From Belhaven Run to ‘Running the Americas’ – Jamie Ramsay Opens School’s Wellbeing Weekend
- Partner Content
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The endurance athlete and Old Belhavian returned to his roots to lead a school run, share tales from his audacious 17,000km expedition, and open the school’s inaugural Wellbeing Weekend.
Belhaven Hill School recently welcomed the adventurer and former pupil Jamie Ramsay back to his old school to open the inaugural ‘Wellbeing Weekend’. Jamie talked to an audience of over 160 pupils and parents about his experience in ‘Running the Americas’ and his belief in the power of physical challenge as an antidote to mental ill health. He also led a Belhaven run with over 100 pupils before joining them for tea.
In 2013, Jamie Ramsay decided that he had had enough of working in finance. Having followed his peers, rather than his dreams, into the City, he looked at his 35-year-old self and wondered how he could escape. He went to meet Henry, an old friend from Belhaven, and as they reminisced about the adventures that they had both enjoyed as boarders in the early ‘90s, he realised that the Belhaven Run might possibly hold the answer.
As a renowned ‘walker’, Jamie had taken quite some encouragement to get Ramsay to the front of the pack of the weekly school run, but by the time he left Belhaven for Loretto in 1993, Jamie had fallen in love with running.
Belhaven is a boarding and day prep and pre-prep school for 4-13-year-olds, just east of Edinburgh in East Lothian.
Jamie Ramsay’s School Boy Passion for Running Inspires ‘Running the Americas’
His passion for running gave him the confidence to plan an audacious adventure 20 years later. Having looked at various options with Henry, he realised that the best option to meet his ambitions would be an audacious, unsupported run from Vancouver to Buenos Aires - a journey of 17,000km, designed to finish on New Year’s Eve 2014.
“Today, Jamie runs his own enterprise, ‘Ramsay Adventure’, and has now completed 54,000km under his own steam,” says Olly Langton, Belhaven Hill School’s Headmaster.
“Jamie spoke brilliantly, weaving humour and pathos into stories that scale the peaks and troughs of elation and despair. His tales mixed the thrills of sledging at 60km/h down a Venezuelan volcano with the misery of injury and illness, the loneliness of an empty stretch with the solitude of a beautiful expanse - these were regaled as important and complex experiences, sensitively delivered to an audience that hung on his every word.”
Jamie Ramsay spent an hour before the talk on a run with Belhaven children as he completed two laps of the school run with his trusty stroller. He spent another hour after his talk, answering questions, signing copies of his book, ‘Running the Americas’, and chatting to parents.
The Headmaster adds: “As the opening event of our first Belhaven Wellbeing Weekend, we could not have hoped for a better introduction: an old boy achieving something remarkable having been inspired by his passion for running while at Belhaven.
“In an age of instant gratification and decreasing physical activity, this was a great boost to our encouragement towards a healthy body and a healthy mind.”
Belhaven Hill School provides a rich, all-round education with an extraordinary range of sport and extra-curricular activities for its 160 boarders and day children. The 102-year-old school’s core values are courage, creativity and courtesy and its children are encouraged to explore life. You can learn more about Belhaven’s co-curricular activities on its website.