A couple of weeks into her record-breaking 2,000km run through Europe's alps, Sophie Woods feared she might die. Woods and her photographer had just scaled a peak in Switzerland, when a severe thunderstorm engulfed them.
“The lightning was going off around us … there was nowhere to shelter in place [and] all the rocks around us were conductive,†Woods tells the Guardian, from her home in Andorra, nearly two weeks after she became the fastest person ever to run the Via Alpina, a rollercoaster network of alpine trails through eight countries.
“I was slightly concerned that one of us was going to die,†she says. “I ran so fast to get out of that.â€
Woods set off from Muggia, near Trieste, in Italy on 4 July to run the mountainous Via Alpina trail winding through Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, and Monaco with an ambitious goal: complete it in record time.
It was an Odyssean feat. As well as battling thunderstorms and several heatwaves, Woods faced another unexpected challenge.
At one stage, she had been running since 3am through Austria's mountains, amid unbearable heat. By mid-afternoon she was exhausted, hot and stressed about whether she and her crew had accommodation for the night.
Then, a swarm of blood-sucking horse flies descended.
“They were biting me, and I was already at my wit's end,†she says. “I'm screaming at them every time they bite me. All I wanted to do is curl up in the foetal position and cry.â€
Unable to outrun them, Woods put away her hiking poles and grabbed two handfuls of ferns. “I spent the next hour just whacking myself with these ferns everywhere and I looked completely nuts. It was horrendous.â€
In the face of extreme conditions, the 42-year-old New Zealander remained a cautious runner and kept focus – sometimes for 20 hours a day. One ankle sprain, or fall, could have scuppered her goal. Each day she consumed about 7,000 calories, and was supported by her husband, George Woods, and photographer Zoe Salt, who fed her, cooled her down and arranged rests and accommodation along the route.
By week three, she felt stronger than ever.
“My body was just like, ‘OK, this is our life now … we go out and eat mountains for breakfast.'â€
Woods ran through the night to reach the finish line in Monaco on 1 August, shuffling into the glitzy city-state exhausted, and grateful she and her team were still in one piece.
“You've used up everything … so it just was a sense of relief I don't have to run any more,†she says.
The journey had taken her a remarkable 28 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes – smashing the previous record of 35 days and 21 hours set by British runner Jake Catterall, and beating Dutch runner Tessa Caspers' previous best women's time of 38 days.
The record, Woods says, also belongs to her team: “It's a pretty massive thing to ask of anyone, and I'm just so grateful to them.â€
Realisations and inspiration
Born and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand, Woods showed little interest in running as child. After moving to the UK, aged 20, she started running to improve her health, initially managing just 15-minute jogs.
As her habit grew, she began running 10km races, which soon escalated to marathons. During the week, Woods worked at a hair salon, while her weekends were spent seeking out mountainous trails. After 16 years in London, she bought a camper van with her husband and spent the next seven years travelling Europe's mountains, before eventually settling in Andorra.
Woods has competed in dozens of premiere races, including running the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (a 170km mountain race) six times, the Tor des Géants (an extreme 330km endurance event) and more, over the past decade.
But by 2025, her joy in running started to wane. After several years attempting IVF treatment, Woods and her husband had to come to terms with infertility. As a result, each race felt like she was “just going through the motionsâ€.
“I was really struggling with the fact … that my life wasn't going to look different, that I wasn't going to be changing nappies and doing school runs,†Woods says.
On seeing his wife struggling, George Woods suggested they focus on a new challenge – Woods running the Via Alpina, with him as crew. The endeavour would have a profound effect on her love for the sport and her sense of self.
“I had come from a place with the IVF where I was not particularly in love with my body,†Woods says.
“But my love and respect for my body, and what she can do for me now, is just so much more. What she allowed me to achieve, in a way that was joyful … I just have so much more respect for myself.â€
Since completing the trail, Woods has been flooded with messages from girls and women around the world who want to try a 5km run or push themselves further. Her Instagram account has gained more than 55,000 followers in recent weeks.
Woods “never thought†she would be in a position to inspire others and the widespread interest in her feat has come as a surprise.
“When you're in the trail-running world, these things seem a lot more normal,†she says. “But it has blown up, and you start to understand that what you've just done is not normal at all.â€
