Thank you for taking the time to visit my page.

What am I doing? 

On the 25^th March I will be flying out to Morocco and taking on the legendary Marathon des Sables. Often dubbed the toughest footrace on earth, I will be attempting to run 150 miles (six marathons) in six days across the Sahara Desert. 

Unfortunately this isn’t divided evenly either, and the longest single stage is a gruelling 50 miler in one go. So the agenda will be- marathon, marathon, marathon, double marathon, rest day, marathon, and then a 10k thrown in at the end (for fun?).

To make things slightly more complicated, other than being treated to top ups of water and a nightly bivouac tent (basically a windbreaker), runners must remain entirely self-sufficient. This means I will be carrying about 7-8kg of food and other essentials on my back.

Why am I doing it?

I am fundraising for Beat, the UK's leading eating disorder charity. 

Beat's mission to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders remains very close to my heart. This was the charity I fundraised for back in 2018 when I ran my first half marathon, so I knew that if I was going to ask for donations one last time I ought to set myself a big challenge. 

To give just three examples, your money could-

1. Help Beat answer a call to their helpline service. This will often be the very first time someone speaks about their illness and takes a crucial first step toward recovery. 

2. Help Beat run online training courses for parents, partners and siblings caring for a loved one with an eating disorder. These workshops provide families with free access to conversations with experienced eating disorder clinicians, and ultimately spread an important message of hope.

3. Help Beat enact broader systemic change through their campaigning work. For example, the average UK undergraduate medical student will receive less than two hours of teaching on eating disorders throughout their entire medical degree. Beat are currently lobbying hard to fix this. You can read about previous campaigning successes here: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/support-our-work/campaign-for-beat/campaigning-successes-so-far/ . 

Why this challenge? 

Ever since our amazing primary school teacher completed the MdS (shoutout to Miss H!), it's stayed in the back of my mind as the ultimate adventure. In January 2021 I decided to just sign up and see how close I could get. 

Whilst an exercise related challenge isn't going to be the right thing for everyone, getting outside and chasing some endorphins really helped me to remain positive through the dreaded lockdowns of 2020. So it felt right that if I was going to fundraise I would do more of something that has helped me to manage my own mind. 

How am I going to do it? 

Considering that I only ran my first marathon in October 2021, I am obviously quite out of my depth here. I set myself a number of milestones I needed to meet in training and have been (much to my own surprise) slowly ticking them off. In December, I ran a trail marathon with about the same elevation gain as Ben Nevis. In January, I ran my first ultramarathon, a 43 mile schlep in the pouring rain. And last weekend I ran my first multi-day ultra, taking on 66 miles in 2 days with a backpack in tow. To make this a *fun* simulation of MdS I also ate cold food and slept on my rather thin sleeping mat.

Last year's MdS saw 50% of participants forced to drop out due to unprecedented heat and a sick bug, so I'm well aware that nothing is guaranteed in the Sahara. That being said, I'm feeling determined to give it my all and get to the finish line. 

Thank you in advance for any donations you are able to give. Cara xxx