Runner: A Short Story About a Long Run . by Lizzy Hawker . (Aurum Press £12.99) Waiting nervously at the starting line of her first 155 km race around Mont Blanc, 29-year-old Lizzy Hawker looked down at her holey long johns, clumpy trail shoes and the poorly fitting rucksack she had borrowed, then up at the elite Lycra kit of her fellow competitors. She had entered the 2005 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) on a whim — but now, the reality of the challenge ahead began to sink in. She would be covering almost the same distance as that between her birthplace in the London suburbs and Southampton, where she was studying for a PhD in environmental science. And her slight, 5 ft 4 in body would have to keep lifting those heavy shoes through 8,500m of ascent and descent — equivalent to climbing from sea level to the summit of Everest and back. Some 26 hours, 51 minutes and 51 seconds later, Hawker surprised herself, and everyone else, by becoming the first woman to cross the dark, wet, Alpine finish line that year, coming 24th overall. Lizzy Hawker entered the 2005 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc  (pictured) on a whim and she's since gone on to become Britain’s most distinctive female ‘ultra runner’ She would go on to become Britain’s most distinctive female ‘ultra runner’, coming first in the UTMB five times, taking gold in the Women’s 100km World Championships in Korea in 2006, setting a new women’s world record for 24 hours on the road in the 2011 Commonwealth Championships and a new course record at the sunbaked 246 km Spartathlon in 2012. But Hawker’s inspirational memoir does not focus on the figures. She’s more interested in why she is able to push herself beyond normal limits, and how running makes her feel. Her book is strong on Buddhist philosophy and the peace that comes with living fully in the now. Raised in Upminster, East London, Hawker says she always felt a profound connection to nature. She became a vegetarian aged five, and knew her future lay in the mountains after her first skiing trip to Zermatt when she was six. Only a few years later, frustrated by the queue for the cable cars, she threw her skis over her shoulders and beat her family back down the mountain. When you ask artists and musicians why they chose their paths, they will often reply that all children love to draw and sing: they just refused to stop. Hawker feels the same about running. Studying at Cambridge and later working for the British Antarctic Survey, she struggled with the hours at her desk and confined on boats. She ran at weekends and after work, clocking an average time in the London Marathon and later winning a race across the fells. But after that first UTMB triumph, Hawker knew she had found her calling and she renounced the world of employment. Sponsorship from The North Face helped fund her travel to races around the world. She owns few possessions, travelling with just clothes, shoes and a laptop. Though running makes Hawker feel ‘beautifully empowered’, it has left her with ‘unbeautiful’ feet. As she writes (from her temporary home in the Himalayas), she faces the possibility of never running again. Six stress fractures to the bones of her legs and feet may end her career. But she ends by quoting Hunter S. Thompson, who believed that: ‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: “Wow! What a ride!” ’
Lizzy Hawker entered the 2005 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) on a whim .
Hawker was the first woman to cross the finish line that year in 24th place .
She's gone on to become Britain’s most distinctive female ‘ultra runner’