Running Up That Hill
In a nutshell
Vassos Alexander starts with the Spartathlon and talks about ultra races and the answers of stars like Jornet, Jurek and Karnazes. Inspiring, though the celebrities' answers feel a bit forced at times.
Who it's for: Anyone looking for inspiration for their own ultra.
Running Up That Hill isn’t only the name of the best running song of all time, sung by Kate Bush. It’s also the title of a running book by Vassos Alexander, a Greek born and living in England. And who better to write about long runs than a Greek? After all, Greece isn’t just the cradle of European civilisation. It’s where words like marathon and Spartathlon were born.
The book begins with the Spartathlon, a 246 km race. The route follows in the footsteps of the messenger Pheidippides, who supposedly ran from Marathon to Athens in 490 BC, delivered the news of the Greek victory over the Persians and fell down dead. But this fellow managed much bigger feats. Before that fateful run, he ran from Athens to Sparta to ask the city-state for military help (more on the history in Dejiny behania). Today the Spartathlon commemorates this event, and every September the whole of Greece lives for it. At least the part from Athens south. (Note: also worth reading is a Czech runner’s take on the Spartathlon and more, To (ne)dáš! by Konstantin Wiesner.)
Not just the Spartathlon
So the Spartathlon is the main story of Running Up That Hill. The book begins and ends with it. But don’t expect a continuous story from start to finish. The author keeps returning to individual stages of the race and describing his experiences along the route. In between, he slips in experiences from the journeys he had to walk, or rather run. And run fairly fast. The tough Spartathlon qualifying criteria demand tough training. So you’ll read, for example, about the already legendary hundred-mile South Downs Way 100 or about the reportedly toughest multi-stage mountain race, the Dragon’s Back Race (do take a look, the video is amazing). Not every race goes to plan. A DNF becomes reality for Vassos too.
Vassos Alexander - photo: Dragon’s Back Race
What makes this book different from the others? Since 2011 Vassos has worked as a sports presenter at the BBC. That opens doors to big-name athletes. He gets to meet them and ask about their view of running: why they run, what running gives them, where it takes them and yes, also what they think about while running. A phone call from Kilian Jornet caught Vassos in the middle of a hill run somewhere in Wales. What do you think, did he stop or keep running and leave it for later? Scott Jurek, Dean Karnazes, Emelie Forsberg, Jasmin Paris, Nicky Spinks and Charlie Engle are some of the others Vassos interviewed.
Partly because of this, the book is very similar in style to The Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn. Subjectively, I find that one better, or rather more readable and believable.
Sparta - at the feet of King Leonidas
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The book isn’t just an account of the author’s experience of one race. With him we also look at other races, in Britain and in France. They could become inspiration for you too. Approaching the stars of the world ultra scene was also a good idea. How do Jornet, Jurek, Karnazes, Spinks and others see running?
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Many of the answers felt shaped by the celebrity-journalist relationship and came across as too “forced”. What new can you come up with when you’re asked the same question for the hundredth time… From the answers, the author then picked what fitted his story and developed that further.
