Marathon girl’s ready to run-ba

HELEN Skelton can put her best foot forward in Strictly’s gruelling training with confidence – after breaking herself into extreme challenges with a 78-mile ultra-marathon.

The Countryfile host,

39, right, did the event in Namibia in 2009. Helen says it taught her to look after her feet – the

“most important piece of kit I had”.

And she said she learned about “using the highs to get you through the lows”.

The mum-of-three’s selfhelp guide, Wild Girl, offers an insight into the lengths she could go to lift the glitterball trophy. In it, Helen writes: “The race showed me sometimes you just have to keep your head down and plough on.”

The TV star split from hubby Richie Myler earlier this year.