Beth Pascall on Ultrarunning, Finding Adventure, and Parenthood

Beth Pascall has achieved the kind of things most trail runners can only dream of, standing on podiums at some of the biggest races in the sport and, until recently, holding the women’s record for the Bob Graham Round.

But these days, Beth doesn’t define herself by those results.

After a long period away from running through injury, becoming a mum and balancing training with her work as a paediatrician, her relationship with running has become more complex, and perhaps more meaningful.

We caught up with Beth to talk about the big wins and the much harder days, coming back from injury, fitting training around family and work, what she’s learned from getting races wrong, and why every run feels a little more special now.

Beth, for anyone in the Harrier community who doesn’t know you yet, can you introduce yourself to the Harrier community?

I would describe myself as an outdoor enthusiast, primarily at the moment, a paediatrician and a mum, not necessarily in that order. But that's me at the moment, I suppose.

I guess I'm most well known in the running community for some race wins and podiums and things at Western States and UTMB, and up until recently, the record holder of the Bob Graham Round. But at the moment, I don't really define myself by my running achievements. It feels like not a really big part of my life at the moment.

You’ve achieved some incredible things in ultrarunning, from winning Western States to setting the Bob Graham Round record. Looking back, which moments in your running career are you most proud of… and are they necessarily the biggest results?

I guess I'm proud of those big results, and that doesn't mean to say that they're the things that I worked hardest at. I'm really proud of the results, but there's certainly been bigger challenges in my running career than getting to the top of the podium.

I think any runner will understand that the days that go well or you win are the easy days, and the days that you don't have a good race or you DNF or you don't start, they're the harder days. So I'm proud of the harder days as well.

I've had a tough run at Lavaredo, the 120k, before. I've had a tough run at Diagonale des Fous in Réunion and many tough days at UTMB. So yeah, there's lots of races that look like that as well.

You balance running with being a mum and working as a doctor. How has being a parent changed your relationship with running, training and racing? If at all?

I guess I never take any run for granted, and I don't know if that's necessarily just because I'm a mum now. It's also because I had a long time away from running with injury, so every single run feels special, I suppose. And I definitely took running for granted before.

It's probably also because I don't have as much time. Having time to myself to go for a run, that's another reason why it feels a bit more special every time I go out, and I value it a lot more.

I've definitely… it's a bit better now… struggled with a lot of guilt. So at the moment, yes, I do value every single run, but there's been a lot of times when I'm looking forward to going for a run, and then I go out and all I feel is guilt and question why I'm doing it. And I think that's also kind of a fairly normal feeling for parents often.

Running has looked different at different stages over the last two and a half years.

Training is for sure logistically harder. I kind of put my recovery from injury down to having my daughter. And I can't fully explain it, but something fundamentally changed after I gave birth that meant my injury got better.

So I don't know if pregnancy and childbirth is some sort of total body reset. Anyway, something changed and I got better. Whilst it was new, having to train around having my daughter, it was also this amazing thing that I wasn't able to do before.

So my overriding feeling was that I was just grateful to be able to do it again, rather than thinking, this is a shame I don't have much time for this anymore.

For runners trying to fit training around work, family and everything else life throws at us, what have you learned about making training work when time and energy are limited?

I don't have any magic secret, to be honest. And I often think that I'm actually not a very good role model for how to train alongside a job and a family and things. If I'm honest, most of my time for running comes if I deprioritise sleep. And that's honestly, a lot of the time, the only way I can fit it in.

It's getting up early before work. There are obviously lots of downsides to that. And I think it's really difficult to give advice because it looks so different for everybody.

Everyone has different family setups, everyone has different amounts of family support. I look at other runners who have families and things, and I think I just can't compare myself or my life in any way because it looks so different.

I guess there's no easy solution. If you have help, then take up an offer of help. We don't have any family up here or anything, so it's just us. So I would say just do whatever feels right for you and find a balance that kind of works for you and your family, I suppose.

You had periods where injury kept you away from running. What helped you keep going through those times, particularly when progress felt slow?

Well, it depends what you mean by keep going, I guess. You don't have a choice other than to keep going. I think what helped me stay sane was continuing to live life in the way that I wanted to live life, rather than living in a way that I was just waiting for my injury to get better, if that makes sense.

I didn't deprioritise trying to recover. I was still having regular physio, doing lots of rehab, all of these things, but I didn't want to just be an injured runner. I didn't want that to be my identity, if you know what I mean.

So I found other things that motivated me. I got quite into biking. I did one ultra mountain bike race, Atlas Mountain Race, and I did some gravel races and various other things.

I just found other things that I became passionate about. It wasn't that I immediately became passionate about those things. Initially, it was a little bit forced because all I wanted to do was run. But you kind of take a step towards doing something different, and then you can find ways of getting a similar feeling, I guess, to the feeling I had when I was running, but not through running.

You mentioned at the start of the interview that you consider yourself an outdoor enthusiast. Is that your main motivation for trail running? Is it the sense of adventure, or is it competitiveness inside, or is it something else?

To some extent, it's all of it, but I think trail running is on the bridge between a performance sport and an outdoor sport. Maybe there's a better way of putting it. You have the performance side of things, so yes, you can get really into data and numbers and heart rate and nutrition and all of these things. But on the other side, it's just about adventure.

