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Posted by Katy Barden | Nov 24, 2024 | 0
Scout Adkin (Mark Croasdale)
After four months and 12 races in seven countries, Scout Adkin was crowned Mountain Running World Cup champion in Italy on October 13, taking the overall series victory by a single point from Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru.
A thrilling contest, it was the Val Bregaglia Trail – a 23km “long” race with 850m of ascent – that decided the final placings after Adkin had won the previous day’s “uphill” 3km/1000m+ Lagunc KM Verticale to earn the vital points necessary to keep her in contention for the win.
Each athlete’s best eight results counted towards their final total. Adkin came into the weekend in second place, but her win in the short race set her up for Sunday’s showdown where third place on the day, together with bonus points for participating in the finals, clinched the world title.
“I haven’t got my head around it yet,” says the 31-year-old Lake District-based physiotherapist who was runner-up to Muthoni Njeru in 2023. “I tried not to think about the points too much because it was complicated, I was just going out to race as well as I could. On the Sunday it was literally just: ‘Hang in there and hope for the best’.
“When you’ve worked towards something for so long, and when you’ve trained so hard and raced so much…I was just desperate for a break and a rest. I can’t quite absorb that I’ve made it to the end of the season and it’s gone even better than I’d hoped for.”
Scout Adkin (Bobby Gavin/Scottish Athletics)
Originally from Peebles in the Scottish Borders, Great Britain international Adkin, whose brother Jacob is a former European mountain running champion, was a silver medallist in the European Championships uphill race at the end of May.
It marked the start of a hectic travel and competition schedule that has been painstakingly managed in parallel with her busy day job; no mean feat when treading the frighteningly fine line between exhausted and energised.
The Moorfoot runner recalls a particular period in July when she raced back-to-back weekends in Austria, Portugal and France, routinely getting up at 2am or 3am for early flights and returning home in the early hours after competition.
“The reality is that, bar working and getting prepped, travelling and racing, not a lot else happens in my life,” she laughs. “It’s the bare minimum really; you’re home, you get your washing done, you get your food shop done and you’re back into work.”
Scout Adkin (WMTRC)
Describing the Mountain Running World Cup series as a test of speed, endurance and power, Adkin is grateful for the experience of her coach Angela Mudge in helping her prepare physically for races which range from short vertical climbs (the shortest in this series was 3km/1000m ascent) to ‘classic’ (up to 21.5km in this series) and “long” (ranging from 23-32km in this series) mountain distances with significant and varied elevations.
The training she does throughout winter and spring provides a solid base in terms of general endurance, while her consistency and routine – which she refers to as “quite rigid” – play an important part in overall management.
Scout Adkin (Dave Woodhead)
“I think because I’ve been running for so many years now my body has that good endurance base, but you’ve also got to be quite strong, so strength work and gym work are important, and you need to have speed and power for the shorter, steeper climbs while also doing longer speed intervals,” she says.
“I just try to cover all areas as much as possible. I try not to worry too much about what other people are doing or the nature of my set-up. I do what I can. Working helps a bit, too – I like to have other distractions or I’d probably end up overdoing it or overthinking things.”
» This feature first appeared in the November issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
Tags: Mountain running, Scout Adkin
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