Cheviot Goat 2025

It’s been quite a few days since the 2025 SCOTT Cheviot Goat but it gives a little time to hear from various people and reflect on the event as a whole.  I’m viewing it from the organisers point of view rather than the runners.  It was great to see so many people turn up and take on such a challenging event.  The distance isn’t a problem for every runner in the field.  However, if you combine that with conditions under foot and the undulating nature of the terrain then it makes for a very tough day out.

The most obvious change you would have noticed from previous events is the emergence of SCOTT as the principle sponsor.  With UK headquarters in Cramlington, Northumberland they have a running lead in Michelle Castro who is very involved with the scene both here in the north east of England, the country as a whole and internationally.  Her mix of experience, motivation and enthusiasm is infectious and the Goat race blends nicely into their more hardcore line of running products.  It was very nice to have the SCOTT team around for registration, Barrowburn goodness and then cheering people in at the finish.

2024 was cancelled at the last second due to freak rainfall on the day of registration.  A yellow weather warning turned into an orange on the Friday morning and by mid afternoon the deluge started.  The following day, which would have been race day, the rivers had burst their banks and it turned out that cancelling the event was the correct choice as there was no access to critical parts of the route.  So it was with much joy that the days leading up to the event all the weather forecasts were being unbelievably forgiving.  There was a bit of a downpour on the Friday night just after registration but we were up early and checking the only real river crossing well ahead of time.  I’ve always said that I feel the worst conditions for the Goat come down to three things:

1 Temperature hovering just above zero.

2 Heavy rain/sleet

3 High winds

If you get those three combined together then you’re in for a super hard day out.  A deep freeze actually makes things easier by hardening the ground.  Snow keeps you relatively dry.  This year the temperature did hover above zero so the ground was heavy, there were a few showers but crucially the wind never really got up apart from on the Cheviot top.  In summary the day was a long, hard slog which each step draining yet more energy from the body.

The whole year leading up the run I spend going round talking to people on the ground and figuring out if there are any issues then work round them.  The area is vast and the farming cycles mean that the landscape is always changing.  One area that was used to rear birds has served its time and needs to be moved.  A new herd of prize cattle are being put in that field.  A new shooting spot has been added in that valley.  Erosion has become too great on such and such track.  The SSSI pine marten area has been extended.  And on and on.  It’s a never ending conversation with a constantly changing environment and I feel it is vital to have that connection and buy-in from the people living and working there in order to make the Goat possible.  I was saddened to hear about health issues of a local farmer but he’s quite tough and fingers crossed will make a swift recovery.

The route changed from previous years and moved away from the drop into Scotland and based wholly on the English side.  The main issue being that anyone extracted to the Scottish side means our team has to make a huge diversion to go round and get them.  I do miss the big drop to Cocklawfoot which was particularly evil.  Also the Borders Mountain Rescue lot are a cracking bunch.  Instead advice was given by the local farmer Stuart for the route up to Bloodybush Edge.  Now you might think it is just a random scribble on a map but actually it corresponds to general quad bike tracks on the ground and avoids the main water course of Ainsey Burn.  The point(s) where you cross it are safe even in flood.  With a geofenced point below Bloodybush it meant that you got all the joy of the muddy pull to the summit – wouldn’t want you missing out.

Next up on the route we have a little mix up for the first water station at the foot of The Dodd.  Four barrels were left out at Ingram to be taken there but for some reason only two managed to get there.  We still haven’t figured out how that happened but apologies to anyone who missed out.  From here runners set off over to Barrowburn and really from Ingram all the way to Barrowburn the running has been fairly decent.  A swarm of willing marshals at the bunk house resupplied, cajoled, fed, watered and generally motivated people ready to go out into the second half.  From our point of view the race breaks down into three sections.  The first is all the way to Barrowburn where we need to move the pieces around to respond to any incidents out of Breamish and over to the Coquet Valley.  The next is from Barrowburn over to M5 near High Bleakehope where the transition of safety team transfers back to the Breamish side and runners get their first taste of the high/ wet ground.  The final bit is from M5 to the finish where there it is the hardest part of the course over open terrain, deep bogs and steep climbs.

M5 was really inserted as a way of extracting people without the need to go out on quad bikes to get them.  By moving the marshal point from the high ground to the valley where a vehicle could access we successfully reduced the amount of risk both quad bike riders and runners are exposed to.  Unfortunately I repeated this mistake by having a mountain rescue team on Cairn Hill which is pretty close to Cheviot summit.  Around five runners pulled out here which is a huge problem in terms of extraction.  Three runners were accompanied out on a long walk to the Harthope valley.  Not an easy path.  Two more were brought down by quad which was a very difficult journey up and down a steep face.  So a lesson learnt for us and for me personally I’ll take a long look at that part of the route with the view to assessing safety for both runners and marshals/ mountain rescue.

I spend most of my time on event day out in the middle of nowhere responding to any incidents.  I’m just one cog in a machine of people that all come together to make this happen.  Drew loves his hugs at the finish line alongside an amazing group of people who cheer in each and every runner.  Andy did around a thousand miles shuttling kit and people around.  Sharon Dyson, Andy Lane and more get themselves over to Barrowburn to process people as quickly as possible.  There are marshals pulling people off fields, sorting t-shirts, managing the trackers, setting up comms, transporting runners, extracting from hill tops, standing out in the middle of nowhere, answering emails, dishing out social media posts, sweep runners and more.  It’s safe to say that every event is a huge team effort and over the years we’ve managed to delegate key parts of responsibility to trusted individuals who you know can be relied upon to deliver.  It’s part of what the Goat is about.

As we look to next year I’m already reflecting on what happened n 2025.  That bit around Cairn Hill and the marshal team up there is high up on my list of things to sort.  On the one hand it is good to have a team in a difficult location but on the other it gives people a reason to stop…in a difficult location!  Chloe on social media this year did a fantastic job.  It’s an area we’ve always wanted to spend time at but we’re always so busy on race day that the opportunity just isn’t there.  The Goat is testing for both the runners and the organisers.  It relies on good relationships with people on the ground.  The only event that we have that can beat it in complexity is the North Star Ultra, which you will hear about soon.

Entries are open to the 2026 Goat now and if you want some shorter runs over Christmas and into next year have a look at our Shadowlands Winter Trail Series.