Category: Uncategorized

Alaska WMRT: Melissa Moon ( NZ) leading Angela 

The European MRT 1999.

Sierre-Zinal: at the highest point of the race 

Copyright: W Stinn

Edinburgh WMRT:  Arthur’s Seat

World Cross-Country, Belfast

World Cross-Country, Belfast

Denis suggests that this one could be Reunion ’98 or Borneo ‘99

Sore injury in sunny Madeira

Photographs  1          Photographs 3

Three Peaks Race, 1999:  “Still pushing hard in the closing stages

Tasmanian Boat Race: Angela and Joyce Salvona

Angela, David Rodgers? Mark Rigby, possibly one of the juniors? Martin Hyman, (behind )Alan Milligan? Tracey Brindley, (Helene Diamantides behind flag) ‘Chunky’ Andrew Liston (with flag) and Megan Smith

Photographs  2     Photographs  3

That is some photograph.   All runners have injuries and some are more serious than others – for hill runners maybe most serious if they happen on the hills far from first aid.   Hill runners also have a problem that other runners don’t have – on the track, especially, but also  or the road, joint flexibility is a good thing but often comes at the cost of stability of the joint.   Hill runners really want both!   Then there is the nature of the terrain which is constantly changing and can cause serious injury – I know one very good runner who slipped when coming down a scree slope and ripped his thigh open.    As a genuine multi terrain runner and racer, Angela has had her share of injuries,but the season was never a write off and the seasons which were affected to some extent by injury are noted below.

Early Years   Cross-Country   Hard Racing Years 1   Hard Racing Years 2

2001 – 2019

Having read and studied the many stamina and character testing events up to this point it must be evident that the skills that must be mastered are many, not the least of which are navigational and which are often to be appied ‘on the hoof’ and in real time.    There are races – even our own Glencoe Skyline Races – which note on the information sheet for intending runners – “Risk of Death.”   Runners have respect for the hills and the conditions but they also have real respect for other runners on the hills.   Denis Bell adds these comments for our information:

“As we have said already, in testing conditions, hill runners need to be competent ‘orienteers’ or should we say good with map and compass .. Angela ranks herself as ‘good-competent’ but she acclaims Helene Diamantides and Brenda Boland as truly brilliant., and Angela openly admits to ‘several mistakes’…if you are very good, you need to be very honest. Angela is and always has been very true to basics and ‘the obvious truths’!!!”

In this context he adds: 

”  Two lovely wee stories Angela shares are, first, when she was out with her beloved twin sister Janice and on Ben Dorian, it was rough and snowy ( hill runners will get ‘that’!) and the map blew away…they were using the attachable grippers called ‘Katulas’ and they got off safely….!

When hiking Angela will go with ‘full Winter gear’ …but will not go into the mountains in ‘bad’ weather and unknown territory….(we talked about a tragedy a year ago and both Angela and I agreed with incredulity, about the ‘top racer’s choices’….).

The second story, is this one.    She winces a wee bit when recalling being on a buttress of An Teallach, in the Winter, with Helene in the lead, and with Mark Johnston and Adam Ward (great hill friends all over many years) and conditions were very, very ‘sketchy’ ( sketchy??   ’we’ ‘the readers’ need to be considering this as significant risks!!).

2006: World Sky Running: won all races, broke all records except Kinabalu

Early Years   Cross-Country   Hard Running Years 1      Injury Troubled Years

1995 – 2002

Angela also had a very good career as a cross-country runner running in all the major championships domestically at club, unioversity, national and international levels.   It would doubtless have been even more impressive had she not chosen to exercise her talents in other branches of the sport.   The highlights are summarised here before the actual races are noted below.

In the Scottish Senior National  Cross-Country Angela won the title in 1999, when Carnethy were third team; and finished second in 2000. She won the Scottish Masters Cross-Country title in 2014. As a Senior, Angela ran three cross-country international matches for Scotland: 1999 at Belfast (second Scot; the team lost to England but beat Ireland and Northern Ireland); 1999 at Cumbernauld (first Scot; lost to England, beat Northern Ireland and Wales); 2000 at Belfast (first Scot). 

