I’m at the Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports centre in London to hear Britain’s greatest ultrarunner, Lizzy Hawker speak. I kept overhearing references to UTMB, UTMR and the like, easily said, the sort of races you do. People were casually chatting about covering the sorts of distances I simply can’t get my head around and the sorts of climbs in races that make me turn green at the thought.
If you don’t know Lizzy, you should. The woman is amazing, as an endurance athlete, as a person.
The talk started with a few laughs with staff trying to sort the lights, from bright to sitting in the dark. A comedy of errors.
And then Lizzy began to weave her tale. The story she told was not about the races she’d won, how she became Britain’s best ultrarunner. Instead, the focus was on her running in the Himalayas, no medals, no awards, no records set; and why she established the Ultra Trail Monte Rosa.
Sitting under this was an insight into why she does what she does. This isn’t about grand adventures and being famous. It’s journey as being. For her, running is the tool for exploring and learning what tugs at your soul; it’s about putting colour in your life.
‘I just run because I love it…endurance for me is a way of life rather than a sport’
Running the Himalayas
So first up, the Great Himalaya Trail – a vague concept, more of an idea, a network of trails that runs along the highest route of the Nepal/Tibet border. This was an independent crossing, avoiding the glaciers, so it could be done this way. A thousand miles, no waymarks, described as
‘beautiful, rough, hard and unforgettable, passing 5000m passes, persistent wind, icy, totally alone, this is your world, there is nowhere else you want to be’.
And it’s not ‘just’ the miles – 100,000 m of ascent, 12 x 5,000m passes, 35 days.
This is a long, hard, and wild journey.
It is not a race, nor is it a recreational trail. There are now FKTs (Fastest Known Times) with many variations of the route and nearly all of them are different. There is no record to be claimed. It has no name or a tag. For Lizzy, she ran it
‘Because I could…I wanted the clarity that an extended journey like that gives me…we often put boundaries on ourselves.’
So Lizzy does it once. It was too big, too scary, to amazing to do again. And like any good runner…until the next time.
And the second time? The challenge doesn’t get less, everything’s just different.
Beautiful, rough, hard and unforgettable.
At the beginning, she couldn’t think about the end.
At one point, she lost all her communication devices and got a little lost – for 3 nights, way off trail. Lizzy managed this with a certainty that she would be fine. This was, however, in the knowledge that a fall, a twisted ankle, it was unlikely she would be found. She managed to find her way again.
The memories of her journey
- Drinking lots of tea
- Sleeping under roofs where possible, with broken conversations with locals along the trails making her journey real
- A few cold and ruthless nights outdoors
- That bridges became a thing. Either they were there or they weren’t. One collapsed bridge saw her having to do a two day detour, following fresh yak shit as it meant people had travelled the route recently
- A bowl of fried potatoes, food and shelter, the gift of a lifetime
- At one point neglecting to think about her eyes in the cold and ending up with a couple of days of snow blindness
- The generosity of those she came across, a humbling experience
- Having permanently wet feet
- Of children often showing her the way, and also showing her the wrong way as kids are apt to do,
- A reminder that she isn’t invincible with 3 stress fractures in one foot, 3 days away from her finish point, and,
- Learning to like bright trash of cigarettes packets and beer bottles as it meant people had been through there recently and that the trail was going somewhere.
For Lizzy
‘There’s no cushion between you and the world anymore; totally aware of your vulnerability and insignificance.’
And it focuses the mind on what’s important; it provides a sense of presence and a huge sense of freedom.
Underpinning everything she said was a great appreciation of the people she met, and how humbled she was but their generosity. This is a wild and harsh environment, where it can take days to travel between villages. People rely on the support of strangers to survive.
Will there be a third?
Ultra Trail Monte Rosa
The Ultra Trail Monte Rosa, not a race to be taken lightly. A 170k race with 10 summits over 4000m, along the Swiss-Italian border. It can be done as one run, a 4 days stage race, and there is also an option for a 100k.
But this isn’t a gentle romp through countryside. Check out the full requirements here. For the 100k, they include
Completion of running race in mountain terrain of a distance of 80-100 km AND requiring at least six hours of night running during 2015 to 2017.
OR
Completion of the UTMR stage race AND completion of a running race in mountain terrain requiring at least six hours of night running during 2015 to 2017.
And it’s tagged as being 30-40% tougher than UTMB.
So where did this race come from?
Lizzy has run UTMB 6 times, winning it 5 of these times. In training she would cover the full route in the weeks leading up to it. But she found UTMB getting busy so turned back to the mountains she fell in love with aged 6. And these mountain, far wilder and far tougher. She thought of it as a route she would love to race. There is variety and contrast, high trails, traditional villages, a glacier crossing, long wild descents and 9 summits over 4,000m.
For Lizzy, it was about ‘finding my edges’.
The raffle
OK, so this post comes back to me. There was a raffle for a free entry into UTMR. I won. And I’m one of those folks who never wins anything apart from some moisturiser once!
So what am I to do?
I hadn’t really looked at this race in detail. It’s in September. I’m currently training for a 50k. So yes, 100k a possible option. But take into account it requires overnight running experience and solid experience of mountain running, very sadly but sensibly it has to be a no. It would be dangerous for me, and be a pain in the arse for everyone else. I’ve gotten in touch with them.
I figure the only way I could do a race like this is with a solid year of training, coaches etc, trips to mountains, and multistage races. And there are training camps…hmmm….a thought!
I bought a copy of Lizzy’s book, Runner: A short story about a long run. I can’t wait to read this and will review. The proceeds of the book go to support others, particularly girls and women in Nepal, into running. As I’ve learned from organisations like Free to Run, supporting girls and women into running is not only about getting them physically active, that’s a side benefit. Instead, it’s about changing perceptions about what’s possible, and ultimately changing communities.
And of course I couldn’t leave without a photo!
And a final thought, why does Lizzy do it?
Where does this urge coming from?
‘There’s an overwhelming sense of presence, space between what you know and the unknown, the point where anything is possible.’
And her final thought for the evening –
I hope you find what puts colour in your life.