Elizabeth "Lizzy" Hawker is relatively new to the world of ultra-distance and endurance running, having fallen into it more by chance than design during the last two years. Her dream is to encourage people to realize the sanctuary and inspiration of the mountains, the richness of our environment and our responsibility to protect it, and the value of challenging yourself both physically and mentally.
Learn more about Elizabeth Hawker.
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
-Lao Tzu-
"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
-RALPH WALDO EMERSON-
Back to the chaos of a city, the sights, smells, noise and heat that are Kathmandu ….
It brings back memories of 2 years ago, a journey to the summit of Ama Dablam and running back to Kathmandu. Precious memories of this world - this world that is a world away from ‘home’, a world away from the familiarity of Europe.
24 hours in the city - the confusion of tiredness after travelling over 30 hours and kris-crossing time zones, and this after the intensity and emotion of a fleeting weekend in New York for my younger brother’s wedding. But finally we had a night’s sleep, my bags are packed for the acclimatisation leg of our journey, and I can really start to believe and to feel ‘here’ and that this incredible adventure is about to begin.
Tomorrow the mountains are waiting for us - and I look forward being back once again in the Khumbu. Step by step, one step at a time. Each moment to be savoured.
We will see the sky - not limited to glimpses caught between high buildings, not clouded by dust and dirt - but the wide open sky of the mountains. It will be our daily bread - food for the soul.
- Lizzy Hawker
Give me a spark of nature’s fire. That’s all the learning I desire.
ROBERT BURNS
The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 2009 - I had my dreams of a journey. But sometimes you realise your dream, and sometimes you realise your dream in a different way to how you had imagined.
For me this year the hardest part was getting to the start line - photo shoots, commitments, talking to people, interviews, journalists - it is a world away from the physical and mental space you are in when you run. So, for me things get easier once a race starts, simplicity and focus - all then you have to do is to run. You are alone - only you can make your race - you are alone and free - you, your body, your mind, the mountains and the challenge …
Sometimes in a race you fly - you feel the flow - you feel the joy - and you run. But sometimes there will be something that saps your energy and your focus. This time the humble foot gave me a bit of grief! But the support from everyone - friends, family, TNF, other runners, volunteers, and those out on the trail - the encouragement, the smiles, the wishes of ‘bon courage’ - that is what UTMB is about - sharing something special in a good spirit.
I’m still half disappointed - 2nd place - and slower than my best time. But for that day it was the best that I could give - and so for that I have to be happy. I realised my dream to run the very best that I could, and to complete and just to take part in UTMB is something special. It means a lot. Krissy Moel (first lady) had a truly great run, and I’m happy we had this chance to meet.
In so many ways, UTMB gives you a big spark from nature’s fire.
That spark lights the hours, the days, the months after …
That is what is so precious.
- Elizabeth Hawker
Alone, in the clear air and searching sunlight, we are afoot with the quiet gods, and men can know each other and themselves for what they are.
A.F. MUMMERY
In three short weeks we leave for Kathmandu and it will be the start of our Cho Oyu Trilogy Expedition. Three short weeks and a world away ….. a world away from the familiarity of these Alpine mountains in Europe, from friends and from family. But before I can focus completely my energy on Cho Oyu and the journey ahead, there are a few things to think about.
In a little over 3 days I will be standing in the Place du Triangle de l’Amitie in the centre of Chamonix. Alone with my thoughts - at the start line of my 3rd The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc - alone with my own hopes, expectations, fears and doubts. Excited and yet trepidatious. The spirit of the Ultra Trail is a special one - the moments of camaraderie with fellow runners, with the volunteers, with all the supporters - something to be treasured. The cries of ‘bon courage’ keeping you going long after you thought you were finished. But still there are moments of feeling entirely alone. Alone in the sense that it is only us that can make our race. Those hours ahead are the unknown. But somehow in the unknown we will come to know ourselves deeper, to know ourselves for what we are. Race or no race, there is no victory except the joy that you feel if you let your run ‘flow’. And so each of us can feel that ‘victory’ …
Our Trilogy Expedition too … so much is the unknown.
What does it mean to me at this moment?
