- 10 months ago
The incredible story of world record marathon runner Fiona Oakes in her attempt to run a marathon on every continent and compete in the “Toughest footrace on Earth,” the Marathon Des Sables, a 250km race through the Sahara Desert. --- c50f-bd8c
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00:00:00But it's not going to be easy.
00:00:17When you've been told you're not going to walk again, to be out there doing that, that's
00:00:21never going to be easy.
00:00:27And this is the one race that you have to pay insurance for repatriation if you die.
00:00:37You can see out there, people are pushing themselves really, really hard.
00:00:41It's like it makes you want to cry, because you know, thinking you're going to be out
00:00:44here doing this, and then I've got to go through tomorrow.
00:00:56In the Sahara Desert, one of the most extreme races in the world takes place.
00:01:24Marathon de Sable, the Marathon of Sand.
00:01:27Traversing over 250 kilometers across sand dunes, mountain ranges, dry lakes, and abandoned
00:01:34villages of North Africa, Marathon de Sable is roughly the equivalent of six marathons
00:01:40back-to-back.
00:01:42Competitors are required to be self-sufficient, carrying all food and necessary equipment
00:01:46over the course of six days to reach the finish line.
00:01:49Available water is carefully rationed at checkpoints throughout the days, and nights
00:01:53are spent in open-air tent bivouacs along the route.
00:01:56With daytime temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius, the threat to human health is very
00:02:01real.
00:02:02In previous years, runners have died in their attempt to complete this grueling event.
00:02:06It has been called the toughest foot race on Earth.
00:02:10Marathon de Sable is a 32-year-old race now.
00:02:12We call it the Daddy of Ultras.
00:02:14This is not a homogenized race that's constructed in order to make it nice.
00:02:19You have to be physically fit to do Marathon de Sable, but then you have to be mentally
00:02:23fit.
00:02:24I have seen people in really bad shape.
00:02:27It's scary.
00:02:28You know, you walk in there and you see people, you don't know if they're dead or alive.
00:02:31Running in sand, running up a dune, it's a bit like going to your local mall and running
00:02:37up the escalator as it's coming down, but doing that 50 times in a row, and then repeating
00:02:42that every day.
00:02:43The key point of it is self-sufficient.
00:02:45You have to carry all your personal belongings with you.
00:02:47You have to carry your backpack, you have to carry your stove, all your food supplies,
00:02:51basically everything.
00:02:52Your feet are so important in this race.
00:02:54If you get blisters or something happens to your feet, you're going to be in a bad place.
00:02:58You have to always be very proactive, make sure that you manage any potential problems
00:03:04before they get too serious.
00:03:05It can wreck your feet.
00:03:06Heat's a really nasty, insidious thing.
00:03:09Mixed with a bit of moisture, mixed with a bit of sand, that can really destroy your
00:03:13feet easily.
00:03:14And so you have runners in extreme pain.
00:03:16The sights you see, some of them are just horrible.
00:03:20It takes a special type of person to do the FDS.
00:03:23A lot of the running I do is about laboriously clocking in things.
00:03:41I'm good at counting backwards.
00:03:43So if I've got 26 miles to run the first mile, then I think I've got 25, 24, 23.
00:03:49So I do this in a similar sort of way.
00:03:52I'll do 100 pushes with this or whatever, and then I'll go and get my pitchfork and
00:03:57shovel it.
00:03:58It's all, it's just mental strength.
00:04:00I'm not going to stop till I've done it.
00:04:02So rather than sit around and worry about it, I might as well just get on and do it.
00:04:09My running begins and ends when I'm actually physically doing it.
00:04:13I don't live running.
00:04:15Running is something I do as a job for the animals.
00:04:18Somebody said to me, you've won a couple of marathons this year, you've done really well.
00:04:21Why not do Marathon for Sable next year?
00:04:23And I thought, oh, what's that?
00:04:25I never heard of that.
00:04:26Because I am the most unclued up runner you'll ever meet.
00:04:30And I looked into it.
00:04:31Is this supposed to be the toughest foot race on the planet this week in the Sahara Desert?
00:04:35You've got to be self-sufficient, you've got to carry all your own gear.
00:04:37So I used to think you'd drop off the end of the world if you ran past 26.2 miles on
00:04:41a road.
00:04:42It never even occurred to me there were all these strange, weird, wonderful, exotic races
00:04:46in other parts of the world.
00:04:47And I thought, OK, I've done fast races, hard fast races, I'll do this.
00:04:53I first met Fiona in 2014.
00:04:58She came into the shop and she was just this whirlwind.
00:05:02She was absolutely mad as a box of frogs.
00:05:06I'm not sure you can describe her in any other terms.
00:05:09She is absolutely extraordinary.
00:05:11And what's really extraordinary about her is she doesn't look extraordinary.
00:05:17I heard her resting heart rate's like 30 or something.
00:05:19It's so low that they're like, are you even alive?
00:05:22She just doesn't seem to stop.
00:05:26I don't know how she does what she does.
00:05:28She runs this animal sanctuary with 400 or so animals.
00:05:34She trains maybe 100 miles a week.
00:05:38She's just so dedicated to what she does.
00:05:42And she doesn't do it for her.
00:05:44She does it for the animals and for other people.
00:05:47She's trying to promote sustainability.
00:05:50When you first meet her, you've got no sense that you're talking to someone that's extraordinary.
00:05:54And one of the reasons is that she doesn't self-promote.
00:05:58She has no sense of actually how fantastic she is.
00:06:01She doesn't brag about anything she does.
00:06:14She just gets on with it.
00:06:16But what she does is quite remarkable, really.
00:06:20The beauty about Fiona is that she's taking care of hundreds of animals on her sanctuary.
00:06:26And then she's training and she's competing in these grueling events.
00:06:30Fiona, she says, I'm not really a runner.
00:06:34Now, how can somebody that runs a 2.38 marathon call themselves not really a runner?
00:06:42I mean, she's not a runner. She's a really good runner.
00:06:44She's a really good runner.
00:06:47I have always felt quite embarrassed when I'm invited to these mega races
00:06:51and people are looking at me thinking, what are you doing here kind of thing?
00:06:56And I know I don't look the same as everybody else.
00:06:58And when I tell people, you know, I've got like eighth place in the Amsterdam Marathon
00:07:02or like top 20 in London and Berlin and that Great North Run.
00:07:06And these are the biggest races in the world.
00:07:08These are not for messing around with.
00:07:10People are like flabbergasted.
00:07:13It's kind of a funny story with the running.
00:07:15I don't like it.
00:07:18I lack talent.
00:07:20I lack ability.
00:07:22But probably the strength I've got is that I actually do actually recognize that.
00:07:26But I don't really know too much about running.
00:07:28I don't really care that much about running.
00:07:30I just care about the results I can get from the running.
00:07:33Fiona was a large baby.
00:07:35She was nine pound four when she was born.
00:07:38My GP said she looked like a three month old baby.
00:07:41She lifted her head up immediately she was born and looked around her.
00:07:44And my first words to her were, hello Fiona.
00:07:48I was the tomboy.
00:07:50Always outside, always outside.
00:07:52Love of animals, love of nature.
00:07:55I was a very, very sporty kid.
00:07:57Everybody remembers me as this little Duracell bunny that was just always, always going.
00:08:02I was like crack of dawn until late at night.
00:08:05Fiona would be buzzing along.
00:08:07And then I lost that.
00:08:10She was always an athletic little girl.
00:08:12Until she had this terrible problem in the early teens.
00:08:17She started having knee pain.
00:08:20Slightly before my teenage years, I developed a problem with my knee.
00:08:25I was in all sorts of pain, all sorts of trouble with it.
00:08:27So I went into hospital continually having the back of my kneecap scraped off.
00:08:31Having the ligaments and things readjusted around my kneecap to kind of pivot it in a different direction.
00:08:36And nothing was really working.
00:08:39That was my right leg that was affected to start with.
00:08:42And then because I was leaning so heavily on my left leg, that became weak and affected.
00:08:47So I was having all these surgeries.
00:08:49It was very, very frustrating.
00:08:50I think I had about 17 operations in all.
00:08:53I was not able to go to school.
00:08:55I was getting too weak to go to school.
00:08:57I couldn't mobilize around the school.
00:08:59Couldn't do anything.
