On the 16th July Mimi Anderson (nick name Marvellous Mimi) ran from John O'Groats to Landsend in an attempt to break the current female world record. In order for her to break this hard record she ran 85 miles the first day, 75 the second and 68 - 70 each day after that.
Mimi's Account
WE DID IT! 12 days, 15 hrs and 46 minutes (as yet to be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records)
What an extra-ordinary adventure myself and my crew have had – 13 days of highs & lows, laughter and jollity (lots of that), lack of sleep, especially for the crew but most of all a marvellous team working together for one goal – THE WORLD RECORD.
I will at some point put together my thoughts on the events, but here are some of my memories of my world record attempt.
Arriving in John O’Groats we were welcomed with gale force winds and rain, our campervans were being blown about all night so you can imagine I wasn’t really looking forward to setting off in these conditions in the morning! Thankfully by the time we were ready to set off the rain had gone but the wind remained – I was being blown about all over the place! I wouldn’t recommend running on the A9, although the drivers were extremely considerate a couple of buses and lorries came a wee bit close at times giving me quite a shock.
Going over the Kessock Bridge on the second day was for me just amazing. I was greeted by a friend of my mother’s about a mile from the bridge who had brought her Grandchildren along to support me – they ran a little way with me – sadly running faster than me! This spurred me on and my pace picked up getting to the bridge quicker than expected. I was then greeted by my Graham & June, Tim’ s parents, which was just wonderful – full pelt to the other side of the bridge, as I knew my mother would be there with the Piper Andy Ventners – a very emotional moment.
Running over the Forth Road Bridge was another mile stone in my journey – here I was joined by Chris, who like me had never run over the bridge before and so a first for both of us. The Whites (friends of my parents) appeared on bikes loaded up with pink balloons – what a wonderful thing to do – they then escorted me chatting away over the bridge.
My birthday was such a special day – I arrived at my 9am stop to find the campervans had been covered in pink balloons and the crew were all wearing silly hats and blowing streamers! (I also had to wear a silly hat!) There were lots of presents to open and my birthday cake was pink doughnuts – how glorious is that!
Running over Shap was really hard work, you wouldn’t believe the hills, but the views were worth it when I finally reached the top! Crossing over the border into England was another milestone – not far to go now – (ha ha!!)
My sponsors joined me for a day which meant a lot to me. On their arrival I was hit by a car’s wing mirror badly on the arm – poor Tim (my husband) found this quite difficult to cope with knowing that I still had miles to go on quite major roads – my brain must have switched off from the pain as I couldn’t feel anything – a bit like the rest of the body!!!
Seeing a sign saying I only had 95 miles to go was the most amazing uplift I had – a much needed one at that stage. Finally arriving in Cornwall – I thought it would never come! The motorists must of thought I was completely mad as I had my arms waving around all over the place as I ran past the sign! Paul George of the Cornish/Devon police had been following my progress since the beginning, so you can imagine my panic when I saw a police car stop in front of me! – it was only Paul wishing me good luck – he got a very large smelly hug!
The last day was tough – my feet were sore and the few blisters that I did have were causing a huge amount of pain – the crew had had an emergency meeting at 4am to discuss a change in tactics, as it really was touch and go as to whether I would get my record. I was given an extra half an hours sleep. Tim woke me up and I had 15 minutes to get up and ready to set off – today there would be no stopping, I was fed as I ran – or staggered I think is a better description! They even fed me on baby food – YUK! I was really struggling to keep myself awake so they were having to feed me more regularly. People in their cars were tooting away at me and shouting encouragement as I was stuffing my face with yet another sausage sandwich. I then got stopped by a policeman on the A30 saying a member of the public had complained – he kept me there for 45 minutes, that was it, my record was now gone and all I could do now was to complete my journey to Lands End – I was devastated – but a word of encouragement from a friend really helped. We were finally allowed to go and I had to really dig deep to keep myself going.
SUDDENLEY I saw a sign to Penzance – 13 miles – ONLY 13 MILES, I could do that. The race was back on, my pace picked up (thanks to twigglets!) and I just kept going, I think my crew were quite surprised – little did I know that I still had a further 10 miles after Penzance but who cared!!
The last leg of my adventure was done with Tim on the bike and the crew meeting me in the vans every mile. This was by far the hardest 8.4 miles I have ever done in my life – I kept on finding excuses to stop – my foot was itchy, I needed to stretch my legs, anything so I could have 3 seconds with no pain. Apparently with only a mile to go I stopped turned round to Tim and said I wasn’t going any further! – CAN YOU IMAGINE ANYTHING SO SILLY!!!
FINALLY I saw the finish line – my crew had got pink loo roll for me to run through – I was off like a rabbit – the world record was mine.
Thank you to everyone, especially my marvellous crew who without them I couldn’t possibly have got to the end and achieved my goal and I was so pleased to have got the world record for them. My sponsors, my mother, husband, David (who kept up the blog from Italy), everyone who came out to cheer me on along the way and for everyone who sent messages of encouragement and support along the way, they were ALL appreciated and kept me going.
If an ordinary person like me can dream a dream and succeed so you can you – so never so no, always ask “why not”
To see how she does and read all about her and her blogs click HERE
Read her article on how she became a runner HERE it is inspiring!
And HERE is the grueling schedule
