One day, with her 30th birthday approaching, and an unimaginable global pandemic three months from shaking things up further, Norway’s Henriette Albon tendered her resignation as an auditor, ditching city life to go all-in as an athlete. She’d had as close a perspective to the life of a professional runner as you can get – her London-born husband is the 3rd ranked trail runner in the world and the undefeated OCR (obstacle course racing) World Champion. Henriette had enough OCR podiums and a win in the Scafell Skyrace to think she could make it work if she wasn’t so tied to work. “I enjoyed life so much more when I got to be outside and move in the mountains. I could see my husband living that dream. And if we chose to do it together, it would open up so many possibilities. It was a risky choice, but I could always go back to auditing if it didn’t work out.” Only, that glorious dreamed-of summer of travelling around together to all the races didn’t happen quite as envisioned -- COVID-19 saw most races cancelled. The Albons opted to move to Romsdal county, a remote place that’s wild and mountainous, populated with extreme mountain runners, and ideal for training. “Outside in nature just feels like where a human is meant to be.” She’s since amassed several fastest known times, racing solo on a set route, logging her time by GPS to measure against other historic times (FKTs) running across Norway, and skiing the Norwegian High Route. She and Jon have also become their own guinea pigs, testing a training app they developed on themselves, as they ski mountaineer and run through the seasons.

Achievements

• Norwegian Champion in Ski Mountaineering
• Represented Norway in the European ski mountaineering championships, 2022
• 4th place, Salomon Ultra Pirineu Trail 100km, 2021
• 6th place, UTMB OCC, 55km, 2021
• 4th place, Fjallmaratonveckan Arefjallen 46km, 2021
• FKT (Fastest Known Time), Running across Norway, 120km, 2020
• FKT (Fastest Known Time), Skiing the Norwegianan “High Route”, 2020
• 2nd place, Moon Valley Run Festival, 26km, 2020
• 2nd place, Blefjells Beste Half Marathon, 20km, 2020
• 2nd place, Stranda Fjord Trail Race, 2019
• 1st place, Scafell Sky Race, 2018