© Joe O’Connell-Danes

Given Lou Gibson’s lengthy list of cycling achievements (which include riding the entire Tour de France one day ahead of the pros with the InternationElles, and representing Great Britain at Grand Fondo racing) you’d be forgiven for assuming that she’d been attached to a bike from a very early age. But in actual fact, the events manager got to the age of 31 without having owned one.

Here, Lou tells me how a running injury and the breakdown of her marriage inadvertently kicked off her cycling journey, plus she shares the highs and lows of riding 3460km during last year’s InternationElle’s Tour de France ride for equality.

For American Liz Warner, an impending 30th birthday milestone was an opportunity to plan something that would mix her passions for adventure and social change. In January last year, with 10 marathons already under her belt, Liz launched a fundraising project: Run to Reach, with the aim of running 30 marathons in 30 countries before her 30th birthday, whilst supporting different female-focused NGOs (non-government organisations) in each country.

With only 5 left to run before her birthday, Liz, who lives in Paris, spared some time to tell me about the project and her experience so far.

© Mark Colon/World Marathon Challenge

In February 2019, British runner Susannah Gill became the fastest woman to complete the 777 World Marathon Challenge, running a marathon on each of the 7 continents in 7 days – in a total time of 24 hours, 19 minutes and 9 seconds. She ran in minus temperatures in snowy Antarctica and through the night in Australia. Her average marathon time was a speedy 3:28, despite running the 7 marathons back-to-back on blurred time zones.

Susannah’s written a book about her experience, Running Around the World – How I Ran 7 Marathons on 7 Continents in 7 Days, which has just launched. Between training, work and book publicity, she made time to answer my questions about this incredible endurance feat, along with what she’s been up to since.

© James Appleton

At the 2019 Spartan Ultra World Championships in snowy Åre, Sweden the temperature dipped to as low as -30° degrees, but this didn’t stop women’s champion Rea Kolbl from smashing out 70 miles across 350 obstacles and 28,000ft of elevation, during the 24-hour race.

How did she do it? I quizzed the dryrobe ambassador about her training and fuelling – after first asking her about her experience racing the 800km Eco-Challenge team adventure expedition race in Fiji last September.

© David Styv/BikingMan

When 44-year-old Australian Julie Melville crossed the finish line of last year’s non-stop BikingMan Taiwan ultracycling race she had ridden 1150km with 20,000m of vertical elevation, unsupported, along a route that included 90km of one of the world’s longest and most feared climbs: the Taroko climb.

Overcoming severe cold and sleep deprivation, Julie was the first and only female finisher and set a new course record despite it being a tougher course. It took her 114 hours and 41 minutes. Below she chats about her background, training, and just how tough it got in Taiwan.

Next December, 28-year-old Sofia Deambrosi and her three Bristol Gulls teammates, Chloe Juyon, Lorna Carter and Sarah Hunt, will embark on one of the world’s toughest endurance challenges: the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic row – covering 3000 nautical miles from La Gomera in the Canaries across the Atlantic to Antigua.

The all-female Bristol Gulls are planning to row as sustainably as possible, with race partners chosen for their eco credentials and a new eco boat designed by Rannoch to have less impact on the environment. They are also raising money for the RNLI and Clean-Up Bristol Harbour through their row.

With a year to go, skipper Sofia tells me about her endurance sport background, the challenges that await the team and how they’re focused on building strength and lifting heavy until their boat arrives in May 2020.

In the five years since she turned pro, British Ironman triathlete, Laura Siddall’s impressive successes include becoming ETU European long course champion and winning Ironman Australia three times in a row. However, if you follow Laura on social media you’ll know that she’s just as honest about the challenging times she’s faced as she is about celebrating the successes she works hard to enjoy.

Describing 2019 as a ‘mixed year’ (she broke her collarbone in May), the 39-year-old Parcours athlete chats about her training, how she overcomes tough moments out on the course, and why she’ll always feel privileged to do what she does for a living.

© BikingMan / David Styv

Despite experiencing horrendous sickness during the 1680km BikingMan Inca Divide ultracycling event in Peru, and not being able to eat for most of the non-stop and unsupported race, Brazilian cyclist Victoria de Sá, was the only female finisher and came across the finish line with husband, Bruno, as the first pair.

Victoria chatted to me about her experience and how she endured temperatures that ranged from below freezing to 30+°c, a lost tracker and an unimaginable 30,000m of climbing, on barely any training.

If you love open water swimming, you’ve probably heard of Lindsey Cole, whose joyous Instagram feed has been filled with photos documenting her six-month #dippingbritain journey of cycling to wild swimming spots around Britain. It’s a journey which started out as a two-week adventure to reach the Scottish Cold Water Swimming Championships, but morphed into a six-month wild swimming extravaganza – something she’ll be speaking about at the Dryrobe Outdoor Swimming Session at the Kendal Mountain Festival on Sunday 17 November (tickets here).

Prior to #dippingbritain, Lindsey swam the length of the Thames with a mermaid tale to highlight the plastic pandemic. However, her adventures have spanned more than watery pursuits, and include a 3-month walk along Western Australia’s 1000-mile Rabbit-Proof Fence, tracing the journey three young aborigine children made alone in the 1930s in an attempt to be reunited with the parents they were separated from. All in all, Lindsey is (to coin her own phrase) a ‘She-Ra’ of magnificent proportions.

© Alexis Berg

Lining up for the 42km BUFF Epic Trail skyrace in July, 24-year-old Swede, Johanna Åström, was a total newcomer. Despite having no skyrunning experience, she pulled off an incredible second-place finish, which she topped a month later by crushing the course record at Tromsø skyrace – arguably the most technical skyrace of the 2019 Migu Run Skyrunner World Series Calendar.

Johanna, who is also part of the Swedish Ski Mountaineering team and has won winter races such as the Romsdal Rando, climbed her way up to 3rd place in the Skyrunner World Series rankings and was in contention for the Series title in Limone last weekend until a hip injury she picked up whilst roller skiing forced her to pull out. In this interview, Johanna chats about her background, her newfound love of skyrunning and what her typical race season training looked like.