© Chris Samsom

She may be a youthful 24-year-old, but GB triathlete Sian Rainsley already has an impressive 17 years of solid race experience to her name, having competed in triathlon since the age of seven. A successful junior triathlete, Sian earned silver at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, before recently stepping up to compete for the senior GB team. However, it’s not all been plain sailing for the GB triathlete; after falling ill at her first GB training camp at the age of 18, Sian was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition, Crohn’s Disease.

Despite doctors advising her against pursuing a career in elite sport, Sian has been able to manage her Crohn’s whilst competing as a professional athlete, even earning a gold medal in the mixed relay for Team GB’s senior team at this year’s 2021 Kitzbühel European Sprint & Relay Championships. Although, if that suggests it’s been an easy ride for Sian, far from it. In this week’s Q&A, Sian kindly shares the challenges she faces in managing and living with her Crohn’s Disease whilst chasing her dream of a successful triathlon career.

American ultrarunner and skyrunner Hillary Allen was ranked number one in the 2017 Skyrunning World Series when she fell 150ft from an exposed ridge-line during the Tromsø Skyrace in Norway. During the fall, her body took the full force of several impacts and by the time fellow racer Manu Par had scrambled down to her, she had broken 14 bones, including both wrists, five ribs, both feet and vertebrae L4 and L5 in her back. 

Incredibly, Hillary survived. But being ‘alive’ and enduring multiple surgeries was just the beginning of her battle for survival, as she recounts in her new book, Out And Back: A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds.

Doctors told Hillary she would never run again, but after two years of rehab and recovery, she returned to ultrarunning, even setting several new course records. The 32-year-old also discovered cycling as part of her recovery and her gravel riding resume now includes none other than the notorious Unbound Gravel – considered the gravel race to end all gravel races. 

I chatted to Hillary over the phone back in July about the long road to recovery, the setbacks and further surgeries she endured, and the freedom she now feels when she lines up on the start line.

© Paul Calver

Last week I brought you the first part of my Q&A with Christal Clashing, covering Christal’s historic Atlantic row and her freediving. In part two, we rewind a bit and chat about how Christal came to represent Antigua in swimming at the Athens Olympics when she was just 14.

As I said in last week’s feature, Christal suffers from a debilitating pre-menstrual condition, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), which started in her teens and went undiagnosed until her twenties. The condition affects 2-10% of women and is something Christal continues to manage. In this Q&A, she kindly shares her experience and the deep impact it has had on her life.

© Paul Calver

Christal Clashing fell in love with the ocean whilst growing up in Antigua and quickly found she had a talent for swimming. At the age of 14, she represented Antigua at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Fourteen years later, she swapped swimming for rowing and made history as part of the first all-black rowing team to cross the Atlantic. Since then, Christal, who is a water coach, adventurer and writer, has switched her focus to freediving and hopes to set a national record.

In her twenties, Christal was diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), a severely debilitating form of premenstrual syndrome which affects 2-10% of women. In this interview, we cover Christal’s rowing and freediving but check back next week to read about her journey to Olympic swimmer and learn more about her experience living with PMDD.

© Philipp Reiter

If you follow the international trail running scene you’ll no doubt recognise Italian athlete Martina Valmassoi’s smiley face. A true all-seasons mountain athlete, Martina is a ski mountaineer foremost but has enjoyed many high profile ultra-trail running podiums alongside her skimo accolades, which have seen her represent the Italian national team and win team races such as the legendary Sellaronda Ski Marathon.

In March this year, with a bounty of snow on her doorstep in the Dolomites, Martina set a new women’s world record for the most vertical elevation accumulated on skis in 24 hours. After organising the entire attempt herself, she clocked an incredible 17,645m (57,890 feet!) on a slope in Auronzo di Cadore, Italy, eclipsing Rea Kolbl’s world record set a week prior.

At the time of our phone chat, Martina was preparing for the 80km Lavaredo Ultra Trail race, which she went on to win – congratulations, Martina!

© Paul Cooper

British-Malawian rifle shooter Ruth Mwandumba discovered she had a talent for shooting whilst in the Army Cadets at the age of 13, but it wasn’t until she joined a shooting club during university in London that she began to take it seriously. At the age of 22 she started competing and within the year was crowned 2018 English Champion. Now, Ruth is part of the GB rifle Talent Academy, competing in Air Rifle and 0.22.

Ruth’s is completely self-funded (hop to it, sponsors!), and when she’s not training, the 25-year-old from Liverpool is studying for a PhD in epidemiology. Below she talks through the basics of shooting, how she trained at home during lockdown, and the mental side of her performance.

© Zwift

American triathlete Sarah True is a two-time Olympian and an ITU Triathlon World Champs silver and bronze medallist. In 2018, Sarah switched to long-distance triathlon, taking fourth place at her IRONMAN World Champs debut in Kona the same year. All in all, she’s pretty well qualified to be a mentor to the Zwift Academy Tri team, alongside fellow triathlon legend Tim Don.

Right now, Sarah is taking time out from racing as she prepares to welcome her first child next month. I caught up with her via email to ask about her own triathlon training, mental strategies, and her role as Zwift Academy Tri team mentor. 

Earlier this week, 35-year-old support worker, Vicky Hogg, set off to run the length of Great Britain from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in Cornwall, a 900-mile journey that will see her run 30 miles a day for 30 days! Vicky is no stranger to endurance challenges, having run coast to coast last July (137 miles in 5 days) and completed a mountain bike John O’Groats to Land’s End ride (1200 miles) in 2018.

Vicky tackles her many endurance challenges for charity and will be raising money for Dementia UK with her JOGLE run, inspired by the many people with dementia she works with on a daily basis. Before she set off on her challenge, I quizzed the 361° ambassador on the ins and outs of her 900-mile challenge.

Ultrarunner, Elaine Acosta, ran her first ultra in 2010 and to date has completed 16 100-mile events. A UTMB finisher, Elaine has run everything from Comrades (56 miles) to Western States (100 miles). A big part of the running community, she frequently crews and paces for other ultrarunners (including former blog guest, Pam Reed) during 24-hour and 48+-hour events, such as Big’s Backyard Ultra and Cocodona 250.

In 2019, Elaine’s husband, Tom, who shared her passion for running, was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He passed away in 2020. In this Q&A, Elaine chats about the love of running she shared with Tom, how running has been a constant throughout the grief, and how she enjoys giving back to the running community by crewing events.

Swedish ultra-trail athlete, Mimmi Kotka, quickly made a name for herself on the trail running circuit in 2016 when she won the CCC by UTMB (101K, 6100M elevation) by almost half an hour – only a year after entering her first ultra-trail race. Since then, Mimmi has won many of Europe’s most gruelling races, including the TDS by UTMB (121K, 7250M elevation) where she smashed the course record by 46 minutes.

A self-described ‘wild outdoor kid’, Mimmi developed a deep love of the outdoors and wilderness from a young age and hails from a family of foodies and foragers. A qualified nutritionist, she’s also a co-founder of Moonvalley, an organic sports nutrition brand which she founded with fellow trail running legends, Emilie Forsberg and Ida Nilsson.

In this Q&A, Mimmi, who is a Polar ambassador, chats about Moonvalley, ultra-trail nutrition, and her diagnosis of RED-s (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) last year.