Shadowlands 3rd Overall – Karl Smith

The Duergar Run was the final race in the Shadowlands Winter Trail Series and one story of note was that of Karl Smith who going into the race sat in 4th place overall.  He needed an exceptionally good race whilst also hoping his competition didn’t do as well as him.  Given the structure of points awarded being biased towards the top places he really needed to be at the pointy end.  For example:

1st – 130, 2nd – 120, 3rd – 115, 4th, 110, 5th – 105, 6th 100, 7th – 98, 96, 94, 92, 90, 89, 88, 87…. down to 1.

So placing as high as you can gives you the best chance of gaining big points.  There is also the fact that the Duergar Run is very popular so with a larger crowd fingers can be crossed that enough people can be put between you and your rival to grab that spot.  On the night Karl was on one and managed to smash it and finish 5th overall in a stacked field and after a nailbiting day the series standings were updated and he had indeed done enough to get his feet onto third place on the podium for the series.

SHADOWLANDS RESULTS

Considering the low numbers in the first two races you can say Karl had a relatively slow start in the series with 11th and 10th.  A solid performance at the Wipeout put him mid table.  The real push came in the final three races with a triple top 5 run of races.

Let’s find out what Karl himself had to say.

Hello Karl, before we talk about the Shadowlands series can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your journey into trail running.

Yeah so, I’ve always been into running from doing cross country at school, I’ve also done a lot of mountain biking over the years, more recently I’ve just getting into trail running as I love being out on the trails anyway from being on the bike, walking the dogs and family days out in the hills.

What runs/races have you done in the past?

I’ve done the likes of the Great north run a good while back , last year I done chase the sun on the road bike then I’ve done the Wipeout in 2022 and 2025 and the Duergar in 2024 then mostly just a lot of road and trail runs in between.

I mainly enjoy longer runs than shorter and more trail than road.

Why did you enter the Shadowlands Winter Trail Series?

I’d already booked up to do the Wipeout and Duergar then when I’d seen the series and it was a new event I thought it be a perfect way to get an idea of doing decent length of runs week after week and how my body would take it. I also thought it would be good for helping me train for my first 100km ultra in June.

Leaving the last race out, how did the series go for you?

I think it went well and I definitely felt myself progressing each week, it was great fun battling it out with Gavin and Benjamin throughout each race and being close to each other on points as the races went on and I started gaining points and moving up I thought I’d go for it and push myself.

What would you say your top three races were from the series?

I’d have to say Lewis Burn, Lonesome Pine and the Duergar were my top three, simply because I PR my 5k and 10k at Lewis burn , PR my 10mile and 15k at Lonesome Pine and beat my 2024 time at the Duergar by 29 minutes this year.

Moving on the final race at The Duergar Run you were sitting in fourth overall and needed a mega performance to be in with a chance of third. Were you aware of this? How did it go?

I knew I needed a good race and to be ahead of Gavin to secure 4th as I was only 10 points behind him from Lonesome Pine and Benjamin was only 12 points behind me so it was all to play for.  Two of my friends ran the Duergar for the first time and I was very nearly tempted to just have some fun for the last race and run with them, but he told me to go for it and try for 4th so I thought I’d just go for it and try, I never expected to get anywhere near 3rd or where I have in the series to be honest.

It was a fantastic run this year, minimal visibility, boggy, mud, wet but I felt like I flew up to the top of Simonside which I’ve got to give a big shout out to Rachel Malthouse for pacing me up there.  But overall I felt great just more towards the end when I started feeling it on the legs where I got overtook from Simon Lowe when we reached the main road and couldn’t catch him back up.

Well done on such an epic final run to clinch the podium spot. That’s the series all done with just the presentation on 21st Feb left to attend. Got any thoughts on how we could change the series next time?

I enjoyed every race and loved the fact the Wipeout and the Duergar was incorporated into the series.  The x4 races at Kielder were mega fun, each one was different and never felt the same so I wouldn’t really change a thing.  I liked the idea of all of them being different lengths so the distances were great for me.  With it being a winter series and generally dark nights this time of year anyway, I thought the dark made it very fitting and more exciting than it being through the day.

P.S I only come for the hot chocolates and home made flapjacks 🙂