00:09:00There wasn't even offered any home tutoring.
00:09:02And then the doctor said, look, we've got a serious problem.
00:09:05There is a massive conglomeration behind your kneecap.
00:09:08It is turning it to jelly.
00:09:10It is crumbling inside and it needs to come out and it needs to come out quickly.
00:09:15This is going to be a big operation and this is going to be very painful.
00:09:18I have to say I've never been in pain like I was in after that operation.
00:09:22I couldn't lay, I couldn't move in my bed.
00:09:24I couldn't literally alter my position in my bed.
00:09:26I was told I wouldn't walk again properly, let alone be able to do sporting activities,
00:09:32especially things like running, which were high impact.
00:09:35I was going to be registered disabled at one point because it looked so hopeless.
00:09:39So that was an incredibly challenging time for all the family actually.
00:09:44Oh, it was hell.
00:09:45It was...
00:09:51It was just too bad to go there.
00:09:53It's left her with an extremely painful knee.
00:09:58I think it hurts most of the time.
00:10:01I don't think there's very much of the time that it is pain free.
00:10:06The operations are bad enough, but it's the treatment and the recuperation
00:10:10and the work that has to be put in after these orthopaedic operations
00:10:15just went on and on and on until she was 19.
00:10:19It's very extraordinary to have anybody who's had repeat surgery,
00:10:23let's say more than three or four procedures, on a patella, who has not been disabled.
00:10:30I don't look back at this time. I'm not bitter.
00:10:32It was difficult and I don't like revisiting it.
00:10:35I'll be honest with you, I really do find it difficult.
00:10:37There's been some extraordinarily miserable times,
00:10:40but they've made me the person I am and I acknowledge them and embrace them for that.
00:10:45I really do.
00:10:46And I definitely know what it's like to suffer myself,
00:10:48so I can relate to it with other beings, whether they be human or not.
00:10:53And I certainly don't want to inflict it on them unnecessarily.
00:10:58She's growing all shy and bashful.
00:11:00Over the years, we've had hundreds of dogs.
00:11:03I mean, at one time, we had 26 dogs living in the house at one time.
00:11:07We've had lots and lots of dogs.
00:11:09Poppy's story is that she came to us and she'd been obviously used to fighting
00:11:13and she's got the classic signs of a dog that's been used in a fighting ring
00:11:16in that she's quite nervous and she's got no ears.
00:11:19Anybody who knows this particular breed knows that when they fight,
00:11:22they always attack the head and their ears are what suffer.
00:11:25And unfortunately, Poppy's ears were ripped off in a fight.
00:11:32She's a very loving dog and just a typical example of how humans abuse animals.
00:11:37She's got a set routine.
00:11:39She comes in this time, she has her tea, and she knows how she likes to live her life.
00:11:44She actually likes to live her life very quietly.
00:11:46When Fiona started the sanctuary back in 1993, we were both at work,
00:11:51but we decided when we started to get more animals in,
00:11:54Fiona would look after the animals and I would carry on with my job.
00:11:58We set out not to have the animal sanctuary as our means of a living,
00:12:02our money we could earn in a different industry,
00:12:05and then just use that money to fund the sanctuary
00:12:08and obviously encourage people to donate to the sanctuary,
00:12:11knowing that 100% of what they give goes towards the feed bill.
00:12:15Every penny we've got has always gone into the sanctuary,
00:12:19absolutely everything we've got.
00:12:21And my mum too, you know, like we were trying to buy this place.
00:12:24Shoulder engagement ring, a piano, everything had to go.
00:12:27That's been how it's been ever since we've been here.
00:12:29Oh, look at his little nose.
00:12:31She just loves taking care of the animals.
00:12:33She knows them all by heart and she knows their personalities, everything.
00:12:38It's incredible.
00:12:39And she's such a kind person that she doesn't say no to any animal in danger.
00:12:45These came from a place up north, about 300 miles away,
00:12:50and they are what they call cade lambs.
00:12:53Brian was one of 36 cades that we were offered by a farmer,
00:12:57which we took on and we have been trying to hand rear.
00:13:00We've got 400 rescued animals, so managing 36 babies, basically,
00:13:04it's very, very difficult.
00:13:05And Brian came and he was very, very weak.
00:13:08He collapsed and we brought him into the house.
00:13:11We did everything for him that we could and we thought he was going to die
00:13:15and he didn't die, he pulled through.
00:13:17I don't quite know how he pulled through.
00:13:19There's stuff that needs to be done all the time,
00:13:22there's animals to see to, there's medications to attend to,
00:13:24there's maintenance to do, there's a list of jobs as long as you're on.
00:13:28The thought of having to do all that work and then go out and run 20 miles.
00:13:36It's not even just like, oh, I'm just going to do a nice little country jog.
00:13:39It's appalling speed work to have to fit in or an appalling 20-mile road run
00:13:45and then come back, and as soon as you get back,
00:13:48to have to then start the evening jogs, which is like bringing all the horses in,
00:13:51getting the buckets ready.
00:13:53No, even though we've lived together 24 years,
00:13:56I have no idea how anybody can fit all that in.
00:14:00Because we were so tight on money, I mean, for the first year or two we were here,
00:14:04we had nothing, and that's kind of when the marathon running kicked in
00:14:08and I thought it's cheap to do.
00:14:10You can do it any time, day or night, you don't need a lot of equipment.
00:14:13So that's basically why I took to running.
00:14:15There's no great desire behind it, it was just something physically
00:14:18that I thought I could make work for the animals.
00:14:21If I had a patient who had no kneecap
00:14:24and who wanted to do some running or marathoning activity,
00:14:28I would tell them to stay on level ground.
00:14:32I can imagine running downhill without a kneecap.
00:14:36I don't understand the engineering aspect of how you can run it without a kneecap.
00:14:42Your kneecap's there to guide your quads down so they can run effectively,
00:14:48and also it stops the over-articulation of your knee.
00:14:52So I'm not sure how that's possible.
00:14:54We always caution the patients, if they don't have a kneecap,
00:14:57you can't backpack downhill with heavy packs, even medium weight packs.
00:15:03When you start climbing, and especially as you start descending,
00:15:07that's where that kneecap comes into activity.
00:15:09As a physical therapist, it's pretty amazing when I see individuals competing
00:15:14that push the limits of endurance and strength without certain body parts.
00:15:20And then Fiona's case, here she is running without a kneecap,
00:15:24it is kind of mystifying, like how does that happen?
00:15:26But Fiona's found a way to adapt and move her body and challenge it,
00:15:31not just get through daily life and taking care of animals on her sanctuary,
00:15:34but then meeting the demands of an ultramarathon,
00:15:36meeting the demands of a multi-day event.
00:15:38I'm spending a lot of energy.
00:15:40Training 100 miles a week for the 10-week block before a marathon,
00:15:45dedicating yourself to it, it puts you under a lot of stress,
00:15:48and then you come to your taper period, you're paranoid about getting ill,
00:15:51you're paranoid about getting injured, it impacts on your family life.
00:15:55Two weeks before Fiona was to begin Marathon du Sable,
00:15:58she contracted a severe respiratory infection.
00:16:01Unable to train, she was bedridden for eight days prior to leaving.
00:16:08We fly to a place called Wazzazat, the gateway to the Sahara.
00:16:11And even from there, we've got another six hours by coach
00:16:14to the start line, and the start line changes every year.
00:16:39You are shipped into the desert to this unidentified destination
00:16:43where you see an awful lot of tents in a big circle.
00:16:46You wander around the camp and you search for a tent
00:16:51which appears to have a space in it.
00:16:57If you are travelling and running alone, you arrive alone,
00:17:00you find a place in a tent with which that will be your place for the week.
00:17:05That will be your place for the week.
00:17:07You're allocated a tent number, that will be your tent number,
00:17:10and the place in that tent will be your place for the week.
00:17:26Yeah, it was a long, long journey.
00:17:28I had a dreadful day yesterday.
00:17:32Brian died, the little lamb.
00:17:35And he died in my arms, in my bed, in the middle of the night.
00:17:39Ten days with, I've nursed him.
00:17:42And we'd had the vet so many times.
00:17:47And I took him to bed on Wednesday night.
00:17:51And we thought, we gave him steroids, that we thought he was getting better.
