Trail Running Oct/Nov mini-mag

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WARM-UP
8 GET INSPIRED
Stunning scenes from TR’s world
13 SCIENCE NEWS
The latest scientific research to
give you the edge on the trails
16 TRAIL NEWS
More record-breaking runs
18 DR EMMA SHORT
The power of a digital detox
20 GARETH NETTLETON
Strava man on his love of trails
22 YOUR THOUGHTS
TR readers on a return to racing
24 #RUN1000MILES
There’s still time to sign up
for our 2020 distance
challenge
ADVENTURES
26 GLEESOME PINETUM!
Run under the towering trees of Bedgebury
34 CITY TO SUMMIT
Time to broaden your running horizons
42 DAMIAN HALL
TR meets the FKT-breaking ultra runner
50 MANE CONTENDERS
One man’s run in lion country
54 KILIAN JORNET
Trail legend on conquering Everest
58 TRUE GRIT
How Leadville will change your life
62 RUNNING BLIND
The amazing Simon Wheatcroft
93 GREAT ROUTES
123 miles of mapped runs
Summit
Find new trails on your doorstep...
and in the UK’s most remote spots
TRAINING
67 TRAINING Q&A
Your questions answered, from dealing
with dogs to protecting your knees
70 NIGHT RUNNING
ILLUMINATED
Enter the mind-expanding world
of trail running after hours...
74 EASY WAYS TO BUILD
YOUR RUNNING STRENGTH
Ultra runner Tom Evans shows how to
boost your core and be a better runner
76 RUN YOUR OWN MIND
How the location you run in can
help boost your mental health
Join our
community on
social media!
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79 GO EXPLORE!
Five pages of this season’s best new
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84 THE BEST
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86 SHOES ON TEST
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ADVERTISING FEATURE
Destination
Bedgebury
Pinetum
This amazing arboretum is just a short commute from
London, nestling in Kent, the Garden of England.
Truly, it’s a trail runner’s paradise
Words Paul Larkins Photography Tom Bailey
Cool air from
the lakes makes
Bedgebury a mustrun
on a hot day
Finishing a parkrun is
always memorable for all
the right reasons, from
enjoying the relaxed,
friendly atmosphere to
achieving something memorable
personally – your first 5km, finishing
a useful training session or placing a
few positions higher than last time.
Few, however, are quite so dramatic
as that held at Bedgebury National
Pinetum in Kent.
Flying between towering redwoods
is one of those amazing running
moments that you can call on when
you need a bit of inspiration to get out
of the door on a dull February
morning. They’re magnificent.
“They’re from the west coast of
America and planted in 2015,” says
Emma Bramley from Forestry
England. That planting year draws a
quizzical look skywards. “They grow
rapidly,” Emma laughs. Too right.
Judging from their incredible height,
these youngsters are clearly at home in
this magical 2000-acre forest.
For a quiet Thursday morning – the
day we’ve picked for our run – it’s
encouraging to see so many runners
getting ready, or just finishing a few
laps around the forest. Spotting them
moving, however, is a whole different
ball game, as there are endless paths,
switchbacks and new routes to
discover. Social distancing is a new
concept for most of us, but runners in
Bedgebury know it all too well – even
on the busiest of days, empty forest
paths await.
Whatever your ability, the forest
makes the perfect destination for trail
runners, from jogging with friends to
training for your next big event, you
can choose from a calendar of races
or turn up at Bedgebury on any day
and challenge yourself.
What makes the forest so trail
runner-friendly is the range of wellmarked
routes. If you’re a beginner,
well there’s more than enough support
for you, from an easy to navigate 3km
route that takes in a whole variety of
impressive conifers and picturesque
lakes, to coaching sessions set up by
Jo Pappenheim, Active Forests
Coordinator for Bedgebury.
Converted walker Gina has been a
regular in the forest for 35 years and
recently discovered her love of running
when she joined the weekday running
TRAIL RUNNING 27

ADVERTISING FEATURE
group at Bedgebury, led by Rachel,
who’s running with us today.
