The remarkable Sarah Perry has added another epic ultrarunning accomplishment to her list of 2025 achievements by winning ‘The Hill’.
The event takes place in Shropshire, England and the entry requirements warn: “Runners must have extreme ultra-running experience”.
There’s no doubt that Perry, a 34-year-old teacher from Cumbria, ticks that box as just six weeks previously she had smashed the women’s world record at Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship in Tennessee.
That saw her complete 95 ‘yards’ or loops of 4.167 miles on the hour, every hour for a total just short of 400 miles.
The only finisher
But what awaited her at ‘The Hill’ was hugely challenging too.
The winter challenge featured 55 laps (plus a bit extra) up and down The Wrekin Hill in Shropshire at a height of 1,335ft, meaning a total of 47,000 feet of ascent and the aim of completing 160 miles within 48 hours.
That’s more than one and a half times the height of Mt Everest and just to make it even tougher no poles, headphones, outside assistance, crew, pacers or supporters are allowed.
But none of that deterred Perry who was the only person to finish, completing the task in a whisker over 47 hours.
Answering ‘a big ask’ emphatically
Speaking afterwards to her sponsors INOV8, she admitted: “I knew that six weeks to recover and build back up was a big ask, but I’ve wanted to do The Hill for so long and this was the first time it’s been run in five years, so I just had to be on that start line.
“I’m thrilled to have finished and, quite honestly, can’t believe that it was possible for me.
“The last third of the race was hard. I was constantly doing the calculations in my head to figure out whether I could complete. Often there was no wiggle room.
“I chose to skip breaks and ignore things that I’d usually get sorted, like wet socks and sleep deprivation, and instead chose to keep on the hill.”
