve 60, the course and the athletes were all there to make it happen. I need at least one person to take me to 60, at Highlander I had six. I’ve thought long and hard about these feelings as initially I felt guilty for having them. No. I should not feel guilty. I am entitled to these feelings as they are entirely separate to what unfolded on that Sunday afternoon. I am focussing on the positives, I only ran 130ish miles so my recovery was super speedy, my foundation is there for me to build on, and that number one spot will be all the more sweeter when I achieve it.

There’s no finish line photo and it did not feel appropriate for a finish line burpee, instead, here is a picture of Ewan, the owner of Robertsons of Pitlochry who kindly gifted me a gin, we’d met him on the recce weekend in June and he wanted me to pop in post race to let him know how it went!

What I wore: Saucony Peregrine 12, Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar, buff, Under Armour shorts, Injinji socks plus silicone toe cap on each big toe, Dirty Girl gaiters.

Lead up: This was the hardest I have trained for any race, as mentioned earlier I was making full use of my training plan with Stu, weekly PT with Eddie, stair stepper at Ash Manor gym, daily yoga, stretches and strength exercises, physio with Muhammed once a week, boot camp and weekly sports massage 3 weeks prior to race day.

Summary

Overall I enjoyed the whole event and I especially enjoyed the problems thrown at me and found it satisfying to keep problem solving, it made the race very interesting. I enjoyed meeting and chatting to many people, I loved working within a team and I thoroughly enjoyed the training working towards the event. I have a lot of positives to carry forward with me despite the disappointing outcome.

Lessons learned

There was a lot of problem solving early doors for me on this race and I was delighted to be able to come up with solutions.

• Consider the use of a poncho when it is warm and wet, I intend to buy lots of camping towels so if this situation happens again, I’ll always have a dry towel which I’ll use to dry myself and also as a blanket for sleep, better than using a wet blanket!
• Toe caps were a surprising solution for protecting my big toes with missing / half grown toe nails – I wore these from the start, on the outside of my toe sock, not direct onto skin.
• Needing to number two more than usual could have been down to the change in diet in the two days leading up, due to eating in restaurants rather than eating home cooked, it seemed to help coming off solid foods for a period of time (I used baby food and milkshake). I had dried figs with me, in hindsight I should have eaten some of them.
• Fuelling with Cliff Bloks before the hill worked well.
• Having a race belt would have been a good move.
• Taking salt tablets throughout is a good idea.

Results

Yards completed: 31

Fast lap: 43 minutes

Slow lap: 56 minutes

Average lap: 53 minutes

Overall: 1 (joint with 6 others) / 157

Highlander Four Nations BYU 2025 results: click here

Yard Times for Elizabeth Gatherer – Highlander BYU 2025

Yard 1 =  157 starters | 43

Yard 2 =  157 starters | 46

Yard 3 =  157 starters | 49

Yard 4 =  156 starters | 51

Yard 5 =  153 starters | 50

Yard 6 =  151 starters | 51

Yard 7 =  149 starters | 51

Yard 8 =  147 starters | 52

Yard 9 =  141 starters | 52

Yard 10 = 136 starters | 52

Yard 11 = 126 starters | 53

Yard 12 = 118 starters | 54

Yard 13 =  94 starters | 54

Yard 14 =  81 starters | 55

Yard 15 =  74 starters | 55

Yard 16 = 57 starters | 55

Yard 17 = 46 starters | 54

Yard 18 = 38 starters | 55

Yard 19 = 32 starters | 54

Yard 20 = 31 starters | 54

Yard 21 = 29 starters | 54

Yard 22 = 28 starters | 50

Yard 23 = 27 starters | 54

Yard 24 = 27 starters | 55

Yard 25 = 18 starters | 55

Yard 26 = 16 starters | 54

Yard 27 = 16 starters | 54

Yard 28 = 13 starters | 55

Yard 29 = 12 starters | 55

Yard 30 = 11 starters | 56

Yard 31 = 9 starters | no time recorded

Yard 32 = 7 starters | race aborted

Podcast Links

Backyard Weekly – Episode 9

Behind the scenes