Women's Health - UK (2019-07)

118 | JULY 2019

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Women’s Health

he Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc
is one of the toughest races on
earth. Starting and finishing in
Chamonix, France, it challenges
competitors to cover 106 miles
and climb 33,000ft. For context,
that’s more than summiting
Mount Everest from sea level.
Of the 2,561 starters at last year’s
event, roughly a third failed
to complete it within the 46-
and-a-half-hour cut-off period.
Among those who did finish was
a woman called Sophie Power,
and if she sounds like a
superhero, hear this: she did
it while breaking to breastfeed
her three-month-old baby. A
photo of Sophie (pictured right)

• baby in one hand, pump in
  the other – promptly went viral.
  But Sophie claims that she isn’t
  some kind of superwoman. In
  fact, her typical weekly mileage
  is fairly modest, and 10 years
  ago she hadn’t clocked up two
  consecutive miles – ever. ‘I run
  no more than 35 miles a week,
  complemented by a few
  strength training sessions,’

she says. ‘I’m a mum and I run a business – I don’t have

the time or inclination to run 70 miles a week.’ She’s a

far cry from the kind of person you might expect to sign

up for such a feat of endurance. So why did she make it

across the finish line when so many others didn’t?

LONG HAUL

When it comes to running ultramarathons – any

race longer than the classic 26.2 miler – women are

going the distance. Courtney Dauwalter, a 34-year-old

teacher from Colorado, has racked up more miles than

you’ve had hot dinners – she’d won 11 ultramarathons

at the last count and finished second in another seven

endurance races. One such victory was the Moab 240

• a 238-mile race through the Utah desert – where the
  first man (and second person) to cross the finish line
  came 10 hours later. Pam Reed, Nicky Spinks and Lizzy
  Hawker are all big names on the ultramarathon circuit


• the latter, a Brit, held the world record for 24 hours
  on the road and has won the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc
  five times; a feat no one has ever matched. And when
  Jasmin Paris crossed the finish line of the Montane
  Spine Race in January, she became the first woman
  to win the gruelling 268-mile winter assault on the
  Pennine Way, smashing the previous course PB by
  a casual 12 hours; a feat described by the race organiser
  as a ‘crushing victory’. Indeed, all evidence – including
  the fact that women are statistically three times more
  likely to finish the Dragon’s Back Race (a five-day,
  200-mile scramble through Wales) – indicates that
  there are few sports the female body is better equipped
  to boss than long-distance running.

There are few

sports the

female body is

better equipped

to boss