Hello!

Happy April! Now we’re firmly in spring, and we’re all a good deal happier, I want to share a story that made my blood (fleetingly) boil – because I know we can handle it.

Someone I know was on a coastal walk recently when they were overtaken by a group of ultrarunners. This person gleefully told me how these runners were wearing all the gear, and clutching poles – but they had the audacity to walk up the hills. “They weren’t even running!”

I was gobsmacked, of course – blooming cheek! – but it also pulled me up short: it’s easy to forget that of course not everyone understands that walking is a fundamental part of ultrarunning.

This lack of understanding is potentially damaging. Because that important walking part of ultrarunning hasn’t reached the public consciousness yet, it means that there are many runners out there who wouldn’t consider taking on an ultra, thinking that because an ultramarathon is longer than a marathon, it’s also harder than one.

Of course they can be hard, but crucially, they needn’t be as hard as you think: mostly because ultrarunning encourages you to use walking strategically. Strategic walking enables you to cover bigger distances, greater elevation and trickier terrain than road races tend to offer. And for those of us who aren’t out to win an ultra, it creates space for us to drink in the views, and fill up on flapjacks.

I’m hoping to do two