Runner by Lizzy Hawker - a book review

It’s winter and I’m trying to let an injury heal, so what better way to spend the weekend than to read some running books.  Runner by Lizzy Hawker arrived in the post the other day.

Runner is Lizzy’s first book.  She needs little introduction – she is one of the most accomplished ultra-runners of her age.  She won the UTMB women’s category five times between 2005 and 2012, as well as first woman and third overall at Spartathlon in 2012.   

Runner has three parts.  The first revolves around Lizzy’s early upbringing, her professional career as an oceanographer and introduces her abiding love of the mountains.  But this initial part of the book is really wrapped around her first attempt at UTMB, as she tells her story of a race in which she had no expectations but went on to win as first female.

She writes evocatively of the journey of the race – the air, the smells, the feel - the trail as it winds up, down, over and through the route around Mont Blanc.  She introduces me to one of my new favourite words “alpenglow”, which describes the colour in the sky as the sun sets on the hills.  As she wasn’t really at UTMB to race, she was there to enjoy the experience and for the challenge.  She returns to London, slipping back into normality, and realising that her world had changed.

Lizzy lets us into her life and what motivates her.  She talks of running for the joy, rather than the purpose, of it - running for no other reason than for pleasure.  And how she feels most at home in the mountains, living a simple uncluttered existence amongst the grandeur of the Alps.

The second part takes us to the Himalaya and starts at Everest Base Camp.  We learn much more about Lizzy in the middle stages of the book, and how this part of the world has special meaning for her. Lizzy has a strong affection for the Nepalese people, their beliefs and their culture and she writes tenderly of her experiences with them and their unique way of life.

Lizzy tells of her third expedition from Base Camp (5,350m) to Kathmandu (1,400m); a total distance of some 320km (10km ascent; 14km descent), which she completes in less than three days.  An extraordinary distance and elevation and achieved largely unsupported.  Before an airport built in the hills allowed easier access between Everest and Kathmandu, you had to walk – or run as the early messengers would have done.

This is more about Lizzy the adventurer, rather than the competitor.  There was no race and no other runners.  There was a fastest known time, but that didn’t seem to drive her.  Her attachment to the place and its people provided the context and meaning for her efforts. 

Although she is competitive.  As she grows as a professional runner, she draws on an energy and a focus that helps her to win.  But at one point she talks of resting in stillness while in a race.  That experience where she is back to that momentary state of joy of running.  This tells us something about her, how she is both driven and tranquil at the same time.

The third part of the book is called “a journey of rediscovery and realisation” and it left the biggest impression on me.  Lizzy is at her most reflective in this part as she comes to terms with her physical limitations through injury.  Her body had done everything she could possibly have asked of it up to that point, but then it couldn’t.  It challenges her appreciation of who she is, as so much of what she could do and did is now no longer possible.  She talks openly about the emotional arc of the upswing of recovery, to the downswing of re-injury. 

She takes it as an opportunity to grow those parts of herself that had not had the attention as she pursued the pinnacles of her sport.  She re-aligns and finds another space for herself, still immersed in the mountains, but alive and open to other experiences.  She talks about “ke garne”, a Nepalese expression roughly translated to “what to do?”; how do we cope and manage when things change.

This final part of the book is also something of a love story.  Lizzy writes at times to an unnamed person, of the moments they shared and the inspiration and support that person gave her.  We end the book knowing little more of this part of her life, but it is touching.

Lizzy, thanks for being so generous in your story.  I loved hearing about the mountains, about the Himalaya and about your new challenges.  Best wishes.