** with Cupar

Back to  the early years   Forward to the hard running years  1   and   Hard running years 2   The Injury Troubled Years

It is always interesting, and indeed important, to look at the start of arunner’s career.   Angela talks of her own start in the sport in an interview with Karla Borland this year for the scottishathletics website.   She says:

“At school I was too slow for the sprints and put in the 1500m because no one else wanted to do it. I found I was good at endurance events and ran cross country and track at county level. I kept fit from participating in all sports and didn’t join a club until I was 16, when a club was formed in my hometown.

As an undergraduate I became disillusioned with running and started orienteering. Most university races were short relay events where I’d race the first and last race because we didn’t have enough women to make up the team. On graduating I moved to Stirling for a Masters. The deciding factor was a picture of Dumyat on the front of the prospectus. At Stirling I was introduced to hill running and found my very ungainly style really suited this discipline and I loved the rough terrain, mud and being exposed to the elements.”

What we have below are races at the very start of her career in the hills.

Angela Mudge  Cross-Country   The Hard Racing Years  1   The Hard Racing Years  2   The Injury Troubled Years

Back to       Angela Mudge: A Special Person

Travels

In 2000 after winning the World Trophy, Adam Ward (Carnethy) and I set off to New Zealand for nearly 6 months via Borneo to race in Mount Kinabalu.   The ladies race was going to the summit (the first time in a number of years) but unfortunately a monsoon hit, the trails were treacherous and we only raced to the half way point Laban Rata, a mountain refuge.   I  ‘finished’ as first woman.

We then spent a month in Oz before hitting the trails of New Zealand. We found very few races out there but made the most of the great walks, travelling extensively on both North and South Islands, running and backpacking various trails.

When I returned to the UK I spent a short time in Scotland before heading out to the Alps on my bike, to train and compete for the Summer.

2000 to 2002  I cycle toured round the Alps stopping at various locations to race and train.

In 2003 I spent the Summer training in Colorado, before heading to Alaska for the World Trophy, then competing in Pikes Peaks Marathon (1st lady) that Summer. 

In 2006 I inherited some dogs, so from then on I took the car when I spent an extensive period training and racing in the Alps. 

 Cycle touring 

When I’m injured I normally turn to the bike and go cycle touring, and that became more common after 40! 

South America

From Oct 2009 to April 2010  I cycled down South America with Steve Bottomley, a hill runner from Pudsey and Bramley (Leeds club).

I spent 6 months clinging on to Steve’s back wheel, a far stronger cyclist than me.

We set off from Quito, Ecuador and finished in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego…..passing through Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina along the way.

It was an amazing experience, passing through some very harsh landscapes at high altitudes and experiencing ‘communities’ poverty’ for long stretches of the way.

We didn’t plan a route before the trip, just made it up as we went along, using recommendations from other cyclists and trying to avoid the impossible winds.

Several friends said you don’t want to cycle in Patagonia, the winds are strong, that was an understatement some days you couldn’t even sit on your bike without being blown over!! Other days the tailwind gave an exhilarating cycle……

Along the way we stopped at various mountains, volcanoes, to climb them and do a bit of running. We got into the routine of 100 mile plus days which was pretty hard going for days on end at altitude.

We stayed in hostels and camped along the way. 

Great Divide

In March 2014 I tore my Spring ligament (whilst reccy’ing for the LAMM (Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon) in Strath Carron hills) and was unable to run for a very long time.

In mid August 2014 I set off to cycle the Continental Divide with Anna Lupton an English hill runner.

The route starts in Banff, Canada and follows the watershed across the Rocky Mountains to the New Mexico – Mexico border.

There is a continuous race along the trail but we chose to pack heavy, i.e. cycle with the traditional overloaded panniers and take our time.

The route is nearly 3000 miles and travels down the backbone of the Rockies, British Colombia, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico.

For very long stretches there are no amenities so you have to carry four or five days worth of food and even several days worth of water in some stretches.

In these very remote areas, the route map gave information about where you could find water and food.

It’s unlike anything else I’ve experienced, travelling vast distances across high desert in boiling temperatures through the day, then freezing at night.

