Ellie Salisbury

I ran XC & 800m for my school & county, but did very little running throughout my 5 years at Vet School. After graduating, I began hill walking, then rock climbing, & in 1988, I decided to enter my first KIMM (held in the Cheviots), because of all the +ve feedback from local ‘mountain’ friends who’d entered the Snowdonia event the previous year. I was hooked, despite the abysmal weather, my useless nav skills & finishing nearly last on the shortest (C2) class. I have since completed 114 mountain marathons here in the UK, the Alps & Iceland, & I began fell running really to increase my fitness & ability to properly compete in MMs. (Sadly my nav hasn’t improved much over the years!)

I’m lucky to have stayed relatively injury-free & have therefore competed in fell races in N & S Wales pretty much every week since the early 1990s, & have also run in the N Wales XC League races every year since then. The support, camaraderie & friendship is amazing – I am a T1 Diabetic, & it’s of great comfort to me that ROs, marshals & fellow-runners always look out for me, & I am grateful that most ROs will let me take my Diabetic Assistance Dog with me. I’m really slow these days, achieving far better results on my road & mountain bikes, but I hugely value the social aspect of our great sport.

After 20+ years on Eryri Harriers’ committee, I offered to fill the vacant slot on the WFRA committee. I have no specific office, so tend to mop up tasks where I can eg I’ve designed & ordered new buffs/windscreen stickers/banners, organized 2 x 1 day First Aid courses here in N Wales, drawn up an inventory of our various trophies & ordered new ones for last year’s champs/series winners, & I am a member of the Women in Fell Running WG. I enjoy being part of such a pleasant, hard-working, interesting group of fell running enthusiasts.