‘Belonging. A dream. On foot to the summit heights. On the run across the mountain trails. Simplicity. Focus. Solitude and camaraderie. The arrival and the in-between. The preparation and the unknown.’
But for sure we will find the clear air and searching sunlight?
And there we will come to know each-other and ourselves for what we are.
- Elizabeth Hawker
Alone, in the clear air and searching sunlight, we are afoot with the quiet gods, and men can know each other and themselves for what they are.
A.F. MUMMERY
Just one short week and a few hours …. we will be standing together in the Place du Triangle de l’Amitie in the centre of Chamonix. Together and yet each alone. Alone with our own thoughts - our own hopes, expectations, fears and doubts. Excited and yet trepidatious.
People ask how time passes in a long race, but it does. The running becomes almost a moving meditation helping you through the times when you feel great and the times when you feel like you can’t go on. There are moments of camaraderie with your supporters and fellow runners. But there are moments of feeling entirely alone.
In many ways we will be alone up there in the clear air and searching sunlight. Alone in the sense that it is only us that can make our race. No-one but ourselves. That is why in some ways the race is like life. The hours ahead will bring us to know ourselves deeper, to know ourselves for what we are.
Whatever may come, whatever the hours ahead will bring, there is something to remember - race or no race, there is no victory except the joy you are living while you are ‘dancing’ your run. (Fred Rohe in ‘The Zen of Running’)
Run … and find that joy. In the race … and in your life.
- Elizabeth Hawker
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
EMILE ZOLA
Running is an art …..
So maybe we need a little bit of a gift ….
But even when we have the gift, we need to do a little bit of work …
Endurance - it’s more than just competing in ultra distance races - it is more than simply running. It’s the lifestyle of never looking for the easy way out. It’s finding opportunities whatever the situation. It is a freedom, if you have the courage to seize that freedom. It’s an exploration towards the edge. For each of us this ‘edge’ will be in a different place. And that place will be constantly changing. It is the journey to find that edge which maybe teaches us more about ourselves.
But back to the moment …
Another weekend, another race - 78km in the Graubunden. I’ll make the start-line, but with cracked ribs and sore grazes from the last race - I’ve come to an edge before I even start. And the last race - less than two weeks ago - the IAU World Trail Championships (68km and ±3500m) - Bronze Medal for Great Britain. Just a little bit of the magic seemed to come back …. until my head forgot to race, and I fell, and I fell again!
So for now my work is to allow things just to flow, just to be what they will … and to run for the love of it. One step at a time.
- Elizabeth Hawker
Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Spring melts into summer
the days lengthen, and so do the thoughts ….
a time for growth - for doing, for thought, hopes, plans.
A time for living in the moment,
Then we know what it truly is to be rich?
Run - run lightly and run quietly
It’s to do with attention - listening to yourself
And it’s to do with intention - thinking ‘lightly’
Grounding the feet and the body so the spirit can fly …..
Mindful running - graceful, it becomes a work of art, an act of creation.
Why do you run?
Sometimes, and for all of us this is true, we are running away …..
Sometimes we are running to search ….
But if we realise deep down that the truth of our running is that in our running, in our moving,
We ‘find’ ourselves …
Then for us running is the gift that lets us know ourselves deeper.
And then for us, when we loose our way for a time,
our ‘moving’ hindered by a physical injury or a mental disquiet,
It is then that we loose ourselves.
Take some time
just to ‘be’ - and just to ‘be’ in the mountains or in the nature
Draw on the strength you find, use that strength as the core of your ‘movement’.
Run lightly - be light of foot, light of heart and light of spirit.
Lightness - not in the sense of lack of care or of thought.
Lightness as a humility, a realisation that the world is far greater than our own concerns.
Light as a gentleness - both in our relations with eachother, and our impact on our environment.
Be ‘mindful’ then maybe, just maybe, the run will ‘flow’.
- Elizabeth Hawker
It has been a long winter in the mountains. But now the snows are melting, spring is coming. And with the spring comes the promise of renewal, of hope. The sun feels warm on my face, and there is a strong smell of blossom in the air. The days stretch into wonderful light evenings. And thoughts turn to challenges for the summer …
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
CONFUCIUS
The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc - it’s a journey.