We quickly learnt to camp low! Most of the route follows dirt tracks, approx 20% of the route is on road, the majority on gravel, and a bit of single track.

When we reached New Mexico we thought it was going to get easier and didn’t appreciate that we still had days left of cycling above 2000m and had to contend with the rainy season which left the dirt roads impassable.

The mud clogging up the mechanisms.

Luckily the Aspens were changing to Autumnal colours which made it all worth while.

We were cycling for about 6 weeks and spent over 75% of this time camping rough and getting very smelly.

I love the nomadic nature of a long tour where you set off but never know where you will end up that night.

Iron Curtain Trail

In 2015 after an ankle operation on my ‘spring ligament’, I did very little competitive running so headed off on the bike to cycle some of the Iron Curtain Trail.

This runs along the ‘old’ Iron Curtain, following the boundary as closely as possible.

I started in Norway and spent 6 weeks heading south, no planned destination, just phoned Adam (Ward) to book me a ticket home when I was five weeks into the trip.

I travelled down the length of Finland, across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and finished in Vienna, Austria.

I’d never visited the Baltic nations before so it was interesting to experience a different culture and see the contrasts with the Europe I know.

The route followed the old East – West German border; even today you can witness how much poorer the East is.

To this day I’m still unsure why I cycled over 1000km through the forests of Finland, the road surface was perfect, but the scenery  very repetitive and the mosquitos a nightmare.

 Iceland

Adam and I also cycled round Iceland over a 3 week period.

Norway

In 2012 I cycled-toured in Norway, racing at Fanaraken Opp and Skaala Opp 

My inputs into ‘racing’ Events…

It’s also probably worth mentioning the LAMM (@Lowe Alpine@ Mountain Marathon)- I spent 19 years helping out at this event.

In 1999 Martin Stone (the leading exponent of long-distance or ‘ultra-type’ mountain events, for a great number of years) asked if I would help place controls (‘orienteering’ markers) for the event….I couldn’t race because it was too close to the European Mountain Running Championships, so I spent the week before the event helping put controls out.

This continued for a few years then in 2003 at the Spittal of Glenshee event, I was promoted to ‘Controller’ and in 2004 I planned my first MM in Glen Carron – it snowed in June!!

From 2003 onwards I was either the event planner, or controller, planning the final event on the Isle of Harris in 2018.

I was working with Andy Spencely (Carnethy) for several of the events.                                                       

I loved working on the LAMM, since the nature of the event took us on remote terrain which very few people visit, giving a very different perspective to the Scottish hills.

Some of the areas we never wanted to visit again (exceedingly ‘tough experiences’!) but others are gems that should be kept secret. 

Footnote – by Denis Bell

Angela’s recounting of these ‘expeditions’ tells us so much about the ‘calibre of the Woman’ and what makes her tick…it is recounted that Angela’s passion is for the mountains, and wild places… ‘any day’ she would rather explore and yomp the hills than go to ‘a race’…’any race’.

Her nature is … -to be challenged, rise to the challenge, and see what happens-.

Such is the drive that when injuries started to take their toll on her racing abilities, she immediately swung onto ‘different things’ and recounting these bike-trail walking ventures, shows the determination to have a go and succeed…

   —- this is the absolute reflection of her wonderful running career from relatively meagre beginnings towards being a ‘superstar’…(Angela will be scornful of that type of appreciation because she is so very humble and self-effacing).

Another key item to highlight is that during the challenges of serious injury, remedial surgery, the aspect of ‘natural’ wear and tear, Angela always took the steady and wise road back…stretching over many, many months and even covering ‘years’,…this in itself is remarkable because, as the results and achievements show, the outcomes went from outstanding to outstanding one way or another…

My reflections and considerations indicate that such is the range of events, the scope and types of races and events participated in, the focus and dedication, the drive to do things so that ‘the impossible or very tough might be achieved’, the indomitable attitude to year after year competing with the very best (even in remote and ‘exotic’, ‘strange’ places) etc then Angela Mudge has to be clearly recognized as an outstanding competitor and challenger.

Angela has proven to be inspirational to many peer athletes, and younger people entering ‘athletics’ but naturally focused on the strange environment of HILL RUNNING…!!! In what other sport can there be such complexity of variation?

