Running for Good: The Fiona Oakes Documentary (2018) - full transcript

(ticking)

(dramatic electronic music)

And it's not gonna be easy.

When you've been told

you're not gonna walk again,

to be out there doing that,

that's never gonna be easy.

(dramatic electronic music)

And this is the one race

that you have to pay

insurance for repatriation if you die.

(dramatic electronic music)

You can see out there people

are pushing themselves

really, really hard.

It's like it make you wanna cry.

Pick up you know thinking

you're gonna be out here

doing this, and then I've got

to go through it tomorrow.

(singing in a foreign language)

(drum music)

[Rich] In the Sahara Desert,

one of the most extreme races

in the world takes place.

Marathon Des Sables, the marathon of sand.

Traversing over 250

kilometers across sand dunes,

mountain ranges, dry lakes

and abandoned villages

of North Africa, Marathon Des Sables

is roughly the equivalent of

six marathons back to back.

Competitors are required

to be self sufficient

carrying all food and necessary equipment

over the course of six days

to reach the finish line.

Available water is carefully

rationed at checkpoints

throughout the days, and nights are spent

in open air tent bivouacs along the route.

With day time temperatures

reaching 50 degrees Celsius,

the threat to human health if very real.

In previous years, runners

have died in their attempt

to complete this grueling event.

It has been called the

toughest foot race on earth.

Marathon Des Sables is

a 32 year old race now.

We call it the daddy of ultras.

This is not a homogenized race that is

constructed in order to make it nice.

You have to be physically fit

to do Marathon Des

Sables, but then you have

to be mentally fit.

I have seen people in

really bad shape in MDS.

It's scary, you know you walk in there,

and you see people you don't

know if they're dead or alive.

Running in sand, running up a dune,

it's a bit like going to

a local mall and running

up the escalator as it's coming down,

but doing that 50 times in a row.

And then repeating that everyday.

The key point of it is

it's self sufficient.

You have to carry all your

personal belongings with you.

You have to carry your backpack.

You have to carry your

stove, all your food supplies

basically everything.

Your feet are so important in this race.

If you get blisters,

or if something happens

to your feet, you're

gonna be in a bad place.

You have to always be very proactive,

make sure that you manage

any potential problems

before they get too serious.

You can wreck your feet.

Heat's a really nasty,

insidious thing mixed with a bit

of moisture mixed with a bit of sand.

That can really destroy feet easily.

In the Sahara, you have

runners in extreme pain.

The sights you see are just, some of them

are just horrible.

It takes a special type of

person to be able to do this.

A lot of the running I

do is about laboriously

clocking in things.

I'm good.

Like counting backwards.

So if I've got 26 miles

to run, the first mile,

then I think I've got 25, 24, 23.

So I do this in a similar sort of way.

I'll do 100 pushes with this or whatever,

and then I'll go and get

my pitchfork and shovel it.

It's just mental strength.

I'm not gonna stop till I've done it.

So rather than sit around

and worry about it,

I might as well just get on and do it.

My running begins and

ends when I'm actually

physically doing it.

I don't live running.

Running is something I do

as a job for the animals.

Somebody said to me, "You've won a couple"

"of marathons this year.

"You've done really well."

"Why not do Marathon

Des Sables next year?"

And I thought oh what's that?

I never heard of that.

Because I am the most un-clued

up woman you'll ever meet.

And I looked into it.

It's supposed to be the toughest

foot race on the planet.

It's a week in the Sahara Desert.

You gotta be self sufficient.

You gotta carry all your own gear.

So I used to think you'd drop off the end

of the world if you run

past 26.2 miles on a road.

It never even occurred to me there were

all these strange weird,

wonderful, exotic races

in other parts of the world.

And I thought okay I've done

fast races, hard fast races.

I'll do this.

(orchestral music)

I first met Fiona in 2014.

She came into the shop, and

she was just this whirlwind.

Like she was absolutely

mad as a box of frogs.

I'm not sure you can describe

her in any other terms.

She is absolutely extraordinary.

And what's really extraordinary about her

is she doesn't look extraordinary.

I heard her resting heart

rate's like 30 or something.

It's so low that they're

like, "Are you even alive?"

She just doesn't seem to stop.

(laughing)

I don't know how she does what she does.

So she runs this animal sanctuary with 400

or so animals, she trains

like maybe 100 miles a week.

She's just so dedicated to what she does,

and she doesn't do it for her.

She does it for the animals

and for other people,

and she's trying to

promote sustainability.

When you first meet

her, you've got no sense

that you're talking to

someone that's extraordinary.

And one of the reasons is

that she doesn't self promote.

She has no sense of actually

how fantastic she is.

(orchestral music)

She doesn't brag

about anything she does.

She just gets on with it.

But what she does is

quite remarkable really.

The beauty about Fiona

is that she's taking care

of you know hundreds of

animals on her sanctuary,

and then she's training.

She's you know competing

in these grueling events.

Fiona, she says I'm not really a runner.

Now how can somebody that

runs a two, 38 marathon

call themselves not really a runner?

I mean she's not a runner?

She's a really good runner.

She's a really good runner.

I've always felt quite

embarrassed when I'm invited

to these mega races,

and people are looking

at me thinking, what are you

doing here kind of thing.

And I know I don't look

the same as everybody else.

When I tell people I've

got like eighth place

in the Amsterdam Marathon or like top 20

in London and Berlin and Great North Run,

and these are the biggest

races in the world.

These are not messing around with.

People are like flabbergasted.

It's kind of a funny

story with the running.

I don't like it.

I lack talent.

I lack ability, but probably

the strength I've got

is that I actually do recognize that,

but I don't really know

too much about running.

I don't really care that

much around running.

I just care about the results I can get

from the running.

Fiona was a large baby.

She was nine pound,

four when she was born.

My GP said she looked like

a three month old baby.

She lifted her head up immediately.

She was born and looked around her.

And my first words to

her were, "Hello Fiona."

I was the tom boy always

outside, always outside.

Love of animals, love of nature.

I was a very, very sporty kid.

Everybody remembers me as this like little

Duracell bunny that was

just always, always going.

I mean it was like crack

of dawn till late at night,

Fiona would be buzzing along.

And then I lost that.

She was always an athletic little girl

until she had this terrible

problem in the early teens.

She started having knee pain.

Slightly before my

teenage years, I developed

a problem with my knee.

I was in all sorts of pain,

all sorts of trouble with it.

So I went into hospital continually having

the back of my kneecap scraped off,

having the ligaments and

things readjusted around

my kneecap to kind of pivot

it in a different direction.

And nothing was really working.

That was my right leg that was affected

to start with, and then

because I was leaning

so heavily on my left leg,

that became weak and affected.