00:17:56You know, he has these episodes of collapse.
00:17:59And then at four past three in the morning, he just woke up and died.
00:18:03And we've got 30, I think we've got 38 left,
00:18:09lambs that were hand-rearing, four times a day feeding them.
00:18:13And I'm still on antibiotics until tomorrow morning.
00:18:18My mum's ill.
00:18:20Martin's coping as best he can.
00:18:24I've got the most blinding headache.
00:18:26And I've had headaches with this on and off for the two weeks.
00:18:32I had to go to the doctors, I had to go and get some antibiotics.
00:18:35And she gave me a ten-day course to finish tomorrow morning.
00:18:38If I feel ill, I think I've got to make a choice of whether you do something cavalier
00:18:44and just, you know, carry on and see if you can brush it.
00:18:48The things I've had in the past when I've had broken toes before now,
00:18:52that's very much, if you can contain the pain, you can contain it.
00:18:56But this is systematic.
00:18:58And so I'm not sure that it's a good idea.
00:19:01Because you can't bluff these conditions.
00:19:06I don't know, I just have to say.
00:19:08I don't know, it's all you can do.
00:19:10If you don't try, you don't know. That's the problem.
00:19:12Big disappointment, the way I feel, I have to say.
00:19:15I've had a lot of stress over the last three months.
00:19:18A lot of extra work, a lot of extra commitments.
00:19:22And you can get ill, anybody at any time can get ill.
00:19:27So I just hope that, you know, I think what I'll do is I'll just go to sleep now
00:19:35and try and just relax it out on the system.
00:19:38And just try and rest it out.
00:19:41Relax it out on the system and just try and rest up.
00:19:46Obviously you'll feel better in the morning.
00:19:48It's a very big juxtaposition to go from one morning you're looking after your animals
00:20:13the next morning you're in the Sahara Desert
00:20:15and you're surrounded by a multitude of people
00:20:17who are all into their running and into their statistics
00:20:20and you kind of feel like you don't belong.
00:20:23Unless you know anyone, you are confined with these seven strangers,
00:20:28male or female, for that entire week.
00:20:31You've got the space in that tent with which your bedroll fits
00:20:35and that's your home for the week.
00:20:46I'll tell you, last night though, last night,
00:20:49you know when you've got the headache that makes you feel ill
00:20:53and you just know you should eat but you can't and you just need to shut off.
00:20:57I think it was also, yeah, I'm not well, for sure I'm not well,
00:21:01but the stress of leaving that environment to be in this environment.
00:21:06I'm coming from temperatures that are really cold to run here
00:21:09and I have done nothing.
00:21:11No race, no nothing.
00:21:13I've been busy all year with the animals and then with the lambs
00:21:17and then the illness so I'm not in a great place but, you know, we'll see.
00:21:23I really haven't had a lot of time to kind of go through packing my pack
00:21:28and unpacking it and packing it so it's all a bit last minute.
00:21:33I've been ill for two weeks and that was kind of the two-week period
00:21:37that I intended to dedicate to doing some of this stuff.
00:21:44Basically everything you're carrying is pretty essential
00:21:47in terms of it becomes very, very precious.
00:21:52But now I'm going to do my grand way of pack
00:21:56and see what a nightmare it is.
00:22:01Ah, that's a mother pack. That's an 8.9.
00:22:07That's a heck of a pack.
00:22:09Yeah, every little thing does add up.
00:22:11Obviously it doesn't feel heavy when you're carrying it through an airport
00:22:15but when you're carrying it trying to get up a sand dune
00:22:17then you're thinking to yourself, really, I do need to,
00:22:20I need to get up a sand dune.
00:22:22I need to get up a sand dune.
00:22:24I need to get up a sand dune.
00:22:26When you get up a sand dune then you're thinking to yourself,
00:22:29really, I do need to lose some here.
00:22:36On the Saturday you have everything that you're not going to carry
00:22:39with you on the race taken away from you.
00:22:41That is shift off back to a hotel somewhere, you know, in a local town.
00:22:46You go through registration, you get technical checks,
00:22:48you get the medical checks, they check the weight of your bag,
00:22:50there's a minimum weight of every bag, six and a half kilos,
00:22:53and they check you've got sufficient food.
00:22:55They make sure that you've got 2,000 calories a day to keep you going.
00:22:59It is enough nutrition to get you through
00:23:02but it's certainly not enough to be comfortable with.
00:23:05You're then left in the middle of the desert and you start running.
00:23:18The first stage of Marathon du Sable traverses primarily rolling sand dunes
00:23:22for over 30 kilometers.
00:23:24This will be the shortest stage of the entire race.
00:23:27Runners are given a generous 10-hour cut-off time to reach Bivouac 1
00:23:31where they will stop for the night.
00:23:38So you get up in the morning, you prepare yourself meticulously
00:23:42to run each stage.
00:23:44You're constantly worried about losing things.
00:23:47You've got this tiny little backpack with which to put everything in.
00:23:50Everything becomes so precious.
00:23:52Every painkiller, every boiled sweet,
00:23:55everything you've got becomes so precious
00:23:57because you simply cannot replace it anywhere.
00:24:00If I'm, like, breaking heart or whatever, I've got a choice.
00:24:05I am free to do this, I am free to stop doing this.
00:24:09The reason I'm doing it is for those that aren't free to make it stop.
00:24:14You know, people living in camps far worse than this
00:24:17that are not able to do it say,
00:24:19actually, I'd like to go home to my luxury house now, you know, OK?
00:24:23And, you know, same with animals in Britain.
00:24:26They aren't free to just say, I've had enough.
00:24:29So, yeah, that's what I'm going to kind of think of today.
00:24:50MDS should not be run when you're physically sick.
00:24:53That's something I wouldn't recommend to anyone
00:24:55because you have to be in a perfect state to do that.
00:24:58And even when you're in a perfect state, things can go wrong.
00:25:02If you're on antibiotics, I personally wouldn't do it.
00:25:05But with Fiona, there's a reason for everything, what she does.
00:25:08And the reason is because she's got a very strong immune system.
00:25:12She's got a very strong immune system.
00:25:14She's got a very strong immune system.
00:25:16There's a reason for everything, what she does.
00:25:18And the reason is far greater than, you know, how she's feeling.
00:25:23The lack of training in the last couple of weeks
00:25:25is not as big a problem as still this thing lurking in my system.
00:25:28Probably another week would have been a lot better for me to recover.
00:25:32When it's actually systematic,
00:25:34you do worry that you can feel yourself starting to boil from inside,
00:25:37so it's very hot.
00:25:39But because you're overexerting yourself,
00:25:41you come in very hot from inside as well.
00:25:43If you overheat, you've got no way of coming back from it.
00:25:46You don't want to be on your maximum out there.
00:25:48You've got to be able to think,
00:25:50I'm operating only ever at 80%,
00:25:52with possibly 100% when you're really in the dunes,
00:25:56that's when you give it your all,
00:25:58because you can't get over them otherwise.
00:26:00I've been in some dunes here, and I've been literally coming over them,
00:26:04absolutely desperate, thinking,
00:26:06I'm really frightened now I've not got any water.
00:26:08If you're in a dune section,
00:26:10you won't come out of it with any water in your bottles
00:26:14when it gets really hard.
00:26:16And it will get really hard.
00:26:18But I have promised that if I genuinely do not think it's the place to be,
00:26:22then I will leave,
00:26:24because, obviously, I don't want to be coming home in a box.
00:26:27And this is the one race that you have to pay insurance for repatriation
00:26:31as part of the rate if you die.
00:26:33Because, obviously, you can see out there,
00:26:35people are pushing themselves really, really hard.
00:26:40I've got my injuries, I've got my problems.
00:26:42So I knew that it's not going to be easy.
00:26:44When you've been told you're not going to walk again,
00:26:47as a teenager, to be out there doing that,
00:26:50that's never going to be easy.
00:26:52But I just want to show people it is doable.
00:26:55I hope it's doable.
00:26:57But we'll see.
00:27:01I think it's very, very difficult to do a race like the Marathon de Sable
00:27:06if you're not 100%.
00:27:09It's an enormous challenge for your body.
00:27:13And I think if you run it being unwell,
00:27:16you take a huge risk.
