Angela Mudge

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Angela Mudge, born in Tavistock, near Plymouth in Devon on July 8, 1970 and now resident in the village of Gartmore near Aberfoyle in Scotland, is a four-time British and three-time Scottish hill running champion. She has also been internationally successful, winning the Women's World Mountain Running Trophy in 2000, the World Masters Mountain Running Championship in 2005 and the Buff Skyrunner Series in 2006.

Contents 1 Early years 1.1 Birth 1.2 Upbringing & education 1.3 Early competitions 2 International career 2.1 Significant successes 2.2 2005 injuries 2.3 Buff Skyrunner Series 3 Trivia 4 Selected results 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Early years

[edit] Birth

Mudge's start in life did not augur well for a future in endurance running. Both she and her twin sister were born with defects in their feet; both of Angela's feet and one of Janice's were pointing backwards. She has commented that "[w]e got a bit squashed in the womb", and for the first few years of their lives they were required to have their legs in braces and plaster in order to rectify this.^[1]

[edit] Upbringing & education

Although born and raised in Devon, Mudge has only ever represented Scotland at international level. She has said "It would've been tough to have gone back down south and tried to gain selection there. Once I started running for Scotland there seemed no point in changing because they gave me my opportunity."^[2]

Following her graduation from the University of Leicester with a B.Sc. in chemistry, she moved north to the University of Stirling to obtain her Master's degree, and discovered the sport while there. When she subsequently moved to the University of Edinburgh to study for her Ph.D. (which she received in 2000), she joined the Carnethy Hill Running Club, where she remains an active member and competitor.^[3]

[edit] Early competitions

Mudge came late to hill running by comparison with more mainstream athletics competitors, not recording results until her mid-twenties, but developed quickly. Placed only 49th in the British Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship in 1995, she won the event four times in succession from 1997–2000.^[4] In between, she scored a fourth place finish in the 1997 European Mountain Running Trophy, and also won the Scottish Hill Running Championships in 1997 and 1998,^[5] and the Scottish Cross Country Championship in 1999.^[6] She showed equally rapid development on the international stage, placing 46th in the 11th World Mountain Running Trophy when it was held in Scotland in 1995, only five years prior to winning the event in Germany.^[7]

[edit] International career

[edit] Significant successes

In an early precursor of her international potential, Mudge broke the record for the 11,000 ft course as she won the 1999 Mount Kinabalu Climbathon in Sabah, Malaysia to claim the US$2,500 prize.^[8]

Her best result in the European Mountain Running Trophy to date was as runner up in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Carinthia, Austria in 1999.^[9] She repeated this in 2001 in Slovenia, finishing behind Russian Svetlana Demidenko,^[10] and again in 2003 in Trento, Italy, when Belgium's Catherine Lallemand won.^[11]

Her most notable achievement to date came in 2000, when she won the women's World Mountain Running Trophy in Bergen, Germany. This could be considered unusual, as Mudge is more experienced in British fell-running, which includes running up and down hills; international hill running typically only involves an ascent. In 2000, as with all even-numbered years, the Trophy race followed the international style, so her greater experience in descending could not be used to her advantage.^[12]

She also finished second in the 2003 event held in Girdwood, Alaska, behind New Zealand's Melissa Moon. Compatriots Tracey Brindley finished third and Lyn Wilson 18th, and these combined results meant Scotland won the Women's Team championship.^[13] She also won the 2003 Pikes Peak marathon which she only entered as a warm up for the Alaska race. Her victory in 4h 19m 38s not only set a course record for the 14,000 ft peak, it marked the only defeat in six years for Los Alamos, New Mexico runner Erica Larson, who won in 1999–2002 and 2004.^[14]

In 2001, she triumphed in the Cinq 4,000s in Sierre-Zinal, Switzerland. Her record time made her the first woman to complete the 31 km course in less than three hours.^[15]

[edit] 2005 injuries

Mudge missed much of the 2005 season, first recuperating from an operation to rehabilitate a damaged knee which left her on crutches, and then succumbing to a bout of plantar fasciitis between May and July. Of her surgery, Mudge said "I'd worn away all my knee cartilage – more to do with my running style than the sport itself. I was running on the bare bone of my femur, so the surgeon drilled a lot of holes, which stimulates scar tissue, and eventually, I could run again. My knee was more painful afterwards than before. I was prepared for that, but was allowed to run for only ten minutes even months after the operation. I deliberately did not ask about the success or failure rate in order to keep a positive frame of mind. It was only six months later that a physiotherapist told me there were lots of people for whom the operation did not work."^[16]

