Urte Fiek is an ultrarunner from Hamburg, Germany, and she has a solid philosophy when it comes to the mountains and to running.

“If I feel like running I tie my shoes and go,” she says. “And if I feel like lying on the couch I’ll do that. I think that’s how you should do it. You shouldn’t see running as a chore when you’re a runner. You should do what you enjoy.”

Her feelings about the mountains are just as elegantly simple. “There’s no other place I can get my head clear like in the mountains,” she says.

We know just what she means.