Angela too has given back in huge effort ‘a balance of what she has gained and taken for hill running’ by dedication to the furtherance of the sport and always active in its development and promotion (it is no wonder that Angela and our sport’s dear departed maestro Martin Hyman got on so well, as athlete benefiting from coach and mentoring, the athlete to develop into a ‘mentor and coach’ herself).

Compiling a Profile of such a Talent is a big job! The athletic career spanning so many years; some years of prolific racing in all manner of events….races, various Championship races, Trials/ selection races, Internationals, Grand-Prix series, etc.

Trying to understand ‘the person’ the background, the introductions, the development, the range of performances (look at ‘overall placings [o/a] in races’, which some peers will understand included positions high up in amongst top-class male athletes!), the motivation when things go badly wrong, the recovery and courage to go again, the humility in both winning and being defeated, the drive, and the passion, the utmost LOVE of the HILLS (Angela is a die-hard woman of Scotland!)/ MOUNTAINS (or elsewhere in the World!) and WILD PLACES …Angela Mudge …a complex, hugely successful Woman who is a super-star by any account.

Angela’s beginnings were humble… (read perhaps Jonny Muir’s ‘Mountains Calling’) and my recollections of Angela starting out in the early 90s…not very long before my own career was running out…and her introduction to Hill Running, and Cross Country, and running events …was not exceptional, and in most respects belie what was to come in the not-too-far-off future…

Angela was not a classy runner of style, more a competitor who tried …as we all have to, at one level or another.

Angela’s story of the beginnings in Scotland… (Angela and family all hail from Devon, dare I say then proud ‘Celts’…?)

‘’…Arrived in Stirling in 1991 to study MSc Environmental Management at Stirling University.    I was an orienteer having got disillusioned with the running scene at Leicester University as an undergraduate – too many short road relays for me.  I was introduced to hill running by the guys that worked at the Uni and ran up Dumyat in their lunchtimes and then went on to form Ochil Hill Runners. As a junior I competed at county level in Track and Cross-Country, so think the talent was there but I lost fitness at University and suffered from sports anaemia so was always running low on iron.

I worked in a chemistry lab (Forth River Purification Board) in my early 20s.   I hated it, but the move to Edinburgh helped me with my training, leading to more quality work rather than long slow runs. I left to study for my PhD at Edinburgh Uni in 1995.   

On graduating I spent a period travelling, and then returned to work as a temp at the Scottish Executive for around 3 years. My boss let me disappear in the Summer to race, and re-employed me when I returned. The job was in the education department so I wasn’t required over the Summer months (good compromise – DB).

In 2005 I decided to train as a sports and remedial massage therapist, so I had the freedom to travel/race and work with athletes.

I’ve been on the ScottishHillRunning committee for many years, think I started in my late 30s and still sit on the committee. I now work for Scottish Athletics, a day a week, as their Lead for hill and mountain running.    In theory I’m starting a part time role with UK Athletics as their mountain running expert: still to get a contract!!

(Denis says “We should probably mention that Angela spends more time with her Jack Russells than human company, training mates on the hill until they break….”)   

Denis again: As Angela developed and gradually matured into a ‘runner’ with a honed runner’s physique, she gained confidence and results, and stuck with it over those early years….gaining more and more success, getting closer and closer to the then ‘top ladies’ … ladies who I may say had already a decent number of years as ‘good athletes’ and also matured into top class race winners and high placers (some of those stars of the time were Helene Diamantides (married name, Whitaker); Angela Carson (Brand-Barker), Christine Menhennet, Sarah Rowell, Trish Calder, Janet Kenyon, Joyce Salvona, Jane Robertson, Sue Ridley, Menna Anghared, Megan Smith, Sonia Armitage, Penny Rother, Tracey Brindley, Jenny Rae, Yvette Hague, Sue Ridley, Carol McCarthy, Kate Jenkins, Karen Powell, Wendy Dodds, Victoria Wilkinson, Lucy Colquhoun, Jill Mykura, Dawn Scott, Claire Gordon, Nicola Davies, Anna Bartlett, Elke Schmidt (married, Prasad) and a goodly list of many others, including more of the top English ladies … fine athletes all…).