“We are lucky to have this beautiful
amenity,” says Gina. “The trails are so
much kinder on the joints than the
pavements, plus there are no traffic
fumes or speeding cars to contend
with. I always feel reinvigorated and
restored after a run in Bedgebury and
there is always the chance of glimpsing
a deer before it disappears into the
undergrowth”
There’s something for everyone. If
running isn’t on your agenda, there
are weekly fitness and well-being
activities including forest yoga, Nordic
walking, Primal Roots woodland
workouts and Pilates, women’s real
spin cycle classes or a social walking
group organised and co-ordinated
through the Forestry England Active
Forests programme.
But back to moving at pace. New
trails are surprisingly easy to find, or
new routes using a change in direction
can add an uphill where you’re used to
running the same track going
downhill. During summer, the breeze
under high canopies and the
refreshing stream and lakeside paths
in the pinetum are a welcome relief on
a hotter day. The long grass in the
meadows are filled with butterflies,
bees and the sound of crickets.
“And do you know what,” says
Rachel, as we swing around a corner,
take on a short sharp climb and head
across an area tagged ‘Hills Avenue.’
“I’ve run here for years but have never
been down this path.”
Ah, that’s the beauty of
trail running. It never, ever
fails to surprise, even when
you think you know where
you’re going. Underfoot
conditions change, a
shadow catches your eye,
a new path emerges.
It’s easy to see why
Bedgebury, and
indeed other
It’s a popular spot but
the trails are quiet
Forestry England sites, has become so
popular with runners in recent
months. Many of us live to new
timetables that give us a little more
time to explore, or we want just that
bit more from a run that road loops
struggle to provide. “It’s really popular
with workers who suddenly find they
have a little longer in the morning
because they don’t have to commute
any more, or who can now squeeze in
a longer lunchtime,” says Jo. “Maybe
they used to run on the road around
their office, but now they can look for
something a little more
inspirational and
interesting.”
Bedgebury fits the bill nicely. For
instance, it’s packed with what the
Victorians described as ‘objects of
fascination’ such as Douglas firs and
Lawson cypresses. It all links back to
the original planting in the 1820s to
1860s, latterly by the Victorians. With
their joy of the outdoors, they planted
exotic species for their pleasure
gardens. Their legacy continues to this
day with new planting which is helping
to conserve species from around the
world. Not to forget the Old Man of
Kent. Today it’s just a tree stump, but
until it was irrevocably damaged in
1987 (when Michael Fish assured us
all that a hurricane was not about to
strike) and had to be felled for safety in
2016, it was the tallest tree in Kent.
It’s stories like this that help to make
Bedgebury so welcoming, but it’s the
extras that make it stand out from the
crowd. “There are some amazing
forest races all the way up to a half
marathon,” says Jo. “They always sell
out instantly.” In a flash, 500 runners
know that a half marathon over rolling
forest paths is a must-do race. Make
sure you sign up in November for it!
In the meantime, Bedgebury is ready
and waiting for you as a trail runner
looking for an amazing day out in the
Garden of England. TR
ACTIVITIES
Join a group
“Green space is essential to our well-being
and excellent for our health,” says Jo
Pappenheim. “At Bedgebury, the mixture of
fresh air and meandering paths amongst the
trees is kind to minds as well as bodies.”
“We want to share this beautiful location
with runners of all abilities and throughout
the weekdays we offer a timetable of
morning running activities, from fun
fitness sessions with Bedgebury Forest
Runners, beginners and improvers runs
with Walkers2Runners, to buggy fit running
sessions for mums and babies or cross
training classes with our outdoor yoga
and Pilates instructors.
“At the weekends, our Saturday morning
parkrun attracts runners from all over Kent
and East Sussex, keen to be challenged by
the 5k route through the forest and to meet
friends, sharing their PBs over a coffee and
hot breakfast in the café.
