Dan and Matt O’Keefe
By Dan and Matt
We were at the Dragon’s Back in 2024. We grew up in North Wales and now both live in the Cardiff area. Whilst we trained a lot together and shared a tent at the event, we ran our own separate races and had very different experiences across the week.
Ultimately Matt finished in 5th position in a time of 52:51:35 and Dan finished 90th in a time of 79:36:23.
Dan O’Keefe on Day One traversing Crib Goch! ©No Limits Photography
Why you signed up?
Dan - I watched Matt complete the race in 2021. Before this I didn’t know much about it but that week I spent the first two days up in Eryri and watched the race move through the high mountains. I then came home and watched the rest of it as a dot watcher and was hooked. I didn’t really consider at the time that I would ever sign up but by Matt finishing it somehow made what initially sounded like an impossible challenge seem like it just might just be manageable. After two more years of following the race I decided that I had to have a go. In the end I used my 40th birthday two weeks before the race as motivation. It was now or never, and I needed to know one way or the other if I could do it.
Matt - Members of our club (MDC) have taken part in every official and unofficial running of the event since 1992. I’d often wondered if I was capable of finishing it, but it was too daunting. Then they added the 6th day which meant finishing in Cardiff less than a mile from my house and I had to give it a go. I had an amazing time in 2021, I finished 3rd and genuinely enjoyed every minute of the race. I said I wouldn’t come back and spoil my memory of the race… unless Dan signed up.
How did you prepare?
Dan - Over the past few years I have steadily upped my weekly milage. I ran several single day ultra marathons and found that whilst I wasn’t particularly fast, I do have the ability to grind out long events. I finished an Ironman and tested my limits with a 110k continuous run. Once I had entered the race I targeted hilly ultras and mountain races. I went to the Welsh 1000 meter Peaks and Snowden races to get used to running up the biggest mountains.
Matt and I (along with Jack Cooke a friend of ours who was also at the race and our younger brother Jim who didn’t race but trained as if he was) arranged several recce weekends to parts of the course we wanted to see. These covered large sections of days one, two, three and five. They got me used to long days in the hills and I built confidence in navigating the route.
Matt - When I signed up I was all set to put in the big mileage and vert I’d done in 2021 but COVID, bronchitis and aging decided that wasn’t going to happen. In the end I did enough training to feel confident about being able to get through the week but considerably less than I wanted. On the plus side I had all of the experience from last time to draw on. The recces with Dan, Jack and Jim were great days out that gave us all confidence in our fitness, food and gear choices.
What were you nervous about?
Dan - I was worried about how I would cope with so many consecutive hard days. Whilst I had tried a couple of consecutive hilly days, they had been relatively short and I had had a nice long bath in between them.
I was also really worried about day five. I knew it had a reputation for being tough based on the length and profile of the day. As it turned out I was right to be. Day five is something else!
Matt - I wasn’t nervous this time, I had total confidence I would finish. My main personal worry was that it would be a lot harder than last time and I might not enjoy it as much, that definitely turned out to be the case. The second and main one was that something unexpected would happen for Dan not to make it, thankfully that didn’t happen!
Favourite days/ moments + highlights
Dan - The start at Conwy castle is great. We had family up on the battlements watching down. I could sense the mood amongst the runners was a mixture of excitement to get going and fear of what lay ahead. The singing of the choir and the sense of expectation gave me that spine tingling moment I was hoping for.
The finish in Cardiff was also extremely special. Living close to Cardiff meant I had loads of family and friends lining the railings as I dragged myself across the cobbles to the finish. Being reunited with my wife and children was incredible after being so focused on getting through each day.
There were also loads of moments out on the course and in camp which I look back on with great fondness. Running with others along the high mountain ridges on day one and seeing friends and family who had come out all through Wales to cheer me on made a massive difference. Being able to see down the valley to Tywyn where we grew up from near the top of Cader Idris on day three was a special moment.
Matt - Day 1 was amazing. COVID robbed me of the choir start last time, but this time I got the full Conwy experience. I jogged out through the walls with Dan and Jack and I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach the day but as soon as we left the walls my brain clicked into race mode. After making steady progress I was surprised to find myself passing the sponsored athletes and it was great to share Crib Goch with Lewis, Jon and Gabe.
Day 5 was by far the hardest run day for me, but seeing Dan after he got in just in time and knowing he’d done all the hard stuff was amazing. I’d spent the last hour trying to figure out where he was because there was no internet in the valley and the trackers had all stopped on top of the hill. Those 5 minutes after I finally found him in the tent having arrived just in time were by far the highlight for me. After that the finish at the castle with all of our family and friends was just the cherry on top.
Biggest challenges
Dan - My biggest challenge through the week was eating enough to keep me going. I started off well and ran well on day one and two because of this. However, as the week went on my body started rejecting so much food that I found it really hard to get calories in and I started to slow and to suffer. The food in camp was great but I was getting in later each day and it was getting harder to eat and to rest. There was one night where I was finding it tough to keep going, it had been a tough day and I was exhausted. I just couldn’t face eating and said I might just go to bed. At this point I was lucky to have Matt with me as he made it very clear that if I didn’t eat something right then I wouldn’t make it through the next day. I knew he was right and forced myself to eat as much as I could manage.
