Rebecca Hormann, West Highland Way race Winner 2025

I had the opportunity to chat with this years West Highland Way race winner, Rebecca Hormann, a few days after the event. Due to a short  break up in Sutherland, its taken a week or so to write up. Its an interesting story as she didnt actually have a text book build up, and the West Highland Way is race two of a personal three race summer challenge. Read on to find out more.

Who is Rebecca Hormann

AS. So, Tell us who Rebecca Hormann is, and where are you from?

RH. I am originally from Philadelphia, in the USA. My ancestry is part American, Part Chile and part Swiss. 

I have travelled around several countries the last few years, but currently live near Manchester where i work in the Civil Service.

AS.  Were you at all sporty at school?

RH. I played lots of sports but mainly soccer. I played to a pretty good standard. 

I moved to Spain, and the whole reason I moved to Spain was to play soccer.  I would run, but only for training and probably a couple of laps around the field. You know how it is when you’re in team sports. It’s a punishment to go running. You don’t go and casually run a 5K or a 10K for pleasure. I’ve always competed in sports. I swam. I played lacrosse and softball. You name it, I did it.

I remember joining the cross-country team in high school, hating it, quitting, and becoming the team manager.

AS. Oh really?

RH, Yeah, I was like, this is stupid.

AS Just backtracking, did you move to Spain because you were playing at quite a high level and wanted to pursue football as a sport, if not a career?

RH, Essentially, I got a kind of scholarship to play over there for a year. I was meant to be there for a year, but after six months, I decided I wasn’t going home. So, I played 11 a side for a year. Then I swapped over to playing five a side. Soindoor, well, not always indoor, but on a court five a side. We played at quite a good level, and it was good fun.

How Did you get into running

AS. That obviously helped develop your “engine” as it were, for endurance events. How did you get into running?

RH.  I started running ultras in 2021. I think I ran my first ultra in May of 2021 but before that, I was travelling around Asia, and I thought I would challenge myself with a half marathon. So, I signed up for the Bangkok half marathon, which I think is held in December at three in the morning. So I trained for that. I don’t even remember what my training looked like. You know, a couple of miles here and there, obviously in warm weather. So I ran the Bangkok half marathon, and then I stopped running. Because it was like a bucket list thing to run a half marathon, then that’ll be it. I thought that would be the biggest challenge I’ll ever take on in terms of running. Then COVID hit, and I evacuated Asia and ended up in Northern Ireland.

That was kind of like, I was an athlete, but I wasn’t able to exercise. The only thing I could do was run. So I started running again, and that led me to just like, you know, one day I run three miles.

The next day, I run four miles, and then I do five. You just kind of add them up. I’d run up and down the coastline. You’refamiliar with Northern Ireland, I think, aren’t you?

AS. A little bit, yes.

RH. So, I’d run up and down the coastline, adding another mile each day, which ultimately led me to run my first marathon by myself. I think I ran it on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day in 2020, going into 2021. So many people were just finding their own personal challenges to do, with no organised sport happening.

Then I figured out what ultras were, and races were starting to happen again, so I signed up for one for 2021. 

A fascination with Backyard Ultras.

AS. You’ve done a few over the years, and have fared very well in all of them. You seem to have developed a fascination with the backyard ultra. Tell me how you developed that fascination with the backyard ultra.

RH. Fascination is an interesting word. It’s really a love-hate relationship. Do you know Cave Hill in, in Belfast? Well, it’sreally just right outside of Belfast. You can basically do a loop. I forget how far the loop is, but you can vary it. I think it would be four to six miles, depending on how you do it. I was training, just trying to get as much vert in as possible. So, I would run loops of Cave Hill.

There’s kind of like a grind and a headspace you can get yourself into when you are running in circles and the same thing over again. I was like, “I’m kind of enjoying this type of suffering. Then I saw one of the backyard ultras that are held in Northern Ireland and met Karen Nicol. I had known Karen through some Pyllon virtual events, held during COVID. Sheran that backyard in Northern Ireland, and we got in touch. That started me thinking, “Oh, maybe I should try a backyard. So I gave one a go.

It’s the type of event where you always want to better yourself, so you can’t just do one. You have to do more. 

AS. On to my next question. You seem to have run two Backyard Ultra’s in 2023, and three in 2024. 

RH. Did I?