“We encourage runners to take advantage
of our early-bird vehicle admission charge
and enjoy the freedom and safety of our
waymarked running trails. Parking costs just
£3 per car from 8am to 11am, or you can
enjoy Bedgebury every day with an annual
Friends membership.”
For more details of running and health
and wellbeing activities on site visit
forestryengland/bedgebury
TRAIL RUNNING 29

KILIAN JORNET
Reach
for the
Words Paul Larkins
Main Photo Kilian Jornet
Headshot Matti Bernitz/Lymbus
Sky
Altitude breeds attitude: Kilian Jornet explains what it takes
to scale Everest, and how he finds sanctuary in the clouds
It’s already a bit of an old-school way to start an
online video chat these days, but you can’t help
but ask Kilian Jornet to swing his computer
around for the view out of his front window.
When we recently asked UTMB race organiser
Michel Poletti to do just that, the snow-capped
mountains provided the answer as to why he loves
Chamonix so much. It would be tough to beat that
view but hey, Kilian isn’t the type of runner who
takes losing lightly. A lake, some mountains, empty
space and trails... “More than you can run in a
lifetime,” he laughs, pointing into the far distance.
It’s as if he’s said, I’ll take that, Michel, and double
it. Anything Chamonix can do, Norway can better.
And it does. By comparison, the wooden shed out of
my window, although quaintly rural, doesn’t have
the same draw. Fortunately, there’s no such request
to check out unrivalled views of the Fens.
“It’s an amazing place to live,” he explains,
describing how within 500 metres of his door he
can be heading along the trails that will take him up
a one-kilometre-high mountain. Small numbers for
a man who ran up Everest faster than anyone else,
without bottled oxygen or ropes, but they all count.
Let’s pause for a second and soak up that
information. Run. Up. Everest. In fact, it took him
just 26 hours, then he did it again six days later. If
nothing else, you’d think that would beat you
➜
WHO IS
KILIAN
JORNET?
Trail running royalty, Kilian has won
just about everything there is to win
in the ultra-running world, including
the Skyrunner World Series (six
times), UTMB, Western States, and
a zillion other top-name races.
Not to mention his recordbreaking
ascent of
Everest...
Emosson, Switzerland:
Kilian’s quest for
adventure takes him
to the world’s most
breathtaking summits
54
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PHOTOS: TOP LEFT: SUMMITS OF MY LIFE, BOTTOM LEFT: TIM HARPER, MAIN IMAGE: SERGI COLOMÉ/SALOMON, TOP RIGHT: KILIAN JORNET
up so badly that
running would
be off the agenda
for weeks, if not
months. “I was
physically and
mentally stressed,”
he admits,”
explaining you
burn a lot of fuel
for something like
this and he only
carried two litres
of water and 10 energy gels. “But my muscles didn’t
suffer that much. Long days are different because
they are slow, and your legs don’t feel so bad. In
fact, 10 days later I ran an uphill half marathon.
It was a nice training run!”
If that’s all a little hard to process, in order to
help us, Kilian has written Above the Clouds, a
fascinating book in which he contemplates his
record-breaking climb of Mount Everest while
exploring the mountain’s changing nature over
four seasons, and his own existence.
Not surprisingly it is fascinating to listen to him
chat about what it takes to conquer the world’s
highest mountain. Of course, it is a lot – hours on
the trails, miles in the bank, not to mention superb
body conditioning sessions – but, he says, “It’s not
as if I was starting from nothing.”
Well, no. He’s won just about everything there
is to win, hasn’t he? Indeed, a forgetful question
– trying to impress him really as I’d done it once –
involved asking whether he’d ever been up Pikes
Peak in the USA after he mentioned he had hoped
to run it in 2020. Obviously, he has – he won it just
last year in fact, in a shade over three hours – just
the five quicker than me, then...
