Equilore founder Dr Loes Koorenhof raised £2,366 completing the BB Ultra – 55km across 15 mountains (21 peaks) through the Breacon Beacons – to raise funds to subsidise Equilore sessions to families affected by cancer.

Equine Assisted Therapy has been a key service provided by Equilore and The Hummingbird Centre.

Loes gave us a summary of the day so you can get an understanding of what she went through!

“With a 5am start, we were fitted with GPS trackers, safety briefed and boarded the coach to drive one hour to the start-line.

At 8.30 the horn blew and off we went! It started hilly but beautiful. With 24 degrees and little breeze higher up it was hot, but the views were amazing. The terrain was tough and the rocky cliff edges hurt my feet, I counted 5 blisters by checkpoint 1.

The first 18km I was genuinely loving it. After the first checkpoint, we headed straight up ‘the Grinch’. I was a little intimidated by this mountain because it is sooo incredibly steep. 3/4 up, your hands and feet both touch the mountain even if you aren’t trying to crawl. It was absolutely relentless!

Not long after I started feeling shaky, I got cramps in my legs, bad cramps, and was shivery. I knew I was in trouble. Taking it easy I made it to checkpoint 2 where the BB Ultra team were amazing getting me salt, food and electrolytes. I plastered up my feet again (more blisters), and changed my sock and shoes with great difficult because I kept cramping up (hence the odd socks at the end)! A lot of runners arrived at checkpoint 2 in a state, I learnt afterwards. Probably a combination of the heat and climbing that Grinch at midday.

I had to take it slowly for a few hours, letting the food and drink do their work. My legs would still cramp at every opportunity, but after a while I started to run again and by checkpoint 3 I felt much better. Maybe because I dipped my face in a rocky pool off a waterfall 😊!

Eating is the last thing you fancy but I noticed it worked miracles, so slowly chewed down more salty snacks to set off for the next 17km, including the tallest mountain Pen Y Fan.

This was the stretch I had practised so I was confident. However, doing that stretch on ‘fresh’ legs was very different than on tired legs. I struggled, and many other runners did. At some point we all had to stop, but always checking in on each other.

It was beautiful up there and the temperature dropped a bit, with some rain making the rocks slippy and difficult to navigate.

It seemed like there were endless climbs that I didn’t remember being as long and steep! Where I had been able to run downhill on my exploration trip, it seemed impossible now.

Then followed a long straight along a rocky cliff edge. I just remember every step hurt, my legs, my feet, the blisters. Kicking rocks into my own ankles, stumbling.. tiredness was really kicking in. The rain stopped and the midges came out.

Then the dreaded downhill. Very steep. A ladder of rocks followed by 2 km of very steep downhill. My knees were holding up brilliantly but I had to keep them straight.

At the bottom of that hill I felt physically sick, but I made it to checkpoint 4. Again the team were amazing, water, cake and off for the last 5km on the flat!

I was amazed how much I had left once the terrain flattened and overtook 3 people, with a little finish sprint!

55 km, 2 river crossings, 18 mountains, 2 hills in 9hr 53.
£2366 raised (including cash and BACS donations) in total which is absolutely amazing!

I loved getting all your messages before and after, so thank you all so much for this amazing support! Knowing everyone was behind me really kept me going!”

If you’d like to donate to support Equilore, visit our Justgiving page.