You’ll see this pattern of performances from the results lists, that results were very varied (mediocre, earlier on… to brilliant overall), and prolific (up to about 20 events some years) all achieved over the years from the purple period 1995 to 2014.

Angela got going in 1992, then over a few years really got stuck in and started to show her mettle and competitive spirit. The results speak for themselves, and right through to about 2004 when she got a damaged knee (osteochrondal defect, leading to surgery in August that year and two months non-load bearing, followed by many months in rehab…). The canny approach led to a busy season in 2007 which produced grand results, until an Achilles injury all through 2008-into 2009 Winter.    This led to a lighter number of events programme.

Then in 2011 the ‘operated-on knee’ flared up again and Angela struggled most of the year.

In 2014 Angela ruptured her ‘spring ligament’ whilst reccy-ing the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon ‘area’, and this specific damage was not properly diagnosed until more than 12 months later  and she  only raced Melantee, with an ankle operation in the December (and guess who met AM after many years of no contact in the Consultant’s surgery?! Yep DB). Again months of rehab and in the June got competing again but only FRA Relays in Luss (hosts were Westerlands with loads of helpers on a very miserable weekend!)   She still struggled with the ankle through 2017 but. nevertheless, going forward to 2020 Angela’s target was to do 50 races in her 50^th year but Covid ’19 blew that objective …. and another injury was picked up.

So. looking back over her career so far, what’s the picture?

A very steady ‘apprenticeship few years’ leading through to a matured, honed,  high quality athlete… who took on all-comers across the UK and into Europe, and beyond… Angela very clearly identifies a ‘breakthrough’ occurrence at the European Championships at Ebensee, Austria in 1997…this was  an Uphill only race  [there was a two year switch between ‘Up and Down’ and ‘Uphill only’ between the World Mountain Running Trophy events, and then the following year European Championship events …].

Angela’s passion has been for ‘uphill only races’ — long, hard, steep, tough terrain…the passion and competitiveness shine through when she says this…. and it’s a wee reflection of her own self-effacing admission that on ’standard race courses‘ she was not always capable of taking the race to the very front level… but!!!…. yes,   please see the results.

Angela knew very clearly that you could only race so many, and keep a standard; she also readily admits that if you don’t race against the best you will never beat them hence the regular forays into England (not unfair to say there  are generally tougher fields of participants…..remembering England’s Fell Runners Association had about 4,500 members compared to Scotland’s 400…), sometimes Wales (and of course Ireland for championship events) but also Angela had a great passion for the Continent and further afield.

The picture emerges of an absolutely shrewd, focused, highly-tuned, calculating, driven, ‘Give your absolute best’ performer – who came through the ranks, and simply ‘’Topped the Field’’ at World Class level. Make no mistake, Angela sacrificed and thereby gained. Her lifestyle and brains, coupled with some light touch but hugely valued ‘coaching and mentoring’ by our very own Martin Hyman (R.I.P.,  great man) allowed her to plan year on year, and do colossal stuff in self-fulfillment, and very shrewd physical preparation for the top World race events.

We have:

*Cross Country, Road, Hill (and Mountain), Mountain marathon events and races, local Scottish Championship races; English and Welsh (and later European) raid races, and

*Championships (British, World Mountain Trophy, European, Grand Prixes…);

*selection races for internationals; ‘International’ races;

*one-off championship races;

*ultra-races; spectacular ultra-long-distance travel sorties, including cycling and wild camping,

*self-sufficient ‘unorganised’; triathlons;

*loads of hill walking (a much-favoured, she says ‘beautiful way to spend days and weeks’!); and wild-water swimming! 

A heady mix from an aspiring younger, inexperienced emerging athlete of sorts, to a colossus in the midst of the World’s best.

When you look at the RANGE and SCOPE of EVENTS, thinking about how this was all planned into the weeks and months and years…the focus to peak at the right times, and get the right conditioning done for such a VARIETY of demands on the body is in my humble opinion, tending towards remarkable if not virtually unbelievable, remembering Angela had to work all the while to chase her passions and events calendars.

Angela’s HISTORY speaks volumes.

