From -40° C to 53° C: The Bespoke TrailSkin Blends Behind Ioana Barbu’s Historic Ultra Season

Pre-dawn in the Namib Desert, TrailSkin ambassador Ioana Barbu and her tentmate Alex Welch find themselves prepping their feet at 3am. “Looking at each other, going like, “This is sh*t,” - as in, the wake-up… but still putting on the TrailSkin!” - Ioana recalls. Temperatures would reach 53° C that day, during a 92km long stage of the multi-day Desert Ultra by Beyond the Ultimate (BTU). Bespoke foot care, with anti-chafe salve prepared for the high heat, was a non-negotiable every morning. And it’s a huge part of how Ioana set an unbelievable record as first British woman ever to finish all 6 Beyond the Ultimate (BTU - Global Race Series + For Rangers + Highland) events, and first person to do them all in one calendar year. 

When we heard about Ioana’s challenge of finishing (and actually being on the podium and winning some!) all the BTU races in one calendar year, we immediately knew there was an opportunity to boost her chances with underrated, yet essential skin and foot care. Anti-chafe, anti-humidity, anti-blister products made for the extreme environments she would be racing in, from humid jungles, ploughing through rivers with little time to dry off in between stages, to harsh, bitter cold conditions in the Arctic, to the relentless sun, wind, and sand of the desert.

Here’s how TrailSkin stepped in and what we achieved together.

Ioana, Beyond the Ultimate, and the Six Elements

Ioana is your typical “ordinary person that does extraordinary things”: not a professional ultra runner and, in fact, someone whose first ultra experience was in June 2024. Boosted by her friends’ encouragement at first, then by Kris King, creator of Beyond the Ultimate, she caught the bug and went on to sign up for each of the series events after completing a shortened version of the Jungle Ultra. The result: covering more than 1,287 km across Arctic, Jungle, Mountain, Desert, Highland, and Rangers races - all gruelling 100+ km events,covering multiple stages in self-sufficiency, and with the added challenge of recovery from one day to the next.

Ironically, Ioana’s first BTU race - the Jungle Ultra - is dubbed the “hardest” ultra marathon in the series. The mud, humidity, and thick air in the Peruvian jungle make every step require double the effort, while daily recovery post-stage and pre-stage admin are essential for keeping on top of your progress. In 2024, Ioana finished the shortened course, coming back for the full event in 2025. 

She would podium in every race in the series, except the Mountain Ultra, where she battled hypothermia as she made her way through a storm… only to finish 4th woman in the end! With only a year and a half into her ultra running journey, she really put on an unbelievable show. As BTU themselves recapped her Mountain Ultra performance: “the list of wild stories she’s collected out there is legendary… any one of them would’ve taken most people out, but not Ioana. She just kept showing up, day after day, storm after storm.” This includes getting bitten by a wild dog, by the way.

What Is the Beyond the Ultimate Race Series?

From the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan to the Namib Desert, the Beyond the Ultimate Race Series is made up of four multi-day stage races, each with their very specific environment-related challenges:

• The Desert Ultra: 250 km in extreme heat going up to 50+ degrees, where the skin dries and shrivels and the sun is relentless. Anti-chafe is essential
• The Jungle Ultra: 230 km in Manu National Park in Peru, with hot, heavy air and humidity of over 70% and multiple river crossings. Fighting trench foot and maceration while trying to avoid chafing from sweat that never dries
• The Ice Ultra: a Swedish Lapland adventure over 230 km, with Arctic conditions down to -40°C. Cracking skin, risk of frostbite, but also of chafing under many layers
• The Mountain Ultra: 200 km through the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, at over 4000 m of altitude, with changing weather and unexpected perils. Another cold exposure challenge

Added to these four, Ioana also completed two standalone events:

• The Highland Ultra in Scotland, which covers 125 km in the Knoydart Peninsula, passing through gorgeous scenery, but also bogs and difficult terrain
• The For Rangers Ultra in Kenya, running 230 km through the heat, needing to once again manage chafing and blister risk

No single off-the-shelf product could cover all the requirements of a runner facing these different, extreme conditions. This is why TrailSkin got involved with bespoke products that catered to the environment: blends that would mix our Anti-Chafe Salve and TrailSkin Trench Foot Cream, or special softer compositions to allow for quick and effective application in the bitter cold. 

