Lucy Gossage says the Spine race gave her closure after betrayal

When Lucy Gossage stopped in the starting line of an ultra marathon in January, she realized that she had already required.

A year earlier, the cancer doctor had completed the same 268 mile career (430 km), described as the most brutal in the United Kingdom, along with his partner.

But shortly after finishing, she discovered that he had a leg cheating her.

Lucy, who studied at the University of Cambridge, decided to return to the event to get a closure and win it.

Here, in his own, he explains how his life and his definition of success has changed.

When I grew up, I was very sports and I remember arriving at the end in a mischievous field when I was 14 years old.

That lets me do something competitive. I didn’t like doing anything that was not successful.

I have always worked incredible, but often lacks confidence in myself. I studied medicine in Cambridge, but I worried that I would tell me to be there and that I was going to fail.

I got to study in Oxford before moving to Nottingham as a junior doctor and then I got a job as an oncology apprentice.

Looking back, I was trying to do everything as quickly as possible and always press to get to the top.

Then I moved to Cambridge to do a doctorate in kidney cancer and spent hours in laboratories investigating. It was miserable, I missed seeing patients, so I put on training for triathlons.

I entered my first as a drunk challenge after a relationship ended. I loved it and told my friends that if I was still single on New Year’s day, I would do an Ironman, only although I had just heard from that. I have always needed to be out of my comfort zone to feel alive.

I loved my first Ironman and I was training very hard to spend that period of my life. At 34, I became a professional triathlete, which was never my plan.

In 2016, I broke the clavicle eight weeks before the Ironman world champions and it was my mentality that led me to the finish line.

I ended up becoming an Ironman champion 14 times. It was not because I was the most talented. Nothing has been easy for me, but I am determined and stubborn. I’ve always had to work incredible, but I’m proud of that. I would like to enjoy something if it were too easy.

Two years later, I retired from the triathlon and returned to my work as a full -time oncologist. I feel grateful to have had a career to return to what I love.

Almost at the same time, I co -founded 5K in its own way, now part of the movement of charity against cancer, to help cancer patients to be active and generate confidence in their bodies.

The day I realized that I was ready to retire, I just won a race in Mallorca. I saw some photos of the Nottingham 5k Your Way group and I realized that I wanted to be there insem. It was then that I knew that I no longer wanted to throw everything as quickly as I can.

Oncology reminds me that I am lucky to have a body that can do what I do. In a race I use the mantra ‘choosing suffering, a privilege is.

Now I specialize in the treatment of testicular cancers and Sarcomas. Cancer people inspire me to live my life differently and make the most of every opportunity.

Duration Covid, my ex -boyfriend and I ended up walking through Wales and we loved it.

We talked about entering a crazy ultra running career called The Montane Winter Spine and spent three years working to do it.

It covers 268 miles (430 km) along the path of Pennine, from Derbantshire to Scotland. It is without stopping and you carry a package with everything you need to survive, with five control points on the way where you can sleep.

Last January, we both completed it and it was incredible, but it took me to my limits. It was so hard that I ended up dragging the drag. I made so many mistakes in terms of sleep and nutrition, but the race gave me everything I wanted and I didn’t feel like repeating it.

A few days later, my world collapsed. A friend had tasks about my displacement of the social networks of the race and recovered a message that my boyfriend was dating another woman.

I never imagined that it would happen to someone like me, but it can be deceived and manipulated.

After several months, I realized that I needed to return to the race to close that chapter and claim those memories for myself.

Just before the race in January, I published a blog about what happened. I was so nervous, but it was my way of processing it and I wanted to break the stigma that surrounds betrayal in relationships.

There is the perception that manipulation only happens to vulnerable or desperate people, but that is not true.

I received emails from so many women who had similar experiences. It seemed quite validated and humiliating that people share their stories with me. A woman said it was like holding a mirror because she resonated a lot with her.

I have had sciatica problems for eight weeks before the race, making running painful and incredible slow. But I was never going to start. There were snowstrokes and frozen temperatures at the beginning, but nothing could take me away.

Just getting there felt as if he had won. I realized that I already did hard work. I will spend the whole year training, but I would also process what happened.

Duration The race, I rested for three hours in the 87 hours of race. I managed to sleep for an hour in some public bathrooms and I had some naps on the path.

At the beginning of the night, I was climbing a mountain and it was raining and there were winds of storm force, so the snow was melting and continued falling. But after that the sun came out and it was glorious.

I never intended to win it, but I realized that I had a good opportunity, so I only went for it and it was the first woman through the line. My friends and family were there and I played Sweet Caroline running down the last hill.

At first I felt a great relief. He took a few days sitting and saying ‘Wow, that was special’.

Looking back, I am convinced that my performance came from the launch of this pure joy, a feeling that had been buried for a year. I was running for the closing at the end, I was running for me.

I am still working on what to do next. Do I want to run or just go to adventures? I enjoy finding something you think will be impossible and show that it is not.

Most of the ultra runners would assume that I would do it because it would be the best thing I can, but I do not do it because to have a grimace as seriously as I did with the triathlon.

Last year’s race changed my life and this is too. One of the best things that the community of women has, or all ages and background, which I have on the way and we all become the cheers of the other.

I am proud of myself to survive the last year. I feel again again, which is the main thing.