AS.  So, I see on your little list here, that in 2023, you did the Russellbank Backyard Ultra. 

RH. That was my first.

AS. Then you did the Suffolk Backyard Ultra. So you finished the year with two? Then, in 2024, you did three. The Trails and Tarmac back yardUltra. The Highlander at Blair Atholl, and then the team championships in Switzerland. That’s why I say you have a fascination with them.

West Highland Way on the radar.

So when does West Highland Way first come on your radar?

RH. That’s such a good question. I don’t remember. I think it probably came on my radar because of some of the Scottish runners I know. It’s quite a popular race in the Scottish running scene, from what I can tell, and it seems to be like a bucket list race for so many people.

. So I don’t know an exact moment or memory of like, “Oh, this is on my radar”. But once it was, anyone you asked about it would speak passionately about it. So it makes you think, “Oh, maybe I should think about this one.’

AS. Anyway, you entered the ballot last November, and you managed to get in.

AS.Do you have a coach by any chance? 

RH. No. 

AS. NO. I didn’t think so.

RH. Why do you say that?

AS. Because your build-up to the West Highland Way has not been a textbook one, should I say? That’s why,although you can never be sure I was pretty sure you didn’t have a coach. There will always be exceptions, but very few coaches will advise two long races just three weeks apart. You’re following a strong tradition, so don’t worry about this. No one will hold it against you one bit. It all depends on what your goals are and what you want out of your running. 

This year you’ve done several ultras. I mean the 50 miles of the Pennine Way Race in April, I can see that fits, as it builds up to the Backyard Ultra you did at the end of May. But you did the Backyard Ultra and did 230 + km or, 145 miles,  just three weeks before the West Highland Way. Looking at your track record and race history, you obviously have the capacity to recover quickly, but very few coaches would encourage an athlete to take on a 100-miler, so soon after.

When I wrote my preview, I did flag you up as a definite contender with a caveat of, “Let’s see how she’s recovering from the Backyard Ultra.”

RH OK. Gotcha.

AS.So, tell us briefly about the Backyard Ultra. You obviously pushed that quite hard to achieve that distance. And then, did you think that would compromise a decent performance in the West Highland Way?

NOTE: Rebecca achieved 35 yards(234.7 Km/145.83 Miles) at the Witiker Backyard Ultra, Zurich, Switzerland, on the weekend of 29th May 2025, just three weeks before the West Highland Way.

RH. I’ll lead by saying my performance at the West Highland Way was not my intention at all. I didn’t even imagine it possible to run that well or consider being on the podium so soon after the Back Yard Ultra. It was not something I considered or had as a goal of mine at all. 

My main summer aim, which I really wanted was to go to the backyard and win it. I wanted to run further than before. I wanted to keep going for 48 hours in the backyard, but as you aren’t totally in control of that, I had to settle for 35 hours and the overall win.

I was fully prepared to crack on and go back into the night. 

I knew it was a big gamble because I knew I had West Highland Way lined up, and I didn’t know how battered I was going to be after the backyard. I didn’t know if the backyard was going to last 10 hours, 20 hours, 30. I had no idea. That’s the whole nature of it.

I could have really destroyed myself unknowingly, you know, with the backyard.

So it was really tricky in between because I had three weeks. I looked at those three weeks as one week to recover, one week to get some miles in, and one week to taper.

Which is kind of like a fast track of a whole training block, isn’t it? 

AS. That leads me on to something else. Did you do much in the way of research on the race and the course?

RH. On the West Highland Way?

AS. Yes. Did you have time to get up and recce any of the course? Either this year, or last year, or anytime?

RH. So I went up once in April, and I recceed most of it. I think I only missed about 20 miles of the course. I didn’t recce the technical section along Loch Lomond. I ran from the start to Conic Hill and Balmaha. Then I skipped that section, and I picked things up at Beinglass Farm. So I did the majority of it, but just time-wise it didn’t make sense to do all of it. 

AS. In terms of prep, most people would have mapped out a progressive 12 or 16-week training block building up to it and then have a pacing and nutrition plan in place but that didn’t quite happen for you.

In terms of prep or your nutrition and any sort of pacing, you didn’t have any goals other than just to survive, or see how you could survive.

RH.Yeah. I was so surprised by how the race went because about 20 miles in I could already feel my body saying “ We’re‘fatigued, you’ve done too much in just a few weeks. My 20-mile legs felt like 50-mile legs. So the turnaround from the halfway mark for me and how I felt was fantastic and crazy.