When Off-the-Shelf Isn’t Good Enough: TrailSkin’s Bespoke Approach to Trail Running Skin Protection

When you’re battling the Arctic cold, the desert sun, and the bogs of the Scottish Highlands, every small detail matters. Ioana knew right away that looking after her feet would be crucial and that no niggles should be left to develop into something more serious. We stepped in to provide bespoke blends to support the heavy stage racing logistics

Bespoke Blend #1: The Arctic Formula

A key challenge of racing in Arctic conditions was that standard anti-chafe formulas would simply freeze or crack, rendering them difficult (if not impossible) to apply. Additionally, in the -40°C temperatures and severe wind chill, Ioana could not afford to spend time trying to warm up the anti-chafe or wait with exposed extremities and risk frostbite.

We created a special anti-chafe blend with sunflower oil to address this. The oil’s lower freezing point meant that the salve could still be applied in the cold and wouldn’t crack on the skin. Ioana would start her day applying this cream while still warm in her sleeping bag, before facing the elements and without having to strip off layers later in the day. 

In addition to helping ward off chafing and blistering, this formula was also a saviour for her lips and face against the wind chill (as we saw Gareth Jones doing in winter races, too). To apply on the go, Ioana also had small tubes to keep with her during the day, which she found “really elite, because obviously in the Arctic your layers have to be on point.” After having to change three face masks during one mountain summit day as they kept freezing, all the skin protection she could get on her face was clearly not optional!

Bespoke Blend #2: The Jungle/TrailSkin Trench Foot Formula

Racing in the Peruvian jungle, ioana had to cross rivers over 80 times and face near-constant moisture, while also often running in mud up to her knees. The last stage even involved wading through a river up to her waist.

“The combo of Trailskin Trench Foot cream and anti-chafe formulas was essential in those conditions - particularly through the river,” Ioana recalls. We combined 50% of the Anti-Chafe Salve with 50% TrailSkin trench Foot Cream to protect the soles of her feet from maceration, but also keep from blistering and hot spots from the mix of sweat and river water that just wouldn’t evaporate. 

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This was a genuine product development partnership for TrailSkin and Ioana: working together to brainstorm solutions for unique conditions, but also learning for the future. In the Namib Desert, for example, it became clear that the product needed to stay effective during extreme temperature swings (53°C days, cold overnight). It was also clear that melting was a serious issue, depending on the packaging: we couldn’t use the slide tin formats for on-the-go, and had to switch to a screw top format only.

Results and Lessons for Skin and Foot Care

"He looked at my feet — which is total ultra chat — and we're like, 'This is your second?' They look that good. I'm like, yeah. He's like, 'Let's win a lot of races.'"

After her second race through the desert, Ioana’s feet looked pristine. It’s how she knew she could achieve more than she had ever imagined, and how her coach Adam Kimble cheered her on from the first time they started working together. 

They have now set their sights on some legendary races in the United States: the Tahoe 200-mile continuous race in the Sierra Nevada, followed by the Moab 240 in Utah. And Ioana is taking with her some key lessons that all ultra runners can follow:

• Preparation for ultras, in particular multi day stage racing, is multifaceted: Ioana calls it ⅓ physical, ⅓ mental, and ⅓ admin. The mental side of things, especially the confidence, comes from experience and a strong support network, too (Ioana fondly says that she “just needed a friend to tell [her]: I believe in you”)
• Adapting to extreme environments requires versatility and a willingness to learn, partly ahead of time (Ioana worked with Dr Freya Bayne at London Southbank University on research into human adaptation to extreme environments before her races), partly on-the-go
• Trail running skin protection is not just a question of comfort - it can directly affect race outcomes, whether you finish or not, and how much you can recover to go again the next day.

Find out how to keep your feet-race ready, including what we learnt from experimenting with multiple product formulas, in our detailed guide The Ultra Runner's Blueprint

Whether you're doing five miles on the South Downs or five stages in the Sahara, the principle is the same: don't neglect your skin, and don't settle for a product that wasn't made with your conditions in mind. Do your research and be willing to adapt. Welcome recovery and look after your feet - whether you’re running or not.

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