But back to the big one. He sketches over the
training as we all know that was a lot. “My physical
capacity was OK,” he says simply, modestly skirting
over the huge amount he puts in. In reality, of
course, it’s a bit more complex than that. He has a
huge aerobic capacity thanks to the 1200 hours of
training per year since his late teens. We discovered
in a previous chat that he also has a degree in
exercise science and likes nothing more than to
Norway’s mountains
offer an escape for
mind as well as body
investigate new training theories. He’s not one for
peaking, preferring instead to put in around 20-30
hours every week. “Exploring new technologies and
training fascinates me,” he told TR last year.
But what was really interesting was to listen
to him describe how he had to focus on things
like altitude and risk management to help him
become more confident in places where even he, a
mountain running machine, isn’t too comfortable!
“It was a process,” he explains. It’s something
he applies to all of his events, and that did get us
thinking, though, about how that has changed
in recent months. It’s one reason why Kilian,
very much driven by competition, has turned his
attention to runs closer to home.
“It’s been really interesting,” he says. “I’ve
explored lots of new places and routes, and been
up mountains that I know but have never been to.”
Like we never tend to visit local historic ruins, close
to home never much appealed. It does now, and it’s
motivated him. “It was great to do in a day. Drive a
few hours, go explore, then drive home.”
Of course, he does have favourite paths, used as
part of his ‘process’ as he prepares for a big event.
There are flat routes, hilly routes, tough ascents or
killing descents all used to get him ready. “But on
many days, I just go out and explore,” he adds.
“For me, it’s not hard to be motivated to go
training and now we have lots of time, so it’s really
nice to go out and just run.
“I like running because it’s a tool to get me
outdoors and I love the mountains because they’re
not just places to visit. When I’m there, I can
explore myself and find out who am I.”
Running in the mountains is not just about
experiencing amazing views: “It’s about finding out
what is happening inside,” he explains.
Mountains allow him to discover himself. “My
parents taught me how to understand the world
we live in. We get so much input each and every
day and we cannot process all of that – news, social
media, everything. Running is about being alone,
listening to your body and getting away from it all
– a kind of meditation. The world’s
problems become easy to solve!
“Running is about finding out
what are your real priorities.” TR
Kilian’s demolition of the Bob Graham Round
record in 2018 was his finest hour on British shores
■ Above the Clouds: How I Carved
My Own Path to the Top of the World
(£11.99) is available now.
56 WWW.TRAILRUNNINGMAG.CO.UK
TRAIL RUNNING 57

TRAINING
FITNESS
IAN CORLESS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Strength is
everything
British ultra runner Tom
Evans gets to core of it
When it comes to
trail running, few
British competitors
can boast such
impressive
credentials as ex-British Army
captain Tom Evans.
His journey began in 2017,
when he came third in the 251km
Marathon des Sables desert ultra,
a famously brutal race. Despite
entering on the back of a bet with a
friend, his third-place finish was the
best result any European had ever
achieved in the history of the race.
And it gets better. In 2018, he won
the 101km CCC race at the Ultra-Trail
du Mont-Blanc, as well as picking up
a bronze in the iconic Western States
event. On the way, he even broke the
record for the fastest overseas time at
the Californian race.
But what makes him so great for
us mere mortals, is that he is so
approachable, so... well, so ordinary!
You hang on his every word because
you know it just makes sense.
So when he says, “For most
runners, the main thing that slows
you down when you’re running for
longer distances is your form,” you
tend to perk up and listen. He adds:
“Making sure I had a strong core and
had done the preparation through
my strength training and hill training
ahead of the CCC in 2018 was
imperative.
“Given how, when trail running,
you’re weaving in and out of things,
avoiding rocks or roots or people,
your core is working overtime. And
having a strong core allows you to
maintain normal running form for
the least amount of exertion.
“Similarly, my hill sessions are
probably the most difficult mentally
that I do. My hill reps don’t finish at
the top of the hill, they finish about
five minutes after the top of the
hill. So, even when you get to the
top, you’ve still got to keep going.
