Review of Running Through the Dark: The Rise and Fall of an Ultrarunner by Jen Scotney
Let me get this out there right at the beginning: Jen Scotney’s book is not about ultrarunning. This book is about so much more than her runs and races.
Jen Scotney is an accomplished ultrarunner, running coach, writer, mountain leader and yoga teacher. She boasts an impressive career that also includes being a law-changing human rights lawyer; this book encompasses all these experiences, and more. It is a hugely personal, detailed and raw autobiography of her life.
The book’s chapters are broken down into specific times of her life, each encapsulated as a season. The book starts in 2009 before fast forwarding and rewinding between 2005 and the present day. I did find this aspect quite difficult to keep up with at times as it felt quite stilted but I understood the reasonings in order to detail certain events in her life.
I found the book to be well written, albeit quite short, and I was interested to research and learn more about Jen’s running and writing after finishing it. I felt strongly that Jen needed to write this book, to put these words down onto paper, and not for anyone else but herself. Reading through some of her experiences felt like it must have been incredibly cathartic for her as well as difficult to revisit some truly traumatic episodes.
The book begins with the story of her brothers unfortunate and accidental death and sadly, this is the first of many tragedies described in the book – both external experiences as well as personal; emotional as well as physical. There is a large proportion of the book dedicated to Jen’s visceral experiences with ME, depression and chronic fatigue. I was astounded at how she managed to continue her career in law as well as her impressive running performances throughout all of these setbacks.
Much of the book is dedicated to how Jen is feeling at the time and she addresses numerous topics such as career burnout, imposter syndrome, and her own childlessness. I appreciated and sympathised with the rawness of the words she put on paper and can understand how difficult it must have been to even address some of these subjects, let alone write them down in the knowledge that they were to be published and released into the world to be read by others.
As previously alluded to, running itself takes a back seat in this book. Yes, there are numerous mentions of races – ranging from local, Peak-District fell runs to overseas ultramarathons but most of these are described in passing. A small gripe is that I would have liked to have read more in depth about some of these races themselves. 190 mile runs and 4-day desert ultramarathons are brushed off and mentioned only briefly in passing. As I expect most readers of the book would be, I was looking forward to reading more about Jen’s experiences and advice on these ultramarathons.
The Pennine Way National Trail does, however, play such a fundamental part in this book it almost becomes it’s own distinct character and it is this specific trail that Jen does describe in detail. The bleakness and beauty of The Pennine Way does jumps off the page so well at times that you could almost imagine being there with Jen, in the dark, wet, boggy tracks of the Peak District.
In summary, having read this book, I learnt more about Jen Scotney, the person, than I did of Jen Scotney, the ultrarunner. I acknowledge and appreciate how difficult it must have been for her to write this book and that no matter how easy some people make things look – such as running multiple 100+ mile races – you don’t ever really know what battles other people are truly facing.
As previously said, this book is not about running; it is not about escapism, of adventures on ultra trails, or of advice and guidance, but it is a book that deserves to be read. If not only for the fact that it is about someone who is brave enough to write about their personal experiences in such a raw and authentic way that you can’t not be moved by it.
Buy Running Through The Dark:The Rise and Fall of an Ultrarunner here!
About the author: Oliver Clarke is an England Athletics Qualified Endurance Coach in Running Fitness and has been coaching athletes of all abilities for nearly a decade. He currently coaches online as Swift Run Coaching.
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