Angela’s race record HISTORY speaks for itself, as she grew, progressed and pinnacled at the very top.

Angela’s persona as a MOUNTAIN LOVER shines through the most dreich day, the densest fog, the darkest night…above all else ‘being in the mountains, enjoying myself ‘ is the unbridled passion and spirit of life. Simply, a good trip into the Hills beats everything else …even the best results of best races.

Angela is so unassuming that whilst recognizing ‘she’s done alright’ there are others now about (Jasmin Paris, Anna Rutherford, Jill Stephen, Catriona Morrison, Stephanie Provan, Sarah O’Neill, Charlotte Morgan, Sally Wallis, Hannah Russell, Sharon Taylor, Catriona Graves, Kelli Roberts) doing marvellous things that are ‘way ahead of her record’… she believes, and thinks, and says.

My thoughts are that the written history will determine whether Angela’s achievements are as modest as they might seem, when she makes light of herself in comparisons… I think a colossal record over 15 years will be a tough call for anyone to equal.

The accompanying sets of ‘results’ speak for themselves.

Angela has had a career in athletics that is awesome.   

She also committed very many years ago to work in the Sport (Hill and Mountain running) on BEHALF of others, especially youngsters but actually all-comers who want to do the sport and get better…. Angela is so appreciative of what she personally has gained and the way she was encouraged and nurtured through the tough years, developing and then injury-plagued, that her modus operandi is ‘’what can I do for The Athletes’’; she had an exemplary figure in MARTIN, and has a very close-knit selected friends pool, who are like-minded; their commitment to this complex sport is exemplary.

Back to   Angela Mudge: A Very Special Person     Angela Mudge: An Overview of Adventures

A very special athlete, a special person.

Scotland has produced many very good distance and ultra distance runners who are known all over the world for their skills and fortitude.   Given the nature of the country this is maybe not surprising but names such as  Colin Donnelly, Helene Diamantides and Angela Mudge have learned their trade  and developed their skills (for hill running demands particularly wide ranging skills) and then shown them further afield in the various hill and mountain championships, international matches and races.    Finlay Wild, who has done so well in the past 12 years is ‘the fully fledged package’ I am told by hill runners, but the only question is will he stand the test of time?   He does not have the breadth of racing experience that those already mentioned have.  One would hope that he had another ten years at least at the top but only time will tell.

  Angela is one of the very finest: she has run on all five continents,  in all temperatures, on all sorts of surfaces and over distances from the local Cathkin Braes to an eight day trans Alpine and in events using bicycles as well as running (eg the Highland Duathlon of 20 miles running plus 30 miles cycling).   This has been in addition to the more conventional domestic races such as the district and national cross-country championships, her own club’s Carnethy races , and others.   

The survey of her career below is by Colin Youngson, himself a noted endurance athlete with three Scottish marathon victories to his credit and a total of 10 Scottish marathon championship medals in his cabinet at home.  This is followed by pages on 

Angela’s Career in the Hills  by Denis Bell,  Angela’s own 0verview on some of her  Adventures in the Hills, 

Her travels and racing career  over 5 pagesand then

some pages of her own photographs. starting on that page.  

Angela Mudge in the Carnethy colours at the Ben Nevis Hill Race in 2008.

 One of the best hill runners we have had in Britain is an English born woman who has run her entire career for Scotland – Angela Mudge is world famous.   We just had to include her here.

Doug Gillon at his best is a superb journalist who passes on a lot of information in every piece he writes but mixes it in with illuminating comment and a degree of insight which is all too often missing from our sports pages.   In an article in ‘The Herald’ of Friday, 23rd September 2005 he wrote an excellent article about one of our greatest endurance athletes – Angela Mudge – which I will reproduce in its entirety here.    He wrote:

A mountain to climb?   Mudge now at her peak.   Leading endurance athlete tells Doug Gillon she is now ready for the ultimate challenge.

In some sports Angela Mudge would travel business class with a retinue of managers and medics, living in five-star luxury, her future assured by whacking endorsement income and prize money.   Her recent winnings were a Swiss cheese and a voucher for a bunch of flowers.   She declined.   Vases, when you live in a tent, are excess baggage.

