While most casual runners pack away their outdoor gear when winter sets in and take to the treadmills, some don’t stop. Indeed, some take it to the extreme.
Take the Montane Winter Spine, for example. Starting in the Derbyshire village of Edale earlier this week, participants have 168 hours to travel 268miles, through the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland National Park and taking in Hadrian’s Wall, climbing over 10,000metres and eventually finishing in the Borders town Kirk Yetholm.
One who braved the Spine was Victoria Morris. The 38-year-old only joined her local running club in 2019, but has been a long-distance walker for the majority of her life.
After succumbing to the cold last year, as well as suffering from Raynaud’s disease (when the blood stops flowing properly to your fingers and toes), Morris went into this year’s race looking to right that wrong and find success after the disappointment of her first experience in the event.
Sadly, however, things did not go the librarian’s way. Just weeks before raceday, Morris was struck down with flu but determined not to give up on her goals, still entered the race not feeling 100 per cent. She was then forced to withdraw after just over 12 hours on the trails.
‘I had a go at this race last year and I got Raynaud’s, so I struggled to keep my hands and feet warm,’ she says.
Victoria Morris competes in all types of conditions – but the cold did get the better of her
The 38-year-old only joined a running club five years ago but now travels the world competing
‘I had three pairs of mittens on, my spare socks over the top of them and I still couldn’t keep them warm so I couldn’t get a drink, open gates, anything, because I just had these club hands. So I retired about halfway as I thought that my fingers are more important than finishing this.
‘I wanted to come back and see it through armed with all the gloves in the world. I’d been joking with some of the other participants that I’ll be really slow as I’ve got a rucksack full of 20 pairs of gloves!
Apart from keeping hands and feet warm, I’m wasn’t too concerned. We live in a house that doesn’t have central heating, so we’re acclimatised to it.
‘This year, about three weeks before the race, I came down with flu. Thankfully, I got over the worst of it in time for the race but the body wasn’t fully recovered. The snowy conditions meant that it was a full-body workout and I didn’t have enough energy.
‘I’m really glad I was well enough to take part, even if I only completed a quarter of the course. There was a cloud inversion on Kinder Scout, which made it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.’
Despite not feeling completely 100 per cent, however, there is still much admiration for Morris and other runners like her.
And she has discovered plenty about herself in her time running around the world, in places such as Greenland, the Atacama Desert and Norway.
‘One of the things I’ve learned is that you’re a lot more resilient than you think you are,’ she admits. ‘There’s a lot of things, if you read about them, you think: “My goodness, how can anyone do that?”. But once you get stuck in and do it, it’s not as hard as you think.
‘Going several days without sleep, it does get harder the longer it goes but you can actually do it.
‘Keeping moving when you’re really tired, things at high altitude mountaineering you do get really tired and worn out because there’s not as much oxygen so your body has to work harder but you just plug away at it.
‘I tell myself: “No uphill goes on for ever”. That’s what goes through my mind whenever you get to a hill and think you can’t possibly get up this. So I just think of doing a little bit, then a little bit more, a little bit more.’
Having already covered plenty of the British wilderness and moorlands, Morris concedes that there are still a few places she wants to run and, of course, walk.
Next stop for Morris, who loves the Highlands, is Nepal… and some higher peaks!
‘Doing the UTMB events around the world does appeal,’ she admits. ‘I’m maybe not 100 per cent confident in my own ability.
‘Part of me thinks that’s for proper runners but once you’re tempted, it’s too late. In some ways, it’s stopping myself knowing about these things.
‘I just like being outside, any excuse to be outside. Sometimes when you’re doing an event and thinking of giving up, I think: “what would I rather be doing?”.
‘It’s 3am, I’m out in the middle of a bog somewhere and part of me wants to go to bed. But the other part of me is like: “No, it’s really cool being out in a bog at 3am so I’ll just enjoy it!”.
‘I really love the north of Scotland and I always want to go back to Sutherland. We’re also going to Nepal later this year for the first time. There’s some really big mountains there, but it’s so different from anything we know.
‘The whole etiquette of mountaineering there is a long way out our comfort zone so we’ll try to climb the easiest big mountain in the Himalayas, experience some new culture and that sort of thing.
‘I don’t really run through towns or any kind of road running. I’d much rather be out on the hillside.
‘We live on the edge of a huge area of moorland and I can do a 10-mile circuit on the moors where just about nobody – other than the sheep – ever go, which is perfect for me.’
