THE NEW TOUGH
WHAT IS IT that MAKES A WOMAN WANT TO RUN for 83 HOURS NON-STOP? REBECCA NEWMAN MEETS the WOMEN PUSHING THEIR BODIES (AND MINDS) to THE EDGE
Meet the women pushing their bodies to the limit in ultramarathons – and the effect it has on their minds
Think about climbing Mount Everest. And then think about climbing it twice. Now forget that entirely, because rather than climbing it, you’re running up and down it. That’s equivalent to what Jasmin Paris achieved earlier this year when she ran the Montane Spine Race, a brutal 268-mile marathon up and down the Pennines. In driving rain and gusting 5Omph winds, the 35-year-old finished it in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds, knocking a cool 12 hours off the previous male record. This, despite stopping along the way to express milk for her baby daughter. In the Montane summer race, another British woman, Sabrina Verjee, smashed Paris’ record, winning the race outright and leaving any competition a cool six hours behind her. Then there’s Courtney Dauwalter, an American who finished the Moab 24O (24O miles across the Utah desert) in 2O17, 1O hours quicker than the fastest man. And Lael Wilcox, another American, who won the 4,2OO mile Trans Am Bike Race across the US in 2O16, famously sprinting the final 13O miles to beat her nearest competition and becoming the first woman to ever win the race.
For a long time, endurance sport seemed like a man’s world. However, increasingly, women are not only competing alongside the men, but winning – smashing records and overturning peoples’ expectations across a variety of ultra-disciplines. And this isn’t just because they’ve been training for endurance races their whole lives. Many of them didn’t like sport much at school, then one day decided to give it a go, and suddenly found themselves hooked.
So why is it that women are increasingly embracing these punishing events, I ask Jasmin Paris, as she sits in her home outside Edinburgh with her daughter, Rowan, on her knee. ‘I started hill running when I left university, around 1O years ago,’ she says. ‘I love the freedom of being outside, in wild places. And I enjoy pushing my body to see what it can do. It brings me a real sense of satisfaction.’
Still, Jasmin never imagined she’d run a race like the Montane Spine. It was only when the combination of motherhood and working as a small-animal vet threatened to dent her running motivation that she challenged herself to enter. ‘When I decide I want to do something, I do it,’ she says, with glorious understatement. Wasn’t it horrible? ‘One of the joys of ultra-running is that you find a calm, contemplative state. There are rough patches, but they pass. You learn to put your head
down and keep going. Also,’ she smiles, ‘wanting to win does help.’ For women such as Jasmin, the decision to enter this kind of gruelling race comes at a time when the pressures of life converge. The extreme challenge becomes an antidote to the strains of everyday life. Susannah Gill, 34, ran her first marathon in her mid-twenties. ‘It seemed a terrifying distance then,’ she says. However, she thrived on testing her body. ‘The rest of modern life is safe and sedentary. When you run, you are away from everything – from the phone, from work deadlines. There is a real sense of liberation and personal achievement.’ Earlier this year, she entered the notorious 777: seven marathons in seven days across seven continents, also known as the World Marathon Challenge. ‘I completely love running, and I gave myself a target of 21 weeks to commit fully to the training,’ she says (as well as holding down a full-time job on horseracing betting company, Tote). It paid off. Susannah was the fastest woman, averaging each marathon at 3:28:O9, one day through ice fields, the next through desert heat. For the first time, of the 4O entrants to the event, 15 were women – an increase in female participation she’s seeing more and more. It’s a big
leap from just one female runner in 2O15 and, as World Marathon Challenge event director and ultrarunner Richard Donovan tells me, ‘Every single woman who has entered the event has successfully completed the challenge. In numbers, approximately one in three are women, and this will certainly be the case after the 2O2O event.’
So, what’s happening? From a scientific perspective, women are better suited to ultra events than people previously thought. Yes, male athletes have the advantage of a larger heart, more muscle mass and a greater ability to deliver oxygen to their muscles. But recent research has begun to explore the benefits of the female physiognomy, with our muscles being more fatigue-resistant over a long period. In short: we don’t tire as quickly. This only tells you part of the story, says Susannah’s coach and founder of The Running School, Mike Antoniades. ‘The physical is only 5O%. The other 5O% is mental – and anyone who works with female athletes will tell you how much determination they have.’ As well as training Susannah’s body, he also worked to train her mind. ‘You have to stay positive,’ she adds. ‘I needed to be as physically but also mentally prepared as possible.’ For Susannah, this took the shape of a mantra she used when things were getting tough. ‘I’d say to myself, “I’m strong, and I am loving this.”’ It made all the difference. ‘It is your mind that keeps you going – and my emergency bag of Toffee Crisps.’ She further found that the self-belief she discovered by finishing events served her well in office life. ‘If I can get through [the 777], I can get through anything,’ she laughs. ‘It is all about taking things one step at a time.’
Like Jasmin, an extra spur for Susannah was the idea of proving herself as a female athlete. ‘I have this store of images in my head of people doubting that women can compete – like officials trying to haul Kathrine Switzer off the road in 1967 when she was the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon. It makes my blood boil. They were basically telling women that they weren’t strong enough to enter. We have thoroughly disproved that.’
Of course, not everyone is racing to win, or even to necessarily prove a gender political point. Again and again, the athletes I interview refer to the spiritual solace afforded by their sport. For all of us who
ever experience stress or anxiety, or simply wake up in a negative mood, even a small slice of exercise can give us a tremendous boost.
At art college, Amy Hughes had an unhappy relationship with her body, until she took up jogging. ‘My view on how you should look as a woman changed: I had always wanted to be slim, but as I got into fitness, I started to be more interested in how I felt inside than how I looked.’
Amy, 32, kept on clocking up the miles until she completed 53 marathons in 53 days across the UK in 2OO4. She is now a personal trainer, and goes into schools to persuade girls that their bodies need not be a source of insecurity, but rather a source of empowerment. She’s also an advocate for the headspace that running can bring, and an ambassador for Lululemon’s Purposeful Run campaign. This year, the sportswear brand traditionally associated with yoga has launched a range of highly technical running wear, including a sports bra that doubles as a hydration pack. It is also promoting the presence, purpose and calm that running, like yoga, can bring. ‘If I have a stressful day, it eases my mind,’ Amy adds. ‘Running makes me feel in tune – it’s basically free therapy.’
For many women, entering endurance races is a chance to discover just how far they can push themselves at a time in their lives when they need an escape. ‘You learn so much about yourself,’ says Jasmin. ‘You realise your limits are further away than you think.’ The confidence and joy that comes with taking part, and in some cases winning, equips them with a greater resilience for everyday life. ‘As there is more coverage of our races, and women realise that over long distances we are more equal, and all the things we are capable of, I hope more get involved,’ continues Jasmin. ‘I feel loads of people could do what I do, and experience the joy of it. They just need to go out and try it.’ Everest, we’re coming for you: not once, but twice.
“YOU find A CALM, CONTEMPLATIVE STATE. YOU LEARN to PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN and KEEP GOING”
As part of Hearst’s Project Body Love, we are committed to improving women’s body confidence and self-esteem by addressing the language used, sharing tools and techniques for a more positive mindset and inspiring a new generation to think differently about their bodies. Find out more at elle.com/uk/project-body-love