Katie Littlejohns- A young farmer with a passion for running…
An Okehampton girl through and through, Katie works on the family farm near Meldon with her parents, Martin and Sarah. Now aged 25, she wasn’t sure about taking the university route when she left Okehampton College and with Mum and Dad’s encouragement, she combines working on the farm with a part time job at her former school, as a food technician.
Juggling animal husbandry (the farm has Hereford X cows and some 600 sheep), with general farm work would be enough to keep anyone fit, but Katie is a self-confessed obsessive when it comes to putting on the trainers and taking to the hills.
She took up running when she was doing her A-levels as a way of coping with exam stress. ‘I had a friend who was running a marathon and being a bit naive I thought – ‘I can do that’. I was probably the least prepared person there but I managed it in under four hours, which I was quite surprised about!’
Two more marathons followed, one in Manchester to raise money for a cancer charity, as her uncle was having treatment for the condition at the time. Bitten by the running bug she joined Okehampton Running Club and now competes regularly, mainly in 10k and half marathon races and has broken several club records. But her real love is running off-road and last year she was proud to take the title in the Great West Fell Run, a six-mile event that is partially self navigated.
Taking off-road running to the next level, she has now qualified as a fell trail leader, enabling her to take athletes out into the countryside on off-road runs. The move has also taken the process of farm diversification along a new route. ‘We have a big holiday let that sleeps 13 so it’s the ideal size for groups of people and I thought I could organise running holidays. The fitness industry is massive and I just feel so lucky that I can run in such beautiful countryside, I want to share it with other runners. I started to build the business last year, we’ve now got a website and I’ve had T-shirts done — the important stuff!’
T-shirts aside, Katie was delighted to host a fell trail leadership course herself this summer, organised by British Athletics and she is due to attend the National Running Show in January 2018 to promote her business. At the time of our interview, Dartmoor Running Holidays was looking forward to welcoming a somewhat athletic hen party in September. ‘They want to arrive about 10am, go running for a couple of hours, they’ve got a bounce and groove class organised, then a sports massage and they’re having a nice meal together in the evening. Definitely my sort of hen night!’ l
Katie explains how her parents have encouraged her ideas for the farm business. ‘Mum has always been very supportive of my running and Dad’s always talking about diversification,’ says Katie, sitting with her leg elevated as a result of a twisted ankle getting out of the tractor. ‘The ankle means I can’t run for a few days which makes me a bit twitchy but there’s plenty of other stuff to do,’ she says. It seems there certainly is. The farm’s paperwork is her department too and in her spare time she loves to bake. ‘I am making a wedding cake for a family friend next month but thankfully it’s a naked one!’
Being bored is a state of mind that Katie is unlikely to encounter as she says: ‘Literally one day is never the same as the next. But you can’t run a business unless you have a passion and running is my passion, so is Dartmoor and the farm, so hopefully it will all work out!’
Jane Honey