Vertebrate Publishing: Ultrarunners can’t be alcoholics, can they?

Told with disarming honesty and heart-breaking vulnerability, There Is No Wall is Allie Bailey’s story of her rollercoaster journey through alcoholism, depression and into the wonderful world of ultrarunning. If you’ve read running books before, you’d think that running would be her salvation. Turns out running thousands of miles a year doesn’t save anybody, but it might be the thing that buys her time to save herself.

Named as one of the most inspiring female adventurers in the UK by The Guardian, Allie Bailey appeared to have it all – a successful career in the music industry, several running world firsts to her name, appearances on mainstream TV programmes and, eventually, the ultimate twenty-something prize – a real leather jacket from All Saints. But behind the scenes, it was a very different story. Allie was fighting severe mental health issues and an alcohol addiction that constantly threatened to sabotage everything she achieved. She was also running longer and longer races.

But this isn’t the usual story about how running ‘saved’ her. Allie describes how, at times, running actually made things more difficult, becoming both her enabler and her cover story while also furnishing her with the tools that she would come to rely on later down the line, when all else had failed.

This is the story of how it sometimes takes being at rock bottom to accept some indisputable truths and to start getting well again.

‘Acceptance’, Allie writes, ‘is not weakness. Acceptance is absolute balls to the wall power.’

This is a book for anyone who has ever felt like they are not enough. Incidences of ‘accidentally’ getting married, running 100-mile races while hungover, accepting some extremely questionable behaviour, sabotaging countless relationships and pressing self-destruct more than once provide the backbone for a story of partial redemption and ongoing self-improvement that the author hopes will help people feel seen, heard and empowered to know that change is possible and ultrarunning is cool.

‘I wrote this book to help people,’ Allie writes in the introduction. ‘I wrote it because I spent far too long not being able to find the help I needed.’

Allie’s experiences helped her find her purpose and she now makes a living by helping other runners get the best out of themselves both physically and mentally. In this powerful book she shares some of her insightful ideas to help the reader with their own struggles, or those of a friend, relative or partner.

Copies of There is No Wall are now available to pre-order here: https://bit.ly/3udRlC2

Check out the Vertebrate Publishing RIA Foundation Member profile here .