00:27:18Because of the sheer exhaustion you're putting yourself through
00:27:21in a very, very extreme environment
00:27:24where it's really, really hot,
00:27:26it's a very big risk to take.
00:27:28This isn't my sort of running at all.
00:27:30But without the cold, without the flu,
00:27:32you know, I could be pushing hard a bit.
00:27:36Oh, you went for animal?
00:27:38Animal sanctuary.
00:27:39Yeah.
00:27:40Yeah.
00:27:41Right, I'm going to cut along.
00:27:43I should see you along the way.
00:27:50It is quite inspiring, actually,
00:27:52to see how many women have taken on this challenge.
00:27:54And women are actually, I think, surprising some of the men.
00:27:57What they're like in the actual physical strength of the top runners,
00:28:00they can match in the mental strength.
00:28:02And that's what this race is about,
00:28:04being mentally very strong.
00:28:06It's about determination,
00:28:08and I think women are showing that they can do that equally as well.
00:28:11And I think it shows how maligned women have been through history.
00:28:15It's quite shocking to think 1984 was the first marathon
00:28:18that women were allowed to run in the Olympics.
00:28:20And now you see women out here doing this,
00:28:22doing something that's so physically demanding,
00:28:24most men couldn't do it.
00:28:29It's just a job to get done.
00:28:31Just do the job. That's all it is.
00:28:33Whatever way you can, just do the job.
00:28:35And the reason you're doing the job
00:28:37is always in the forefront of your mind.
00:28:39It's not pushing your body in terms of running.
00:28:41It's pushing your body in terms of what it will tolerate
00:28:44before saying, actually, no, I don't want to do this,
00:28:47or can't do this.
00:28:49I mean, this is like 30k. There's another 200, 280.
00:28:53And they're harder, a lot harder, all of them.
00:28:59Good morning. It's Sunday morning at the sanctuary.
00:29:02And people might be wondering what happens on a Sunday morning,
00:29:05particularly with Percy Bear, now that he's got an increased number of fans.
00:29:09So I thought we'd just have a quick visit to see what he's up to.
00:29:12Percy is the lifelong companion.
00:29:15There's Martin as well, by the way. He's the other lifelong companion.
00:29:18He takes second place next to Percy.
00:29:20Have you met Percy?
00:29:22Percy is always with Fiona wherever she goes.
00:29:26Normally sits in Fiona's hand and is shaped like a bear.
00:29:30But a bit like, I imagine you see, you have Indian spirits
00:29:33that are kind of replicated in different icons.
00:29:35I think there's a spirit within Percy.
00:29:38So Percy is just a little mascot of me, my running.
00:29:41Like my cheeky little alter ego that goes everywhere with me now.
00:29:45Travelling companion.
00:29:47Yeah, people then say, you know, they ask, why are you carrying that?
00:29:50They ask you the question rather than you forcing it upon them.
00:29:53And it's just a way, a gentle way, a more subversive way
00:29:57of drawing people into the story.
00:29:59Somebody in Brazil started the Percy Supporter Group
00:30:02and people from all around the world started sending me bears
00:30:05for the Percy Supporter Group.
00:30:07So I put them all in here and that's where they live.
00:30:10You can hear Fiona a long time before you can see her shouting,
00:30:15can you take a photo of me and Percy?
00:30:17That's how you know they're posted.
00:30:19Percy's got a tiny body, great big personality,
00:30:22absolutely inseparable.
00:30:25When Percy's there, people tend to laugh and they joke
00:30:28and it's kind of an olive branch to say I'm not threatening.
00:30:32And it helps me as well.
00:30:34I've got another mouthpiece where the focus of attention
00:30:37is not necessarily always on me because I don't actually like it too much.
00:30:40Everybody's counting like, nscrams.
00:30:42Obviously I'm counting nscrams.
00:30:44And then all of a sudden in goes Percy,
00:30:47and he's not actually that light actually, I think he's gaining weight.
00:30:50I'm not going to let him sit at home, he can suffer it with me as well.
00:30:55Stage 2 of Mariton du Sable covers 39 kilometers
00:30:58with a cut-off time of 11 and a half hours.
00:31:01The first 25 kilometers consist of rocky plateaus, hills and sand dunes
00:31:06before making the steep climb and descent over the mountain pass
00:31:10known as Alutval-Jabel.
00:31:14Music
00:31:20I was quite worried because it was actually cold in the night.
00:31:24Everybody else was a bit warmer and I was really cold.
00:31:27Music
00:31:31Music
00:31:43You're amongst the best part of 1,000 people,
00:31:45usually 1,000 plus other people, 35 nationalities.
00:31:49It attracts people who want a lifetime adventure
00:31:52and they get it in spades on the MDS.
00:31:55Music
00:32:01The MDS is 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head.
00:32:08Well I think for extreme runners it's just this idea
00:32:10that we are just pushing our limits.
00:32:12We're just so curious to know what our mind can handle
00:32:17and what our bodies can handle.
00:32:22The climb tires your legs,
00:32:24but you need a lot of leg strength to control your muscles coming down.
00:32:30Because when your legs get tired, fatigued,
00:32:32they're not behaving as they should.
00:32:37That's where I was worried actually, that I might not have the strength.
00:32:40I was quite concerned that I wouldn't be able to hold myself together.
00:32:46Just thinking I'll go for it, I just want to get there.
00:32:49Music
00:32:56And it's prone for injury, I mean you could injure yourself at any point.
00:32:59You could trip, you could do your ankle, you could lose your knees,
00:33:02people fall, they bang their head, heat sickness.
00:33:05Anything can happen at any time.
00:33:09Actually when we came off the chapel I felt really strong
00:33:12and I ran into the checkpoint.
00:33:14It was when I stopped I felt awful.
00:33:16I started to feel very, very sick.
00:33:18Music
00:33:26But fortunately I got enough water to collect myself.
00:33:32At the end of the day I'm grateful that I'm able to even consider doing this.
00:33:37Because a lot of people aren't able to do that, they haven't got the health.
00:33:41So to be in a position where you can even consider coming here and doing this is a win.
00:33:46It was hot out there and the main thought passing through my mind today was
00:33:51how hot is it in a cattle truck?
00:33:54And they haven't got any water.
00:33:59My mind drifts off always in that direction.
00:34:02I know I should be thinking about myself and what I'm doing.
00:34:05But truly my mind always compares.
00:34:08I'm ashamed when I think we're moaning because we're suffering
00:34:12but we're not suffering, we're suffering like animals.
00:34:15I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the animals.
00:34:17No way would I be away from the sanctuary.
00:34:19I am here now and I want to make the best of it.
00:34:23It is a spectacular place to be.
00:34:25It's awesomely beautiful, serene.
00:34:28I'm privileged to be allowed here.
00:34:36When you can see the finish, if you can jog or run into the finish
00:34:39it gives you to think that I did actually get it right.
00:34:42I didn't actually crawl into the finish and have to walk in and collapse.
00:34:45I did actually get that one right.
00:34:54So, after a long day in the desert, a hearty meal is required.
00:35:01But instead of a hearty meal, I've got this.
00:35:05But instead of a hearty meal, I've got this.
00:35:09So we have to prepare ourselves for this.
00:35:35It looks like it's going to be a cold meal for me tonight.
00:36:00I don't eat that much out on the course.
00:36:02It's not energy I'm going to lack out there.
00:36:05Bearing in mind I only eat one meal a day at home.
00:36:07I'm not doing that here. I'm taking snacks and I am forcing myself.
00:36:12I would expect to be on my feet all day at home and eat one meal.
00:36:16And that would include a run.
00:36:18And I never, ever take anything in a road marathon.
00:36:21So I'm quite able to run 2.38 in a road marathon with only taking water.
00:36:27It's difficult to be surprised by Fiona because she's just...
00:36:30She does. She does to the absolute maximum.
00:36:33And obviously when she said she was going to try a marathon,
00:36:36I thought, OK, I know she's going to do fine.
00:36:38And she did a marathon and she did it, I think, under three hours.
00:36:41And it was just like, this is your first marathon.
00:36:43When she started winning marathons and winning local events,
00:36:47you say, oh, right, OK, you've won another one.
00:36:51And obviously she was doing it to try and build herself a platform
00:36:54from which she could speak.
00:36:56And she found that obviously from winning local races to winning marathons
00:37:00still wasn't giving her the platform she wanted,
00:37:02which is when she started to turn to the endurance events.