So I have having all these surgeries.

It was very, very frustrating.

I think I had about 17 operations in all.

I was not able to go to school.

I was getting too weak to go to school.

I couldn't mobilize around the school,

couldn't do anything.

There wasn't even offered

any home tutoring.

And then the doctors said look we've

got a serious problem.

There is a massive conglomeration

behind your kneecap.

It is turning it to jelly.

It is crumbling inside,

and it needs to come out.

And it needs to come out quickly.

This is gonna be a big

operation, and this is

going to be very painful.

I have to say I've never been in pain

like I was in after that operation.

I couldn't lay, I couldn't move in me bed.

I couldn't literally alter

my position in my bed.

I was told I wouldn't walk again properly

let alone be able to

do sporting activities

especially things like running

which were high impact.

I was gonna be registered

disabled at one point

'cause it looked so hopeless.

So that was an incredibly challenging time

for all the family actually.

Oh, it was hell.

It was just too bad to go there.

It's left her with an

extremely painful knee.

I think it hurts most of the time.

I don't think there's

very much of the time

that it is pain free.

The operations are bad

enough, but it's the treatment

and the recuperation and the work that has

to be put in after these

orthopedic operations.

It just went on and on

and on until she was 19.

It's very extraordinary

to have anybody who's had

repeat surgery let's say

more than three or four

procedures on a patella

who has not been disabled.

I don't look back at this time.

I'm not bitter.

It was difficult, and I

don't like revisiting it.

I'll be honest with you.

I really do find it difficult.

There's been some

extraordinarily miserable times,

but they've made me the person I am.

And I acknowledge them

and embrace them for that.

I really do.

And I definitely know what

it's like to suffer myself.

So I can relate to it with

other beings whether they be

human or not.

And I certainly don't want to inflict

it on them unnecessarily.

She's growing all shy and bashful.

Over the years, we've

had hundreds of dogs.

I mean at one time, we had

26 dogs living in the house

at one time.

We've had lots and lots of dogs.

Poppy's story is that she came to us,

and she'd been obviously

used for fighting.

And she's got the classic signs

of a dog that's been

used in a fighting ring

in that she's quite nervous,

and she's got no ears.

Anybody knows this particular breed

knows that when they fight,

they always attack the head,

and their ears are what suffer.

Unfortunately Poppy's ears

were ripped off in a fight.

She's a very loving dog,

and just a typical example

of how humans abuse animals.

She's got a set routine.

She comes in this time, she has her tea.

And she knows how she

likes to live her life.

She actually likes to live

her life very quietly.

When Fiona started the

sanctuary back in 1993,

we were both at work, but

we decided when we started

to get more animals in, Fiona would

look after the animals, and

I would carry on with my job.

We deliberately set out

not to have the animal

sanctuary as our means of living.

Our money, we could earn

in a different industry,

and then just use that money to fund

the sanctuary and

obviously encourage people

to donate to the sanctuary

knowing that 100%

of what they give goes

towards the feed bill.

Every penny we've got has always gone

into the sanctuary absolutely

everything we've got.

And my mom too, you

know like we were trying

to buy this place, sold her

engagement ring, a piano,

everything had to go.

That's been how it's been

ever since we've been here.

Oh look at his little nose.

She just loves taking

care of the animals.

She knows them all by heart.

She knows their personalities,

everything yeah.

It's incredible.

And she's such a kind person

that she doesn't say no

to any animal in danger.

These came from a place up

north about 300 miles away,

and they are what they call cade lambs.

Brian was one of 36 cades that

we were offered by a farmer

which we took on, and we have

been trying to hand rear.

We've got 400 rescued

animals, so managing 36 babies

basically is very, very difficult.

Brian came, and he was very, very weak.

He collapsed and we

brought him into the house.

We did everything for him that we could.

And we thought he was

gonna die, and he didn't.

He didn't die.

He pulled through.

I don't quite know how he pulled through.

There's stuff that needs

to be done all the time.

There's animals to see

to, there's medications

to attend to, there's maintenance to do,

there's a list of jobs

as long as your arm.

The thought of having to do all that work,

and then go out and run 20 miles.

It's not even just like

oh I'm just gonna do

a nice little country job.

It's appalling speed

work to have to fit in,

or an appalling 20 mile road

run, and then come back,

and as soon as you get

back, to have to then start

the evening jobs which is like bringing

all the horses in, getting them back.

It just, no, even though we've lived

together 24 years, I

have no idea how anybody

can fit all that in.

Because we were so tight on money,

I mean for the first

year or two we were here,

we had nothing, and that's kind of when

the marathon running kicked it.

I thought it's cheap to do.

You can do it anytime day or night.

You don't need a lot of equipment.

So that's basically why I took to running.

There was no great desire behind it.

It was just something

physically that I thought

I could make work for the animals.

If I had a patient who had no kneecap

who wanted to do some running

or marathoning activity,

I would tell them to stay on level ground.

Can you imagine running

downhill without a kneecap?

I don't understand the engineering aspect

of how you can run it without a kneecap.

Your kneecap's there to guide your quads

down so they can run

effectively, and also it stops

the over articulation of your knee.

So I'm not sure how that's possible.

We always caution the

patients if they don't have

a kneecap, you can't backpack downhill

with heavy packs even medium weight packs.

When you start climbing

and especially as you start

descending, that's where that

kneecap comes into activity.

As a physical therapist,

I mean it's pretty amazing

when I see individuals competing that push

the limits of endurance and

strength without certain

body parts and then

Fiona's case, here she is

you know running without a kneecap.

It is kind of mystifying

like how does that happen?

But Fiona's found a way

to adapt and move her body

and challenge it not just

get through daily life

and taking care of

animals on her sanctuary,

but then meeting the demands

of an ultra marathon,

meeting the demands of a multi day event.

I'm spending a lot of energy training

100 miles a week for 10 week

block before a marathon,

dedicating yourself to it.

It puts us under a lot of

stress, and then you come

to your taper period, your

paranoid about getting ill,

your paranoid about getting an injury.

Impacts on your family life.

[Rich] Two weeks before Fiona was

to begin Marathon Des

Sables, she contracted

a severe respiratory infection.

Unable to train, she was

bedridden for eight days

prior to leaving.

(singing in a foreign language)

(drum music)

We fly into a place called Ouarzazate.

We call it the gateway to the Sahara.

And even from there, we've

got another six hours by coach

to the start line, and the

start line changes every year.

(singing in a foreign language)

(drum music)

You are shipped into the

desert to this unidentified

destination where you

see an awful lot of tents

in a big circle.

You wander around the camp, and you search

for a tent which appears

to have a space in it.

(dramatic music)

If you are traveling and

running alone, you arrive alone.

