A coast to coast adventure with Sarah Perry

The coast to coast Wainwrights route is a 182-mile long-distance trail in the North of England. Packed with beautiful scenery and plenty of ascents, the route stretches from St Bees, through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors to Robin Hoods Bay.  Ultrarunner Magazine caught up with Sarah Perry about her incredible coast to coast journey!

Sarah Perry, a primary school teacher from Yorkshire, has been running on and off since her own school days and now loves to use her free time to run with her partner and dog in beautiful destinations over the weekends. Although she sees herself as ‘just a fun runner’, she has built up her distance and has found a love for ultra running by expanding her mental and physical limits by pushing the boundaries further each time she takes on an event.

“I’m motivated by my own drive to see what I can do”.

Sarah was looking for a new long-distance challenge in lockdown since there were no races available due to Covid 19. As the travel restrictions in the UK were in place at the time, she decided to take on The Wainwrights 182 mile Coast To Coast route. Since the route was 40 miles more than she had ever run in the past, she thought this would be the best option for a great challenge in terms of both distance and terrain. She recalls having spent a lot of time on holidays, walking with her parents on lots of different parts of this specific route when she was younger and said it had a very nostalgic feel to it both in planning and running.

The initial idea was for her and her partner, Luke, to run it together but as he was nursing an injury he decided to become her crew and drive the van instead. She said that besides Luke, her other crew members and pacers were also ultra runners so they knew how a big attempt felt and what to do when times got tough which was a huge bonus.

Since she was so happy with her choice of support, there was a peaceful sense of mind knowing that she was able to hand the plans over to her team and just focus on her running. When telling me about them, she said “I think support crews get the harder job, honestly. Sitting around, driving and staying awake for that amount of time. They really deserve the medals”.