OUREA EVENTS: Max King and Jo Meek are this year’s winners of the Dragon’s Back Race®

After 6 gruelling days, Max King and Jo Meek won the iconic Dragon’s Back Race®.

Often known as the toughest mountain race in the world, these athletes have journeyed all the way from Conwy Castle in the North of Wales to the stunning conclusion in Cardiff Castle. It has been a long journey, full of emotional highs and lows, a mixed bag of weather, and some of the gnarliest terrain out there. These six days have pushed our dragons to the limits, but now they have made it to the end of an epic journey.

Max King was this year’s winner in the men’s race

This year’s winner had an absolutely storming race, and came into the finish line at top speed. He has been consistently strong throughout the week. While second-placed runner Simon Roberts has been pushing hard to close the gap, ultimately Max has been getting stronger the further he goes, each day increasing his lead on Simon.

Coming from the US, Salomon athlete Max has an extensive CV when it comes to ultra-running and was always looking likely to be a favourite coming into the race. However, he had the added challenge of on-sighting the entire route, having not had the opportunity to recce the route.

He said, “It’s amazing, I don’t even have words for it, I’ve been running for 6 days. It’s such a cool experience and the team has put together an absolutely amazing course. There’s everything on it. If you walked into a bar and sat down with a mountain runner, an ultra runner and a stage race runner, and they all came up with the hardest race and put them all together, you’d get this.”

We asked him what drew him to this challenge. He said, “I’ve known about the race for a couple of years now and I love this area, I love the country, I love the terrain, and I just wanted to experience it! I saw the films where Simon and Russell battling it out in 2021 and I became really frightened for what I was getting myself into. I was thinking, I don’t know if I can do this! I’ve never run that far in a week!”

“I’ve always loved races that have more than a challenge with them. I love races with a community. Everybody knows what this race is and it’s so community minded. And the history is another piece to it. I love races with history. The fact this history started in 1992 is really cool. I love the mountain running history and fell running history of the UK and this area. My favourite community is the fell community in the UK.”

Second place in the men’s race was Simon Roberts. Simon pushed hard but couldn’t quite catch Max. This is his third time completing the race, after winning in 2021. He has had a storming week, and was met at the finish by his family and his partner, Robyn Cassidy, who herself won the Dragon’s Back Race® last year.

He had singled out Max King as his main competition from the start. He said, “I’ve followed Max King since I got into trail running. I saw Max King on the entry list and I asked Shane, is that the Max King? It was – I can’t beat him! I had to bury myself deep every day.”

Despite having won in the past, he wasn’t deflated at having come second. He said, “I’m not disappointed because it was against Max King!”

SCARPA athlete, Gabe Joyes, was third in the men’s race. “What a crazy thing to do!” was his first comment on crossing the finish line, where we was greeted by Max King and Simon Roberts. He has been very consistent, moving up the field as the race progressed. This marks the first time we’ve had 2 American athletes on the podium.

Jo Meek had a tough race but emerged victorious

Meanwhile, Jo Meek won the women’s race. It was a hard-fought victory for Jo. She certainly had her ups and downs, and had a tussle with Zoe Murphy early on in the week. She certainly found the latter stages of the race incredibly difficult, but her lead was so strong that she managed to hang onto her lead.

Jo Meek is a highly experienced runner, but is less confident in the mountains. Crib Goch early in the week was certainly a challenge for her, but one she was able to overcome. She has run well throughout the week and has certainly been determined in her endeavour to win.

Jo clearly left everything she out there on the course, and soon after the finish line collapsed onto the ground in tears. She was later looked after by medics, having worked so hard in those final moments of the race. Her dedication and strength were clear to see.

Second in the women’s field was Elsa Morgan, who moved up into third place today.

Elsa Morgan has been consistently strong throughout the race, and her patience certainly paid off, seeing her move up into second place on the final day. She also made history today as the first person to not only complete the Cape Wrath Ultra® and the Dragon’s Back Race® in the same year.

She said, “It was long! It was so hard but the organisation from Ourea was faultless! I feel like I know them now which is lovely.”

In third place was Zoe Murphy. Zoe had an incredibly strong start to the race, even giving Jo Meek a few tough battles, but sadly struggled with her stomach in the latter stages. The fact she still managed to make it to the finish and podium in spite of these challenges is a huge testament to her resilience. She came 4th in the 2021 edition, so she has still made massive progress by coming third.

She was met at the finish by her dog, Ozzie, her family and her friend, former winner Robyn Cassidy.  It was an incredibly tough and emotional race for Zoe.

She said, “Those last two days I was just running on fumes!”

It was an emotional conclusion at the Castle

There was a real party atmosphere in Cardiff, with music playing throughout the afternoon and friends and family gathering to see their loved ones reach that long-awaited finish line. It’s been the culmination of an epic week. For many, this is the achievement of a lifetime, and they will treasure the friendships forged and the memories made for the rest of their lives.

Finishers were coming in right the way through the evening, all celebrating their wonderful achievement. Many of these runners were Hatchlings, who completed either the first or second half of each day. It was wonderful to see all the athletes mingling throughout the afternoon and evening, sharing a drink, swapping stories and enjoying the film.