Larger Than Life – Volunteer's Eye On Legends Trails

Stu Westfield is a safety coordinator of Legends Trails. It's no coincidence Stef and Tim have chosen him for this role. Each year he runs the safety teams at the 431 km Spine Race in northern England and his expertise is priceless. Under his supervision the whole system runs as smoothly as it can.

I get my warm plate from Ania, the HQ top chef herself. Without the kitchen crews, I get a thought, we safety team folks, and especially the racers, would just collapse like those bloody Energizer bunnies running out of steam. They stay out of spotlight but without them this race would just not exist.

An hour later we set off in my car with Jan, another Dutch guy who replaced Arend in LST1. Some lame attempts of conversation in Dutch follow from my side again. We take some hot tea, gas cartridges and my spare stove just in case. The tent has already been pitched in the forest and the crew of Wiktor and Dave, racers-turned-volunteers, is already there. Clint and Stef will bring two more buckets of soup later on. Some nasty accident happened under the motorway bridge just in front of them and they got scared it could be my car involved...

As expected, the second night took its toll and witnessed the most cases of DNF. Only 15 runners left CP4 at Farnières. They are stretched over a relatively short distance, so they all go through the CP4.1 tent within about four hours. Three of the morning's Belgian leading group – Dirk van Spitaels, Ivo Steyaert and Benny Keuppens – are still in front and leave the checkpoint just before our arrival. The remaining two have been overtaken in the meantime by the German Michael Frenz and another Belgian Joris Jacobs, pushing on together since 35th kilometer. We welcome them all in the tent with hot soup and tea.

Christophe Wislet and Claudy Jambon reach the CP less than an hour later. Just as the ones before, they lay down on the sleeping mats wrapping themselves up with blankets for a while and leave after a short rest, as the time is running low. Soon after, the Dutch trio arrives. They are all knackered. Peter Swager and Michiel Panhuysen are in the zombie mode. Paula Ijzerman, the only remaining lady, seems to be the most conscious of the three. She tells stories of her hallucinations – bears on the trail, safety cars and what not. She's not the only one I've heard of such experiences from during this race.

Soon after their departure calls Stu, who keeps watching the dots at HQ the whole time. He tells us of the only five remaining – the lone wolf Leif Abrahamsen and the Belgian-Dutch four (Geert Dewit, Marek Vis, Robin Kingsbergen and Hans Coolen) closing the field. Jan and me leave the tent and go ahead to meet them.

The Norwegian seems to be alright and is happy to see us. During the last hours he has been suffering from stomach upset but now claims to be feeling better. Jan sees him off to the tent and I run further down the path to intercept the rest. Soon I can see four vague lights ahead, blurred by falling snowflakes. I meet the racers, accompany them almost to the tent and return to take down the signs I placed a few hours ago.

It's good to have people with some idea of this sport in the Safety Teams. Sometimes in order to help the knackered racers it's good to know from one's own experience how one feels after so many miles and hours on the trail...

I run down the more and more snow-covered path. Snowflakes are blinking in the light of my headlamp. Some signs are covered in snow and I've got to take a good look to find them. When I'm back at the tent, all racers are gone and we can take it down.

Hot pizza and cold beer await us at HQ. Despite the tiredness we don't feel sleepy at all and keep dot-watching awaiting the winners. Michael Frenz and Joris Jacobs have got themselves in front...

After 3am, 57 hours and 21 minutes having passed since they started, two headlamps appear on the road in front of HQ. They both seem to be hanging on for grim death for a sprint finish. But it's the young Belgian showing great sportsmanship and letting Michael in front, thinking he deserves the victory more. They have pushed on together almost from the start but the seasoned German ultrarunner has been doing all the nav.

Just six minutes later we see Dirk, followed by other Belgians a couple dozen minutes between one another, with Benny at the end who lost some time due to a dead battery in his GPS device. Paula, the only lady finisher, shows up together with her two Dutch mates, closely followed by the lone Norwegian. The Belgian-Dutch four make it just before the passing of 62 hours, with the cutoff set at 62h20 reflecting the average speed of 4 km per hour. Tim and Stef hand the finishers beautiful medals and souvenir fourpacks of La Chouffe beer.

Full results can be found HERE and HERE

Very hard race – said the winner – especially the last 20 km in deep snow! At 237 km he and Joris caught up with the two leaders and then it was a fight. He gave it all he could. He mentioned that he started the race still tired from work and did not expect to win, only planning to finish it, and then was getting better and better. At CP3 they had 6.5 hours of good sleep and that was the main point, as the other guys did not sleep. In winter races you have to eat, drink and sleep – highlighted the four-time participant of The Spine. Legends Trails, although not as long and hard as the famous British race, was in one way harder to him, as here other racers didn't want to give up until the end.

Since 2014 Michael has been organising a race even longer than The Spine – the 661 km Montane Goldsteig Ultra Race in Bavaria, he hasn't however raced in it yet. In his pre-race workouts he admitted to running sometimes up to 200 km a week. His legendary companion Joris trains much less, his longest race so far having been just over 100 km, but on the other hand he does triathlon.

Dirk, third at the finish line, considered Legends Trails the toughest race in his life. Especially the weather and conditions were unbelievably hard. His previous longest race was just 100 km. Together with Ivo they tried to keep up with the later winners. Unsuccessfully, but it doesn't matter, as he said. He's finished and that's important. And how does the third Legend prepare for such challenges? I rest a lot! – said Dirk, laughing.

I didn't plan to win 'cos it's not a competition to me – summed up Paula – oh yeah, maybe it's a competition just against myself and the snow... I hate snow! Also for her it was the longest and hardest race so far. The first night was the worst, she kept falling and was not doing well and then the guys picked her up. She stayed with them, especially with Michiel. They worked really well together and she often also helped them keep a steady hiking pace of 6.5 km per hour. I asked if she liked the race. I'm not sure 'liking' is the right word... it was surely interesting, I'm very happy I've made it, I'm never gonna do it ever again, I'll be a volunteer next year! – declared the only lady who finished the Legends Trails, whose last name means... 'Iron Man'. Let's wait and see...

I have once managed to finish Łemkowyna Ultra Trail, one of the toughest races in Poland, a gruelling 150 km mudfest. When I think of the Legends Trails as the same plus extra 100 kilometres, I can't even imagine completing such a challenge. This is larger than life. This race has already become a Legend.

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Germany, Tuesday, 8 March. We exit A4 for Dresden to leave Chloe and Neal there. Some local radio station plays a catchy tune. I haven't heard it before, can only recognise the band Die Toten Hosen. My German sucks just as badly as my Dutch but I can still make out enough of the lyrics to google them up later and translate.

Still flowing like a river, it's the same old fever, when we're together it rises up again... or something like that. That's what it comes down to, both in sport and in everyday life. We're in it not just for ourselves, but also for one another.

Kamil Weinberg