00:37:05When Fiona was offered the chance to run at the North Pole,
00:37:10it was just like, OK, fine.
00:37:13It's kind of like you expect her to come up with something
00:37:16that most people would say, what?
00:37:21If you say to someone, I've done a marathon, people know it's extreme,
00:37:25they know that the North Pole is extreme.
00:37:27So I figured, put the two together, North Pole and a marathon,
00:37:31you've got a win here.
00:37:33That's definitive hardcore.
00:37:35And I just literally went out as normal, running,
00:37:38came back, walked into the house and said,
00:37:40right, Martin, I've got something to tell you.
00:37:42What's that?
00:37:43I want to do the North Pole marathon.
00:37:45And he just looked at me and...
00:37:49Because of the knee condition that I've got, I cannot afford to slip.
00:37:54If I slip, I tear, I dislocate it very, very easily.
00:37:58There's nothing to keep it stable in there.
00:38:00So I didn't really know whether it was going to be possible
00:38:03for me to run in these conditions.
00:38:07The race organiser wrote to me and said,
00:38:09if you will consider doing it, I will give you the place.
00:38:13And then it was like, whoa, game on.
00:38:15It's a massive opportunity and it might never come again.
00:38:24When the plane door opens, it's just like, whoa.
00:38:28The reality just hits you.
00:38:30All you can see is just snow.
00:38:32You can hear the ice and the water underneath you cracking.
00:38:35The cold is the kind of cold that you throw some water up in the air
00:38:39and it freezes.
00:38:40There's no going back.
00:38:41Some things like hypothermia and potential frostbite,
00:38:44you've got to be very, very careful.
00:38:47I had spoken to the other runners
00:38:49and there was almost like an overconfidence to them.
00:38:52Fiona was really refreshing because here she was touted
00:38:55as one of the elite runners, sharing with me in all honesty
00:38:59that she was terrified just as I was.
00:39:01And I looked at her like, how can you be terrified?
00:39:04So we're laying there in our cots
00:39:06and just like staring up at the tent ceiling going,
00:39:08this is going to be brutal.
00:39:10And she's like, yep, it's going to be really hard.
00:39:13It reached minus 30 at its coldest point.
00:39:15Like you'd take a step and you'd sink down to knee-deep snow.
00:39:18There were parts that were super icy
00:39:20and you couldn't really get good footing.
00:39:23It is one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.
00:39:28Fiona is a legend.
00:39:29She ended up winning the North Pole Marathon very, very easily.
00:39:36Probably I did a bit too well.
00:39:38It caused a bit of animosity from the point of view of the other runners
00:39:42for a woman to come out here carrying a small tender
00:39:45and humiliate us.
00:39:48I placed with the men, got the course record.
00:39:51I came in like six and a half hours later
00:39:54and she hugged me and she just said, I am so proud of you.
00:39:57And I was like, really?
00:39:58Like you've been laying here for six hours waiting for me to finish.
00:40:01She's like, yeah, but I think you were the toughest.
00:40:03She's so incredibly strong and she kind of denies it in herself
00:40:07but she's so willing to acknowledge it in others.
00:40:11Honestly, like I've never seen someone so strong
00:40:14and so, so humble.
00:40:16When I actually finished the North Pole Marathon,
00:40:19I was absolutely elated.
00:40:21Not at winning the race,
00:40:23not thinking of anything more than the fact
00:40:27that I'd got through this awesome achievement of surviving out there.
00:40:34She rung to say, oh, oh yeah, I've finished.
00:40:36How did you do? Oh, I won.
00:40:38You won? You won?
00:40:40And I broke the course record.
00:40:42I was just like, okay.
00:40:44The course of stage three for Marathon du Sable
00:40:47is exceptionally challenging and dramatic.
00:40:50Runners are required to scale three steep technical mountains
00:40:53over 31.6 kilometers.
00:40:56The first strenuous ascent forces racers up a sandy, rock-strewn slope.
00:41:00Once summited, runners must navigate along the ridge of Jouan Baba Ali Jebel
00:41:05before dropping down to checkpoint one,
00:41:07only to have to climb back up again on the other side of a dry riverbed.
00:41:11In an almost sadistic design,
00:41:13the third and largest climb takes runners back over the mountain
00:41:17they scaled the previous day,
00:41:19a treacherous technical and exposed route of jagged volcanic rock.
00:41:23After descending, 10 kilometers of stony plateau
00:41:26still lays ahead of racers before camping for the night.
00:41:31I'm actually really worried about today,
00:41:33seriously worried, because it's all climbs,
00:41:35and my knee does not like to climb.
00:41:39I get a protest of something wrong on the screen.
00:41:43I was just thinking, I was running along yesterday,
00:41:46and I got my cashew nuts out,
00:41:49and it all went horribly wrong with some poles banging around my feet,
00:41:53and I was getting in a right couple with this bag opening,
00:41:56and I didn't get them all in my mouth,
00:41:59and they kind of went to the side and around my cheek,
00:42:02and I'm so desperate to not drop these two cashew nuts,
00:42:06and they're rolling around my cheek to get them back into my mouth.
00:42:10What am I doing? It's two cashew nuts.
00:42:13Oh, no, that's like 25 calories.
00:42:18Don't let it fall on the ground.
00:42:21Some sort of ludicrous mad person going along.
00:42:25It puts it in perspective.
00:42:27Too much perspective.
00:42:37The reality hits here.
00:42:39It's not called the toughest footrace on the planet,
00:42:42because it's 10k, you know, Sunday morning.
00:42:45It really is tough, and they pride themselves in making it tough.
00:42:56It's hard.
00:42:58It's hard.
00:43:00It's hard.
00:43:02It's hard.
00:43:05It's hard, and it's long, and it's relentless.
00:43:11It's completely alien, and you just want it to go away.
00:43:15You just want to cry out there.
00:43:17You just want to cry.
00:43:21I got a faint idea of what the climbs were,
00:43:24and I thought, oh, no, they can't be including all those.
00:43:27But they did.
00:43:29That's me gritting it out.
00:43:31That's not me doing something that I want to at all.
00:43:35I would never dare do that at home,
00:43:37because at some point I know my leg would give up.
00:43:39And today, when they said the three climbs,
00:43:41I thought, if there's three climbs, there's three descents.
00:43:43That's a problem to me.
00:43:45It genuinely is.
00:43:47I mean, it's brutal. I think people would be shocked
00:43:49to see what you've got to do.
00:43:51It's nothing to do with running.
00:43:53It's almost like rock climbing.
00:43:55It's almost like rock climbing.
00:43:57It's so steep and sandy,
00:43:59and you're just left to your own devices.
00:44:01You get frightened.
00:44:03You think, I can't do that.
00:44:05I cannot do that climbing.
00:44:07I literally can't do it.
00:44:09And I can't use my right leg.
00:44:11It's not got the power of my left leg.
00:44:13Everything has to be done from the left leg.
00:44:15That scared me. That really scared me.
00:44:17This is somebody who was told they wouldn't walk properly
00:44:20when they were younger.
00:44:26It is insane.
00:44:28You wouldn't be allowed to do it in any other country.
00:44:30You wouldn't get away with a healthy safety.
00:44:32You just wouldn't.
00:44:34It's mental.
00:44:36You do see grown men cry out there.
00:44:44I was just so relieved to get down there.
00:44:46I was so worried when I knew we got to the centre.
00:44:50Man, that was hard.
00:44:52It was really, really hard.
00:44:55I just wanted to sit down and cry and say,
00:44:57I just don't want to do this.
00:44:59I just don't want to do this.
00:45:01I just don't want to do it.
00:45:03I'm doing it for the animals.
00:45:05I'm not doing it for me.
00:45:11That's one of the worst days I've known in this race.
00:45:14You saw Fiona suffering.
00:45:16You saw her in a lot of pain.
00:45:27The most important things that you're going to do
00:45:30is get ready for tomorrow if there's going to be a tomorrow.
00:45:33You've just got to prepare for it.
00:45:37This is one thing that makes me really appreciate
00:45:40when you get back home.
00:45:42One tiny drop of water,
00:45:44and a towel, and it feels so good.
00:45:46It feels better than any power shower you could ever go under.
