“Solo” book by Jenny Tough is the second one from this young adventure traveller and endurance challenger athlete. It tells about her journeys, over 5 years, to cross as a solo unsupported runner six mountain ranges, each one in a different continent. Let’s learn something more.
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Overview on “Solo” book by Jenny Tough
“Amazing!” This is how I could have summarized Jenny Tough’s book, if I’ve had the opportunity to write a tag on its cover, as several of her ultra-athletes friends did.
Maybe it oversimplifies the difficulties she faced while running across six mountain ranges around the World, but she was the first one who diminished them! I wondered why Jenny gave such a literary tie-in to her work, talking much more about her feelings than about the athletic challenge itself. I already knew by her social media profiles that Jenny’s style was clear and the contents beyond the mere description of her sport achievments, so I wasn’t completely surprised.
Who is Jenny Tough
Jenny Tough is best known as an endurance runner and cyclist, rather than a writer, but her skills are worth reading about. As we learnt from posts on her Instagram profile, she started running to cope with the changing body of her as a teenager. Nowadays, after taking part and also winning some of world’s most challenging events, she’ s inspiring both boys and girls to seek for adventure and to chase ambitous goals.
She lives between Canada and Scotland and both countries offer her plenty of opportunities to train in any weather conditions. She doesn’t talk much about her private life, but it’s not the most important thing, beacuse she often writes about her struggles with bodyweight and how an athlete has to look like.
Sponsorships
During years of activity she did many experiences on all continents in running, trekking, cycling, skiing, paddling and sailing, especially in fast and light expeditions.
Somebody could tell that she succedeed because of her sponsorships, but when she started she didn’t have any, so that’s something she achieved for being strongminded.
As many other famous athletes, she eventually got sponsorhips that allow her to train and open new projects. You can easily find out who they are, but we’re interested in “Montane”, because it’s related to “Solo” book.
About “Solo” book by Jenny Tough
The story of “Solo” book by Jenny Tough is about one of Jenny’s projects: “Run the World Mountains“, to be the first person to run solo and unsupported across six mountain ranges, each one in a different continent.
Her “fastpacking” unsupported adventure developed from year 2016 across the Tien Shan (Asia), the High Atlas (Africa), the Bolivian Andes (South America), the Southern Alps (Oceania), the Canadian Rockies (North America) and the Transylvanian Alps (Europe).
As far as we know, she was the first person to cross Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan and the Atlas Mountains in Northern Africa, as part of her mission.
After that she took part in many unsupported events, like the Silk Road Mountain Race 2021, when she was the first female participant to get to the finish line.
I wish I could meet her at the start of the first edition of the “Hellenic Mountain Race“, but she was detained in South Africa by other commitments and she couldn’t get to Meteora on time.
What I loved in “Solo”
It’s easy to make a comparison between what she faced and what an average adventure cyclists or hiker lives during a trip. People worrying about safety, giving advices about the best routes, the problems in resupplying, the physical challenge.
Above all, for a “leisure time” adventurer it’s difficult to feel the extreme effort Jenny did to go on with her project. When we have blisters, abrasions, pains, we’re more prone to give up. She didn’t, finding solutions to go on at her best.
Sometimes you just need a good feed, some proper rest and a lot of perspective.
“Solo” by Jenny Tough
A female point of view
The book also offers a female point of view about adventures all over the World. I think that this could help several girls to acquire more self awareness, feeling not alone in their challenges.
I appreciated the interesting reports about the interactions with local people, both female and male, and the huge differences between them and according to where they took place.
Self-consciousness
Jenny’s also deeply involved in self-consciousness about eating disorders, depressions and other diseases which can affect youngsters. Her posts on social media are not only nice pics and a few hastags, but they often talk about her thoughts and feelings.
I had spent an entire day bouldering in the most beautiful mountains on a clear sunny day – it was literally my dream to get to spend my time this way.
“Solo” by Jenny Tough
This was the turning point. I finally accepted that my goals – arbitrary, made up targets that not a single other person on the planet cared about – were robbing me of enjoyment.
Emotions and feelings
When I read another book, “The Glass Summit: One Woman’s Epic Journey Breaking Through” from Jan Reynolds, who wrote an autobiography with a lot of self analysis, I found many points in common with “Solo”. I’m not talking about the sports experiences, but I refer to the thoughts I read about themselves and the mankind.
Sometimes, I wonder what Jan Reynolds would have done if being nowadays at the beginning of her career, with the Western concept of masculine sub-culture and with what she would say “the value of androgyny.” As Jan did, Jenny is facing emotions and feelings that were hampering her self confidence.
I also have a “three strikes rule”, and in the last hour I had made three really stupid mistakes. I had got away with each […] But I have always believed the fourth chance would get me.
“Solo” by Jenny Tough
Improvements
Summarizing, I think this book it’s not about what she did. It’s rather about what you could do to improve yourself in many fields.
Just a few notes for non-native English speakers: this book will offer you the opportunity to enrich your vocabulary, in your fields of interest.
Jenny also wrote “Tough Women Adventure Stories”, maybe I’ll write about it too.
The movie “Solo”
“Solo” book by Jenny Tough was issued in 2022, in order to endorse the project. The same year the accompanying film was released by Summit Fever Media, presented by Montane and taken on tour in the UK from April 2023.
The movie trailer
The presentation at the Royal Geographical Society
The final event of the UK film tour “Solo”, was held on the 20th October in an evening screening at the Royal Geographical Society, including never-before-seen footage, followed by a talk and Q&A with Jenny Tough and the filmmaker Ellie Green.
The evening was hosted by TV presenter and co founder of ‘Opening up the Outdoors’, Keme Nzerem.
Since the Geographical Society of London was founded in 1830 as an institution to promote the advancement of geographical science, Jenny was proud for sure to be hosted in such an important venue.
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