The Salmon Run...a different kind of ultra journey
**This year's Salmon Run takes place on saturday September 20th, 2025**
Imagine entering your first off road ultra marathon without a compass, relying only on instinct, where the distance is more like 2,000 miles, from the narrow confines of the spawning grounds, to the icy shores of Greenland, then back again across the Atlantic, through the mouth of the Exe and upstream for 43 miles, to return to the start and ultimately your own demise. It’s the ultimate there and back adventure, with at least 14 man made OCR style barriers built in. Woohoo!
Except along the way, random nets are dropped on you from the skies and you have to forage enough to eat, to get you to your next stop. Then it’s into the mouth of the estuary and up the River Exe, where you’re met with a cocktail of contaminants from the fields because someone has spiked your drinking water. Parasites continue to nibble away at you and drive you half mad. Then you have to acclimatise your body to the reduced salinity, as it is not in equilibrium to your new environment. Sewage overflows discolour the water and leats, take you down cul-de-sacs and in to a labyrinth of drainage networks. Jeopardy reminiscent of the Hunger Games? Some game!
Normally we needn’t worry. Because the species in question (the real participants), are a hardy species of migratory Atlantic salmon. But all the indications are, we really do. European stocks of Atlantic salmon have dwindled by as much as 93% since 1970 and these athletes of river and sea are a keystone species. If the migration stops, it’s a big red flag that something has to change.
Further on upstream, there are predators waiting at every narrow entrance, and 14 weirs to jump, against the full force of the jet spray, or worse; a drought has meant some sections are barely deep enough to swim in. The water temperatures have been rising due to climate change, leaving the oxygen levels needed for this massive aerobic feat, depleted. Some of the weirs you are supposed to cross, are broken and there’s a bounty on your head, as small children, poachers and anglers are waiting to take home their prize. And did I mention the seals? Trained from birth, to pick off every one of you. Just to add to the ‘adventure’.
The endurance event we enacted, was a community relay, which involved a group of five runners setting off early from the ocean at Exmouth, the number of runners swelling to two larger ‘shoals’ of approximately 35 runners through Exeter’s Valley Park in two shorter runs, then returning to a relay of five, running in stages as they proceeded up the Exe Valley Way and Two Moors Way to arrive at Tarr Steps, on the edge of Exmoor, late in the day. In between the Exeter legs, were talks by fishing and river experts, led by Tony, a performance poet and university lecturer, looking dashing in his fishnet stockings.
The relay was the brainchild of Tidelines, a CIC based in Exmouth, who collaborate with scientists, artists, academics, fishermen, anglers and now, runners. My company Wild Running, was asked to provide the event logistics and Race Director’s insight.
During a recce to the Salmon Pool (St James’s weir) in Exeter, at the start of stage two of the relay, we’d been lucky enough to see a solitary salmon leap, to get a view perhaps of the broken entrance at the collapsed weir? Three kilometres upstream at the Miller’s Crossing (Blackaller weir), the manager at the Mill on the Exe had told us, he’d spotted 16 salmon, trapped in the leat. Two months ago, a fire crew were called to rescue salmon who’d been unable to make it up the salmon run.
At just after 7pm on Sunday September 25th, 2022 to the delight of Samantha’s supporters, a bunch of volunteers, some marshals, as well as Jo and Anne-Marie, who created this whole project, our anchor leg team, ‘Slippery Customers’, emerge on to the far banks of the Barle, to complete the relay and cross the granite slabs of Tarr Steps. We know they are on track, because Samantha, our hand stitched salmon, has a tracker buried inside her belly and we are able to follow her progress. Her migratory journey has taken her around 9 hours. We’ve been lucky, as the weather has been kind and we have even had time for a quick dip at Exebridge, right on the border with Somerset.
The last of the runners, ‘Slippery Customers’, are treated to a celebratory Ted Hughes poem and an Exe angling expert Michelle, stands by, to offer her observations of the migration. She tells us she doesn’t think the salmon will make it this far this year, due to the low levels of water. The ceremony gives some added meaning to the project and it feels great to be part of this shared ritual.
This year, the Salmon Run Ultra will start at 8am, at the slightly different location of Exmouth seafront, just before the park run. Runners will finish at Dulverton on the Exmoor Visitor Centre lawns. There will be Checkpoint/feedstations in Exeter (on the Quay), Thorverton, Bickleigh, Tiverton and Exebridge. The cut off will be a generous 11 hours.
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The Salmon Run is a pilot project of the Creative Arc, a unique collaboration between the University of Exeter, Exeter City Council, The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery and Tidelines. Additional funding from University of Exeter’s Creative Peninsula programme were funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Partners include Topsham Museum and Westcountry Rivers Trust.
The salmon’s story was animated using a blend of art, design, science and performance – and running! Salmon guides from the Royal Albert Museum, Westcountry Rivers Trust and University of Exeter were on hand to share information and stories about these remarkable and at-risk creatures in Riverside Valley Park and at Blackaller Weir in Exeter.
Salmon Run facts
- 9 ceremonial invocations
- Many dates slices
- Several pubs by several lovely bridges
- 74 runners
- 50 miles over fields and down roads up and down hills and by the river Exe and Barle
- The salmon (Samantha) was passed from hand to hand from sea to shore all in the space of approximately 9 hours.
WHAT YOU CAN DO - ACTIONS (some examples)
Get involved in monitoring water quality in rivers: https://wrt.org.uk/project/become-a-citizen-scientist/
Get involved in Riverfly surveys: https://www.riverflies.org/
Get involved in more community activities to educate, restore and help adapt to climate change
Join our mailing list: www.tidelines.uk
Some things that make salmon so awesome?
- They migrate thousands of miles
- Navigate back to the same place that they were born
- Survive in fresh and salt water by changing their breathing system
- Survive extreme variations in water temperature
- Lived in the Exe for thousands of years
- Keystone species (play a vital part in the health of the river ecosystem)
- Use the tides to help propel them up the river
FIND OUT MORE
Tidelines’ blog https://tidelines.uk/blog/the-incredible-salmon/
Atlantic Salmon Trust: https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/
Westcountry Rivers Trust Exe Weirs Project: https://wrt.org.uk/project/strategic-exe-weirs/
RETA (River Exe Tributaries Association) particularly interested in fish on the river https://www.riverexefisheries.org.uk/
Visit the huge Salmon caught in the Exe in 1920s at Topsham Museum: https://topshammuseum.org.uk/
- Survive extreme variations in water temperature
- Lived in the Exe for thousands of years
- Keystone species (play a vital part in the health of the river ecosystem)
- Use the tides to help propel them up the river
FIND OUT MORE
Tidelines’ blog https://tidelines.uk/blog/the-incredible-salmon/
Atlantic Salmon Trust: https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/
Westcountry Rivers Trust Exe Weirs Project: https://wrt.org.uk/project/strategic-exe-weirs/
RETA (River Exe Tributaries Association) particularly interested in fish on the river https://www.riverexefisheries.org.uk/
Visit the huge Salmon caught in the Exe in 1920s at Topsham Museum: https://topshammuseum.org.uk/