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From Ben Collins
BBC Sport
Tromso Skyrace is simply extreme. When describing the course at 2014, race manager Kilian Jornet confessed:You might die.
It had been no exaggeration.
At the halfway point of this route comes the segment: an steep, narrow ridge approaching the Hamperokken summit.
Throughout the 2017 race, American skyrunner Hillary Allen fell from that ridge. She had been in freefall for 50ft. Then she awakened another 100ft down the rockas a rag doll before crashing into a halt.
Here is the story of how a 31-year-old lady from Colorado returned to run.
It was 5 August 2017. Allen was anticipating afun workout with no tension. She remembers smiling, saying hello to friends and encounters across the course. One of these was a competitor named a Spaniard who resides in Tromso, Manu Par.
Allen spent each summer racing in Europe and became a expert skyrunner at 2015. From 2017 she was one of the athletes around the Migu Run Skyrunner World Series and decided to create Tromso her last race before heading home.
Found in the far north of Norway, where hills rise off the shore, the Tromso race features a very distinctive place in skyrunning. The truest type of the sport moves from sea to peak.
Its path takes runners across paths, through forests, across snow and boulder areas, and up to the regions most renowned summits – Tromsdalstinden (1,238m) along with Hamperokken (1,404m) – for a entire altitude gain of 4,800m.
Allen passed Manu Par at the beginning of Hamperokkens 3.5km seam. She had been in her element, picking the ideal line round the terrain. Then tragedy struck.
Par was behind when Allen dropped 10 metres. It was almost a vertical drop and he watched the mountain bounces down , screaming as pieces of stone broke loose and fell with her. It seemed to last as long as 10 seconds.
The strangest thing was that the noise, states Par, 31. A human body bouncing from the rock. It was just awful.
Instinct took over. Par put his security by scrambling down the stone. What he discovered was a crumbled pile. Her body was twisted, and her arms were such as bags of bones, so was a gash on her thigh so large that Par might have placed his hand in.
I was convinced she had been dead, he states. I did not even think to look at her vitals.
However, after a few moments he realised her belly moved. She was still breathing. Adrenaline kicked in. Par swiftly called about the fundamental first aid he knows and is educated as a mountain guide.
Allen was in danger of falling he had to move , but not as much as it was clear she had a spinal injury. She regained consciousness and Par told her not to move, urging her to stay awake.
You could see she was struggling to stay alive, to get what I advised her, he says. It was unbelievable. Just imagine being in that situation – most normal people would have given up
Some race photographers also observed the collapse and called for help. A rescue helicopter came after about 25 minutes. Allens precarious situation supposed it took two weeks to hoist her securely.
Unexpectedly, Allen endured. She had 12 broken bones, including two in her back and both arms, and also had countless stitches. On the next two weeks she had five surgeries and had been told she would never run again.
But over a year she had been again in skyrunning. Shortly after she determined that she would return to Norway. She desired closure.
Allen cant recall what happened – whether she slipped, tripped, or a rock broke off from underfoot. But she does remember falling.
Time slowed right down, she says. I remember the effect of hitting the floor but I dont recall the pain of this. I recall the sensation of my bones breaking up, its sound.
I had been thinking:This is it, you are likely to die. I recall relaxing, though it was a fairly frightening second, and thinking:Do your best to stop your self, but only embrace it.
I passed out and after I came to I watched Manu and the other individuals rescuing me. I believed I was going to die, when I watched their faces. Id never seen that look of terror. Then the pain hit. It arrived in waves
It had been so intense it caused her to scream, until the pain relief took effect, and then she was airlifted to hospital. The next day, par and Allen visited.
There were numerous tubes and she had been completely groggy from the anaesthetics, he says. I still thought she was about to die until two weeks after.
It was just when Allen awakened which the severity of her injuries appears on her also.
I could not proceed, there were wires coming from me, cuts and imperfections anywhere, she states. I thoughtoh my God, can I function again? Never mind
She had broken several ribs and bones in her feet, In addition to breaking both arms and two vertebrae. She endured a lisfranc fracture in her right foot, and it had been what jeopardised her capability to operate. It required although the plates within her arms remain, screws that were eliminated.
