Tourists pause and shoppers stare as Rosie Swale Pope jogs determinedly through Stratford-upon-Avon hauling her wheeled sleeping pod behind her.
She smiles and waves but one of her knees is heavily strapped and she looks a little weary. Not surprising, as the 63-year-old adventurer and writer is running her 25th marathon in 25 days.
Tomorrow Swale Pope should complete her 26th 26-mile run in Llanelli, south-west Wales, raising thousands of pounds for two hospices in the process. On Saturday she will do an extra run around her hometown of Tenby in south-west Wales just for fun.
“I feel very excited,” she says. “I feel full of beans, I feel fit at last, though my knee is giving me a bit of trouble. But I will finish even if I have to crawl across the finishing line.”
Swale Pope took five years to complete an epic run around the world to raise money for a prostate cancer charity after her husband, Clive, died of the disease.
During the trip she encountered wolves, bears, extreme temperatures and completed the last leg of the journey on crutches. Running a series of marathons in the UK has not been quite so dangerous but it has been demanding.
Her pod, called Icebird, which she has slept in every night, broke twice and had to be welded back together by friendly engineers. She completed one marathon just a few minutes before midnight after a day of trials and tribulations and has got through four pairs of running shoes. Her knee injury (“It’s a torn ligament or fibre, nothing serious”) means she has to take a lot of painkillers.
Before her marathon through Shakespeare country, she reflects on running and life. “I’ve always held that the real adventure is life,” she says. “Climbing Everest or running around the world is only a metaphor for life. This journey appealed because it doesn’t require a big budget or a sponsor. It’s not going to Outer Mongolia. It’s taking everything I’ve got to complete 26 miles a day.”
The odyssey began in Tenby, where children and adults joined Swale Pope to see her off. Then she was off to Cardiff, Bristol and Bath.
“It’s been a joy to be in a different part of Britain every day. You’re seeing the spring bloom.”
There have been pleasant surprises during her runs, she says, including at Watford. “That was through a gorgeous ancient forest. I would not have connected that with Watford.”
She loved the marathon she did through Dorset, as well as the one in Windsor, which took in the castle.
Swale Pope says she has been amazed by how kind people have been; every day she has had a new back-up team to help out, drive her to the next marathon start and ensure she has somewhere to stay.
But there have been problems too. In Maidstone, Kent, Icebird broke down and had to be welded back together. In Southend a pit stop was also needed.
Swale Pope says her marathons have not been about speed. Just under six hours has been her quickest effort, while her slowest took more than 10 hours to finish.
What has been most difficult is the relentlessness of her schedule. “There’s no time off, not even to wash your socks or eat properly. It’s a challenge to recover and go again.”
After her marathon in Tenby, Swale Pope will rest for a while before preparing for her next project – crossing the Bering Strait.
“Life is precious,” she says. “I’m just starting, just beginning all the real things I want to do in life. The rest was just practice.”
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