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On July 4, 2026, Sophie Woods started running in Trieste, Italy. Twenty-nine days later she reached the Mediterranean coast in Monaco.
Between those two points: 1,240 miles, eight countries, and the entire spine of the Alps.
The Via Alpina runs east to west across the whole Alpine range — Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, Monaco. Eight borders. Total elevation gain equivalent to climbing Everest twelve times.
It's considered one of the hardest endurance routes on earth.
The fastest known time was 35 days, set by British runner Jake Catterall in 2024. The women's record was 38 days, held by Dutch runner Tessa Caspers.
Woods finished in 29. She took six days off the outright record — not the women's record. The record.
She is 42, from Canterbury, New Zealand.
Her run landed in the middle of a European heatwave. Temperatures pushed past 100°F. Wildfires forced a three-mile detour off the trail, and she described running near them as terrifying.
There were storms. There was a swarm of horseflies. The first week wrecked her — everything swollen, everything sore, convinced she was about to tear something. Week two wasn't much better.
Week three, something turned. In her words, it felt like eating mountains for breakfast.
To close it out inside 29 days she cut sleep to under two and a half hours a night. Some nights an hour and a half. She slept in a van, in a pool of sweat, and got up and ran again.
Her husband and her dog met her along the route with food.
The attempt came out of a hard stretch — a long fertility journey that included IVF. She has said she wanted her life to look different. Once she committed to the Via Alpina, the record was the target from day one.
“I didn't want to be running for more than 30 days,” she told BBC Sport. “30 days is enough. I knew that I was strong and capable. But this has taken it over and beyond that.”
And on what the sport actually asks of you: “Ultra-running is about preparation, mental strength and being able to continue to persevere when things go wrong. I think women are really good at adapting and continuing.”
Twenty-nine days of eighteen-hour movement through eight countries, on ninety minutes of sleep, past wildfires, in triple-digit heat — to beat a mark no woman or man had beaten.
Sophie isn't sponsored by us. She doesn't owe us anything. We're telling you about her because this is the whole point.
LMTLSS.
Sources: CNN, 1News NZ, Marathon Handbook, BBC Sport.