You find a place in a tent

with which that will be

your place for the week.

You're allocated a tent number.

That will be your tent number,

and the place in that tent will

be your place for the week.

(dramatic music)

Yeah it was a long, long journey.

I had a dreadful day yesterday.

Brian died that little

lamb, and he died in my arms

in my bed in the middle of the night.

10 days I've nursed him.

And we got the vet so many times,

and I took him to bed on Wednesday night,

and we thought we gave him steroids,

and we thought he was getting better.

You know he has these

episodes of collapse.

And then at quarter past

three in the morning,

he just woke up and died.

And we've got I think about 38 left,

lambs that we're hand rearing

four times a day feeding 'em.

I'm still on antibiotics

till tomorrow morning.

My mom's ill.

Martin's coping as best he can.

I've got the most blinding headache,

and I've had headaches

with this on and off

for the two weeks.

I had to go the doctor.

I had to go and get some antibiotics,

and she gave me a 10 day course to finish

tomorrow morning.

If I feel ill, I think

I've gotta make a choice

of whether you do something cavalier

and just you know carry on

and see if you can push it.

The things I've had in the

past, when I had broken toes

before now, that's very much

if you can contain the pain,

you can contain it.

But this is systematic,

and so I'm not sure

that it's a good idea because you can't

bluff these conditions.

I don't know.

I'll just have to see.

Don't know that's all you can do.

If you don't try, you don't know.

That's the problem.

It's a bit disappointing the way I feel.

I have to say.

(dramatic music)

Had a lot of stress over

the last three months,

a lot of extra work, a

lot of extra commitments.

And you can get ill.

Anybody at anytime can get ill.

So I just hope that you

know I think what I'll do

is I'll just go to sleep now

and try and just relax it out

in the system and just try and rest up

and see if I feel better in the morning.

(dramatic electronic music)

(piano music)

It's a very big juxtaposition to go

from one morning you're

looking after your animals,

the next morning you're

in the Sahara Desert

surrounded by a multitude of people

who are all into their running

and into their statistics.

And you kind of feel

like you don't belong.

Unless you know anyone, you are confined

with these seven strangers male or female

for that entire week.

You've got space in that tent

with which your bedroll fits,

and that's your home for the week.

(piano music)

I tell you last night thought, last night.

You know when you've got the headache

that makes you feel ill, and you just know

you should eat, but you can't.

And you just need to shut off.

I think it was also, yeah I'm not well.

For sure, I'm not well,

but the stress of leaving

that environment to be

in this environment.

You know I'm coming from temperatures

that are really cold to run

here, and I have done nothing.

No race, no nothing.

I've been busy all year with the animals,

and then with the lambs,

and then the illness,

so I'm not in a great place.

But you know we'll see.

I really haven't had a lot of time

to kinda go through packing me pack

and unpacking it and packing it.

So it's all a bit last minute 'cause I've

been ill for two weeks.

And that was kinda the two week period

that I'd intended to dedicate to doing

some of this stuff.

(piano music)

Basically everything you're carrying

it pretty essential in terms of becomes

very, very precious.

But now I'm gonna do my

grand weigh in of the pack

and see what a nightmare it is.

(piano music)

(electronic ticking)

Oh, that's a mother pack.

That's an 8.9.

(laughing)

That's a heck of a pack.

Yeah every little thing does add up.

Obviously it doesn't feel

heavy when you're carrying

it through an airport.

But when you're carrying it trying to get

up a sand dune, then

you're thinking to yourself

really I do need to lose some here.

(piano music)

On the Saturday, you have everything

that you're not gonna carry with you

on the race taken away from you.

That is shipped off back

to a hotel somewhere

you know in a local town.

You go through registration.

You get technical checks.

You get the medical checks.

They check the weight of your bag.

There's a minimum weight to

every bag, six and a half kilos.

And they check you've got sufficient food.

They make sure that you've

got 2,000 calories a day

to keep you going.

It is enough nutrition to get you through,

but it's certainly not enough

to be comfortable with.

You're then left in the

middle of the desert,

and you start running.

(piano music)

[Rich] The first stage

of Marathon Des Sables

traverses primarily rolling sand dunes

for over 30 kilometers.

This will be the shortest

stage of the entire race.

Runners are given a

generous 10 hour cutoff time

to reach bivouac one where

they will stop for the night.

So you get up in the morning.

You prepare yourself

meticulously to run each stage.

You're constantly worried

about losing thing.

You've got this tiny little backpack

with which to put everything in.

Everything becomes so precious.

Every painkiller, every boiled sweet.

Everything you've got becomes so precious

'cause you simply cannot

replace it anywhere.

If I'm like blinking

hard, I've got a choice.

I'm free to do this.

I'm free to stop doing this.

The reason I'm doing it is for those

that aren't free to make it stop.

You know people living in

camps far worse than this

that are not able to just say actually I'd

like to go home to my luxury house now.

You know okay, and you

know same with animals

that are imprisoned.

They aren't free to just

say I've had enough.

So yeah, that's what I'm

gonna kind of think of today.

(dramatic music)

MDS should not be run

when you're physically sick.

That's something I wouldn't recommend

to anyone because you have to be

in a perfect state to do that.

And even when you're in a perfect state,

things can go wrong.

If you're on antibiotics, I

personally wouldn't do it.

But with Fiona, there's

a reason for everything

what she does, and the reason is

far greater than you

know how she's feeling.

The lack of training

the last couple of weeks

is not as big a problem.

There's still this thing

lurking in my system.

Probably another week would've been

a lot better for me to recover.

When it's actually

systematic, you do worry

that you can feel yourself starting

to boil from inside.

So it's very hot, but because

you're over exerting yourself,

you come in very hot from inside as well.

If you overheat, you've got

no way of coming back from it.

You don't wanna be on

your maximum out there.

You've got to be able

to think I'm operating

at only ever at 80% with possibly 100%

when you're really in the dunes.

That's when you give it your all

because you can't get over 'em otherwise.

I've been in some dunes

here, and I've been literally

coming over 'em absolutely

desperate thinking

I'm really frightened now.

I've not got any water.

If you're in a dune

section, you won't come

out of it with any water in your bottles

when it gets really hard.

And it will get really hard.

But I have promised that

if I genuinely do not think

it's the place to be, then I will leave

because obviously I

don't want to be coming

home in a box.

And this is the one race that you have

to pay insurance for

repatriation if you die.

Because obviously you can see out there

people are pushing themselves

really, really hard.

I've got my injuries.

I've got my problems.

So I knew it's not gonna be easy.

When you've been told

you're not gonna walk again

as a teenager, to be out there doing that,

that's never gonna be easy.

But I just want to show

people it is doable.

I hope it's doable, but we'll see.

