Sophie Woods has set the outright fastest known time on the Via Alpina, covering roughly 2,018 kilometres across eight Alpine countries in 28 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes. The New Zealand ultrarunner reached Monaco on 1 August 2026, having started near Trieste on 4 July. No runner, man or woman, has ever completed the route faster.
A margin measured in days, not hours
Woods ran between 15 and 18 hours most days, often setting off at 3am. In the final stretch she cut her sleep to barely two hours a night to protect the lead she had built. She crossed the line with legs caked in dust, having climbed roughly 120,000 metres — the equivalent of scaling Everest from sea level more than 12 times.
The effort amounts to nearly 50 marathons run back-to-back, with daily averages of about 63 kilometres and 3,600 metres of climbing. Her support team tracked a pace that would have brought her to Monaco in around 30 days. She arrived sooner, and she arrived alone at the top of the record books.
Eight countries, one outright mark
The previous overall record belonged to British runner Jake Catterall, who finished in 35 days and 21 hours during August 2024; Woods beat that mark by roughly six days. Dutch ultrarunner Tessa Caspers held the women's record at 38 days and two hours, set a year later, but Woods now holds the outright record, not merely the women's one.
"I didn't want to be running for more than 30 days," she told the BBC afterwards. "I knew that I was strong and capable. But this has taken it over and beyond that."
The current Via Alpina line was formalised only in 2024, folding older colour-coded variants into a single traverse. Earlier crossings, including Karel Sabbe's 30-day run in 2021, followed a different and longer route. Woods is only the third runner to attempt the unified course under formal timing.
After a gruelling fertility journey, Woods said she wanted her life to look different. The Via Alpina record was the target from the start. She got it, and she got it outright.