The race itself.

AS. So you get to the start at Milngavie, and everyone is milling around in the station car park, as they do on a certainFriday night in June. What are you picking up on the buzz and the vibe that’s there compared with other races you’ve been to? 

RH. It was very crowded. You had runners and crew all bunched together. I think my main concern was my bladder, to be honest with you. 

I was there probably 20 minutes before the race started, and I knew some people. I spent that time just chatting with them, and just expressing nerves and whatnot and just catching up really. So, time kind of flew by. It was probably the most chilled race start I have experienced. I think it’s because you were with your crew up until you walked to the start line, and they have a bit more of a calming vibe.

AS. You’re there on the start line, and you’re pretty chilled. Are there any nerves that you’re just heading off to Fort William,95 miles away, sometime in the future?

RH. I was nervous about the weather because I didn’t know what was going to happen with that. It was out of my control. So, I was nervous about the weather, but also because I had no real expectations, I was kind of like, “We’re just going to go by feel and see what happens.” I was trying to take the pressure off myself completely. So, I was nervous about the weather for sure, but I also had a kind of calm and relaxed feeling. You know, as long as I finish the race, I’ll be quite pleased.

Note:Friday before race day in Glasgow was one of the hottest days of the year, and high temperatures were forcast for race day too.

AS. Tell us how your race unfolded, both in terms of personally and in terms of competitively. You obviously took it fairly easy in the early stages when Ally went off fairly fast. Were you aware at any time of the positions of people in the race? Were you getting any feedback from Jack and Jarlath or not?

Note: Rebecca’s crew were her partner Jack, and Jarlath McKenna, the 2024 winner, who was drafted in as crew very close to the race.

Jack knows that I put a lot of pressure on myself, and one of the things I hate when I’m running is when a marshal or a spectator will be like, “Oh, first lady, second lady, third lady, or whatever. I hate it.” They are not doing anything wrong, obviously, and they are trying to be helpful, but I hate it because they’re sticking that in my mind, and I just want to run my own race, don’t I?

So Jack and Jarlath didn’t say anything to me. They didn’t say anything at anytime about the position or place. 

I know now that Alison, who had built up a good early lead, had just left Bridge of Orchy when I got there. They made it a point when I got to Bridge of Orchy of actually not saying anything to me about that.

I could see Jarlath was really excited, a bit too excited. He was very happy, but they didn’t say anything to me, which I appreciated because it allowed me to do my own thing and not feel any of that outside pressure.

AS. Yes. Ally struggled from Tyndrum onwards. She was certainly having a bad spell then, and in the stretch over Rannoch Moor, you passed her and took the lead. Were any words exchanged when you passed each other?

RH. Yes. I don’t know Alison personally. She messaged me before the event just saying, “Good luck,” and we exchanged just a bit of, you know, like confidence in one another and general encouragement. I knew that she would probably be going for her triple crown this year, and I was like, that would be the coolest thing. I knew she shot off real fast, and I’mlike, “100% you go get it because I think that’s fantastic.” When I saw her, I was really confused. First of all, you could tell by her body language that she was struggling. So, when I passed her, I had a bit of a chat, and I just asked how she was. She didn’t say much. She was just kind of like, “It’s too hot, and my legs are sore.”  I was kind of like, right, “So run with me. We’ll just run together for a bit.” But she just wasn’t there.  I did tell her, “Ok! Right. Well, I’ll see you in a little bit when you catch up”. That was that. I never saw her again during the race.

RH. You ploughed on, you come to that lovely stretch in Glencoe when you go over the Devil’s Staircase. Then you have that amazing downhill down to sea level at Kinlochleven. The real quad-buster.

Then you’ve got to go up the other side again, which is always interesting. You’re almost getting to the really remote part of the run. Were there many walkers around at that time of day on the trail, or were you pretty much on your own? Wereyou seeing many runners, or was it mainly walkers you were seeing?

RH. There were quite a few walkers after Glencoe, like going up Devil’s Staircase and down to Kinlochleven, but then in the last section of the race, the last 15 miles or so, I didn’t see too many people at all. 

AS. You get to Lundavra, the last checkpoint and they make a bit of a show.

RH. Yeah. They were lovely. 