The very first time Allen posted media after the accident was three days later – an Instagram movie out of her hospital bed in while recording her injuries which, still drowsy in the pain relief, so she slurs her voice.
A week later, back in Colorado, she published another video in which she becomes tearful whilst describing the operations she is about to own.
I did not look pretty, she cries now. When I see them I grimace. Because thats where I was at However, I do not care.
That was a pact I made early in my healing. I have mixed feelings about media. I feel that its this huge lie. You never find the real struggle, the raw feelings.
I wanted to be truthful about what happened. It was about showing friends and relatives I was OK, but out there on I received support through media that is social.
I chose to publish the positive and negative moments, to record how incredibly difficult the recovery process was continued to be
Allen returned home with just 1 limb thattype of labored. Every small thing became a task – sleeping, cooking, dressing, washing. She couldnt shower or visit the toilet.
Some times I didnt have the ability to get out of bed. Early on I wished the incident killed me since it might have been easier.
Gradually, she found ways to deal. She even made a contraption to eat and moans about the amount of people.
She could not use crutches so a bespoke scooter on which she can bear weight was provided by one of her sponsors. Naturally, she broke off goingoff street in parks and paths and had to get it fixed at a bike shop.
She would walk within six she could run, then after 10 she entered her first skyrace because the accident – to 17 June 2018. The week then shed the Cortina Course race that is 48km in Italy in the Dolomites – and won it.
Of returning to Norway, the thought had been in the back of her thoughts. By 2019 she had been planning to race in Tromso.
During a training run in February, she broke an ankle. But she recovered to acquire the Cortina Course in June. Tromso was back on.
As I crossed the line at the Cortina Path I was like:OK, I have to go back. It scares me, and its hard, but I need to go back, says Allen. I felt prepared to face the fear.
Par and she agreed. Theyd kept in contact but if Allen returned to Norway it had been the very first time. Where Allen almost expired three days before the race, they moved up to the spot as well as the ridge.
It was sort of weird, says Par. We had a really close connection through what happened but didnt know each other. That was the very first time we ever talked correctly.
Allen wanted to know aboutthat day. How Par found her and what he watched. They hadnt ever talked about the injury in detail – and they have.
Par says:It was like a run plus treatment, it was just something we needed to do.
Allen adds:I knew the accident was awful but hearing it from Manus perspective was pretty extreme. For the remaining part of the day I didnt want to be around anyone. I actually contemplated whether to stay for the race because I didnt need to go back there. It made me understand just how lucky I am to be alive. This was cathartic.
Allen hadthe fun since she and Par completed the race with each other, laughing and talking, even on the ridge.
There wasnt any doubt in my head I was going to complete, she says. It was a burden that I had on me personally for two decades. Now I feel free, liberated. I dont hold a grudge against the mountain. I spent being afraid of the place but now I see it to its pure beauty
A self-confessed science nerd, Allen was studying for a Masters degree in neuroscience and playing competitive tennis but sought asimpler release. She strove trail running in 2013 andthings just clicked. She felt it was exactly what she had been supposed to perform. Following her fall, she did not know if she would ever recover to be an athlete. But who was ?
During her recovery she spoke to a sports psychologist, who helped her develop a feeling of self worth which did not depend on rivalry. She feels that the ordeal gave her the opportunity to reevaluate why she loves running and has made her a better athlete – and a man.
Shes discovered a new game (gravel riding), is attempting several kinds of training and running farther than shes run before. In August she arrived races, the most Traces des Ducs de Savoie.
Its shown me exactly what Im capable of from this fresh outlook ofI do not care if I win, she states.
Its given me more view, more thickness. Ive gained more freedom to find what works for me, just how much I can push myselfto learn about myself – and I wouldnt trade that for anything.
Folks call me brave. I do think that. Yeah, I am stubborn. I enjoy facing my fears, doing hard things and finding a way through, finding solutions.
Hopefully that is what I am now defined by – my character and integrity. Life is hard and when I can help others confront the challenges they face then surpasses anything that I attain in running.

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