Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Land’s End speed record attempt
Mum beats booze for 874-mile challenge
A MUM who beat alcoholism will this week begin a bid to become the fastest person to run alone from John o’ Groats to Land’s End.
Claire Smith, 45, hopes to break the 17-day, 22-hour world record for the unsupported 874-mile challenge. She aims to cover at least 50 miles a day while pushing a pram with a tent, sleeping bag and other equipment.
She will wild camp for the majority of the race, but will occasionally stay at campsites and B&BS to wash her kit and shower.
The current fastest time of 17 days, 22 hours and 56 minutes was set in 2008.
Mum-of-two Claire, who will start on Sunday, said: “I would love it if people come and run with me, but I can’t accept any outside help.”
Claire is raising funds for Forest Holme Hospice in Dorset. She said: “My best friend’s mum, who I loved dearly, recently passed away in their care.”
Claire is the only person in the UK to finish a Double Deca Triathlon. It took 28 days and involved swimming 48 miles, cycling 2,240 miles and running 20 marathons. Claire, of Christchurch, Dorset, took up running after giving birth to her daughter at age 21. She threw herself into triathlons, but had a “dirty secret”. For 19 years from age 18, she battled alcoholism, before finally beating it in 2013.
She said: “I hid it so well, this double life. I was desperate to create this facade of ‘you’re fine, you’re doing all this fitness stuff ’. “But I was struggling. I’d put myself through gruelling training sessions almost as punishment. I must have tried to quit 100 times. Towards the end, I was drinking so much I was surprised I woke up.”
Claire’s training commitments resulted in the end of her marriage but she said: ”It happens to a lot of people who take up extreme or endurance sports. But there’s no regret.”