The Trail and Error Podcast

David Miller is a sports photographer and ultra runner from Weymouth. He has photographed numerous events in the South West of the UK as well as two UTMB’s and - a few weeks ago - the infamous Barkley Marathons in the USA. We talk about David’s background, how he got into photography, creating a style, kit and equipment, the business of events photography, UTMB, and Barkley.

Robbie Britton is an elite ultra runner, coach, and author. Robbie recently broke the longstanding British 24 hour record, completing a distance of 277.5km at 24 Ore di Torino in Turin. Robbie has competed for GB in the 24 hour discipline on multiple occasions and serves a coach for the GB ultra team. He is coach to numerous elite runners, including previous podcast guest and age group 100 mile re...

Jay & Tris discuss their upcoming races and current training, and reveal the big race they are both competing in in September '23. In the second half they take listener questions which range from how to pack waist belts to monitoring heart rate during exercise, foot care and whether caffeine should be classed as a banned substance. If you would like to submit question for Jay & Tris you ca...

In the last of our Arc of Attrition 2023 episodes, we speak to Gavin Dale, this year’s male winner of the 100. We talk to Gavin about the race, his training, nutrition, and race strategy. We also talk about fell racing, the trail running scene in New Zealand, and backyard ultras.

Fi Pascall is a rising star in the ultra world. She set a remarkable new course record at this year’s Arc 50, holds the course record for the Wendover Woods 50, and has the female Lakeland 24 hour record - summiting 68 peaks in 23.5 hours. We talk about her Arc victory, the allure of ultras, Wendover, running fast downhills, coaching, marathon running and suffering, route planning and strategy in...

Ellis is a British ultra runner and the co-founder of VÅGA. He is has logged the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on Hadrians Wall (supported), is the CR holder on the 100km RAT in Cornwall, came 2nd place in the 2022 Cheviot Goat and 2nd place in this year’s Arc of Attrition. We talk about yoga and the importance of intention and expectation in running, Ellis’ experience on the Arc in 2022 and 2023, trai...

Debbie Martin-Consani is a British ultra runner. She has represented Scotland and GB in 100km and 24 hour disciplines, and finished top female in the Lakeland 100, Thames Path 100 and, more recently, the 2022 Spine Race, where she completed the 268 mile distance in 104 hours. She's also one of the few lucky (or perhaps not) Brits to have been invited to run the Badwater 135 in Death Valley. We tal...

Holly Stables is an former international road marathon runner who has competed in the Commonwealth Games and bagged a bronze medal for GB at the European Championships. She’s clocked multiple 2:37 marathons as well as rapid PB's on 10k and HM. . She’s now focussing on trail running and ultra distance and has done rather well at that too, with a clutch of gender and overall wins at races from...

Tris raced in the Endurance Life North Cornwall 50km Ultramarathon on Saturday 14th January. In this race special episode which is, as usual, split in to two parts, Tris discusses his planning for the event and we find out how he got on.

Mark Darbyshire is a Brummie ultra runner and the course record holder of the Lakeland 100, Arc of Attrition 100 and North Downs Way 100 to name a few, as well as 13th place in last year’s UTMB. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, one of the best British 100 milers of recent times. We talk about Mark’s training regime, his experience racing over the past few years, we take a deep dive in to...

On this episode Jay and Tris sit down and chat with Sam Grady and Rachel Stephenson, two of their respective crew members and also Jay's wife and Tris' mother. We talk all things crewing from selecting crew to race planning, kit, tips for crew and crew etiquette, with examples of success and failure along the way.

Toby Lowe is a Cornwall based trail runner, photographer, and co-founder of Perran Trail Runners running club. In a past life he was part of the team responsible for maintaining Cornwall's footpaths, bridleways and coast path... all 2,000 miles of them. We discuss the the coast path and how it is paid for and maintained, Toby's running and climbing background, the founding of Perran Trail Runners,...

Another race special, and this time it's Jay's turn to don running shoes. He is returning to the island of La Palma to run up an active volcano, run along the top of it a bit, then run down the other side. Sounds simple enough, right? Let's find out how he did...

The Dramathon is a 42km trail race through the heartlands of whisky country, passing by and through around a dozen single malt distilleries (10% off the whisky distilleries in Scotland no less!) on mixed terrain ranging from exposed hills, technical woodland, golf courses, castles, road and rough track. Tristan raced this event on 15th October - listen here to find out how he prepared and how he d...

Josh Perry is a British ultra runner and hiker. He specialises in very long FKT’s (fastest known time) and is the current self-supported record holder of the Arizona Trail (817 miles) and Pacific Crest Trail (2,663 miles - not a typo) which he set in August ’22 in a time of 55 days, 16 hours and 54 minutes, averaging 50 miles a day. If you want to know what 50 miles a day for two months feels like...

Shane is a former elite mountain runner and the founder of Ourea Events, who organise some of the toughest races in the UK including the Dragons Back (6 days, 380km) Cape Wrath (8 days 400km) amongst others. We talk about Shane's background and his in-road in to running running events, and take a deep dive into the logistical considerations of shepherding hundreds of people through some of the mos...

In a record breaking week of UTMB action, we break a record too with our longest ever podcast episode! As has become customary with our race episodes, this one is split in to two sections: in the first half we discuss the 100km CCC that Jay is racing in, his preparations, hopes, dreams, aspirations; and in the second half we pick through the debris like carrion crows on a battlefield.  https:...

Stephen Cousins from Film My Run returns to the Trail & Error Podcast to discuss his ambitious (and enviable) race calendar, UTMB, running with poles, running backwards down hills, barely running at all at Val d'Aran, and other, less relevant things.

David Laney is an American ultra runner and Craft Sportswear ambassador based in the Pacific Northwest. He has placed 3rd and 4th at UTMB and was the winner of the 2019 Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile. Back in the day he ran a 2:17 marathon too! We talk about life on the professional endurance running circuit, ice baths and saunas and his upcoming season as well as discussing some recent races including th...

Tris ran in the Centurion Thames Path 100 Mile race on 7th May 2022, following the River Thames from Richmond in London through to Oxford. As has become customary on this podcast, this episode is formed of two parts (1) recorded a week before the event (2) recorded 18 hours after. Enjoy! https://www.centurionrunning.com/races/thames-path-100-2022

Elsey Davis is one of the UK’s top marathon runners with a PB of 2:33 (in Valencia in 2019). She has more recently began shifting away from roads to trail. Elsey is a doctor, lives in Chester with her wife, runs for Preston Harriers and is coached by double Olympian Helen Clitheroe.

This week Tris and Jay are joined by doctor and ultra runner Paddy Mitton whose office is normally the icy wastes of the southern hemisphere. Paddy is an expert in how the human body operates in terrestrial extremes, the very edges of our limits and how to prepare and perform in those places.

James Elson is the host of the British Ultra Running Podcast, an ultra runner and race director. On this episode we talk about everything from Leadville to the London Marathon, James' life before running and his journey with Centurion Running, from a single race in 2010 to arguably what is now the UK's most prolific and well respected organiser of ultra distance trail running events. 

Jay & Tris discuss their experiences running in the 100 mile Arc of Attrition footrace held in Cornwall on 29th January 2022.

It’s two weeks until the 2022 Arc of Attrition 100 and 50 mile ultra marathons. Jay and Tris are both running in the 100 mile distance, so following on from the 10-weeks-to-go episode (which feels like it was recorded about 10 days ago) we’ve taken some time to talk about our build up and to go over plans for kit, shoes, nutrition, crew, and finishing the race. Good luck to all who are running the...