Jen Scotney - Running Through the Dark: The rise and fall of an ultrarunner. A story about resilience, about never giving up, and about battling through the night and always believing that there will be a new dawn.
Release Date: 11/05/2024
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info_outlineJen Scotney boasts an impressive record as an ultrarunner with podium finishes in the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South and the 190-mile Northern Traverse. She is host of the Resilience Rising Podcast, a running coach, writer, Mountain Leader and yoga teacher, which have followed her career as a human rights lawyer.
Jen has appeared in magazine features for Runner’s World, Trail Running and Women’s Running. She has been a guest host on the Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel, and a previous guest on the Tough Girl Podcast.
Jen crewed for John Kelly’s successful Pennine Way fastest known time as well as for his Wainwrights Round in the Lake District. She grew up in the Peak District and now lives in the Scottish mountains with her husband Marcus and Sherlock the beagle. Running Through the Dark is her first book.
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Show notes
- Who is Jen Scotney
- Intro from 2018 TGP episode
- So much has changed in 6 years
- A new introduction for now
- Being based in the Scottish Highlands
- Not running anymore and what happened
- Chatting with Mimi Anderson
- No longer clinging onto the identity of being a runner
- Self worth in relation to challenges and big runs
- Using writing as a tool to help process
- Her dream of wanting to run the Pennine Way
- Getting a book deal and starting to write stories of runners
- Going through a period of chronic illness
- Wanting to share her story and get it out of her head
- 500 words a day
- Relief and fear of finishing the book
- Grief and loss
- Handing over control
- Recovering from chronic illness
- Resilience
- Starting the Resilience Rising Podcasts
- Why messiness is part of resilience.
- Taking the time to process and accept what’s happened
- Not signing up for the suffering
- Having a good time while running
- Why low points in a race are not comparable to real life challenges
- External validation
- What bring joy and happiness today
- Teaching yoga and growing fruit and veg
- Making changes in her life and doing a pivot
- Getting ok with uncertainty and change
- Choosing the uncertainty and being open to what comes up
- Advice for letting go of control
- Joining the local mountain rescue team in Scotland
- Working through a skill list and having monthly training
- Managing negative thoughts
- Dealing with 2 knee replacements
- Looking for her limit and finding out what she can do
- Start where you are
- Plans for 2025 - goal setting or going with the flow
- Practicing yoga for 15+ years
- Being a qualified Yin Yoga teacher
- Yoga Nidra and permission to rest
- Pushing back again busyness and perfection
- Relax and do more yoga
- Stop trying to be productive
- What needs to be let go off
- Being in the moment
- Keep connected to Jen
- Final words of advice
Social Media
Website: www.jenscotney.com
Instagram: @jenscotney
X/Twitter: @jenscotney
Vertebrate Publishing 
Books to inspire your next adventure. 
Based in Sheffield, the Outdoor City.
Instagram @vertebrate_publishing
X/Twitter: @VertebratePub
Book: Running Through the Dark: The rise and fall of an ultrarunner.
Ultrarunner Jen Scotney has achieved podium finishes in some of the UK’s toughest races and now has her sights firmly set on the Pennine Way. In Running Through the Dark, Jen talks about her ambitions, not just to run the 268-mile Pennine Way but to take the record as the fastest woman to do so. But that didn’t happen. Nothing went according to plan.
The Jen the world knew was a successful lawyer and running coach – all photoshoots and finish-line smiles – but the truth was much darker. The real Jen Scotney, the one she hid from everybody, suffered with chronic fatigue, debilitating injuries, tragedy, grief and at times had a will so beaten down by setbacks that there just didn’t seem any point in going on.
But she did go on. Running Through the Dark is Jen’s account of her ultra-journey. Playing out on the moors of the Pennines, the fells of the Lake District and the mountains of Wales and Scotland, this is much more than a running book, it is a story about resilience, about never giving up, and about battling through the night and always believing that there will be a new dawn.