Ultra athletes Ben and Sarah Hudson quit the rat-race to enjoy some extraordinary new adventures in North Wales

Ultra athletes Ben and Sarah Hudson quit the rat-race to enjoy some extraordinary new adventures in North Wales

 

Special Coast and Country feature:

This is the first of a new series of special features looking at the life, careers, hopes and ambitions, of many talented and dedicated athletes and sports people in North Wales.

 

Introduction by Don Hale. https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

This feature highlights the extraordinary life and careers of popular husband and wife couple, Ben and Sarah Hudson, who are both keen runners and obviously love a challenge, both in life and in athletics, and regularly take part in varied events ranging from parkruns to marathons, to long-distance and ultra races, often raising thousands of pounds for charities.

They gave up the rat-race in London a few years ago to move to North Wales, where they quickly created a thriving local business in Betws-y-Coed, before opting to enjoy some exciting new adventures in this stunning region, and across the world, whilst celebrating new experiences and developing their love of the sport, coupled with a determination to make a positive impact within the community.

As the pair begin another new chapter in their lives after buying a farm near Pwllheli, they now recall some of their most challenging ultra races in the UK and confirm their intention to tackle another series of exciting events, including Sarah’s forthcoming entry in the Boston Marathon!

Sarah Ferguson Hudson recalls the couple's amazing personal journey... and some incredible experiences.

 

In 2012 I was working as Paediatric Oncology Clinical Nurse specialist in South-East London and Ben was working as a project manager for Keep Britain Tidy. 

With lots of changes within the NHS trust, I was working for my job role, which was dragging me away from the clinical practice that I loved. With further uncertainty and redundancies also coming within Ben’s work sector, we decided it was time to escape the rat race and head to the mountains. 

We spent 6 months running a ski chalet in the beautiful village of Lech, Austria and it was whilst we were there, that we decided we would love to buy and run our very own bed and breakfast. 

It was a bit of a pipe dream but roll forward 6 months. We had sold Ben’s house in Cheltenham, and we were getting the keys to our very own business in the stunning North Wales village of Betws y Coed.

We both ran before we got together, and had already run a few races together, however, it was moving to North Wales that really fuelled our love for running and exploring our local area and the rest of the world. When we moved to the area, we joined North Wales Road Runners and have been members ever since, and this definitely helped take our running to new levels. 

Our marathon addiction was certainly fuelled by our love for travel, but also by the amazing local races available to us, including our all-time favourite race - Marathon Eryri - which we have now run 5 times, and also been race sweepers! 

We love setting ourselves goals in our running including times, certain locations and iconic races to run.  We are both currently training for our 25th official marathons. I managed to qualify for Boston USA, something which I never thought I would ever be able to do when I first started running. 

I have also managed to get good for age places in London for the last two years. We ran it last year where Ben got a PB, and we also managed to raise over £3,000 for Tenovus Cancer Care in the process. Having run multiple marathons, it was only a matter of time before we fell for the appeal of going further and dipping our toes into the world of ultras! 

I did my first ultra in 2021 with my good friend Emma, who was the person that got me into running in the first place when we lived together in Oxford, while we both worked in the Children’s Hospital at the John Radcliffe. 

Sadly, my dad passed away after a long illness and battle with vascular dementia. He was a keen runner, mostly in the fells and hills in his younger days, and so I was inspired to take on some more ultra challenges and combine this with fundraising for the British Heart Foundation in my dad’s memory. 

Together, Ben and I took on both the Chester 50 and 100 put on by the amazing GB ultras, and despite not finishing the 100 miler and dropping out at 75 miles, they were amazing adventures and only encouraged our desire for more running madness. 

Challenging series of ultra events

Subsequently we have taken on several more ultras all over the country including running from Carlisle to Newcastle (70 miles) along Hadrian’s Wall, the Pennine Barrier 50, which includes the Yorkshire 3 peaks and Race to the Stones (100k) along the Ridgeway from Lewknor to Avebury. 

After running the bed and breakfast for 10 years, we then decided it was time for a new adventure, so in early 2024, we finally sold and left the world of B & B-ing behind and spent a wonderful 10 months running/travelling, and house hunting for our new adventure, which we finally found on the Llyn Peninsula. 

In November 2024, we then moved into our wonderful new project… an old farm with a wealth of out buildings, full of potential, for whatever comes next… events venue, some holiday accommodation, running adventures… we are not entirely sure, but we are certainly going to have fun exploring our new location and embracing a new and exciting challenge. 

All set for the Boston Marathon in America.

We are doing the Trimpell 20 next weekend in Lancaster, and we have decided to choose different races this year, not the same club ones all the time! I will also be running the Boston (USA) Marathon in April! I got a qualifying time in late 2023, so I’m super excited about that!

And, in addition, we have recently started volunteering at the unique Pwllheli beach parkrun. It’s been quiet over the winter, but we are looking forward to seeing it in its full glory once all the holiday makers and tourists come to enjoy this beautiful place where we are now lucky enough to live.