Dad terrified of the dark runs up 47 Snowdonia peaks to banish fear
‘I’M RESIGNED TO THE FACT IT’LL NEVER GO AWAY.. I’M 40, IT’S A BIT RIDICULOUS’
EVEN sitting outside at night-time can bring Russell Bentley out in a cold sweat – and his “absolute worst nightmare” is being out on his own in the dark on a mountain.
In an attempt to tackle his fears, he went for the nuclear option: running the gruelling Paddy Buckley Round, a punishing 24-hour race over Snowdonia’s mountains.
The challenge sees athletes covering 100km (62 miles), climbing 8,000 metres – the equivalent of scaling Everest – and taking in no fewer than 47 summits.
More to the point, as far as Russell was concerned, at least half of it is completed in darkness.
“People don’t believe me,” he said.
“If you don’t have a phobia, it’s hard to understand.
“People have a fear of mushrooms and I can’t comprehend what that means, but I have a phobia of the dark.”
Russell, 40, not only completed the race, he smashed the course record – he now holds the overall Winter FKT (Fastest Known Time).
Motivating him along the route was the memory of his good friend Chris Smith from West Sussex.
A GB Team mountain runner, Chris tragically died of hypothermia while out on a Scottish mountain run in 2020.
Russell’s nail-biting exploits were captured for a 30-minute film made by Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da.
Called Solo And Unsupported, it is to be premiered in the Cell B cinema in Russell’s home town of Blaenau Ffestiniog on March 5.
The Paddy Buckley Round is famous for taking athletes to the limits of their endurance.
The route takes in the high mountain ranges of Snowdon, the Glyderau and the Carneddau, as well as the less visited ranges of Moel Siabod, the Moelwynion and Nantlle Ridge.
What made Russell’s achievement even more extraordinary was that he ran solo and unsupported.
Not only did he have to face up to his “worst nightmare” of being alone in the dark on a deserted mountain range, he had to carry his own food supplies and navigate the course unaided.
Although he completed the course in 20 hours 15 minutes – shaving 75 minutes off the previous record – the dadof-two failed in one crucial respect.
“I thought training for this would conquer my fear, but it hasn’t,” he admitted.
“Once, I was out for a recce and I saw a head torch light just looking at me!
“It was four or five in the morning out in the mountains with no human settlement anywhere.
“Then it just switched off and I thought, ‘Oh my God, it went in the direction I’m going!’
“I’ve just had to learn to run with that fear. It’s just part of me.
“I’m resigned to the fact it will never go away – at 40 years old it’s a bit ridiculous!”
Russell’s adventure kicked off at 7am on December 19 as he headed out into the Welsh fells anticlockwise.
Meanwhile, US ultrarunner John Kelly set off in the opposite direction but was later forced to pull out at the Llanberis checkpoint.
“Tryfan is the most lethal peak and I really wanted to cross in daylight,” said Russell, who lived in Kenya while an elite track runner and now coaches a squad of athletes in Bangor.
“So, setting off at 7am meant I could do that.
“Every now and then I would get the heebie jeebies! At times I still realised I was on the mountains on my own in the darkness – that would freak me out a bit!”
Footage of his attempt was captured by a drone pilot and two camera operators.
Due to strict rules for solo and unsupported competitors, the crew were unable to communicate with Russell.
Producer and co-director of the film was Huw Erddyn, 36. He said: “On the day itself, the weather was glorious.
“Russell had a Go-Pro camera with him and would occasionally talk to that.
“The footage we got was unbelievable because it was such a nice day – absolutely stunning footage of Snowdonia.”
By the fourth leg, Russell found himself at least two hours ahead of schedule.
But he started to suffer for his quick start. He endured stomach cramps and he began vomiting, unable to eat to refuel. That he managed to continue is his proudest achievement.
“I went into hitting-the-wall territory,” he said.
“I was really struggling at that point and really thinking of packing the whole thing in with just 10 miles to go.
“At the time, I really didn’t care anymore. I wanted it to be over. I knew I was doing damage to my body.
“My internal organs were being wrecked and I was tearing strips off myself.”
Russell broke the record but paid the price for his efforts and spent the next month recovering.
During this time he suffered a huge disappointment when, he claims, the Fell Runners Association (FRA) went back on earlier guidance and discounted his “solo and unsupported” record.
According to London-born Russell, his attempt was invalidated due to the presence of the camera crew. Instead, he was left with the overall Winter FKT record – not what he had set out to achieve.
“Being supported means someone can meet you at every section so you don’t have to carry your entire amount of food,” said Russell.
“If I’d done that, I could’ve run much quicker!
