Beth Pascall (born 15 September 1987) is a British ultrarunner and

paediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their yout ...

. Among her victories are the Spine Race in 2015, the Ultra Trail Cape Town in 2019 and the

Western States Endurance Run The Western States Endurance Run, known commonly as the Western States 100 or Western States, is a 100.2-mile (161 km) ultramarathon that takes place on California's Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada Mountains trails each year on the last ...

in 2021.

Biography

Beth Pascall grew up on her parents' family farm. She didn't discover sport until she studied medicine at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, where she took up rowing. While volunteering at a children's hospital in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, she decided to specialise in

paediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...

. She turned to

trail running Trail running is a type of running that takes place on outdoor trails, often in mountainous terrain, and often includes significant ascents and descents. It is similar to both mountain running, mountain and fell running (also known as hill r ...

, as it was easier to balance with working life. She launched herself directly into

ultramarathon An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of . The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running. Various distances, surfaces, and formats are raced competitively, from the ...

distances. In 2015, she was winner of the Spine Race. In 2016, she took part in the Trail World Championships in Gerês where she finished eighth. Together with Jo Meek and Jo Zakrzewski, she won the bronze medal for Great Britain in the team classification. In the 2018 Pascall and Damian Hall ran the Cape Wrath Trail, self-supported and during winter. They achieved a fastest known time, and a documentary ''Wrath'' was made following their attempt. In 2019, she ran the Ultra Trail Cape Town. In the absence of rivals Courtney Dauwalter and Lucy Bartholomew, both of whom withdrew at the last moment, she dominated the race, completing the course in 10:55:48 and setting a new women's course record. In 2020, she took on the Bob Graham Round, taking advantage of the absence of competitions during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Having trained specifically for the challenge, she aimed for a time of 15:23, one minute ahead of the record of Jasmin Paris. However, she completed the course in 14:34:26, improving the women's record by fifty minutes and setting the fourth-best overall time in the Bob Graham Round behind Kílian Jornet, Billy Bland and Rob Jebb. In 2021, won the Canyon 100k in 10:01:55, more than half an hour ahead of her closest pursuer, Abby Hall. She then ran the

where she quickly took control of the race. Leading at a steady pace, she didn't let up, trying to maintain a lead over her pursuers Ruth Croft and

Ragna Debats Ragna Debats (born 22 March 1979) is a Spanish-born Dutch female snowshoe runner, trail runner and sky runner. She was European champion in skyrunning (2017) and bronze medal at the world championships in the trail running (2016). In the ...

. She finally won in 17:10:42, finishing seventh overall and setting the second-best women's time in the event behind Ellie Greenwood's record of 16:47:19 set in 2012. Following a pelvic injury, Pascall took up endurance gravel racing and mountain biking. In 2022, she won second place in the Raiders Gravel race in Scotland. She also set the speed record on the Lakeland 200k mountain biking route.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pascall, Beth Living people 21st-century British sportswomen Alumni of the University of Nottingham British female mountain runners British ultramarathon runners Sportspeople from Derbyshire 1987 births