A long journey.
It is a journey of more than a thousand steps, more than a thousand parts …..
It starts with a dream to do something more than you have done before.
You have doubts, fears, uncertainties.
You start to train, you start to prepare.
You gain confidence, and again you doubt.
You learn about endurance.
You make sacrifices.
You learn about yourself.
Then the race ….
But the journey doesn’t end.
Apprehensions, hopes and expectations.
You learn to live with the reality.
You refocus.
The end of one challenge is just the beginning of the journey to the next.
The Ultra Trail teaches you about endurance.
But an endurance that is about more than simply running.
It is an endurance that is an exploration, pushing to find something new, looking for the edge.
For each of us this edge is in a different place.
And that place is constantly changing.
But the journey to find that edge maybe teaches us more about ourselves.
It is an endurance that finds opportunity,
learns to ride out the rough patches and learns to take the time.
It is an endurance that opens a door into another world.
It is an endurance that gives you freedom, and that gives you the courage to seize that freedom.
The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc is a journey, not a destination.
We must start with just a single step ….
- Elizabeth Hawker
Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.
CARLYLE
Two weeks after the 78km Swiss Alpine Davos, and one week after the Gondo Event with its double marathon …. Friday I climbed the Nadelhorn (4327m) between the Saas and Mattertal valleys in the Valais of Switzerland. Then I sat on a bench waiting for the bus, and wondered if it was too late to go to run Sierre-Zinal afterall. I had been invited to this race - but the timing of the invitation came when I was still suffering from my stress fracture and unsure about how the summer plans could work out. With first a 78km race and then an 84 km race in the previous two weeks, and a 4000m mountain just 2 days before (let alone all the other running and walking) - perhaps this would be a step too far? Was it too much to expect my legs to forget the miles in them and be fresh and fast enough for a race of this
stature?
Sierre-Zinal is one of the most respected mountain races internationally with a well-established
reputation. Highly regarded by both the athletics community and the local population, it is a race that draws elite international runners, and huge crowds of supporters. This was the 35th anniversary of this race of the Five Four Thousand Meter Peaks, a true classic mountain race - which was created as an expression of the real delight of running in the mountains. At a distance of 31km (leading from the town of Sierre in the broad basin of the Rhone Valley to Zinal) - it is ‘short’ for me - but it is a tough race with 2000m ascent and nearly 1000m of descent, demanding high levels of endurance and technical mountain running ability.
I took a deep breath as I was sitting on that bench in Saas Fee - and made the telephone call. Not only was it still possible to race on the Sunday - but they would be delighted for me to be there... It was meant to be. I just wasn’t so sure my legs thought so too.
A hot day, but a stunning course - running towards the Matterhorn yet again - this time from another perspective. As I gained height from the floor of the Rhone Valley the mountains opened out before me drawing me on until the final descent into Zinal. A beautiful race. Stretching the envelope of endurance - I took 3rd position. Sometimes when you try to do more than you think you can, you find the more is possible?! - Elizabeth Hawker
The future depends on what we do in the present.
MAHATMA GANDHI
The head said don't run ....
The heart said try ....
I tried. I started, I finished and some miracle was working with me because I defended my title at the Zermatt Marathon for the 3rd year.
I was so happy just to be here in Zermatt amongst the mountains which are so special to me. It must have given my heart extra strength. I was supposed to be here only as volunteer help for Andrea Schneider in the organisation of the Marathon. But it was too much to be here and to not try. So I did.
I have so much support and encouragement here in Zermatt. Maybe it was all these good wishes of so many that carried me forward. From one hour running a day for maybe two weeks to a half marathon to a marathon? But it worked this time ..... Over 1900m ascent from St Niklaus (1085m) to Zermatt (1616m) and onwards to finish on Riffelberg at a height of 2585m - amidst 29 majestic 4000m summits.
The morning of the marathon I stared up to the Riffelberg - and wondered if and how I might be there that day. Not at all, by train, by walking if I pulled out of the race, or by running?! The power of the mountains here drew me onwards and upwards. And the injury feels all alright still now - so no damage done I hope. - Elizabeth Hawker
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