“I was annoyed about that. We fulfilled the criteria to the letter.
“However, I’m happy I did it in the way that I did, as I know I was self-sufficient.”
Proceeds of the March 5 screening will be donated to the Chris Smith Memorial Fund, which helps advance the running careers of children and young people through grants and donations to assist in training.
NADIA SAWALHA can’t remember exactly when she started stripping down to her pants and posting photos on Instagram, mimicking the Kardashian sisters – but she’s certainly glad she did.
“Somebody said yesterday – this is my favourite comment, I think, ever – ‘Oh my god, your a*** is so relatable.’ I was proper laughing!” the Loose Women panellist says, beaming, as we chat over Zoom from her home in South London, where she lives with TV producer husband Mark Adderley and daughters Maddie, 19, and Kiki-Bee, 14.
Not only do her parody pictures garner hilarious comments, they make a serious point about how celebrities so often perpetuate unrealistic body ideals.
“That is the nub of it,” she continues. “Because these bums we’re seeing all the time, are for rare creatures – either people that are supermodel status, who earn millions of pounds because of it. Or they’re photoshopped. Mine is relatable. It’s a bit big, it’s a bit flat, but it’s not doing too badly for 57!”
Not that Nadia – who starred in EastEnders before joining Loose Women in 1999 – was always so body confident. She slogged through “three decades of doing every diet there was, and trying to get quickfixes with the kind of exercise I did.”
She recalls the “stinking thinking” that led her to believe that by eating “boiled eggs and grapefruits for six weeks”, she “could one day look like Brooke Shields. I did 1000 calories a day for years. And since then, when I spoke to doctors, they said that’s actually an eating disorder.”
It’s one of the reasons why the presenter is now working with fitness chain David Lloyd Clubs – to encourage people to adopt healthy habits for life, instead of following crash diets and fitness fads.
“I’ve been right in the diet culture all of my adult life, and the fitness fad culture,” says Nadia.
David Lloyd research found that “over 60 per cent of Brits have done at least 17 fad diets at the cost of more than £3,000.
“I think I might have done more than 17,” adds Nadia.
These days, however, the mum of two subscribes to the ‘everything in moderation’ approach when it comes to what she eats.
“I don’t ever cut out a food group. If I give up carbs, I just want to die! It’s the most miserable existence. So I don’t exclude anything – not sugar, not alcohol, not carbs. And because of that, I don’t binge on them.”
In the past, Nadia hated exercise because it was “punishment for what I’d eaten”. Now though, she is a proud fitness fanatic – and for all the right reasons. “I only exercise for how it makes me feel up here,” she says, tapping her forehead.
“You know, people don’t realise we make these incredible, free, legal drugs in our bodies – endorphins. And they really, really work – better than a gin and tonic. And then a sideeffect is that I improve my cardiovascular fitness, my bones, my muscles, and lose weight sometimes.”
After discovering yoga during the pandemic, she now practices every day, makes sure to walk or run 10,000 steps, and has started weight training. “And kitchen dancing, of course, which is the greatest form of exercise ever,” smiles Nadia.
Documenting her wellness journey on The Sawalha-Adderleys YouTube channel and Instagram, she says when it comes to body acceptance, she’s been hugely inspired by social media influencers.
“The first influencer was Stacey (Solomon) when she joined Loose Women. In a meeting one day, she looked at me and said: “I can’t believe the way you talk to yourself. You’re so horrible to yourself, you are. I think you’re
beautiful.”
Initially, Nadia dismissed her copresenter’s concern, but admits: “Over time, she really made me see the way I was talking to myself.” Now, she wants to pass on that message.
“As a mum of daughters, you’ve got to do a constant drip, drip, drip to try and re-balance what they’re being fed all the time on social media. That’s not to say that we weren’t all victims of it anyway, because I was as f **** d up as I was without social media or anything.” At the same time, she believes women her age can learn from millennials and Gen Z, who are fighting back against body shaming and misogyny online.
“I’ve had 1000 epiphanies by listening to younger women. My generation is actually behind these trailblazing young people. Young women are going, ‘Do you know what? I’m sick and tired of this’.” Spurred on by the fantastic reaction to her bum-baring photos, Nadia is going to keep preaching the gospel of body acceptance, one Kardashian-spoofing pose at a time. “Actually, I feel really hopeful,” she says. “It’s not just a moment any more – I think it’s a movement. It’s going to take so long to unravel the conditioning that we all have, and I want to be there helping to unravel it because I’ve got daughters coming up behind me.
“I believe we can change the narrative. I really believe it.”
My bum is relatable. It’s a bit big, it’s a bit flat, but it’s not doing too badly for 57!