(dramatic music)

I think it's very, very

difficult to do a race

like Marathon Des Sables

if you're not 100%.

It's an enormous challenge for your body,

and I think if you run it being unwell,

you take a huge risk.

Because of the sheer exhaustion

you're putting yourself

through in a very, very

extreme environment

where it's really, really hot.

It's a very big risk to take.

This isn't my sort of running at all.

But without the cold, without the flu,

you know I could be pushing harder.

[Runner] And you run for animal?

Animals Sanctuary.

Right, I'm gonna cut along.

I shall see you along the way.

It is quite inspiring actually to see

how many women are

taking on this challenge.

And women are actually I think

surprising some of the men

what they lack in the

actual physical strength

of the top runners, they can match

in the mental strength.

And that's what this race is about

being mentally very strong.

It's about determination,

and I think women

are showing that they can

do that equally as well.

And I think it shows how

maligned kind of women

have been through history.

It's quite shocking to thing 1984

was the first marathon

that women were allowed

to run in the Olympics.

And now you see women out here doing this

doing something that is

so physically demanding.

You know some men couldn't do it.

(dramatic music)

It's just a job to get done.

Just do the job.

That's all it is.

Whatever way you can, just do the job.

And the reason you're doing the job

is always in the forefront of your mind.

It's not pushing your

body in terms of running.

It's pushing your body in

terms of what it will tolerate

before saying actually no

I don't want to do this

or can't do this.

I mean this is like 30 K.

There's another 208, and they're harder,

a lot harder all of 'em.

(dramatic music)

Good morning, it's Sunday

morning at the sanctuary.

And people might be wondering what happens

on a Sunday morning.

Particularly with Percy

Bear now that he's got

an increased number of fans.

So I thought we'd just have a quick visit

to see what he's up to.

[Steve] Percy is the lifelong companion

with Martin as well by the way.

He's the other lifelong companion,

but he takes second place next to Percy.

Have you met Percy?

(laughing)

Percy is also with

Fiona wherever she goes.

Normally sits in Fiona's

hand and is shaped like a bear.

A bit like I imagine you see you know

you have Indian spirits that are kind

of replicated in different icons.

I think there's a spirit within Percy.

So Percy is just a little

mascot of me, my running,

like my cheeky little alter ego that goes

everywhere with me now,

traveling companion.

Yeah people then say, they

ask why are you carrying that?

They ask you the question

rather than you forcing

it upon them.

And it's just a gentle

way, a more subversive way

of drawing people into the story.

Somebody in Brazil started

the Percy supporter group.

And people from all around the world

started to send me bears

for the Percy support group.

So I put 'em all in here,

and that's where they live.

You can hear Fiona a long

time before you can see her

shouting, "Can you take

a photo of me and Percy?"

That's how you know that

Percy's got a tiny body,

great big personality,

absolutely inseparable.

When Percy's there, people

tend to laugh and they joke.

And it's kind of an olive branch

to say I'm not threatening.

And it helps me as well.

I've got another

mouthpiece where the focus

of attention is not

necessarily always on me

'cause I don't actually like it too much.

Everybody's counting like in grams.

Obviously I'm counting in grams.

And then all of a sudden in goes Percy.

And he's not actually that light.

Actually I think he's gaining weight.

I'm not gonna let him sit at home.

He can suffer it with me square on.

[Rich] Stage two of Marathon Des Sables

covers 39 kilometers with a

cutoff time of 11 1/2 hours.

The first 25 kilometers

consist of rocky plateaus,

hills, and sand dunes before making

the steep climb and descent

over the mountain pass

known as El Otfal Jebel.

(dramatic piano music)

I'm quite worried 'cause I

was actually cold at night,

and everybody else was a bit warmer,

and I was really cold.

(dramatic piano music)

You're amongst the

best part of 1,000 people

usually 1,000 plus other

people, 35 nationalities.

It attracts people who

want a lifetime adventure,

and they get it in spades in the MDS.

(dramatic piano music)

The MDS is 90% mental, and

the other 10% is in your head.

Well I think for extreme

runners it's just this idea

that we are just pushing our limits.

We're just so curious

to know what our mind

can handle and what our bodies can handle.

(dramatic piano music)

Decline tires your legs, but you need

a lot of leg strength

to control your muscles

coming down because when

your legs get tired,

fatigued, they're not

behaving as they should.

That's why I was worried

actually that I might

not have the strength.

I was quite concerned

that I wouldn't be able

to hold myself together.

Just thinking I'll go for it.

I just wanna get down.

(dramatic piano music)

And it's prone for injury.

I mean you could injure

yourself at any point.

You could trip.

You could your knee, quads and knees.

People fall, they bang

their heads, heat sickness.

Anything can happen at anytime.

(dramatic piano music)

Actually when I came off the jebel,

I felt really strong, and I ran

into the checkpoint, and

it was when I stopped,

I felt awful.

I started to feel very, very sick.

(dramatic piano music)

But fortunately I got enough

water to collect myself.

At the end of the day, I'm grateful that

I'm able to even consider doing this

'cause there's a lot of people

that aren't able to do it.

They haven't got their health.

So to be able to be in a position

where you can even consider

coming here and doing this

is a win.

It was hot out there,

and main thought passing

through my mind today was how

hot is it in a cattle truck?

And they haven't got any water.

My mind drifts off

always in that direction.

I know I should be thinking about me self

and what I'm doing, but truly

my mind always compares.

I'm ashamed when I think, we're moaning,

and because we're suffering.

But we're not suffering.

We're not suffering like animals.

I wouldn't be here if it

weren't for the animals.

No way would I be away from the sanctuary.

I am here now, and I want

to make the best of it.

But it is a spectacular place to be.

It's awesomely beautiful, serene.

Privileged to be allowed her.

(dramatic music)

When you can see the

finish, if you can jog

and run into the finish,

it gives you think like

I did actually get it right.

I didn't actually crawl

into the finish line,

have to walk in and collapse.

I did actually get that one right.

(dramatic music)

(beeping)

So after a long day in the desert,

a hearty meal is required.

But instead of a hearty

meal, you've got this.

So we have to prepare ourselves for this.

[Runner] You need this

walker at the marathon.

[Man] Extra large, and (muttering).

[Man In Orange Shirt] It's

actually better than him.

(muttering)

[Man Off Camera] Oh, not too bad.

(muttering)

(laughing)

(muttering)

Looks like it's going to be a cold meal

for me tonight.

(speaking in a foreign language)

[Man Off camera] Literal translation.

(muttering)

I don't eat that much out on the course.

It's not energy I'm gonna lack out there.

Bearing in mind, I only

eat one meal a day at home.

I'm not doing that here.

I'm taking snacks, and

I am forcing myself.

