MILLY VOICE

It’s a funny feeling when you think back to the summer. On the one hand it feels like so long ago, and yet on the other time seems to have gone by so quickly. I often think back to the race morning of the OCC. Getting up ridiculously early awaiting my journey from Chamonix to Orsieres (only to then run it back again ;) ). Anything from the down jacket I wore to travel, to the song they played at the starting line, now takes me back to my 53km mountain challenge.

However I got to relive the experience in an even more real way two weeks ago, when I went to the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in the Lakes. I had been to the festival the year before, and had no idea, then, that I would be featuring in it the following year after completing my first ultra-marathon. At that point I hadn’t even run a half marathon! Bonkers.

It was an amazing festival. To give you an idea of just some of the truly incredible work displayed, do watch (or indeed, re-watch) the trailer. I think it is marvellous to come to an event where people are honestly living out a dream, that however distant or unreachable it may seem, they find a determination, and therefore a way, to achieve it. This is pretty inspirational for the rest of us, and I left feeling really uplifted and thinking ahead to my own next goals for 2015.

Kendal Mountain Festival 2014 Trailer from Kendal Mountain Festival on Vimeo.

It was also wonderful to catch up with a very inspiring man and true friend. John Ellison, founder of Climbers Against Cancer, is one of the most positive, determined people I know. Despite his own battle with cancer, John has raised hope and awareness to thousands of other people with cancer. A real fighter and a true hero. Here we are re-enacting the same photo taken a year before – may there be many more annual pictures John.