Lazarus Lake, the ‘Leonardo da Vinci of pain’ behind the world’s cruelest race
Before returning to her home in Chamonix for the last trimester of her pregnancy, Case had been based in Jerusalem for the three and a half years, covering Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. She spent the beginning of 2024 in Gaza as part of the humanitarian response, meeting women who had just given birth on the floor of a shelter and were living in tents without proper nutrition. “It was quite hard for me to ask my body to produce a life and that’s exactly what I was trying to do. It felt impossible.”
But, against all odds, the vagaries of IVF worked and Pepper was born in November. Snowdonia was Case’s first race in three years.
It will not come a surprise to learn that Case is not planning on taking it easy any time soon. As part of the North Face explorer team, she has made a documentary film about fertility and running, due out in the autumn, is running in the Hard Rock 100 in Colorado in July and a return to work beckons.
All pretty extraordinary, especially for a self-confessed school nerd who played in the wind band and was so embarrassed after doing well in a cross-country race as a nine-year-old that she went bright red and withdrew from sport for a decade.