I would expect to be on

my feat all day at home

and eat one meal.

And that would include a

run, and I never, ever take

anything in a road marathon.

So I'm quite able to run

two, 38 in a road marathon

with only taking water.

It's difficult to be surprised by Fiona

because she's just everything she does

she does to the absolute maximum.

And obviously when she said she was

going to try a marathon,

I thought okay I know

she's gonna do fine.

And she did a marathon, and she did it

I think under three hours.

And it was just like this

is your first marathon.

When she started winning marathons

and winning local events.

You say oh right, okay,

you've won another one.

And obviously she was doing it to try

and build herself a platform

from which she could speak.

And she found that obviously from winning

local races to winning marathons

still wasn't giving her

the platform she wanted

which is when she started to turn

to you know the endurance events.

When Fiona was offered the chance

to run at the North Pole,

it was just like okay, fine.

You know it's kind of like you expect her

to come up with something that most people

would say, "What?"

If you say to someone,

I've done a marathon.

People know it's extreme.

They know that the North Pole is extreme.

So I figured put the

two together, North Pole

and a marathon, you've got a win here.

That's definitive hard core.

And I just literally went

out as normal running,

came back, walked into the house and said,

right Martin, I've got

something to tell you.

"What's that?"

I want to do the North Pole Marathon.

And he just looked at be and ah.

Because of the knee

condition that I've got,

I cannot afford to slip.

If I slip, I tear, I dislocate

it very, very easily.

There's nothing to keep

it stable in there.

So I didn't really know whether it was

going to be possible for me

to run in these conditions.

The race organizer wrote to me and said

if you will consider doing

it, I will give you the place.

And then it was like well game on.

It's a massive opportunity,

and it might never come again.

(dramatic music)

When the plane door opens,

it's just like whoa.

The reality just hits you.

All you can see is just snow.

You can hear the ice and the

water underneath you cracking.

The cold is the kind

of cold that you throw

some water up in the air, and it freezes.

There's no going back.

I'm thinking about hypothermia

and potential frostbite.

You've got to be very, very careful.

I had spoken to the other

runners, and there was

almost like an overconfidence to them.

Fiona was really refreshing

because here she was

touted as one of the elite runners sharing

with me in all honesty

that she was terrified

just as I was.

And I looked at her I'm like

how can you be terrified?

So we're laying there in our cots,

and we're just like staring

up at the tent ceiling

going this is gonna be brutal.

And she was like, "Yep,

it's gonna be really hard."

It reached minus 30 at its coldest point.

Like you'd take a step,

and you'd sink down

to knee deep snow.

There are parts that were

super icy, and you couldn't

really get good footing.

It is one of the most amazing

experiences I've ever had.

Fiona is a legend.

She ended up winning

the North Pole Marathon

very, very easily.

(dramatic music)

Probably I did a bit too well.

It caused a bit of animosity from

the point of view of the other runners.

For a woman to come out here

carrying a small teddy bear

and humiliate us.

I placed with the men,

got the course record.

I came in like six

and a half hours later,

and she hugged me, and she just said,

"I am so proud of you."

And I was like really,

"You've been laying here"

"for six hours waiting for me to finish."

And she was like but I

think you were the toughest.

She's so incredibly strong,

and she kind of denies

it in herself, but she's so willing

to acknowledge it in others.

Honestly like I've never

seen someone so strong

and so humble.

When I actually finished

the North Pole Marathon

I was absolutely elated.

Not at winning the race, not thinking

of anything more than the

fact that I'd got through

this awesome achievement

of surviving out there.

She runs.

"Oh yeah, I finished."

How did you do?

"Oh, I won."

You won?

You (laughing) won?

"And I broke the course record."

I was just like oh okay.

[Rich] The course of stage three

for Marathon Des Sables is exceptionally

challenging and dramatic.

Runners are required to scale three steep

technical mountains over 31.6 kilometers.

The first strenuous ascent forces

racers up a sandy rock strewn slope.

Once summited, runners must

navigate along the ridge

of Joua Baba Ali Jebel

before dropping down

to check point one only to have to climb

back up again on the other

side of a dry riverbed.

In an almost sadistic design,

the third and largest climb

takes runners back over

the mountain they scaled

the previous day, a treacherous

technical and exposed route

of jagged volcanic rock.

After descending, 10

kilometers of stony plateau

still lays ahead of racers

before camping for the night.

I'm actually really worried about today,

seriously worried because it all climbs,

and my knee does not like to climb.

It protesteth something

rotten in the street.

I was just thinking that I

was running along yesterday.

And I've got my cashew

nuts out, and it all

went horribly wrong

with some poles banging

around my feet, and I was just getting

in a right kerfuffle with bag open.

And I didn't get them all in my mouth.

And they kind of went to

the side and round my cheek.

And I'm so desperate to not drop

these two cashew nuts,

that they're rolling

around my cheek to get

'em back inside my mouth.

I'm like what am I doing?

It's two cashew nuts.

And I'm thinking oh no,

that's like 25 calories.

Get it in my mouth.

Don't let 'em fall on the ground.

Some sort of ludicrous,

mad person going along.

(laughing)

It puts it in perspective.

Too much perspective.

(laughing)

(dramatic music)

The reality hits here.

It's not called the toughest foot race

on the planet because it's a 10 K.

You know Sunday morning,

it really is tough.

And they pride themselves

in making it tough.

(dramatic music)

It's hard, and it's long,

and it's relentless.

It's completely alien, and

you just want it to go away.

You just want to cry out there.

You just want to cry.

(dramatic music)

I've got a faint idea

of what the climbs were.

And I thought oh no, they can't

be including all those in.

But they did.

(dramatic music)

That's me gritting it out.

That's not me doing something

that I want to do at all.

I would never dare to do that attempt

because at some point I

know my leg would give up.

And today when they said the three climbs,

I thought if there's three

climbs, there's three descents.

That's a problem to me.

It genuinely is.

I mean in truth I think

people would be shocked

to see what you've gotta do.

It's nothing to do with running.

It's almost like rock climbing.

It's so steep and sandy,

and you're just left

to your own devices.

You get frightened.

You think I can't do that.

I cannot do that climbing.

I literally can't do it,

and I get use my right leg.

It's not got the power that my left leg,

so everything has to be

done from the left leg.

That scared me.

That really scared me.

This was somebody who was told

they wouldn't walk properly

when they were younger.

(dramatic music)

It is insane.

You wouldn't be allowed to do it

in any other country, wouldn't get away

with the health and safety.

You just wouldn't.

It's mental.

You do see grown men cry out there.

(dramatic music)

I was just so relived to get down there.

I was so worried when

we got to descending.

(dramatic music)

Man, that was hard.

It was really, really hard.

