About this episode

Anna Troup discusses her ultrarunning achievements and encourages midlife women to embrace endurance sports.

Women in their 50s, 60s, and beyond are crushing courses around the world. At a time when we’ve been preconditioned to believe we’ll slow down, many women are holding strong—or even improving. This week’s guest Anna Troup, 56, who has clocked many of her greatest ultrarunning feats since turning 50, is a perfect example. Last year she took first overall (including the men) at the 268-mile (430K) Montane Summer Spine race—Britain’s toughest ultra marathon—in 84 hours, 56 minutes, and 37 seconds. This after a 2022 injury that left doctors questioning if she’d ever run again. This week, we talk about her most recent feat: completing the Montane Winter Spine Race this past January in 106 hours, 19 minutes, and 12 seconds—through brutal conditions including gale-force winds literally blowing runners off their feet. We dig into her journey to ultras, how she trains, races, and recovers, her menopause experience, and why more midlife women should line up and give it a go. Anna Troup took up ultra running in 2013 with the sole aim of completing the UTMB, which she did for the first time in 2014. Unexpected success followed, much of it after she turned 50, and she has since won and held…

People in this episode

Host: Hit Play Not Pause

Guest: Anna Troup

Topics covered

• ultrarunning
• midlife fitness
• women in sports
• training and recovery
• menopause
• endurance racing

Keywords

• ultrarunning
• midlife women
• endurance sports
• Montane Spine Race
• training
• menopause
• fitness

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: UTMB

Places: Britain

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