10 Minutes With Dora Atim

Dora Atim is a legend among runners. Prestigious Nike Running Coach and founder of Ultra Black Running - a space providing memorable experiences that champion and empower Black women & Non-Binary people in Trail running and beyond - Dora is an absolute force to be reckoned with... and we are completely in love with her and her fashion sense.

Aidan and Poppy caught up with Dora over a cold beer as part of our new 10 Minutes With series.

The concept is simple, our guests have 10 minutes to answer 10 weird and wonderful questions. It’s all about having a laugh, chatting with friends, and sharing some advice over a 0.0% beer.



1. So what’s your favourite Days beer, the Pale Ale or the lager?

Dora: I think the lager is definitely my favourite. I never used to even like beer and a friend introduced it to me before I did a marathon. She said “when you finish the marathon, take the beer at the finish line.”

And I was like, first of all, I don’t like beer. Second of all, why would you drink beer after running a marathon? And I did at the end and it saved my life. But then I had another one and then I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna pass out!

So Lager was my favourite because Lager is, you know, nice. And taste like very malty. And I like malt!

2. So on that note then, who in the entire world (dead or alive) would you absolutely love to sit down and have a beer with?

Dennis Rodman! Yeah, I just want to have a conversation with him. He’s so cool. There are so many questions I have for him… I don't know what those questions are yet… But, Dennis Rodman. He’s also one of my style icons as well.

3. You've just become a landlord of a pub. Your Pub your rules, what's the first rule that you put into place for?

Everyone has to wear loud colours. And there’ll also be special nights when everyone has to dress in their favourite outfit of mine… Because I'm not vain at all!

I’m yet to do a party with the theme as 'Dora'. So, that’s what I’d do if I was the landlord of a pub.



4. Love this from you. To continue the pub theme, it’s Friday night in your pub. What is the first song up on the jukebox?

Hmm probably something house-y and jumpy. A lot of the songs I love are very jumpy and don't really have lyrics so something to make people move. If you don't move, that's not great.

5. Okay, so quick change of career. You're now a high fashion designer of that trend are you bringing back

I don't actually follow trends - I find it hard to follow trends because I like things late. Probably Y2K, a touch of Space Jam stuff, you know, colours, intergalactic things.

6. On a slightly more deep note - what is a quote, or mantra that you that you live your life by?

“You're going to get it done because you have to.” And that's quite a cutthroat one, but - like most things in life - you’ve got to do it because you’ve got to do it.

I was stressing out at uni because I was behind in my dissertation, and a friend of mine (who I thought was going to give me words of comfort) said, “look, you know, at the end of the day, you’ve got to get it done and you’re going to get it done because you have to.” And I really live by this. For example, when I was running through the desert with a team recently, everyone on the team was super stressed out and tired and just a bit ‘over it’ towards the end. And I just said, “Well, we’ve gotta get this done, because we have to.. Also we need to finish before McDonald’s breakfast ends!”

Another one I live by is, “We Move”. Because you’ve just got to keep moving. Not necessarily physically but also mentally. It doesn’t mean “just get over it” but it really means “what are the next steps?”.

So firstly it’s, “you’re gonna get it done because you have to” and then if not it’s “ok, we move… what are the next steps?”



7. Love those! On a slight tangent… pork scratchings or lentil crisps?

Easy, lentil crisps.

I remember the first time I tried a pork scratching I couldn’t believe what was going on. I Googled what it was and… well... they’re not for me.

8. Yeah they’re a niche snack! Next question is… what's the least important thing that's very important to you right now?

Time - we live in such a fast paced world now, and my friends and I all said during the pandemic that we wouldn’t get sucked into the urgency of others. Of work deadlines and the general hectic-ness of life… but here we are doing exactly that post pandemic.

Time in that sense isn’t important, but what is important is quality time. The time I’m spending with my loved ones. Because we don’t know when they’re gong to close the borders again or experience anything like we have for years, so yeah. Time.

9. Think we’re definitely all guilty of being swept up in the hectic-ness of life again! What is your current go-to activity? When you really just need to get some some mental headspace? (You can’t say running)

Raving - that's my activity. I love a dance. You know, as the years have gone by, I can actually go to a rave and be on peppermint tea and still party like a madwoman. But as I said, because I believe I'm a madwoman.

Apart from raving, I’ve actually really gotten into flower arranging. Oh and also nail art! It’s so calming because you have to be properly focused on the tiny art on your nails - it’s like a form of meditation.

10. The last question is not really a question… but we always ask people to try do something they never ever done before in their lives within the next day.

I’m gonna try an Oyster for the first time! To me I see them as a grown up thing to eat… and they look so scary! But… I’m gonna do it.

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There you go folks. 10 questions in 10 minutes with the superstar Dora Atim. For fitness, life (and of course fashion) inspo, head to Dora's Instagram page here. 

@ultrablackrunning