Although she missed most of the summer, she recovered sufficiently to win the fifth World Masters Mountain Running Championship in England's Lake District in September.^[17]

[edit] Buff Skyrunner Series

For 2006 Mudge became a member of the Team SaabSalomon Adventure Running Team and competed in the Buff Skyrunner Series, a grand prix of eight high altitude endurance races around the globe. She did not participate in the opening race in Hidalgo, Mexico, but was victorious in four successive subsequent rounds in Zegama, Spain,^[18] Valposchiavo, Switzerland,^[19] Nagano, Japan,^[20] and Canazei, the Dolomites, Italy,^[21] breaking the course record on each occasion. She missed two subsequent events following the loss of her twin sister Janice to cancer,^[1] but her third place in the 20th Mount Kinabalu Climbathon in Malaysia in the final event of the season ensured she won the Series overall,^[22][23] along with the €3000 prize.

She also regained her Scottish Hill Running Championship title in 2006, winning all four of the events she entered.^[5]

[edit] Trivia

• Following her win in the World Mountain Running Trophy the previous year, she was one of only five Britons nominated at the 2001 Laureus World Sports Awards, alongside David Beckham (football (soccer)), Steve Redgrave (rowing), Jonathan Edwards (triple jump) and Lennox Lewis (boxing). However, she was unable to attend because she had already booked a long-planned holiday to the Antipodes and, she claimed, "...didn't possess a little black dress, and would only have wandered around collecting autographs."^[16]
• On her return from injury in 2005, she won three races in Switzerland and placed second in their National Championship. Her prizes included a large raclette cheese and a CHF50 voucher for a local florist. She had to decline the latter, as she had no place for a vase of flowers—she lives in a tent when touring the circuit, cooking over a gas stove and travelling to events by bicycle.^[16]
• When she was a teenager she raced on the track, but gave it up out of "boredom" and has never run since.^[16]

[edit] Selected results

• 1997

European Mountain Running Trophy (Ebensee, Austria) — 4th

British Fell Running Championship — 1st

Scottish Hill Running Championship — 1st

• 1998

British Fell Running Championship — 1st

Scottish Hill Running Championship — 1st

• 1999

European Mountain Running Trophy (Bad Kleinkirchheim, Carinthia, Austria) — 2nd

British Fell Running Championship — 1st

Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship (Wollaton Park, Nottingham) — 1st

Scottish Cross Country Championship — 1st

World Mountain Running Trophy (Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)

Individual championship — 7th

Team championship — 3rd

Mount Kinabalu Climbathon (Sabah, Malaysia) — 1st

• 2000

European Mountain Running Trophy (Miedzygorze, Poland) — 5th

World Mountain Running Trophy (Bergen, Germany) — 1st

British Fell Running Championship — 1st

• 2001

Cinq 4,000s, (Sierre-Zinal, Switzerland) — 1st

European Mountain Running Trophy (Cerklje, Slovenia) — 2nd

World Mountain Running Trophy (Arta Terme, Italy) — 5th

• 2002

European Mountain Running Trophy (Câmara de Lobos — Madeira)

Individual championship — 5th

Team championship — 3rd

World Mountain Running Trophy (Innsbruck, Austria) — 8th

• 2003

European Mountain Running Trophy (Trento, Italy), 2nd

Pikes Peak marathon — 1st

World Mountain Running Trophy (Girdwood, Alaska)

Individual championship — 2nd

Women's Team championship — 1st

Team championship — 3rd

• 2004

Mount Kinabalu Climbathon (Sabah, Malaysia) — 1st

Scottish Cross Country Championship — 3rd

• 2005

World Mountain Running Trophy (Wellington, New Zealand)

Individual championship — 20th

Over-35 championship — 1st

World Masters Mountain Running Championship (Keswick, Cumbria, United Kingdom) — 1st

• 2006

Buff Skyrunner Series — overall winner

Zegama, Spain — 1st

Valposchiavo, Switzerland — 1st

Nagano, Japan — 1st

Canazei, Italy — 1st

Mount Kinabalu Climbathon (Sabah, Malaysia) — 3rd

Scottish Hill Running Championship — 1st

[edit] External links

• "On the Trail With... Angela Mudge", Running Times article written by Mudge, published December 2003
• "My health: Angela Mudge", Hannah Currie, The Herald, August 7, 2006
• List of Scottish medallists at scottishathletics.org.uk
• Official mountain running world championship website
• Buff Skyrunner Series website
• Team SaabSalomon website
• Carnethy Hill Running Club website
• Interview with Angela Mudge for Carnethy Running Club website

[edit] References