Some of us are like, “I’m gonna go for a quick 20-minute run in the neighborhood.”
Jenny Tough is like, “I’m gonna go for a 25-day run, it’s 900 km, oh, and it’s in Kyrgyzstan. I’ll be going solo… and then I’ll do that on five other continents.”
In this book, Jenny documents her trail-running journeys across mountain ranges on six continents over five years, including:
- Asia: Tien Shan — 980 km, ~+30,000 m, 25 days
- Africa: Atlas Mountains — 860 km, +25,000 m, 22 days
- South America: Bolivian Andes — 600 km, +40,000 m, 17 days
- Oceania: Southern Alps — 850 km, +17,000 m, 23 days
- North America: Canadian Rockies — 877 km, +24,350 m, 21 days
- Europe: Transylvanian Alps — 450 km, 11 days
In each chapter, we get insight into her experiences with the landscape — the weeds, the trees, the rocks, the mountain views, the cold, the heat, the wind. Each one presents a challenge to overcome or a moment of nature to savor.
There are people she meets along the way, and some of her experiences are slightly terrifying, while others highlight the best of humanity. I admire the way she faces the push-back she gets when doing something solo like this, how she stands her ground and refuses to let anyone stop her. Her fierceness in these moments is something I’ll never forget.
I also really appreciate her raw honesty in sharing the full spectrum of emotions throughout her journeys — the moments of wanting to give up, the mental exhaustion, the fear. I was right there with her on the days she spent drinking a beer or hiding from the rain in a room instead of in her bivy. The journeys were so long and all-encompassing that we see her full emotional range: some days filled with bliss as the sun shone and the run felt like pure freedom, and others where she could barely walk, overwhelmed by pain and darkness in her mind. But more than anything, we see her grit — her resilience to push on, her ability to shift her mindset, and her sheer determination to keep going, one step at a time.
Some of my favorite quotes are the ways she talks to herself to keep moving forward:
“I couldn’t expect things to get better — I could accept that they probably would not — but I could get better. I could get stronger. I could get tougher. I could rise to the challenge.”
“I would probably be very uncomfortable. I can be uncomfortable. Anyone can be uncomfortable. It’s just discomfort. You just need to be brave — brave enough to willingly enter that place that will not be comfortable.”
I am in awe because she simultaneously makes me think she is superhuman but also just like a normal me. Perhaps I can go running solo. Perhaps I can take on the highs and the lows and embrace the full spectrum of the experience. Perhaps bravery isn’t about having no fear at all — it’s about feeling the fear and pushing through it anyway.
And now I can’t stop wondering… what’s my version of a solo mountain run?
