The World’s Best 100K Runner
Ellie Greenwood takes the long road to the top  - and always gets there first

By Meghan J. Ward
Photo by Karen Chow

IT’S A SATURDAY morning and after loading a two-litre water pack on her back, Ellie Greenwood sets off from her home in Banff, Alta., for the surrounding trails, not planning to return for another five solitary hours.

Greenwood’s weekend runs contribute a fair share to the 200 kilometres she squeezes in each week when she’s not at her full-time job selling Rocky Mountain ski holidays to British tourists. When the whistle blows, she escapes her desk like a superhero — quick outfit change and all.

To most people, Greenwood’s training regimen is inconceivable. But you don’t get to be 100K world champion without putting in the work.
Flashback to Gibraltar in November at the gruelling IAU 100K world championships. Greenwood, 32, was in the lead pack of three runners when her legs started to shut down with 40 kilometres to go. It was not a pleasant experience.

I was staying hydrated and fuelled properly, but my legs just didn’t want to work,” says the woman who races for Great Britain, her native land. She started to drop back in the race, a demoralizing experience for a runner accustomed to starting slow and gradually gaining on the leaders.

She had a decision to make. Keep running and get to the finish line, no matter what the time, or drop out and let her legs come back to life. But Greenwood kept running, focusing on small distances at a time.
“You have to keep running while you’re having these mental games,” she says. “You might drop out in one kilometre, but you might not. If you stop running, refuelling and hydrating, you will have to stop.”
Eventually, Greenwood got her second wind and gained new motivation as she saw she was gaining on the leaders.
“I knew from past experience that I run well at the end,” she says. “I knew I had a chance.” Greenwood moved into first place with seven kilometres to go and never relented. She was world champion.