Downhill is not so much about strength. mental ability and lack of of women who are much It’s more a case of skill, fear so there are lots stronger than the guys
Seana Forbes grew up in Scotland but it wasn’t until she ran in the Alps that she really fell in love with mountain running. With a dual perspective as both racer and in her role as Head of Operations for the Skyrunner® World Series, she’s the perfect person to tell us about skyrunning…
Words: Rachel Ifans Photography: James Carnegie
It’s two totally different experiences going up and going down. When I’m going up, I’m thinking about things going on in my life, solving problems when they fall and mulling the things I don’t have time to otherwise. I’m by myself, I’m not distracted by anything else, so I just have what’s going on in my mind.
“Then comes the most meditative part of running for me – the downhill. I absolutely love it, especially when it’s a really hard technical steep downhill. I’m so present in the moment and I can’t really think about anything else because I’m just focused on the next step.”
Skyrunner Seana Forbes from Scotland has a talent for downhills, and it’s not all about mindfulness. Downhill is also the part of the race when she can pick off her male competitors one by one. She smiles: “Men are naturally a bit stronger than women but with downhill it’s not so much about strength. It’s more a case of skill, mental ability and lack of fear so there are lot of women who are much stronger than the guys.”
Finding her feet
Seana, Head of Operations for the Skyrunner® World Series, is half Scottish and half German. She grew up in the west of Scotland where she did lots of team sports like hockey and basketball, but it was only when she moved to Munich for work that she got into running.
She says: “I started working for a sports company, developing a training app. The majority of our office was this huge indoor training space and gym. I signed up to do a 5K race and ended up being the fastest person in my office which was a surprise because everyone was really fit.”
From there, Seana did 10K, half and full marathon races. It was while training for the longer ones that she realised how much she loved it. She says: “I’d do these really long 30K runs through the city parks and that’s when running shifted from being about training and fitness to having more holistic benefits. Running was meditative and it gave me the chance to think about so many things that I was too busy to think about ot