It’s those sessions I find really hard
because I know they’re going to hurt
so much. But again, this helped in
the end with the CCC and dealing
with it mentally.”
WHO IS
TOM EVANS?
Tom is a Red Bull-sponsored ultra
runner. He burst on to the scene to
finish third at the 2017 Marathon
des Sables, won the UTMB CCC
race in 2018, and clocked 14
hours, 59 minutes in his 100-
mile debut at the 2019
Western States.
?
TOP RACE
PREP TIPS
Training for a race is like building a big
puzzle. It’s important to break things down into
manageable chunks and work through it one piece at
a time. For example, if I’m doing a 100-mile race, that’s
seriously daunting if you look at it as a one-off, but I just
break it down. I have a mantra: ‘Process, not outcome.’
And I know that day by day, run by run, week by week,
month by month I’m getting one step closer to the race
and what I want to achieve in it. So that not only helps to
keep me motivated, but also keeps me really focused
on the job at hand. Having a ‘why’ is really important,
too, whether you want to do your first Parkrun or
a sub-five-hour marathon. Having a why will get
you out of the door for those runs and hard
sessions. Finally, it’s also just nice to take a
few minutes in your run to take in your
surroundings, to look around and
actually enjoy yourself.
TOM’S TOP SIX
GO-TO EXERCISES FOR
STRENGTH & MOBILITY
he good thing with core and leg
exercises is that, no matter whether
Tyou’re a beginner, an intermediate or
an expert, the exercises can be the same –
you just do them for longer and with slight
PLANK For your core and overall body, a
plank is really good and that’s probably the
best exercise to do. You can modify the time,
and you can do it on your knees, on your
hands or on your elbows.
SQUATS Good for full body coverage
as it really helps to just build explosive
power, predominantly through your glutes.
SINGLE LEG
OR DOUBLE
LEG CALF
RAISES
These are so
important
for explosive
power and
speed. Your
calves are a
fundamental
muscle group
used when
you’re climbing
and doing hill
reps. But it’s
a small muscle
group so the more
you train it, the more
robust it’s going to be,
and the more power you’ll
be able put through it.
variations. For instance, instead of doing
single leg raises, you can do double legs. Or if
you’re doing the plank, you can take one foot
off the ground or one hand off the ground
and then lower it back down.
ANKLE TOUCHES A bit of a sit-up
where you touch each ankle leaning side to
side. It’s really good for helping your obliques
(the side of your core) so good if you’re
dodging between people or trees on the path.
REAR FOOT ELEVATED LUNGE
These really
go to work
on your
quads, which
is really
important
as that helps
to replicate
downhill
running.
When you’re
on the trails,
you really
need that
stability from
your knee
into your
hip, going
through your
quads.
BALANCE WORK
I do a lot of balance
work for strengthening
my feet and my ankles.
Each day I spend six
minutes using a balance
board by my sink.
I brush my teeth for
three minutes, so that’s
90 seconds on each leg,
and I do that twice a day.
In a day or in a week that
doesn’t make much of a
difference, but actually
you’re doing six minutes
a day for a year – that’s
a lot time balancing.
And you’re going to see
improvements pretty
much the whole time,
which is what everyone’s
looking for.
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TRAIL RUNNING 75

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FINISH LINE
MAKING THE MAGAZINE
TRAIL
ENDERS
We take you behind the scenes
of another busy issue
Editor (and
half-decent
coach) Paul
Larkins got
on the telly
to talk about
the closure
of athletics
tracks... Online ed Paul Halford travelled to Wales to spend
some quality time with FKT machine Damian
Hall. From a respectful distance, of course
...it’s times like
these that you
appreciate more
than ever that
trails are open
for all. We don’t
need a key to
get in!
Marcus Leach met
the larger than
life Leadville 100
race organiser, Ken
Chlouber, then cycled
from Land’s End to
John O’Groats! Yes, it
was mainly uphill...
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