About Us

Who are we?
The “team” behind runfurther and the UK Ultra-running Championships is:
	Mark Hartell – keen ultra-distance mountain runner for over 20 years, holder of the Lake District 24 hour record and 2008 Male Winner of the UK Ultra-running Championships	Karen McDonald – mountain biker and skier and now an ultra-running convert, veteran of the Tour de Mont Blanc and first UK Ultra-running Championships female Grand Slammer in 2008. Member of team run Like a Girl	Si Berry – hardcore climber, inventor of the climbing Beta Stick and walking/running miracle since smashed ankles a few years ago left him with doctors advice he would never run again.
You will see us at events competing and putting up/taking down banners
Why did we organize the series
Mark has been running and racing in the USA since the mid 1990’s. The Ultra-running scene over there is much bigger with over fifty 100 mile races each year and literally hundreds of Ultra’s. There has been a competitive championships over there for many years. The UK, in contrast, had some fantastic races but nothing to link them. Rather than organize another event, the team decided to setup the series with three objectives To grow the sport and encourage newcomers To provide a competitive series that would challenge the best runners across the country To help existing races, increase numbers and improve standards We hope you feel that we are at least going some way to achieving these
Do you make money from the series?
Short answer is no. We are motivated by a passion for the sport. We are attractive to sponsors who want to get involved at the grass roots of sport. Rather than take glossy ads, our sponsors prefer to get more involved – providing product to win new customers. Each of our sponsors pays a small amount of cash to help cover our costs. These include: Printing postcards and posters Printing banners Website hosting Printing race numbers Postage for mailing out prizes etc Travel costs We do pay a small amount for maintaining the website content and for the admin of dealing with enquiries etc – think very minimum wage Each one of us, when we race, pays our entry fees for events just like everyone else. Any money left over at the end of each year has been kept within the company bank account so that, unlike UK Plc, we have saved a little for the bad times. For our first 4 years we have had a title sponsor. In 2010 we don’t so we are using those reserves to keep the series running and asking all of you to help us by linking to our retail partner, Lakes Runner, from this site to make your running purchases. We hope you think this is fair. It helps keep the series going, helps a loyal sponsor of the series and doesn’t cost you anything. If you have comments or questions – please write to us HERE