I just wanted to sit down and cry in fact.

I don't wanna do this.

I just don't wanna do this.

I just don't wanna do it.

I'm doing it for the animals.

I'm not doing it for me.

(dramatic music)

That's one of the worst

days I've know in this race.

You saw Fiona suffering.

You saw her in a lot of pain.

(dramatic music)

The most important things

that you're gonna do

is get ready for tomorrow if

there's gonna be tomorrow.

You just gotta prepare for it.

This is one thing that

makes me really appreciate

when you get back home.

One tiny drop of water and a

towel, and it feels so good.

It feels better than any power shower

you could ever go under.

You know because you're

here in these conditions,

and you're really appreciating it.

And you really use every

inch of everything.

Something that in the West

we're guilty of not doing.

I'm not saying everybody

should live like this.

I'm not asking everybody

to live like this.

I'm just asking people to consider

that people do have to live like this,

and how lucky was are to not do.

As you can see, my toenails are now

so blistered they're comin' off.

No point in trying to keep 'em on.

I'll just pop 'em and put iodine on.

Yeah, I'm about to lose my big toe nails,

and they are sore.

They're like sore, man.

They've got some bashing.

I did something actually

tremendous yesterday.

I was in such a state of confusion,

I put Tabasco on my toes.

(laughing)

Yeah, I picked up the

wrong pack, oh it's there,

and in total oblivion, I

just poured it on my toes.

Probably did 'em good actually.

(groaning)

[Man In orange] Damn you.

This isn't.

This is a sand storm I think.

[Man In Orange] Ah Fiona, your socks.

[Fiona] Have you got two

socks there, two small ones?

- Yeah, two little ones.

- Thank you.

Seeing it there, it

just blows up like that.

(muttering)

[Man In Orange] That's great

that the helicopter came,

and suddenly it started.

(muttering)

Fiona has some remarkable achievements

under her belt, and she doesn't really get

the media attention that

she actually deserves.

(dramatic music)

When I came back from

the North Pole Marathon,

the BBC contacted me immediately.

They said we'd like you come to Salford.

We'll pay your expenses

which was a big thing for me.

Bring your mom that's

fine, get you a hotel.

We want you to open and

close BBC Breakfast.

And the researcher said

there's just one thing,

we would prefer it if you didn't mention

the fact that you're vegan.

And I thought but that's the whole part

of me being there.

That's the punchline.

That's the barrier to getting the athletic

achievements out there.

It's because I've done

it with a hidden agenda

as far as their concerned.

I wanted to do it to promote something

which they're not happy to promote.

I sat on the sofa there live, and I was

literally the whole time that they were

kinda talking and questioning me.

I was thinking how do I

mention the fact that,

dare I, dare I.

I better not.

What do I do, how do I do it?

How do I say it?

And in the end they kind of say to me

why did you run a marathon

at the North Pole?

And I think that if I'd have said

because I'm just an

airhead kind of adrenaline

junkie, and I just wanted to

do it 'cause it was there.

I think that they could've

connected with that

a lot better than the answer I gave.

I'm a lifelong vegan.

And I'm a patriot of the Vegan Society.

It's their 70th anniversary next year,

and I was looking to do

something really, really special.

So I just thought what's the

most extreme thing I can do.

I've done a lot of other marathons.

As I say, I wanted to prove I could do it

on a vegan diet and

raise money 'cause I run

an animal sanctuary and

sort of help them as well.

The second part of the

interview came later

in the show.

There's no uptake on this vegan diet.

They've completely blanked it.

They didn't want it on

there, and that's it.

We have had reporters

who told us off record.

I can't really feature

you because you're flying

in the face of the

people who pay our wages,

the advertisers, they're paying them

to sell their meat and dairy.

And here we are promoting a vegan athlete

who's showing actually you

don't need all that crap.

If Fiona can do what she does and has been

vegan for 40 years, you

know surely a vegan diet

will be enough to manage

you down the shops

to get your weekly shopping

from Tesco or wherever.

So many people have it in their mind.

I mean I have it too

this idea that you need

to have meat, you need

to have animal protein

to be able to push harder and faster.

But I really think of what

I'm putting into my body

is fuel that's gonna fuel my workouts,

but also fuel recovery.

And I think that's probably

the biggest benefit

of a plant based diet is that ability

to fuel it with the best fuel possible,

but then it's also the fuel

that's gonna help recover you.

That's going to allow my muscles to heal,

to allow my body to be

ready for the next workout,

or to be ready for the next race.

I genuinely see food as a fuel.

I'm not a food obsessive person.

I respect food.

I respect the fact that

I have enough food.

And that's something that

which a lot of people

in the world and animals do not have.

She only eats one meal a day,

and she eats that when all the work

is finished for the day.

She will then eat.

And she eats methodically, slowly,

and then she goes to bed

and hopefully sleeps.

When I came back from the North Pole,

that's when the world

record attempt came up.

There's a record to be

the fastest woman in days

to actually do a marathon

on every continent

plus the North Pole.

I explored the possibility

and potential costs.

No way we could afford it.

This is an opportunity to

get in the Guinness Book

of World Records as a vegan,

and I'm throwing it away.

And I knew I was throwing it

away because there's no way

I was gonna go back to the North Pole

and run that marathon again.

I thought this is just too good to miss.

I just can't not do this.

Surely to goodness I can't not do this.

But in the meantime, I'd

written to one or two people

to ask for help.

And a guy from America

had actually written back

to me and said he'd like to support it.

It was pretty much game on then.

The first race I ran, I won.

I didn't intend to.

Martin said to me, "You do realize that"

"if you could do that in every race,

"you would actually

become the fastest woman,

"you'd get three world

records instead on one.

"You'd be the fastest

woman in running time

"in actual physical ability

wise not just logistic-wise"

"to run a marathon on every

continent and the North Pole."

The pressure then was on to no just amble

around these races was actually to run 'em

and do as well as I could in

'em so when the accumulated

times were rolled together, I would be

the fastest woman ever to

actually physically run

on these continents.

We're just saying goodbye to Fiona

and her mom now as they journey halfway

around the world to Australia.

[Meg] Hello Mr. Percy.

Are you ready?

Did he make the right

decision finding his coat?

[Martin] Yeah, he did.

(dramatic music)

[Fiona] We were in Australia less time

then we were flying there.

Tip out of the plane, run the marathon,

do the championship

time, get back on a plane

so that immediately I

arrive, Martin can go

to work to cut down the amount of days off

he's having to facilitate me do this.

Morning, it's eight

o'clock in the morning.

Fiona's getting ready with Percy

to go in the taxi to Omsk in Siberia.

And we're just gonna go

through the final checklist

to make sure she's got everything

that she needs to have.

Running gear?

