Over the past month, Scout Adkin’s most formidable opponent has been time, rather than any of her fellow runners.
Scrambling to find her fitness is not how Adkin imagined she’d be preparing for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, which begin today in the Spanish mountain range, Canfranc-Pirineos, in the Pyrenees. But a fall at last month’s GB trials for these World Championships, which resulted in an ankle injury, has put something of a damper on Adkin’s World Championships preparation.
The fall, and the resulting injury, couldn’t have been more untimely given the remarkable season the 32-year-old from Peebles has enjoyed.
Having won the WMRA Mountain Running World Cup title in 2024, she successfully defended it this season, despite the fact was forced to miss the final two races of the series following her injury. Such had been her dominance earlier in the season, though, none of her competitors were able to leapfrog her in the standings in her absence.
Being crowned World Cup winner for the second successive year is, admits Adkin, a monumental achievement but was somewhat surreal given she was watching from afar when she realised she’d done enough to win the prestigious title following the conclusion of the final race of the World Cup season.
“It was definitely a strange feeling having to sit at home for the last race and just hope that nobody would overtake me in the standings,” she says.
“It’s hard enough when you're in the race and you can do something about the result but it's even harder when you're sitting just waiting for things to happen and you can't do anything about it.
“I didn't want to know how the races were going until they were finished and the results were confirmed so I just tried to distract myself and then when I realised I'd won the World Cup, it was quite a relief.
“This World Cup win is definitely up there with some of my best results. Winning the title last year was a big breakthrough for me in terms of being able to put together a series of good races and so to be able to do that again has been pretty special.”
Adkin’s World Cup win is all the more impressive given she’s one of the few athletes on the circuit who combines full-time employment alongside athletics. Adkin is a physio and having left her previous job earlier this year to become self-employed, the juggle is real for the Borders woman. It means her pre-race routine is somewhat different from her competitors’ but despite the hectic nature of her life, Adkin is confident her busy schedule suits her perfectly.
“Setting up on my own has been great but it's full-on and my head has been a bit all over the place at times. But, so far, I’ve coped okay,” she says.
“Sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to do a bit less work, or even not work at all, but actually, I really like having different strands to my life.
“If I’m away competing and have a quiet day before I race, I’ll do my work emails or my admin which distracts me from the upcoming race, which is nice.
“It does mean I’m very busy though - when I raced in China this season, I had 26 hours of travel to get there, three days in China, 26 hours of travel home then back to work. That was a tough week.”
Adkin’s achievements are often overshadowed by those of her compatriots on the track, but she is an equally an impressive, talented and determined individual as the likes of Laura Muir or Jake Wightman.
Adkin is entirely devoid of any bitterness about the spotlight being upon her track compatriots, but she admits that the global success she’s achieved in recent seasons has been a welcome reward for the literally thousands of hours she’s put into training.
“You put so much time and effort into training and your whole life revolves around it,” she says.
“So when you get to race day, you want all that work to be worthwhile. People only see the highs, they don't see the lows - but there's so many lows during a career. So it’s nice when the work pays off.”
This week’s World Mountain and Trail Running Championships is the final push of the season for Adkin.
Prior to her ankle injury, the Scot would have lined-up as one of the medal favourites but her injury setback means she’s been forced to review her targets for the coming days, where she will race both the Uphill and Up-and-Down races. But her experience, plus her pre-injury form, means only a fool would count Adkin out at these World Championships.
“I’ve needed a lot of determination to make sure I was able to get fit for these World Champs,” Adkin says.
“My injury has definitely changed things a little bit but I feel like there is definitely still some expectation on me after what I've done over the past few years.
“Prior to hurting my ankle, I would definitely have wanted to medal, at least in the Uphill, but I suppose the injury setback has changed my expectations a little bit. In some ways just being on the start line is a big success.
“Being on the podium still isn't completely out of the question, but it just might be a bit tougher now than it would have been prior to getting injured. In these races, though, you never know what can happen on the day.
“This weekend is the last push of my season so I'm just going to go out there, give it everything and see what position that gets me.”
Joining Adkin in the 22-strong British team for this four day-long World Championships are eleven of her fellow Scots, including her brother, Jacob Adkin, Kirsty Dickson who became British Uphill champion last month and British Junior Up-and-Down champions, Thomas Hilton and Isla Paterson.
