© 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.

Whilst most of us at the age of 21 were negotiating early adulthood, Indian twins Tashi and Nungshi Malik were summiting Everest. Just two years later, at the age of 23, they became the youngest people in the world to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam – summiting the highest peak on each of the 7 continents and skiing to both the North and South Pole– a bucket list of achievements that many mountaineers spend decades attempting to achieve. All while doing it to encourage more women and girls to get outside.

This year, the 28-year-olds swapped mountaineering for adventure racing as they took part in the famous Eco Challenge expedition adventure race in Fiji; a non-stop, multi-day race billed as ‘the toughest in the world’, where the siblings competed in a team of four to race hundreds of miles across the jungle, mountains and ocean via various means. All teams are under strict confidentiality agreements until the TV series of the event with Bear Grylls airs in 2020, however Tashi describes it as ‘brutal’.

I caught up with the twins via email while they were in Fiji to revisit their race experience ahead of writing a book about it, and quizzed them on their extraordinary mountaineering achievements.

© Catarina Axelsson

Since Swedish athlete Fanny Kuhn completed her first swimrun event in 2014, she hasn’t looked back, winning a stack of races with her swimrun partner, Desiree Anderson – including the biggie: the ÖtillÖ World Championship, which includes 10km of swimming and 65km of trail running! (Yes, really!)

However, the former competitive swimmer isn’t content just to compete – she’s on a mission to encourage more women and girls to give swimrun a go via WILD Swimrun,the business she launched with fellow swimrunner, Maria Rohman, which offers women-only swimrun training camps, along with advice and help via an online community.

I put some questions to Fanny about training, racing and everything swimrun.

© Heather Anderson

Unless you have a keen interest in thru-hiking, you might have missed the news that last year, Heather ‘Anish’ Anderson completed America’s Triple Crown of thru-hiking within in a single calendar year. That’s hiking the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail, the 2650-mile Pacific Crest Trail and the 3100-mile Continental Divide. It’s the third time Heather has completed the Triple, and the first time it’s been done by a woman within a single calendar year.

Heather, who goes by the trail name of ‘Anish’, also holds the outright self-supported Fastest Known Time record for the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which saw her hike an average of 44 miles a day for just over 60 days, often rising at 4am to start her hike and not finishing until gone midnight. Although known for her incredible hiking accolades, Heather has also completed six 100-mile trail races including the renowned Western States 100.

For an insight into Heather’s record-breaking PCT FKT record I’d highly recommend reading her book, Thirst – 2600 MILES TO HOME, which documents her journey, including near-death experiences and mountain lion encounters. In the meantime, here’s a quick Q&A with Heather.

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.