Superhuman Sally completes World Marathon Challenge

Sally becomes the first British female army veteran and the fifth British woman to complete the mamoth challenge, seeing athletes run a marathon on all seven of the earth's continents.

The final marathon was hosted in Miami, USA and started at 3:30 am GMT, having already run in Brazil, Spain, Dubai, Australia, South Africa and Antartica.

Sally finished each of the marathons in the following times:

The World Marathon Challenge describes itself as a logistical and physical challenge to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. The time includes flights and the runs, attempting to complete everything within 168 hours.

Other than in Antartica, Sally has had to deal with high temperatures and humidity on her runs and has been through the highs and lows during her marathons.

The Madrid marathon was a particularly difficult one physically. Sally, at points, was setting small landmarks, running lamp post to lamp post at times, to keep moving. After finishing in Spain, Sally said: "The worst marathon I have ever ‘run’. I literally could not stop crying from mile 8.

"My stomach was soooooo sore, and then I completely dehydrated myself by crying the whole way. I’ve always known it’s hard to run and cry at the same time, but it’s also just as hard to walk and cry at the same time as well.

"It was a brutal course and really hilly, 33 laps of the same course. That in itself wouldn’t have been a problem as I’ve done a marathon around my house and garden and even in the London Eye on a treadmill. But it was the emotional marathon I put myself through today.

"I kept telling myself that I used to live every day like this, and this was only one day, but I also tried to reframe it and tell myself that even though I was walking, some people would give anything to be able to walk.

"My life (like so many other people’s), has been an emotional marathon and today’s marathon was just the emotional marathon in it’s physical form."

Despite the mental and physical challenges, Sally kept going and completed all of the runs rounding off the amazing achievement in the early hours in Miami, USA.

During the challenge, Sally smashed through her fundraising target of £7,000 in aid of seven charities and raised her target to the new level of £10,500. If you can, please support Sally in fundraising for the following charities:

You can donate to her fundraising here – https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sally-orange-wmc

Before departing for the trip, Sally told Salisbury Radio and Love Salisbury why she was taking part, “I am going to be attempting to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, raising money for seven different charities that are all close to my heart.

“That involves mental health and getting the message out there that it’s okay to talk about your own mental health or somebody else’s mental health.

“I really want to help break down the stigma associated with talking about your mental health.”

​More people have stood on top of Everest than have completed the World Marathon Challenge. Sally has become just the fifth British woman and 1st female military veteran to have undertaken this incredible achievement.

Sally is being supported by several businesses, some of which are local, as she takes on the mammoth challenge.

All the Sevens Taxis, Stars Appeal – Wessex Rehab Fund, Chemring, Sports Direct Fitness Salisbury, and Altus are supporting her.

We hope to catch up again with Sally after she has returned and recovered from her amazing feat.

Feature Image: World Marathon Challenge