Matt - After the highs of day 1 each day got progressively harder. I had the same problem as Dan, I really didn’t want to eat on the hill or in the camp. Each evening I’d get in and spend hours eating my meal extremely slowly rather than wolfing down several portions like I should have. Then out on the run I’d start by eating consistently but my brain would start making excuses and I’d fall behind which would lead to the end of the later days becoming a real slog.
Tough moments
Dan - Day five was tough. I was tired from the start and although I left shortly after 6am to give myself the best chance of getting through I knew from the off it was going to be a long one. As the day went on, I could see myself slipping behind the guidance time. Then as I neared the summit of Fan Brycheiniog my legs started wobbling and for the first time during the week I had to stop on the course. I sat on a rock and tried to regain my composure. Knowing that I didn’t really have any time to spare I got up as soon as I could and worked my way down the descent trying to eat and clear my head.
I knew that my wife Rachel was planning to watch us cross the road at the bottom of the descent and I focused on that. I could see her as I stumbled down towards the river at the bottom. In my eagerness I slipped as I crossed the river and ended up being washed downstream up to my neck in cold water.
After composing myself at the support point I managed to push on and somehow got up and down Fan Fawr in time to make the 6pm cut off at Storey Arms with 10 minutes to spare. This meant I had four hours to make the last push to the finish. As soon as I set off again, I realised I was still struggling and it was going to be tight. The day culminated with me running the ridge from Cribyn with a headtorch in worsening conditions. It was wet and windy and getting cold. A mad slippery scramble along the river brought me onto the final section of road and relief as I saw shining lights of camp. As I stumbled towards the finish I was amazed to see my Dad, my sister Sam, Rachel and my friend Meurig all lining the road to clap me in. They would later tell me they had long given up hope of me making the cut off. There were times when I had thought I would be timed out too but in the end I crawled in with eight minutes to spare.
It was an amazing moment and one I will never forget. I found Matt and Jack back in the tent and we were all relieved to have made it through the day. Our tent mate Lewis who had been going so well all week wasn’t so lucky and I was gutted to hear that his race had ended earlier in the day.
Matt - I didn’t have a specific tough moment that felt like the crux of the race, it just felt like everything was getting harder as the week went on. Day 1 was a really fun day out that’s up there with my favourite days in the mountains. Day 5 and 6 were absolute slogs that rank among my least favourite running days ever. It’s supposed to be tough though, that’s the whole point of doing it!
What did you learn?
Dan - My biggest learning was that I could string together a full week of running and keep pushing myself when things got really tough. I found the limit of where I am comfortable to push myself. I had been told by everyone I knew who had been at the race that it is really, really hard. So whilst this wasn’t a revelation to me, the reality of the mental and physical toll of running over that kind of terrain over consecutive days was a new experience.
Matt - I learned that just because something is fun once, doesn’t mean it’ll be fun the second time. I learned that experience helps a lot, but it’s no substitute for training. I also learned that Simon Roberts is still a lot faster than me!
Reflections on finishing
Dan - I am glad that I took the risk to enter something which I wasn’t sure I could finish. I trained hard and ran to my limits. When I needed to dig really deep, I found I was able to do this.
My experience at the race was very different to Matt’s and the others who ran much quicker and therefore shorter days. They had longer in camp, were able to relax a bit and fuel up for the next day. I am aware that this is the reward for training hard and running really well. It was amazing to see them come gliding past each day and the way they carved up the course. Having spoken to several of the leading finishers since, I know they struggled at times and were challenged in their own ways. I set out with goal of finishing, and I achieved it and so I can now look back on a fantastic week with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Matt - Finishing the first time in 2021 was a massive high, I wasn’t just proud to finish, I was proud with the way I’d trained and the result that had led to. This time around I was just happy to be done running! Watching Dan and Jack come in gave me much more pride and happiness than my own result did.
Advice to others
Dan - My advice would be that if you suspect you could complete the challenge then back yourself and go for it. The event team and volunteers are wonderful. The set up has everything you need to succeed and the other runners at the event are supportive and friendly. If you don’t try you will never know. Ultimately the route is tough, it’s long, it’s hard and this year it seems that if it wasn’t made of rock then it was knee deep bog. My feet were in bits after day three and it took me a full week for my body to settle again after I finished. But I did finish. In Cardiff Castle with my friends and family, and I have my baby dragon and a sack full of wonderful memories to prove it.
Matt - Completely echo Dan on this. If you think you might be able to do it then there’s only one way to find out. You will enjoy the experience much more if you’re well trained and prepared though. Don’t think of it as six days of ultra running, think of it as 365 days of consistent training that ends with the best holiday a mountain runner can imagine.
Feeling inspired to take on the full Dragon’s Back Race® or The Hatchling in 2025?