00:45:49Because you're here in these conditions
00:45:51and you're really appreciating it.
00:45:53You use every inch of everything.
00:45:56Something that in the West we're guilty of not doing.
00:45:59I'm not saying everybody should live like this.
00:46:02I'm asking everybody to live like this.
00:46:04I'm just asking people to consider
00:46:06that people do have to live like this,
00:46:09and how lucky we are to not do.
00:46:11As you can see, my toenails are now so blistered they're coming off.
00:46:14No point in trying to keep them on.
00:46:16I'll just pop them and put iodine on.
00:46:21Yeah, I'm about to lose my big toenails.
00:46:24And they are sore.
00:46:26They are like sore men.
00:46:28They got from bashing.
00:46:35I did something actually tremendous yesterday.
00:46:38I was in such a state of confusion,
00:46:40I put Tabasco on my toes.
00:46:42Yeah.
00:46:44I picked hold of the wrong part,
00:46:46and in total oblivion,
00:46:48I just poured it on my toes.
00:46:50Probably did them good, actually.
00:47:02This isn't, this is a sandstorm, I think.
00:47:05This isn't, this is a sandstorm, I think.
00:47:27Have you got two socks there, two small ones?
00:47:29Yeah, two purple ones.
00:47:31And then there, it just blows up like air.
00:47:45Fiona has some remarkable achievements under her belt,
00:47:48and she doesn't really get the media attention that she actually deserves.
00:47:54When I came back from the North Pole Marathons,
00:47:56the BBC contacted me immediately.
00:47:58They said, we'd like you to come to Salford.
00:48:01Bring your mum, that's fine.
00:48:03Get your hotel.
00:48:05We want you to open and close BBC Breakfast.
00:48:07And the researchers said, there's just one thing.
00:48:10We would prefer it if you didn't mention the fact that you're vegan.
00:48:14And I thought, but that's the whole part of me being there.
00:48:17That's the punchline.
00:48:19That's the barrier to getting the athletic achievements out there.
00:48:22It's because I've done it with a hidden agenda as far as they're concerned.
00:48:26I wanted to do it to promote something,
00:48:29which they're not happy to promote.
00:48:31I sat on the sofa there, live,
00:48:33and I was literally, the whole time that they were kind of talking and questioning me,
00:48:36I was thinking, how do I mention the fact that?
00:48:38Dare I? Dare I? I better not.
00:48:40What do I do? How do I do it? How do I say it?
00:48:42And in the end, they kind of said to me,
00:48:44why did you run a marathon at the North Pole?
00:48:46And I think that if I'd have said,
00:48:48because I'm just an airheaded kind of adrenaline junkie,
00:48:51and I just wanted to do it because it was there,
00:48:53I think that they could have connected with that a lot better than the answer I gave.
00:48:57I'm a lifelong vegan,
00:48:59and I'm a patron of the Vegan Society.
00:49:02It's their 70th anniversary next year,
00:49:04and I was looking to do something really, really special.
00:49:06So I just thought, what's the most extreme thing I can do?
00:49:10I've done a lot of other marathons.
00:49:12As I say, I wanted to prove I could do it in a vegan diet,
00:49:14and raise money because I run an animal sanctuary,
00:49:16and so help them as well.
00:49:18The second part of the interview came later in the show.
00:49:20There was no uptake on this vegan diet.
00:49:23They've completely blanked it.
00:49:25They don't want it on there, and that's it.
00:49:27We have had reporters who've told us off-record,
00:49:30I can't really feature you
00:49:32because you're flying in the face of the people who pay our wages,
00:49:36the advertisers, they're paying them to sell their meat and dairy.
00:49:39And here we are promoting a vegan athlete
00:49:41who's showing actually you don't need all that crap.
00:49:44If Fiona can do what she does,
00:49:46and has been vegan for 40 years,
00:49:48surely a vegan diet will be enough to manage you down the shops
00:49:52and your weekly shopping from Tesco or wherever.
00:49:55So many people have it in their mind.
00:49:57I had it too, this idea that you need to have meat,
00:50:00you need to have animal protein to be able to push harder and faster.
00:50:04But I really think of what I'm putting into my body is fuel
00:50:08that's going to fuel my workouts, but also fuel recovery.
00:50:11And I think that's probably the biggest benefit of a plant-based diet
00:50:14is that ability to fuel it with the best fuel possible,
00:50:19but then it's also the fuel that's going to help recovery,
00:50:22that's going to allow my muscles to heal,
00:50:24to allow my body to be ready for the next workout
00:50:27or to be ready for the next race.
00:50:29I genuinely see food as a fuel.
00:50:32I'm not a food-obsessive person.
00:50:34I respect food, I respect the fact that I have enough food,
00:50:38and that's something which a lot of people in the world and animals do not have.
00:50:43She only eats one meal a day,
00:50:45and she eats that when all the work is finished.
00:50:48For the day, she will then eat,
00:50:51and she eats methodically, slowly,
00:50:57and then she goes to bed and hopefully sleeps.
00:51:01When I came back from the North Pole,
00:51:03that's when the world record attempt came up.
00:51:05There's a record to be the fastest woman in days
00:51:09to actually do a marathon on every continent plus the North Pole.
00:51:13I explored the possibility of potential costs.
00:51:17No way we could afford it.
00:51:19This is an opportunity of getting in the Guinness Book of World Records
00:51:22as a vegan, and I'm throwing it away.
00:51:24And I knew I was throwing it away
00:51:26because there's no way I was going to go back to the North Pole
00:51:28and run that marathon again.
00:51:30I thought, this is just too good to miss.
00:51:32I just can't not do this.
00:51:34Surely to goodness, I can't not do this.
00:51:36But in the meantime, I'd written to one or two people to ask for help,
00:51:39and a guy from America had actually written back to me
00:51:43and said he'd like to support it.
00:51:46It was pretty much game on then.
00:51:48The first race I ran, I won.
00:51:51I didn't intend to.
00:51:53Martin said to me,
00:51:55you do realise that if you could do that in every race,
00:51:57you would actually become the fastest woman.
00:51:59You'd get three world records instead of one.
00:52:01You'd be the fastest woman in running time,
00:52:04in actual physical ability-wise,
00:52:06not just logistic-wise,
00:52:08to run a marathon on every continent and the North Pole.
00:52:11But the pressure then was on to not just amble around these races,
00:52:14but actually to run them and do as well as I could in them.
00:52:17So when the accumulated times were all together,
00:52:19I would be the fastest woman ever
00:52:21to have actually physically run on these continents.
00:52:24We're just saying goodbye to Fiona and her mum now
00:52:27as they journey off halfway around the world to Australia.
00:52:30Hello, Mrs Percy. Are you ready?
00:52:33He made the right decision, finding his coat.
00:52:35Yeah, he did.
00:52:39We were in Australia less time than we were flying there.
00:52:42Chip out the plane, run the marathon,
00:52:44do the championship time, get back on the plane,
00:52:46so that immediately our eye, Martin can go to work
00:52:49to cut down the amount of days off he's having to facilitate me do this.
00:52:53Morning. It's 8 o'clock in the morning.
00:52:55Fiona's getting ready with Percy to go in the taxi to Omsk in Siberia.
00:53:00And we're just going to go through the final checklist
00:53:03to make sure she's got everything that she needs to have.
00:53:06Running gear? Yep.
00:53:08Currency? Yep.
00:53:10Trainers? Yep.
00:53:12What about the training?
00:53:16Have you done the training?
00:53:19What training?
00:53:21For the marathon.
00:53:23You have to train for them? Yeah.
00:53:28The Omsk International Marathon is the biggest race in Russia.
00:53:32I'd had no sleep and then chip out and run, placed in it,
00:53:36and it was quite tough.
00:53:38Every time I was running these quicker times,
00:53:40the pressure was then on to keep doing it,
00:53:42to get these three world records instead of the one world record
00:53:45that I'd originally set out to do.
00:53:47And the next challenge was to go to America.
00:53:51The nearest one I could find on the east coast
00:53:54was the Atlantic City Marathon.
00:53:56I think I won that race.
00:54:01When we arrived home, I was quite poorly,
00:54:04and I remember I think I got back 12 days
00:54:06before I got to go to Africa.
00:54:09And I don't know how I got through it, but I did,
00:54:11and I did the time I wanted to do in it.
