Running for fun, fastpacking and fell running.
Leah Atherton has been running for most of her life. But she’s been a serious distance runner for the past 10 years. She enjoyed running cross country in school.
Leah also is a poet and has been involved in writing and spoken-word poetry. Her first collection of poems was published a few years ago. She says some of her best writing is done right after a run or sometimes during a run. She enjoys poetry because she can convey her feelings and distill them down and extract the key essence of what she want’s to convey.
Leah’s father was a runner And they lived in the South West of England and had really nice places to run just for the fun of it. But in her teens she started to have these overwhelming thoughts that if you’re not winning things and you’re not fast, then you shouldn’t do it. So she stopped running. But after her father died, she was living in Spain and started running again. She has always come back to running whenever she’s been away from it, and her focus has always been to do it for fun. Racing didn’t bring her back to running. The draw was the opportunity to go frolic in the woods.
Leah sees racing as a time challenge or a classroom. In races she learns what works as far as gear and nutrition. And they are also a way for her to experience new types of terrain that she may not have experience running. And having the support of the aid stations and camaraderie of other runners is a benefit. She enjoys the experience and the lessons learned. But she then takes what she’s learned and plans her own adventures running solo for the sheer joy of it.
I asked Leah about fell running and to explain what it is. I’ve heard the term, but Leah is the first person I’ve had the chance to ask for a definition of it. She says most fell running events are informal. Everyone meets at a pub and pays the barman a few pounds. Then the race starts and you run up a mountain and back down. The first one back to the pub is the winner. There is no marked trail. You find the best way to get up and down the mountain and go. Usually the way up and down is extremely steep.
Leah also enjoys fastpacking. At it’s heart, fastpacking is like a long-distance hike, except you cover the distance faster. For those who are ultra runners, this sounds like what we call “power hiking.” It’s not quite a run, but it’s “walking with purpose.”
One of her fastpacking adventures was on the Southwest coast path. It’s a 630 mile trail around the southwest coast of England. She took a tent, sleeping back and kit for a month and ran it solo. She likes the freedom to decide how far to go each day, and to check into a hostel if the weather gets bad. She also led some friends on a fastpack on easier trails and going from hostel to hostel.
As for gear for fastpacking, Leah recommends carrying several things, but she especially likes to have a down jacket as a Middle Layer in case it gets cold. She says to think of the basics as the kind of mandatory gear you would have for a 100 miler. And make sure you have food with you. She says she doesn’t care if it is only 2 miles to the nearest civilization, she always has something to keep her warm and preferably brightly colored in case someone has to come find you on the side of a mountain. She also always carries a head flashlight. And make sure you have a way to navigate and a way to call for help. She also recommends carrying a compact backpack and making sure you have some basic survival skills to take care of yourself.
She says that one thing she would recommend to everyone is to go out and do a local race whether it’s a 30k or an 800 because it guarantees that you will learn something about yourself.
For Leah, this summer has been pretty epic as she has had a year of consolidation and recovery. She’s looking ahead to her next adventures. She has an ambition to up her game and start doing some true mountain adventures. She’s talking to her coach about doing some of the low-key races around the French Alps. She has a spreadsheet of adventures she wants to do. One is the Alta Via in the Dolomites. It’s been on her list for the last 5 years, but she’s been putting it off because she feels the need for better preparation. But finally something has grabbed her by the collar and has told her yes it’s time to do more of this. She says she would also love to do something like the Appalachian Trail.
Questions from the bridge
The most important piece of running gear is: a running bra.
The strangest thing you have seen in a race: The race course went past the “murder cottage.” The cottaged suddenly loomed ahead through the black of night and the drizzle and fog. Suddenly green lights began glowing in the cottage. It was the classic scene from every horror movie ever made.
The word or phrase that sums up your philosophy of life: Choose wonder.
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