ALLIE BAILEY - Athlete

Allie Bailey is an ultra runner, coach, speaker and podcast presenter who has run in some of the most extreme places in the world. 

With a number of world firsts to her name, Allie was the first woman to run across Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia and to run the full length of the Panama Canal. She has crossed the inhospitable Namib Desert three times, run the length of the Outer Hebrides and finished over 200 marathons and ultra marathons all over the world. In 2020 she completed the Centurion Grand Slam, running four 100 mile races in the course of twelve months and in 2021 became the only woman to finish the inaugural Run Britannia, a 1,053 mile foot race running from Lands End to John o’Groats in just 35 days. But the most remarkable thing about all of these achievements is that she accomplished all of this while battling depression and alcoholism. 

Running ultimately became the vehicle that helped buy Allie the time to recover from a number of severe mental health breakdowns throughout her 12-year career in the music industry, which she left in an attempt to get better. After another seismic mental health crisis in 2021, Allie admitted to herself and those around her that she was suffering from alcoholism and had been for many years. This was a turning point, and with it came the realisation that her passion lay in helping other people achieve what they never thought possible. Allie left behind a career with major record labels and now works with a broad range of runners to help them unlock their full potential. Her unique, holistic approach to coaching helps people to look at all aspects of their lives and empowers them to achieve their goals, with often life-changing results. 

Allie is a highly engaging speaker, with a disarming level of honesty. Her frank, funny and relatable talks at events like The National Running Show and Kendal Mountain Festival, as well as regular appearances on the Bad Boy Running podcast, have helped to destigmatise the discussion around mental health and alcoholism, and led to her building big online communities including her ever growing Ultra Awesome group. In 2021 she was named as one of the most inspiring female adventurers in the UK by The Guardian and in 2022 she was nominated for Outdoor Personality of the Year in The Great Outdoors awards. Allie has appeared on numerous mainstream TV programmes including The One Show, Lorraine and in 2019 supported a celebrity team on BBC One’s Sport Relief challenge, ‘The Heat is On’.