AS. Then you run that last little stretch, and suddenly you’re aware that Ben Nevis is just getting bigger and bigger as you get closer.

RH. Yeah, That was so cool.

AS. The Ben seems to fill up your whole view eventually, and you get up that last pesky little climb. It’s not far, only about two or three hundred meters, but it’s a real little brute at 90+ miles. Then you hit the fire road, and you know it’s just flat and downhill to the finish. What was going through your mind?

RH. So, I had a really bad race in terms of my bowels and nutrition. I was barely able to eat.Anything that went in, went right out. So, by that time, I was feeling pretty fuzzy. I was mentally checked in, but I was a bit fuzzy, as you would be if you’ve done 19 hours on basically no nutrition.  I remember I looked up, and I made a point to enjoy the views and take it in, but I was ready to finish. I was like, just keep your legs turning, keep your legs turning, but I was very fuzzy. I was ready to stop and sit down, so it was a cross between being fuzzy, yet also filled with emotion.So, I was ready to cry, but also told myself, “It’s not time to cry. I’ve still got to finish.” So it wasn’t exactly the triumphant, “I’m here nearly at the end.” It was an “I need food” type of feeling, but just get me there.”

AS. One of the things about the race is that people who finish high up the field, like yourself, enter the sports centre, and there are only a handful of people there waiting to meet them. It’s not the big fanfare of music and crowds lining the finish all the way in. Maybe we have to work on that in future years. How did you feel running into an almost deserted Sports Centre with a handful of people meeting you?

 

RH. I know what you mean because it’s almost like later on in the race, and the later you finish, the more triumphant your finish line is. I think if it means something to you personally and the people with you, and that’s kind of how it was for me, then it didn’t matter that there were only a handful of people.

The people I cared about were there, and the marshalls were there, and you guys were there. You make a big fuss about it anyway, so it feels like there are loads of people there.

AS. Looking back on the race, was there any section of the trail that was an absolute highlight for you?

RH. Yeah, so you’ll know the name, but that really open space when you’re going from Bridge of Orchy to Glencoe.

AS. Rannoch Moor,

RH. Yeah, that’s the one. There is that long stretch of just a rocky path. I hate that section, but when you’re running down into Glencoe, there is this slight descent, technical-ish, and that was probably one of my favourite sections because you’re almost about, what 70, 71 miles deep into the race, and I was able to get my legs moving. I was hammering it down to Glencoe, and for me, that was a moment of like, “Whoa! Legs are still working, and we can still hit an eight-minute mile. I know that isn’t fast, but it’s not bad when you’re on mile 70. It felt like I was hammering it down that path. So, I just really enjoyed that feeling of, “We can still move.” It was really encouraging.

AS.Did you have any low lights? Was there a part of the course where you just wanted the ground to open up and swallow you up? 

RH.Yeah, quite a few actually. As I said, I really struggled with my bladder and bowels for hours, and we had a few sticky, stinky situations on the course. I will leave that at that.

AS. We have all been there, so don’t worry. 

Summing up the West Highland Way Experience.

AS. How would you sum up your whole West Highland Way experience? No need to compare it with other races, but just your own personal experience of having a weekend enjoying Scotland in midsummer.

RH. Oh! That’s tricky.

I mean, I would say it really does feel like you’re running almost through a story and through some history in a way that I’ve not experienced in other races. I think no matter how many ultras you run and how amazing an ultra is, you cannot create history just like that. That’s irreplaceable. I would say it’s like you’re running through a timeless race and a timeless path and route and the people who are part of that and who know it and who know the history of it and stuff. 

That’s kind of how I would describe it, I guess. 

AS.Wow, that’s almost making me feel quite emotional because you’ve got it. You seem to have got that almost intangible feeling the race has for so many people.

RH. One of the things I was taken aback by was the whole trophy and goblet thing at the prizegiving.

Everyone gets their goblet, which is very cool, but the winner gets the massive trophy. I’ve got it here with me, and I love that because not many Ultras have that.

Usually, if you win a race, your name is gonna be on the internet forever. But the concept of having a physical trophy that gets passed around each year with your name engraved on it and your time is amazing. I wish more races did it because there’s something about it that just shows that the race has been there forever. It’s like a piece of history, in a sense.