00:54:13So now it was back home to the UK,
00:54:15try to recover to do the last two marathons in this series.
00:54:19You're getting more and more tired,
00:54:21more and more prone to injury, fatigue, illness as well.
00:54:25You get very, very stressed out.
00:54:27You've only got one chance,
00:54:29and if something goes wrong, the whole thing's out the window.
00:54:33On the morning of Stage 4 of MDS,
00:54:35Fiona discovered that the soles of her shoes were disintegrating.
00:54:39The previous days of harsh terrain running on volcanic rock
00:54:42had taken their toll.
00:54:44They've just ripped pieces underneath.
00:54:49And it's both of them.
00:54:50It just basically took the soles off.
00:54:52The tread just came off.
00:54:53They're not particularly built for hours and hours of climbing
00:54:56and descending in very, very hostile and hot terrain.
00:54:59They're built for road running.
00:55:00My shoes really didn't occur to me, because I've tried and tested them
00:55:03so many times, it didn't really occur to me,
00:55:05but that just shows you what this race is.
00:55:07It throws up things that you don't expect.
00:55:09As I say, I've created a sole with this.
00:55:14And if you were then to get some gaffer tape to hold this in place
00:55:18or just keep putting gaffer tape around to give layers.
00:55:21And if your shoes go, you go.
00:55:23You go home. There's nothing you can do.
00:55:25Mark, down there, is going to lend me some gaffer tape,
00:55:28and I'm going to try and tape them and see how far I get.
00:55:36Well, I've just got to go out there and see what happens.
00:55:39There's nothing I can do.
00:55:47Stage 4 of MDS, also known as the Long Stage,
00:55:50is the equivalent of two marathons back-to-back.
00:55:53Runners are given 36 hours to cross the 86.2 kilometers
00:55:57of dunes, dry salt lakes, riverbeds, and jebbles along the route.
00:56:02Runners must push through the night to make Bivouac 4 in time
00:56:05to avoid disqualification.
00:56:08In an effort to try and preserve her shoes' remaining tread,
00:56:11Fiona decides to walk the entire stage with her fellow tentmates.
00:56:23I've seen people drop out because they didn't hydrate enough.
00:56:27But to be honest, I've seen more people drop out
00:56:29because they didn't take care of their feet.
00:56:32It's the combination of the heat and the sweating of your feet
00:56:35and, you know, the roughness of the sand,
00:56:38and the sand getting into your shoes.
00:56:40It's like the perfect storm of why people are forced to drop out.
00:56:45I've stopped at every checkpoint.
00:56:47I've stopped at every checkpoint.
00:56:49I've stopped at every checkpoint.
00:56:51I've stopped at every checkpoint and rapped until I've got some tread.
00:56:56I think their backs will hold.
00:56:58It's just fun.
00:57:00It was a matter of going around the camp
00:57:02and trying to beg and borrow tape from people.
00:57:04I think any kilometer that the soles of these shoes are now protected
00:57:08is a win.
00:57:11It's just brutal.
00:57:12You actually are looking at 86 kilometers
00:57:15with a giant backpack in hostile terrain,
00:57:18hostile conditions, climates, trudging.
00:57:26The thing is, it's not the last stage today.
00:57:28So even if you get through today on those shoes,
00:57:31you've got a marathon to worry about on those shoes.
00:57:34The whole stage, it had to be weighted.
00:57:36What do you do?
00:57:37Do you hammer your shoes and try and get off your feet as quickly as possible
00:57:40but risk hammering them too much
00:57:42so you can't actually enter the marathon stage?
00:57:44Or do you take it really, really easy?
00:57:46Watch every step and try and nurse them home.
00:57:55It's like it makes you want to cry
00:57:57because you're not thinking you're going to be out here doing this
00:58:00and then I've got to go through tomorrow.
00:58:03Just praying.
00:58:10It's grim when you look and think,
00:58:12right, you know, 86 kilometers.
00:58:15Even if you do a relatively decent pace,
00:58:17factoring in stops, you're looking at a cosy 23 hours.
00:58:28And it's literally going from checkpoint to checkpoint,
00:58:30fixating on getting to a checkpoint.
00:58:34You just sit.
00:58:36Then it's body and equipment management.
00:58:38First thing before I was actually seen to myself was looking at shoes.
00:58:46I just laid in bed last night and thought,
00:58:48I'm not doing it, I'm not putting myself through that.
00:58:52The disappointment of having to go out there now,
00:58:55knowing that you probably might have to pull out
00:58:58because of your shoes.
00:59:05It's relentless.
00:59:06I mean, you've just got to keep moving forward.
00:59:08Demoralising.
00:59:09You can't see the terrain, you can't see what's up front,
00:59:12so you just have to rely on having enough strength
00:59:14to cope with whatever comes.
00:59:17Night's just a different game to running at night
00:59:19as opposed to running at day.
00:59:20That's when the demons come to play at night.
00:59:22And they do play some fairly nasty tricks on you,
00:59:25so it's really hard.
00:59:27You've got to go dig really deep to get yourself out
00:59:29of some of the holes that your mind puts you in.
00:59:31And that requires extraordinary, extraordinary depth of character.
00:59:43You know what, lots of holes,
00:59:45sort of dented things like that,
00:59:47you can hardly stop them.
00:59:53And you know you're going to be out there for a long time
00:59:55and you're just hoping your body holds up.
00:59:57That's the main thing, you're just desperately hoping
00:59:59your body and your mind holds up.
01:00:13Day 2
01:00:31Well, we're just waiting for the taxi to come
01:00:33to take Fiona to the airport.
01:00:35For what?
01:00:36The annual egg and spoon competition.
01:00:38And that's what you've been training for?
01:00:40Yeah.
01:00:41It's not, that's not right.
01:00:43I think you're going to run across the desert.
01:00:45No, no, I don't think it's an egg and spoon competition.
01:00:47So you're telling me all your training has been
01:00:49based around egg and spoon?
01:00:51Oh yeah, we've got the egg and spoon set
01:00:53that we've been training with.
01:00:54That's a Peppa Pig egg and spoon set,
01:00:56made of plastic.
01:00:58Yeah.
01:00:59Well, I'm sorry, but that's not right.
01:01:01You're going to have to give those to me
01:01:03and you're going to have to put that backpack on
01:01:05and run across the desert, unfortunately.
01:01:07We went off to South America
01:01:09and I have to say,
01:01:11if I'd have known what I was letting myself through for,
01:01:13I question whether I would have actually gone.
01:01:16It was so horrible.
01:01:18And I'm forever grateful that my mum
01:01:21actually went with me and witnessed it
01:01:23because if she hadn't,
01:01:25I don't think she would have believed it.
01:01:27The Atacama Volcano Marathon
01:01:29is extreme in a very different way
01:01:32to the ice marathons.
01:01:34It's one of the highest marathons in the world,
01:01:36so you start at 14,500 feet
01:01:38and you've only got 11% oxygen,
01:01:40so about half what you'd have at sea level.
01:01:43And I'd convinced myself that it wouldn't be too bad,
01:01:46running a marathon at 14,000 feet altitude.
01:01:49I really hadn't given it that much thought.
01:01:52Running at altitude,
01:01:53I think especially for someone who comes from sea level,
01:01:57is definitely a challenge.
01:02:00It is very, very extreme.
01:02:03I think more extreme and potentially more risky
01:02:07than the ice marathons.
01:02:09You've got to contest with the fact
01:02:10that you're running at altitude,
01:02:12but you're not kind of running,
01:02:13you are battling very, very bad terrain.
01:02:16About 28k, I rolled my knee on a stone
01:02:19or whatever it was, I don't know.
01:02:21I just rolled my knee and slipped.
01:02:23I knew I'd damaged it badly the minute I did it.
01:02:25I just thought, OK, I'm going to have to walk,
01:02:26I'm going to have to do what I've got to do to finish.
01:02:28It's not going to be pretty, and it really wasn't.
01:02:31If I'd just been trying to do this for myself,
01:02:33I wouldn't have put myself through it, I have to say that.
01:02:35But I wasn't doing it for myself, so I did.
01:02:42And I remember laying in the back of this ambulance,
01:02:4514,400 feet up the side of a volcano
01:02:48in the Atacama Desert,
01:02:50thinking, how the hell am I going to recover from this?