Hill-running is an under-estimated discipline.   As befits its rigours, competitors take life and hazards in their stride.   Mudge has spent two months during the past year on crutches after radical surgery to correct a serious knee problem that already had her considering alternative sports.   “I’d worn away all my knee cartilage – more to do with my running style than with the sport itself,” she said.   “I was running on the bare bone of my femur, so the surgeon drilled a lot of holes, which stimulates scar tissue and I could run again.   My knee was more painful afterwards than before, I was prepared for that, but was allowed to run for only 10 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 that there were lots of people for whom the operation did not work.   Taking rehab slowly has been the key to success, although I had plantar fasciitis which put me out of action again from the end of May to the beginning of July this year.”   Since then she has recovered dramatically training for five weeks and racing four times in Switzerland.

“I won three races and was second in the Swiss Championships on the Matterhorn.   There was a raclette cheese for winning one race and a 50 franc voucher from a flower shop for another which I gave back.   There was nothing for the third but it’s not about the prizes.”   Mudge reckons she is short of the form required to reclaim the individual crown at the world mountain running trophy, but still believes the Scottish women’s team can be on the podium.   In her final race before her departure for Wellington, where she leads the Scots on Mount Victoria, Mudge won the world masters title in the Lake District by nearly three and a half minutes.   “It was the first time I’d raced downhill since the operation,” said the 35 year old Carnethy runner.

In the 2000 World Mountain Running Championships, Mudge won the world title, while in 2003 she won silver and led the Scottish team to gold in the only athletics discipline in which Scotland now competes at world level.

Overtaking on some descents can be more hazardous than on a Formula One racetrack.   Mudge is a former winner of the world climbathon on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo where there were sheer drops.   She had to sign a disclaimer absolving organisers from liability.   Little wonder.   This was the mountain on which ten British squaddies got lost for several weeks yet it was all in the day’s run to Mudge.   She has raced in New Zealand before having speent six months there with a boyfriend.   Laureus tried to tempt her home when she was short listed for the world extreme sportswoman of the year title but she declined the all-expenses trip.

The only other British nominees were in other categories.   Steve Redgrave, David Beckham, Jonathan Edwards and Lennox Lewis among 75 luminaries boasting 316 Olympic and World titles at a glittering gala dinner in London’s Albert Hall.   Mudge preferred a meal cooked in the open “and camping in a tent high up in the Southern Alps”.   She added that she did not possess a little black dress and would only have wandered around collecting autographs.

A Stirling University chemistry graduate with a PhD and MSc, she worked temporarily as a research assistant with a recycling agency for six months over the winter while in rehab but quit for the competitive season.   She cycled and camped the length of Switzerland to cut costs.   “Sometimes I meet up with other runners and I’m happy to join them but I am just as happy to do everything myself, preparing meals on my little gas cooker.”

Mudge overcame being born with her feet facing the wrong way and the boredom of track running as a teenager – she has never done it since – to become Britain’s greatest hill racer.   She has collected the UK cross-country title and contested the world championships in that discipline along the way, but the hills are where her heart lies.

“Before this latest operation I was unsure whether I would be able to carry on running.   I would just have picked another sport, like cycling, which is compatible.   It was always in the back of my mind.   I’ve set no goals for New Zealand.   It’s more of a trail race than open mountain so it will be quick and I’m not as sharp as I’d wish.   It would be stupid to focus on the top fve when I could finish fifteenth and still have an excellent run, but I think we can medal if all the girls run well.”    The Standard Life Scottish team includes Tracy Brindley, the 2003 individual world bronze meallist, and British champion Jill Mykura and runner-up Sula Young, but is minus Lyn Wilson, Mudge’s clubmate and former world gold medal team-mate who tackles the Berlin Marathon tomorrow.

“I did not go out too early to New Zealand,” adds Mudge, “because it would be just another week with disturbed sleep.   I don’t do time change well.   I like to see the course, but too much of it beforehand is not good for me.   If you’re having a bad run, you know what is coming up.”

Whatever the outcome, there is no end in sight.   “I can’t see myself doing world and European championships for many years more”, she says, “but I’ve missed a lot of races through doing championships.   I’ll continue until my body falls apart.   With any luck I’ll still be doing women’s 65+ races in 30 years.”

