FOR Jonathan Albon, variety is the spice of life when it comes to running. So much so, that the 30-year-old dryrobe brand ambassador holds multiple world titles across different events, including skyrunning, obstacle course racing and trail running, the discipline in which he landed gold for Great Britain in Portugal this summer.
Having only taken up running aged 20 when he entered an obstacle race, the Norway-based athlete’s life now revolves around the sport. He recently finished fourth at the World Long Distance Mountain Running Champs and here he shares some insight into the highs and longs of being one of the world’s best ultra runners.
AW: One of your many world titles won came in June at the IAU Trail World Championships. How do you reflect on that experience?
JA: The whole experience was really cool. It was really fun to run in the race wearing GB kit alongside the other best trail runners in Great Britain.
At the beginning of the race we were all running in a pack and it was a great feeling. After around 16km the first big technical downhill came and that’s when I managed to push ahead and up into second.
From there I carried on pushing and managed to get into first place about half way round. For some reason I managed to find it in myself to just carry on going!
Over the years I’ve been wondering whether I’ve still got this real drive in me to really push like when I was younger, to just push everything out, go to the max and continue going and I think I managed to find that, so that was really satisfying.
AW: What do think it was that gave you that edge, gave you that drive again?
This story is from the November 28, 2019 edition of Athletics Weekly.
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This story is from the November 28, 2019 edition of Athletics Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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