01:02:54The doctor has just told me
01:02:56that I am not going to run again this year.
01:02:58It was November, November the 14th.
01:03:01How the hell am I going to run in Antarctica in five days?
01:03:06Just complete silence, game over kind of thing.
01:03:10I couldn't even bend my leg.
01:03:13And we got back to the hotel, Mum and I,
01:03:15we just went back to our room and thought,
01:03:17what, this is the worst nightmare
01:03:19that could possibly have happened.
01:03:24We got into Santiago,
01:03:26and I was pretty much panicking.
01:03:30And we went off to Antarctica.
01:03:34And I thought, this is not possible.
01:03:37I was really scared. I just couldn't run.
01:03:39I just couldn't bend my leg. I didn't know what to do.
01:03:42I got all these expectations resting on me.
01:03:45Guilt, fear.
01:03:47I've got these world records.
01:03:49I'm dicing with whether I can do them or not.
01:03:52I've failed, basically.
01:03:55I just thought, how am I going to possibly keep warm?
01:03:58It was very, very cold.
01:04:00I won't say I prepared myself for my run,
01:04:02because I didn't think with this knee
01:04:04that was just constantly throbbing,
01:04:06and I was severely depleted from the Atacama race anyway,
01:04:10and I was in a lot of pain, which was very, very worrying.
01:04:13I'm just going to run, shuffle, crawl, slide.
01:04:15It's whatever I've got to do.
01:04:17As long as the knee continues at this pain level
01:04:20and doesn't get any worse,
01:04:22as long as I can just block that out,
01:04:24I might be able to just keep going.
01:04:26You're so aware of treading this fine balance
01:04:29between something going wrong, and if it goes wrong,
01:04:32you've got no way of making it go right.
01:04:34You just can't, and it hits you very quickly.
01:04:37It really does hit very quickly.
01:04:40One minute you're running in fog,
01:04:42and the next minute it's just like
01:04:44some curtain's been drawn in front of you.
01:04:47It was absolutely majestic,
01:04:49just the ethereal beauty of looking around you
01:04:51and seeing nothing and no one, and think,
01:04:53check this, I'm in Antarctica.
01:04:55Wow.
01:04:56As the kind of kilometres and miles tick by,
01:04:59I realised that I was beginning to catch runners.
01:05:02I don't know, it was like the total epiphany.
01:05:05The Fiona that had been worried and in pain with the knee
01:05:07kind of left my body,
01:05:09and the spirit of a new Fiona came into my body,
01:05:11and it was like, wow, perhaps I'm not going that slowly.
01:05:15Perhaps this isn't completely out the window.
01:05:18Perhaps I can still salvage something from this race.
01:05:21Perhaps I can, dare I say, break this record
01:05:24of being the fastest woman in actual running time
01:05:26to go to these continents,
01:05:28these extra two bonus world records,
01:05:30and dare I even dream it, that I can win it.
01:05:33So it all kind of came rushing upon me all at once,
01:05:36seeing the camp, seeing the gantry,
01:05:38seeing the finish line, and more importantly,
01:05:41seeing the tape being held across for the first lady home.
01:05:48Broke the tape, nearly broke my neck
01:05:50because I fell over on the tape and slipped.
01:05:52Very, very unladylike.
01:05:54I said, oh, did I win? That's the only thing, did I win?
01:05:57And he said, yeah, yeah, you won,
01:05:58and you even broke the course record.
01:06:00I couldn't actually believe it.
01:06:05I still don't know how I did it, but I did.
01:06:09And, yeah, that was my world record.
01:06:14Shhh.
01:06:16Fiona Oakes set three world records,
01:06:20fastest aggregate time to complete a marathon
01:06:22on each continent,
01:06:24fastest aggregate time to complete a marathon
01:06:26on each continent and the North Pole,
01:06:29both cumulatively and elapsed.
01:06:35Stage five of Marathon du Sable
01:06:37is the final leg of the race.
01:06:39At 42.2 kilometers, it is a marathon distance run
01:06:42and the second longest stage of the entire week.
01:06:45The course forces runners along painfully uneven terrain
01:06:48before sending them down into a deep dry wash.
01:06:51After climbing out, they must traverse
01:06:53a long section of rocky plateaus
01:06:55and steep wind-blown sand dunes.
01:06:57The course then passes through
01:06:59the ancient and abandoned village of Mifsis
01:07:02in the final stretch to the finish line.
01:07:10That really, really stung.
01:07:14I know my toenail's going to come off.
01:07:16When it does come off, I don't want it to be loose in my shoe.
01:07:21Feeling nervous about today,
01:07:23but I think everyone in the tent agrees
01:07:26you're feeling pretty blessed to be in a position
01:07:29to be sitting here, even considering going out there,
01:07:34because at the beginning of the week,
01:07:36getting to Friday does actually seem like a daunting prospect.
01:07:41In the beginning of the week,
01:07:43yeah, yeah, whatever happens,
01:07:45I'm going to crawl to the finish on my island.
01:07:48And then even yesterday, when the long stage was over,
01:07:52people then start thinking,
01:07:54oh, my God, what if something goes wrong in the night?
01:07:57What if I wake up with a cold?
01:07:59What if I wake up with a cramp?
01:08:01You know, what if? All the what ifs.
01:08:03Because that long stage takes so much out of people
01:08:07that you don't want to have done it for nothing.
01:08:11And that was my main concern with the shoe.
01:08:14If worse result comes, it is a couple of stones,
01:08:17some plastic bags and some more gaffer tape,
01:08:21and, you know, whatever it takes.
01:08:24But let's say we hope it doesn't come to that.
01:08:33MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:51People listen to Fiona talk and they come to me afterwards and say,
01:08:55you must be very proud.
01:08:57I say, no, pride reflects onto me.
01:09:00I look at her in awe and then the guilt kicks in.
01:09:04The guilt of having brought a life into the world
01:09:08that is so compassionate and feeling and loving
01:09:12that she has to push herself to these tremendous lengths
01:09:17to try to get a platform
01:09:19so that she can speak for those who have no voice.
01:09:24I've been very strong, but I am very, very sensitive.
01:09:29I abhor cruelty to humans and animals alike.
01:09:34I don't think that in the 21st century,
01:09:36especially, people should be suffering
01:09:38and I certainly don't think animals should be suffering at people's hands.
01:09:42I can't turn a blind eye. It's not in me to do that.
01:09:45I always want to try and do the right thing
01:09:47and do as much as I possibly can whilst I'm here and in the world.
01:09:51As much as I possibly can whilst I'm here and able to do it.
01:09:54FIONA FINISHES WITH A TOTAL RUNNING TIME OF 46 HOURS, 31 MINUTES, 26 SECONDS
01:10:23It's kind of mixed emotions when you finish.
01:10:25It's been the focus of your life for a long time before you came here
01:10:30and for the last week, you've been fully aware
01:10:33that you're working toward this particular moment.
01:10:35And when it comes, it's not exactly a letdown,
01:10:37but it's just, I think, to be honest with you, it reminds me of more relief.
01:10:41I'm all talked out about it now. It's done. It's over.
01:10:45Yeah, we've done it.
01:10:47So it's move on and do something else now.
01:10:50Go home, feed my lungs. It's where I want to be.
01:10:53So much want to be.
01:10:55So, yeah, that's what it's all about.
01:11:12Fiona, she's so pure.
01:11:14And she's just doing it, like, everything from her heart.
01:11:17She's not defined by a physical condition.
01:11:20She doesn't define herself by her extraordinary running.
01:11:24She does this completely selflessly.
01:11:26For her, it's her own passionate belief about paganism
01:11:29and about her animal sanctuary.
01:11:31Part of what makes her so incredible is that she's just so humble.
01:11:36Her life and her work with the animals, with her sanctuary, drives her.
01:11:40It gives her a focus for her running.
01:11:42For so many reasons, I want Fiona to succeed in her running
01:11:45and her advocacy.
01:11:47I think sometimes people look at individuals like Fiona as, like,
01:11:50oh, they're superhuman.
01:11:52Maybe she does have some genetic abilities that have helped her,
01:11:55but she's got an incredible amount of will,
01:11:58and she's a great example for what you can continue to do
01:12:01throughout a lifetime.
01:13:45For more information, visit www.fema.gov
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