Pain, danger and a lot of chocolate milk – Jake Catterall on how he ran across the Alps (and 5 lessons learned on the way)

Ultra runner Jake Catterall holding his running poles up.

Jake Catterall’s record-setting race across the Alps this summer started with a joke his mom made at the dinner table. Having already run the 5,000 km from northern Norway to southern Spain in 2023, she lightheartedly suggested he might as well run across all the mountains in Europe. He thought it was a good idea.

Now the British runner has gone from racing 5ks in under 16 minutes to being the first person to run the 2,000 km Via Alpina red route through Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France and Monaco.