British trail runner found dead after going missing on run

A 40-year-old British ultrarunner was found dead on Tuesday morning following a two-day search. Edward Catmur of London went missing on a run in Cumbria, U.K., on New Year’s Eve.

According to the BBC and Cumbria police, Catmur travelled to Cumbria intending to run through the North Pennines from Dufton, near Appleby, to Cross Fell and Hartside Cross. He was reported missing on New Year’s Day after not being heard from after 10 a.m. on Dec. 31.

The local police sent out a rescue team on Jan. 1, following Catmur’s planned route on Monday. A police helicopter found his body on a snow-covered trail on Monday night in the Cross Fell area, just north of Penrith. There was a large snowfall in the area, according to the police.

This was not Catmur’s first time visiting or running in the Lake District National Park area; he previously ran the Bob Graham Round with a few friends in 2021, completing the 110 km loop in just under 24 hours.

Catmur was a software engineer living in Chicago but was back in the U.K. for the holidays. He was an avid runner. On the day before he went missing (Dec. 30), he participated in Penrith parkrun, where he ran an 18-minute 5K. He also competed at the 2023 Comrades Marathon, where he finished 254th. He also won the challenger race at the Montane Spine Race in 2015.

Fell running is the sport of running and racing off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport on the fells of northern Britain, especially those in the Lake District.

posted Tuesday January 2nd
by Marley Dickinson