I ran cross country (XC) & 800m for my school and county, but did very little running throughout my 5 years at Vet School. After graduating, I began hill walking, then rock climbing, and in 1988, I decided to enter my first KIMM (held in the Cheviots) [now the OMM], because of all the positive feedback from local ‘mountain’ friends who’d entered the Eryri event the previous year. I was hooked, despite the abysmal weather, my useless nav skills and finishing nearly last on the shortest (C2) class. I have since completed 125 mountain marathons here in the UK, the Alps and Iceland, and I began fell running really to increase my fitness and ability to properly compete in mountain marathons. (Sadly my nav hasn’t improved much over the years!)
I’m lucky to have stayed relatively injury-free & have therefore competed in fell races in North and South Wales pretty much every week since the early 1990s, and have also run in the North Wales XC League races every year since then. The support, camaraderie and friendship is amazing – I am a T1 Diabetic, and it’s of great comfort to me that Race Organisers (ROs), marshals and fellow runners always look out for me, and I am grateful that most ROs will let me take my Diabetic Assistance Dog with me. I’m really slow these days, achieving far better results on my road and mountain bikes, but I hugely value the social aspect of our great sport.
After 20+ years on Eryri Harriers’ committee, I offered to fill the vacant slot on the WFRA Committee. I have no specific office, so tend to mop up tasks where I can, e.g. I’ve designed and ordered new buffs/windscreen stickers/banners, organised 2 x 1 day First Aid courses here in North Wales, drawn up an inventory of our various trophies and ordered new ones for last year’s champs/series winners, and have been a member of the Women in Fell Running Working Group. I enjoy being part of such a pleasant, hard-working, interesting group of fell running enthusiasts.