Yep.

[Martin] Currency?

Yep.

[Martin] Trainers?

Yep.

[Martin] What about the training?

You've done the training?

What training?

[Martin] For the marathon.

You have to train for them?

[Martin] Yeah.

(muttering)

The Omsk international

marathon is the biggest

race in Russia.

I'd had no sleep, and

then tip out and run,

placed in it, and it was quite tough.

Every time I was running

these quick times,

the pressure was then on to keep doing it

to get these three world records

instead of the one world

record I'd originally

set out to do.

And the next challenge

was to go to America.

The nearest one I could

find on the East Coast

was the Atlantic City Marathon.

I think I won that race.

(dramatic music)

When we arrived home, I was quite poorly.

And I remember I think

I've got about 12 days

before I've got to go to Africa.

And I don't know how I

got through it, but I did.

And I did the time I wanted to do it in.

So now it was back home

to the UK, try to recover,

do the last two marathons in this series.

You're geting more and more

tired, more and more prone

to injury and fatigue, illness as well.

You get very, very stressed out.

You've only got one chance,

and if something goes wrong,

the whole thing's out the window.

[Rich] On the morning

of stage four of MDS,

Fiona discovered that

the soles of her shoes

were disintegrating.

The previous days of harsh terrain

running on volcanic rock

had taken their toll.

They've just ripped

to pieces underneath.

And it's both of them.

It just basically took the soles off.

The tread just came off.

They're not particularly built

for hours and hours of

climbing and descending

in very, very hostile and hot terrain.

They're built for road running.

My shoes really didn't occur to me

because I've tried and

tested 'em for so many times.

It didn't really occur to me.

But that just shows you what this race is.

It throw up things that you don't expect.

As I say I've created a sole with this.

And if you were then

to get some gaffer tape

to hold this in place or just keep putting

gaffer tape around to give layers.

Again if your shoes go, you go.

You go home.

There's nothing you can do.

Mark down there is going to lend me

some gaffer tape, and I'm

gonna try and tape them

and see how far I get.

Well I've just gotta go out

there and see what happens.

Nothing I can do.

(dramatic music)

[Rich] Stage four of MDS also known

as the long stage is the equivalent

of two marathons back to back.

Runners are given 36 hours to cross

the 86.2 kilometers of dunes,

dry salt lakes, riverbeds,

and jebels along the route.

Runners must push through the night

to make bivouac four in time

to avoid disqualification.

In an effort to try to preserve her shoes

remaining tread, Fiona decides to walk

the entire stage with

her fellow tent mates.

(dramatic music)

I've seen people drop

out because they didn't

hydrate enough, but to

be honest, I've seen

more people drop out because they didn't

take care of their feet.

It's the combination of

the heat and the sweating

of your feet and you know

the roughness of the sand

and sand getting into your shoes.

It's like the perfect storm of why people

are forced to drop out.

(dramatic music)

I stop at every checkpoint and wrap 'em

till I've got some tread.

I think the bags'll hold.

It's just funny.

It was a matter of going around the camp

and trying to beg and

borrow tape from people.

I think any kilometer that

the soles of these shoes

are now protected is a win.

It's just brutal.

You actually are looking at 86 kilometers

with a giant backpack in hostile terrain,

hostile condition climbing, trudging.

(dramatic music)

The thing is it's not

the last stage today.

So even if you get

through today on no shoes,

you've got a marathon to

worry about on no shoes.

The whole stage it had to be weighted.

What do you do?

Do you hammer your shoes and try and get

off your feet as quickly as possible

but risk hammering 'em too much,

so you can't actually

enter the marathon stage?

Or do you take it really, really easy,

watch every step and

try and nurse them home?

(dramatic music)

It makes you wanna cry

because you know thinking

you're gonna be out here doing this,

and then I've gotta go through tomorrow.

I'm just praying.

(dramatic music)

It's grim when you look at it and think

right 86 kilometers.

Even if you do a relatively decent pace

factoring in stops, you're looking

at a cozy 23 hours.

(dramatic music)

And it's literally going through

checkpoint after checkpoint

fixating on getting to a checkpoint.

You just sit.

Then it's body and equipment management.

First thing before I was

actually seeing to myself

was looking at the shoes.

(dramatic music)

I was laying in bed last night

sort of I'm not doing it.

I'm not putting myself through that.

The disappointment of

having to go out there now

knowing that you probably

might have to pull out

because of your shoes.

(dramatic music)

It's relentless.

I mean you've just gotta

keep moving forward.

Demoralizing, you can't see the terrain.

You can't see what's out in front,

so you just have to rely

on having enough strength

to cope with whatever comes.

(dramatic music)

Night is just a different game

to running at night as

opposed to running the day.

That's when the demons

come to play at night.

And they do play some

fairly nasty tricks on you.

So it's really hard.

You've got to go dig really deep

to get yourself out of some of the holes

that your mind puts you in.

And that requires

extraordinary, extraordinary

depth of character.

(dramatic music)

You know what an ox or a

horse or donkey feels like

being harnessed up.

(dramatic music)

And you know you're gonna be

out there for a long time,

and you just hope your body holds up.

That's the main thing.

You're just desperately hoping your body

and your mind holds up.

(dramatic music)

(electronic ticking)

Well we're just waiting

for the taxi to come

to take Fiona to the airport for what?

- The annual egg and spoon.

- Annual egg

And spoon competition.

[Martin] That's what

you've been training for?

Yeah.

[Martin] That's not right.

I think you're going to

run across the desert.

No, no, I think it's an

egg and spoon competition.

So you're telling me

all you're training has

been based around egg and spoon.

Well yeah, we've got

the egg and spoon here

that we've been training with.

[Martin] That's a pepper Peppa Pig

egg and spoon set made of plastic.

Yeah.

[Martin] Well I'm sorry,

but that's not right.

You're gonna have to give those to me,

and you're gonna have

to put that backpack on

and run across the desert unfortunately.

We went off to South

America, and I have to say

if I'd have known what I

was letting myself in for,

I question whether I

would've actually gone.

It was so horrible.

And I'm forever grateful that

my mom actually went with me

and witnessed it because if she hadn't,

I don't think she would've believed it.

The Atacama Volcano Marathon is extreme

in a very different way

to the ice marathons.

It's one of the highest

marathons in the world.

So you start at 14 and

a half thousand feet,

and you've only got 11% oxygen.

It's about what you'd have at sea level.

And I'd convinced

myself that it wouldn't be

too bad running a marathon

at 14,000 feet altitude.

I really hadn't given

it that much thought.

Running at altitude I think

especially for someone

who comes from sea level

is definitely a challenge.

It is very, very extreme.

I think more extreme and

potentially more risky

than the ice marathons.