That’s the end of Doug’s article and she did indeed run in the World Mountain Running Championships that year – and won the W35 age group race while finishing 20th overall.

When researching this article we were advised to look at the Wikipedia article on Angela Mudge – and it was all there!   Her entire career up to and including 2008 when she won the Ben Nevis race and the Sky Race in Switzerland with three seconds in Switzerland, Italy and the WMRA Championships.   They have done a very good job and those interested in Angela Mudge as an outstanding hill-runner should look it up at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Mudge    That will give the whole story of the wonderful career of Angela Mudge so far.    You will already have noted a lot about her character, her integrity and her competitive nature from Doug’s writing.   Angela has been inducted into the Scottish Athletics Hall of Fame.

What more to add here?   Well   we have already noted that an ambition was to run the Lakeland Classics in her ‘50th year’ (V50.) but like many an aim, a bit interrupted due to Covid. We shall see what develops  on that front..??!!

And of course, she has shown herself a dedicated sportswoman giving back to the sport  (‘shedloads’ says DB) she loves her work with Scottish Athletics..  She can relate to athletes’ needs and aspirations, has great friends in the sport, and finds it so good to be able to communicate with and on behalf of kindred spirits.   

Last word to Denis: “It cannot be said often enough that this wonderful adopted daughter of Scotland is a treasure.. so highly respected and so admired as a brilliant athlete, and person of such upstanding credibility.   The Star burns brightly.”

1995 – 2010

Going into this phase of Angela’s career, and bearing in mind that very few Scots have experience of such extreme hill running as she has, or have competed in races as far afield as she did almost as a matter of course, we should note with reference to some of the following events: 

1.   Back in ‘97, at the 4th Euro Champs., she got 4th behind the Italian Ladies,1,2 and 3… but beating Carol Greenwood (the brilliant English lady) into 5th..
2. At Bergen, there’s interesting informational detail like she had trained 6 weeks at altitude (St Moritz, and Davos) and was cycling and camping – in the Rhone Valley and went for the Susa race which was poor, but then at Bergen it was like ‘effortless’ .. beating Birgit Sonntag, Germany (who had been winning everything)
3.  Sierre Zinal.. when Angela got the record, 2001, none other than Veronique Marot  held it for at least 10 years previously.  Angela took 5 minutes from it and she became the first woman under 3 hours.   
4. For the Alaska WMRT, Angela had spent Summer in Colorado.  In the race she was second and won first team along with Tracey and Lynne.
5. In Shilthorn, Alps, the race has an ending called ‘the infernal 1/2 mile’ which is uphill for 2,500 metres and then the last 400 is desperately steep (Angela’s absolute ‘cup of tea’!!) and she felt very strong having been at altitude.
6. There are several Sky-Running events and from those she recalls in particular the Dolomites,  Piz Boe,   over a distance of 24kms, 1 climb, I descent and again doing superbly well and hard for it.
7. Going onto KIMMS (Karrimor International Mountain Marathon which became the OMS) which involves mountain marathons over 2 days  and bivvying out overnight,  Angela recalls the event at ‘Manor Water’ (Dumfries and Galloway) in ’95 and says the weather was shocking.   With Nicola Davis she got First Elites; then same in South Wales in ‘96 again with Nicola. … 

These are a few of the many quite outstanding feats which she has to her credit and they should be borne in mind while studying the following tables – ‘endurance events’ is not an accurate description of most of them, they are more than that.

Angela’s comments on the Mountain Marathons are – 

“KIMM in 1995 was manor water in the Borders and gorgeous weather.

1996 it was Dumfries & Galloway and shocking weather!

2003 I was 2nd overall with Brendan Bolland in the elite, def our best result. Cheviot.”

KIMM – Karrimor Mountain Marathon.   Run in teams of two, read more about it at  Original Mountain Marathon – Wikipedia

LAMM – Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon

WMRT – World Mountain Running Trophy                           0/a   Overall

***  First Mixed Team

The Early Years  Cross-Country   Hard Running Years  2    Injury Troubled Years