A. Yes, It will be the  40th next year. We don’t make any claims for it to be the most beautiful race or the toughest.  It’sjust a unique challenge to come and enjoy the experience. 

RH. It definitely is a special race.

What motivates Rebecca.

AS. So, okay, nearly done. It’s been a good chat, by the way. You’ve really expressed the race so well.

RH. What motivates you? What motivates Rebecca Hormann to get out of bed in the morning and go running or want to do these amazing, seemingly crazy things that just take you out of your comfort zone completely into another little space?

RH. I don’t know. I really don’t know the answer to that as I think it will always be warping and changing as I go through life.  But this year, and it will change other years, you know, it will always change, but this year, ever since I ran the Spine Challenger North in January, I think it might have been Damien Hall or someone who put something out there about being in “The grey space or the grey area when you’re just out there, and that is your world. That is your life. That is everything for that period of time, and you don’t realize how incredible it is when you’re out there. That is everything for that period of time, and you don’t realize how incredible it is until you’re out of it. 

I love that space right now, which is why I’ve been running quite long. I mean, there are obviously longer events out there, but I’ve been running longer events this year because that’s it, right now. It’s like I can’t get enough of that “Grey Area.” I’ve been learning to settle in an area, when I am running and just understand how to live in the here and now when I’mout there.

AS. Great answer. Thank you. It seems the longer you run, it is as much an inner thing as it is an outer thing. You know, you’ve just got to be in that little head space or heart space, as I call it, where you are more or less observing what’s going on around you.

What is next for Rebecca.

AS. What’s next for Rebecca?

RH. I ran a backyard three weeks before West Highland Way, which was stupid. And then I ran the West Highland Way, which has kind of worked.

Basically, I’ve got another 100 milers in four weeks. It kind of just happened, and then I decided I’d go with it.

I really wanted to see if this summer, I can complete three 

100-mile-ish plus-mile races within three months?

So we’ve ticked two off, and now in four weeks, we go again to see if I can finish one more, and then I’m resting hard.

 

AS.Okay. Want to drop any hints about where it is?

RH.  It’s South Wales. 

Note: Its the Dragons Coastal 100 along the South Wales Coast Path on 19th/20th July.

AS. Okay, thank you. Well, we wish you all the best with that. 

Have you ever thought of doing a straight 24-hour race sometime in the future?

RH. Maybe in the future.

AS. You’ve run the Spine Challenger, but I don’t think you have done a real multi-day yet. You’ve run more than 24 hours in some of these big events but does running things like the full Spine Race The Dragon’s Back, or any of these big multi-days appeal to you? If you can afford them and you’ve got £2,000 to spare.

RH That’s the thing, isn’t it? They appeal to me but I hate, like, the logistics of ultras. It stresses me out. Multi-day events where you have to pack multiple bags and plan ahead and be prepared for all that stresses me out. I’ve done it before. Iwould rock up to a hundred miler with a couple of drop bags, a couple of pairs of socks, some snacks and crack on, no problem.

I know, with a multi-day that it’s the type of race where once you’ve got all the planning out the way, it’s out the way.  Idon’t have any plans to do anything like that in the near future. I did put in for the full Spine ballot, and I am on the waitlist, but I decided to go to Portugal and run a different race in January next year. So, maybe the year after.

AS Which race is that?

RH. It’s the Terra de Gigantes and goes from the highest point to the lowest point in Portugal.

NOTE. The Terra de Gigantes Runs from  Torre, Seia, Serra da Estrela, in eastern Portugal, across the country to finish at St. Nazare on the Atlantic Coast.

Details are HERE. https://horizontes.pt/en/terra-de-gigantes/

AS. Okay. Interesting! 

RH. I’ll be there in January but have no plans to race it.

I’ll just take my time and enjoy it.

 

AS. Conditions should be slightly warmer than the Spine Race here in January. We wish you luck with that.

That’s a good point to wrap up I think.

RH. Thanks for having me, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Read our 2025 West Highland Way Race report.  HERE

Read our 2025 West Highland Way Race preview HERE

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Adrian Tarit Stott.

The author is a former GB 24-hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions.  He has also been involved in organising ultra-distance races for over 30 years.  Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Running Advisory Group (URAG) and the Mountain and Trail Advisory Group. He also contributes as part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams. A freelance writer in his spare time, he contributes articles and reports to several websites and magazines including Athletics Weekly and Irunfar.