Sophie Woods has just run the entire length of the Alps in 28 days – the fastest known time (FKT) ever recorded by anyone, man or woman. But despite completing the route seven days faster than the previous record holder, Woods doesn’t believe speed had much to do with it.
‘I’m not necessarily the fastest person, but I’m very good at suffering and I’m used to doing long days,’ the 42-year-old says. ‘I know what it’s like to go without sleep for 30-40 hours and keep moving – most of the races I do are on the longer side.’
Woods’ ultramarathon CV would dwarf most people’s parkrun history: she’s completed the UTMB 100-miler six times, placed third in the 268-mile Winter Spine Race in January and is a three-time finisher of the Tor des Géants – a 205-mile race through Italy’s Aosta Valley with 24,000m of elevation gain.
But the Via Alpina was a different kind of challenge – one she found herself hungry to take on after years of fertility struggles.
‘Coming to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be a mother was very difficult for me. As someone who has spent the last decade using my body to make things happen through sheer force of will, being so out of control of my body really shook me.
‘I found myself asking, “Is this all I’m going to do? Show up to races where the only question is how fast I’m going to run a route?” I know I’m privileged to have completed some incredible races, but I really wanted to have a crack at something where I didn’t know how it would go beforehand.’
It was her husband, George, who suggested she try to set the FKT for the Via Alpina – a 2,000km route with a cumulative elevation gain of around 110,000m. Starting in Trieste, Italy, the Via Alpina passes through Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland before briefly returning to Italy. It then crosses into France before reaching the finish in Monaco.
Preparing for the challenge
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Preparing to run that far is inconceivable to most of us, but Woods kept things simple. She’s accustomed to running long distances, so she didn’t worry too much about following a structured training block. She did prioritise strength training and fuelling, though, and spent time working out where she could gain an advantage.
‘I did a lot of research on Jake [Catterall, the previous record holder who completed the route in 35 days] and his attempt, because he documented it really well,’ Woods explains. ‘I noticed he was starting his days between 9 and 10am, and I was like, “No way – I’m getting up at 3 or 4am.” I wanted to give myself the best possible chance to get my dark kilometres done in the morning if I could, although I did end up doing plenty of kilometres at night too.’
Consuming enough fuel was also crucial.
‘I ate and drank so much,’ Woods says, laughing. ‘Pretty much everything I drank, apart from a few electrolyte drinks, was high-carb sports drinks, Coke or Fanta – anything with sugar in it. I also tried to eat as much real food as I could get into my system, as well as gels and chews. Honestly, drinking plain water right now is a real treat – everything was sweet.’
Overcoming setbacks
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Despite Woods’ best efforts, there were hurdles she and her crew couldn’t have foreseen. Two heatwaves made the challenge feel ten times harder – ‘they had to pack me with ice’ – while wildfires threatened to block her path and a series of thunderstorms left Woods and her photographer, Zoe Salt, on top of a mountain ‘surrounded by lightning and thunder’.
There were also bugs to contend with – ‘they were in my face, mouth, nose and ears’ – as well as a few wrong turns. But despite it all, Woods continued to put one foot in front of the other.
How on earth did she keep going, particularly during the toughest moments? Woods clearly has innate resilience, but she also relied on several distraction techniques. Listening to voice notes from family and friends, singing along to nostalgic music by the Backstreet Boys and from The Sound of Music, and simply counting her steps all helped her keep moving forwards.
‘When you’ve raced as much as I have, you know there are ups and downs and peaks and troughs, but you’re never going to be in one of them forever,’ she says. ‘I know that if things were really bad, my husband would tell me to stop, but until that happens, I just tell myself to keep moving.’
Making history
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In the end, Woods completed the route in 28 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes – almost seven days quicker than the previous men’s record and 10 days quicker than the women’s.
Over the course of the challenge, she climbed more than 117,000m and descended a similar amount, covering an average of more than 69km and 4,000m of elevation each day. The numbers are simply mind-blowing.
‘I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, to be honest,’ Woods says. ‘I think it just goes to show that when you give women a bit of belief, opportunity and support, we’ll take that and run with it, because women are amazing.
‘The fastest women are never going to beat the fastest men over 100m, but take the physiological element out of it, and we’ll show you what we can do. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more women doing big, scary things and smashing them in the future. We’re so capable.’
And Woods isn’t using this achievement as an opportunity to slow down. At the end of the month, she’s teaming up with her husband to run the UTMB PTL – a 300km pairs race with more than 25,000m of elevation gain.
After that, she assures me she’s ‘going to eat as much ice cream as I possibly can’ and allow her body to recover before dreaming up her next adventure.
‘I never really wanted to attempt an FKT before this, but I really enjoyed this process,’ she says. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without my crew, which made the experience even more special. But yeah – I’m not going to commit to anything yet, but there may be more challenges in the pipeline.’
We don’t doubt that for a second.
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Lauren Geall is deputy site editor for Women’s Health UK and Men’s Health UK. She graduated from Exeter University with a BA in English Literature before studying an MA in Magazine Journalism at City, University London. She’s been writing about health, fitness and wellbeing for over five years, with a total of seven years in digital journalism. Prior to her current role, she worked at Stylist as the acting health and fitness editor. As well as being a keen runner, Lauren is passionate about women’s sport and can often be found cheering on Arsenal Women at the Emirates or keeping tabs on the Red Roses’ latest win.