MOVING MOUNTAINS

Unfit and suffering from depression, Sabrina Pace-Humphreys found lasting joy in running in the countryside. Now a champion of ultramarathons, she helps other black runners to enjoy Britain's wild places

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For me, 2016 was a lifechanging year for a few reasons. Number one, I gave up drinking alcohol and embarked upon a life of sobriety, and - a close second - I took my first steps into the activity of trail running. Both were decisions that changed my life for the better, in ways I could never have imagined.

I took up running in 2009, following the birth of my fourth child. It's important for me to say that I don't come from a sport-oriented family, I didn't run as a child and throughout my teenage years and twenties, I avoided any activity that involved being outdoors. Why? Because, as a mixed-race person, racialised as black, and living in a rural market town, my experience of rural racism meant the outdoors wasn't a safe space for me, due to the abuse I encountered.

But that all changed when, at a 12-week postnatal check with my GP, it was suggested that my sustained low mood and intrusive negative thought patterns about myself, my baby and my life were symptoms of postnatal depression. Alongside medication and talk therapy, my GP suggested I do something that gave me some alone time, away from the family environment. Why not "try jogging"? I remember that first run on a canal towpath, my first-ever trail run. An where, at five stone experience overweight and lacking any fitness, I shuffled for one minute and walked for one minute. All the while trying to cover a mile, to breathe and keep my body upright, to get home in one piece.