“Running is life..”
Ellie Lacey is a runner. If asked it’s how she defines herself: “I’m a runner. I run.”
And she does; nearly every day, whether in the gruelling Welsh hills of her adopted home or the jungles and misted mountains of East Africa, where she has established the Running the Rift. Running is Ellie’s life, and she’s very very good at it.
But for Ellie running is a gift, an opportunity to be cherished every time she laces up and hits the trails. Because Ellie isn’t just a runner; she is also a transplant survivor.
In January 2017, only weeks after returning from Uganda and a successful first staging of her Ugandan trail marathon, Ellie was lying in a hospital bed reeling from the news that her liver was failing. Without a transplant she had 48 hours to live.
She was rushed to the top of the Super Urgent Transplant list, though by that point the toxins fermenting in her system had reached her brain, leaving her confused and semi-lucid. Her family had been tested and deemed unviable donors. There was nothing to do but hope and wait.
“There were moments when fear consumed me and my instinct to live was frantic and desperate. There were also moments of total peace knowing I'd been lucky enough to travel, to really live, and to run all over the world.”
Thankfully a liver was found, though Ellie is under no illusion that it was at the cost of someone else’s life. She has clawed her way back to fitness with a determination fuelled by that recognition. It took Ellie only six months to progress from her first stumbling post-op steps to Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the British Transplant Games. It’s testament to her resilience, her love of the sport, and her unwillingness to waste a single step.
“I was told in no uncertain terms that running and fitness had been a factor in my survival, buying me time, and I ached to have it back in my body, making me strong again.”
Following her recovery Ellie has swiftly resumed the mantle of race organiser in Uganda, with the third annual Running the Rift due to take place this November. She is back to running everyday and uses both her status as a survivor and as a runner to promote organ donation.
Ellie is a visible advocate for donation, as evidenced by her appearance on television and other media. Of all her public statements, however, perhaps the most direct and to-the-heart is a mapped run that showed her gratitude writ-large.
Now, the next challenge. In her new role as Ambassador for Blacks Outdoor, Ellie will be travelling to Austria to participate in the inaugural adidas Infinite Trails World Championship. Taking place from 21-24th June 2018, the Infinite Trails is a brand-new trail-running Ultra Marathon with a team-oriented twist. Ellie will be the lynchpin of Team Blacks in a race that will see the team of three cover 124 kilometres and a total elevation of 7,400 metres in a single day.
Images by Michael Mueller
It’s no small ask. Following a mere 20km “prologue”, each member of the relay-team will have to conquer their own section of the race, with distances ranging from 25km to a massive 57km. Arcing out from the state-of-the-art Event HQ, each race-loop will climb one of the soaring, and brutally steep, mountains that ring the Gastein Valley. Ellie and her teammates will encounter waterfalls, suspension bridges and exposed ridges on their way to a dizzying summit. It will be breath-taking in every sense of the word.
“Nothing else could make me feel more alive than challenging myself in the mountains, and this is going to be one unbelievable challenge in one magnificent mountain range!”
If you're feeling inspired for your next run, get the latest adidas running kit from the Blacks range.
Find out more about the 2018 adidas Inifinite Trails World Championships.
