GOING 2850 MILES COAST TO COAST ACROSS THE U.S. IN 53 DAYS
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was all set for September last year but in May, I started to limp and an MRI showed I needed surgery on my knee. I was devastated but am hoping it will be second time lucky. “My run across America isn’t just about trying to set a new world record. Doing a run like this is the greatest way I know to raise funds and awareness for my charities. “The money I raise will be shared between Marie Curie, who supported my father during his battle with cancer, and Free to Run – a charity supporting women and girls from conflict areas using the power of sport.” Mimi, who runs 25 miles six days a week, added: “As wel l as fundraising for charity, I will be running a campaign called ‘Mimi & Me for 53’. I’m hoping to encourage people – especially women and schoolchildren – to take up their own challenge, set their own goal and see what they can achieve over the 53 days that I am running across America. “Their goal can be anything from learning how to swim a length of a pool , running their f irst 5k, riding a bike to school or walking for 30 minutes three times a week.”
Mimi’s ultra running achievements make Olympic and world champion Mo Farah’s triumphs look like a walk in the park.
They include winning the Extreme Ultra Marathon – a 352-mile race across the Arctic, coming first in the 220km five-day Namibian Desert Challenge, becoming the first woman to achieve the double Spartathlon – running non-stop from Athens to Sparta and back, setting the female record in Badwater – a 135-mile marathon across Death Valley in California and completing the 1968km Freedom Run in South Africa in 32 days.
Mimi, married to soldier turned financial adviser Tim, 58, still holds two female world records. The first for the JOGLE – running from John O’Groats to Lands End in 12 days, 15 hours and 46 minutes, the second for the M2M – 345 miles from the top to the bottom of Ireland in three days, 15 hours, 36 minutes.
The adrenaline junkie, who is gran to Theo, nine, Finley, five, and Lily, three, took up running in 1999 after mentioning to her friend that she would like slim legs. Two years later, she took part in her first ultra.
She said: “I started on the treadmill and moved on from there. In 2001, I did the
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Marathon des Sables in the Sahara with two pals. I got sick during the race and needed three bags of IV fluid but I made it.
“Just before crossing the finishing line, the three of us changed into purple sparkly dresses. Completing that race was just the best feeling.”
Mimi, who now lives in Smarden, Kent, says running helped put her past struggles with an eating disorder behind her and gave her back her zest for life.
She said: “I spent more than 15 years suffering with anorexia, which got hold of me so tightly I struggled for years to let it go.
“Over time, running has given me back my life. It has put a spring back in my step, given me back my confidence that somewhere along the way I lost.
“My sel f- esteem and pride in my achievements continues to grow. It has allowed me to become a better mother, wife, friend and person.
“I now see food in a completely different way, I’m not frightened of it any more but see it as my fuel to enable me to continue with the sport I love. I will need to eat plenty on my race across the States.”