Hill runner Kirsty Dickson will make her international debut next month when she competes for Great Britain at the inaugural European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in El Paso, Spain.
Now based in Edinburgh – where she has spent the last two years undergoing dental vocational training – Dickson previously attended Banchory Academy in Aberdeenshire, and regularly returns to her family home in Bridge of Canny, Royal Deeside.
There, she will often find herself drawn to the vast expanses of the Cairngorms, or, on an easier day, a gentler run up Banchory’s Scolty Hill.
But Dickson’s philosophy is quite unlike that of many athletes competing at an elite level.
In fact, Dickson herself would not even class herself as particularly competitive. Her approach to hill running – Dickson specialises in the uphill only category – is one which revolves around running’s social element. The times, the mileage, the international call-ups, are all secondary.
That’s not what it used to be, though, and Dickson explains her previous mindset which, at one stage, was quite destructive.
Overcoming a destructive mindset
Studying dentistry at Glasgow University, Dickson worked and trained to an unsustainable intensity. It took an invitation from a friend to go for a run up Kilpatrick Hills, just outside Glasgow, for Dickson to reimagine her approach to a sport she had started to lose touch with.
She explained: “From a young age, it’s all about grades, it’s about achieving, it’s about winning.
“Even at sport, it’s about achieving and what you can do to win. It was just that (same) mindset at university.
“I found it very hard going from achieving very highly academically, and going into a pool of high achievers where you’re just someone. For me, that was something I placed self-worth on, and running was the same.
“You are a victim of your environment, and so I found myself drawn into splits, how fast I was running, and everything that goes around it – the disordered attitude towards eating, stress, and sleep.
“At a young age, I was so impressionable and so vulnerable, and really, I wasn’t able to stand up for what made me happy, because I thought the environment I was in would know better. It was a dysfunctional relationship.”
So, what changed? Often, it takes something spontaneous to wake one up to reality, and so it was for Dickson.
Running an ‘adventure’
Although it may have seemed counterintuitive at first, it was the removal of the goal, the doing away with measuring runs by speed, time, and distance, which brought Dickson back to the root of why she ran. Winning, achieving, and performing all faded into the background.
“It just made me remember that it was nothing to do with a time, it wasn’t competitive – it was more about being in nature that was one of the most important things. As childish as it sounds, it was just about going on adventure. I just fell in love with it.
“It just became a thing that I looked forward to the most – going out to a hill. I grew so fond of exploring, and exploring on your feet is an incredible capability.”
Dickson is now running the best she ever has – not that she feels a need to prove it. Had Dickson not been selected for the European Off-Road Running Championships, which take place in the first weekend of July, very little would have changed.
“I truly believe I do what I do because I love it every single day,” she said. “Even if I was the slowest person in Scotland, I would still do this every day – it’s the best thing I do every day. (Being selected) is an incredible opportunity, but I wouldn’t say I would change anything that I’m doing. My only goal is to enjoy it every day and be healthy physically and mentally.”
Dickson will fly out from Manchester on Monday as part of a team which also includes the Caithness-born Andy Douglas. The uphill race itself, which competitors can reccy beforehand, will be the first of the championships, allowing Dickson the rest of the weekend to, as she puts it, explore on her feet. The saying many nervous runners repeat to themselves before a competition is ‘it’s just another race’ – but for nerveless Dickson, it will simply be another adventure.
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