Trail running is kind of somewhere between the two. And I think to do well in trail running, you have to love both sides of things. But if anything, I think I come from the latter. I primarily got into trail running because I love being in the mountains and that type of thing, rather than because I really wanted to improve, be on that cutting edge of physical performance, I think.

Ultra Trail Snowdonia didn’t quite go how you wanted this year, despite finishing second. You mentioned going out a little too hard and struggling with cramp early on. What did you learn from that race?

I mean, I had a kind of dumb race, I think. I think I did some stupid things. I was actually feeling moderately fit before the race, and I thought I could do all right. I think I was very naive and I thought that 50k was not really an ultra. It was a sprint, because before, 50k, I would have thought I'd never do a 50k to race competitively. I might do it as a training run or something.

So I just went out too hard. Looking back, it was really stupid. I just went out far too hard, and then probably an hour, hour and a half into the race, I got terrible cramp and I was just shuffling in so much pain for the whole race.

So I don't think it was a good reflection of where my fitness was at the time, but it was a valuable lesson, I think, in how to race shorter races.

I would love to say that I really enjoyed the race. And I did enjoy the first climb and the first descent, but it was a real sufferfest. I think it's the most physical pain I've been in in a race.

Interestingly, afterwards, my legs were obviously really sore, but in myself, I felt fine. It wasn't even like I pushed myself that hard from a physical point of view, because I just wasn't really able to push because of the cramp in my legs. Things like my heart rate were really low for most of the race because I just couldn't make my legs move.

So it was a kind of dumb way to race, but I would like to go back at some point and do the race justice for sure.

Is there anything you’re doing differently in training now compared with earlier in your career, or pre-injury?

I wouldn't say I actually do anything that different at the moment because of my experience of injury. I'm not held back in terms of, say, volume because of the injury or anything like that. I'm held back in terms of volume because of time. But I wouldn't say I do anything completely different now that I've learnt and changed because of injury.

I have a coach. I have some structure to my training. I'm not someone who leans heavily on data. I do wear a heart rate monitor and things. I don't really look at my Garmin files or anything like that, to be honest.

All my training is on Strava, so anyone can take a look at my Strava. It looks a bit different at different stages of the year, I suppose. In the winter and the spring, I did a bit of a speed block. I did a bit more running on the flat and some shorter intervals and things, and then building up to UTS, it was more specific training for the mountains.

Since then, it's been a bit varied. I've just done some shorter fell races over the summer. So most of my training, I'm just in the fells. I'm doing self-indulgent things really, just doing lots of vert and lots of technical running, which is what I really enjoy, but trying to turn that into something that is structured and will help me improve.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to an everyday trail runner who wants to become a stronger, more resilient runner, whether they’re chasing a podium, their first ultra, or simply trying to get round feeling good?

Probably the step that you can take that is going to lead to the most improvement is getting a coach and doing some structured training. And I know that's not, in many ways, I don't like saying this because not everyone has access or can afford a coach.

And lots of people won't like me saying this either, but I think that AI is going to help a lot for the people that want to improve as runners but perhaps don't have in-depth knowledge about training structure and things and can't afford a coach.

Whilst I would never say AI is better than a coach, I still think there are many kinds of budget AI coaching apps that would help a lot of people. And I'm not saying they're better than a coach at the moment. So getting some sort of structure with some coaching is probably the best thing that people, beginners or everyday trail runners, could do to help them work towards their first ultra or just get faster.

Questions from the Harrier community

For a first time ultrarunner, how do you distinguish between discomfort that you can safely work through and pain that means you should stop?

That's such a hard question. I kind of think it's not something that I could describe, the symptoms or examples of when you should stop. I think it's something that you inherently know when you're in that situation.

It's not like you can say, when the pain in your legs is more than a seven out of 10, then that means... It's just not that simple, is it?

I think if you've got a support crew or someone who knows you well, if you're in a bad situation in a race, having a conversation with them, having someone who's got a little bit more of an objective view of the situation, can help.

I've definitely called my husband in races before being like, I don't know what to do. Shall I stop? Because you are a bit blinkered in races.

Either the pain's so bad you think you're going to die, or you don't think there's any way you can get past the next aid station, and then 10 hours later you end up finishing the race. I've been on both sides of that. But I don't think it's possible to give any specific advice about when you need to stop.

How did your husband respond when you called him?

I think I called him at UTMB, actually. I was probably about 30 miles from the end, and I think he did give me a pep talk and be like, "Come on, Beth, you can finish this."

But I also remember calling him, I did the Lakeland 100 a few years ago and I was ill before I started, and I kind of knew I had a cold and I was having a little bit of a fever. I think I called him about 40 miles in or something and explained how I was feeling, and he said, "I'm coming to pick you up."

So I think having someone like that who knows you well, knows when it's safe to continue and when it's best to stop.

Best advice for improving ankle strength?

Honestly, they're probably better off talking to a physio. A physio I am not. I've never done any specific strength training for my ankles. Ever.

I spend a lot of time running on technical terrain, so I think naturally they're fairly strong. I've not had specific problems with my ankles. Speak to a good physio, is my advice. Sorry!