You've got to contest with the fact

that you're running at

altitude, but you're

not kinda running.

You're battling very, very

bad terrain about 28 K.

I rolled my knee on a stone or

whatever it was I don't know.

I just rolled my knee and slipped.

I knew I'd damaged it

badly the minute I did it.

I just thought okay

I'm gonna have to walk.

I'm gonna have to do what

I have to do to finish,

and it's not gonna be pretty.

And it really wasn't.

If I'd have just been trying

to do this for myself,

I wouldn't have put myself through it.

I have to say that.

But I wasn't doing it

for myself, so I did.

(dramatic music)

And I remember laying the

back of this ambulance,

14,400 feet up the side of a volcano

in the Atacama Desert

thinking how the hell

am I gonna recover from this?

The doctor has just told

me that I am not gonna

run again this year.

It was November, November 14th.

How the hell am I gonna run

in Antarctica in five days?

Just complete silence,

game over kind of thing.

I couldn't even bend my leg.

And we got back to the hotel mom and I.

We just went back to our

room and thought this

is the worst nightmare that

could possibly have happened.

We got into Santiago, and I

was pretty much panicking.

And we went off to Antarctica.

And I thought this is not possible.

I was really scared.

I just couldn't run.

I just couldn't bend my leg.

I didn't know what to do.

I got all these expectations

resting on me, guilt, fear.

I got these world records.

I'm doubtful whether I can do 'em or not.

I've failed basically.

(dramatic music)

I just thought how am I

gonna possibly keep on?

It was very, very cold.

I won't say I prepared myself for my run

because I didn't think with this knee

that was just constantly throbbing,

and I was like severely

depleted from the Atacama

race anyway, and I was in a lot of pain

which was very, very worrying.

I'm just gonna run, shuffle, crawl, slide,

whatever I've got to do.

As long as the knee

continues at this pain level

and doesn't get any

worse, as long as I can

just block that out, I might be able

to just keep going.

You're so aware of

treading this fine balance

between something go wrong,

and if it goes wrong,

you've got no way of making it go right.

You just can't, and it

hits you really quickly.

It really does hit very quickly.

One minute you're running in fog,

and the next minute it's

just like some curtain's

been drawn in front of you.

It was absolutely majestic.

Just the ethereal beauty

of looking around you

and seeing nothing and no

one and like check this

I'm in Antarctica, wow.

As the kind of kilometers

or miles tick by,

I realize that I was

beginning to catch runners.

I don't know it was like a total epiphany.

The Fiona that had been worried

and in pain with the knee

kind of left my body, and

the spirit of a new Fiona

came into my body, and

it was like wow perhaps

I'm not going that slowly.

Perhaps it isn't

completely out the window.

Perhaps I can still salvage

something from this race.

Perhaps I can, dare I

say break this record

of being the fastest

woman in actual running

time to go to these

continents, these extra

two bonus world records.

And dare I even dream it, I can win it.

So it all kinda came

rushing upon me all at once

seeing the camp, seeing the gantry,

seeing the finish line

and more importantly

seeing the tape being help

across for the first lady home.

(horn honking)

(audience cheering)

Broke the tape, nearly broke me neck

'cause I fell over on

the tape and slipped.

Very, very unlady like.

I said oh did I win?

That's the only thing.

Did I win?

And he said, "Yeah, yeah, you won."

"And you even broke the course record."

I couldn't actually believe it.

(dramatic music)

I still don't know how

I did it, but I did.

And yeah, that was my world record.

(laughing)

[Rich] Fiona Oaks set

three world records,

fastest aggregate time

to complete a marathon

on each continent, fastest aggregate time

to complete a marathon on each continent

and the North Pole, both

cumulatively and elapsed.

Stage five of Marathon Des Sables

is the final leg of the race.

At 42.2 kilometers, it is

a marathon distance run

and the second longest

stage of the entire week.

The course forces runners

along painfully uneven terrain

before sending them down

into a deep, dry wash.

After climbing out, they must traverse

a long section of rocky plateaus and steep

wind blown sand dunes.

The course then passes through the ancient

and abandoned village of Methis

in the final stretch to the finish line.

(sucking air)

That really, really stung.

'Cause I know my toe

nail's gonna come off.

When it does come off, I

don't want it to be loose

in my shoe.

Feeling nervous about

today, but I think everyone

in the tent agrees we're

feeling pretty blessed

to be in a position to be sitting here

even considering going out there

because in the beginning of the week

getting to Friday does actually seem

like a daunting prospect.

In the beginning of the week,

yeah, yeah whatever happens,

I'm gonna crawl to the finish

on my eyelids, you know.

And then even yesterday when

the long stage was over,

people then start thinking oh my God

what if something goes wrong in the night?

What if I wake up with a cold?

What if I wake up with the cramps?

You know what if?

All the what ifs because that long stage

takes so much out of people that you don't

want to have done it for nothing.

And that was my main

concern with the shoes.

If worst outcomes it is a couple of stones

and some plastic bags and

some more gaffer tape,

and you know whatever it takes.

But let's say we hope

it doesn't come to that.

(dramatic music)

People listen to Fiona talk, and they come

to me afterwards and they

say, "You must be very proud."

And I say no.

Pride reflects onto me.

I look at her in awe, and

then the guilt kicks in.

The guilt at having brought

a life into the world

that is so compassionate

and feeling and loving

that she has to push herself

to these tremendous lengths

to try to get a platform

so that she can speak

for those who have no voice.

(dramatic music)

I've been very strong, but

I am very, very sensitive.

I abhor cruelty to

humans and animals alike.

I don't think that in the

21st century especially people

should be suffering, and

I certainly don't think

animals should be suffering

at people's hands.

I can't turn a blind eye.

It's not in me to do that.

I always want to try

and do the right thing

and do as much as I

possibly can whilst I'm here

and able to do it.

(dramatic music)

(audience cheering)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in a foreign language)

[Rich] Fiona finishes

with a total running time

of 46 hours, 31 minutes, 26 seconds

in the top third of female runners.

It's kind of mixed

emotions when you finish.

It's been the focus of

your life for a long time

before you came here.

And for the last week,

you've been fully aware

that you're working toward

this particular moment.

And when it comes, it's

not exactly a let down,

but it's just I think

to be honest with you,

it reminds me more of relief.

I'm all talked out about it now.

It's done.

It's over.

I've done it.

So it's move on and do something else now.

Go home, feed my lambs.

That's where I wanna

be, so much I wanna be.

So yeah, that's what it's all about.

(dramatic music)

Fiona, she's so pure.

And she's just doing it like

everything from her heart.

She's not defined by

a physical condition.

She doesn't define herself

by her extraordinary running.

She does this completely selflessly.

For her, it's for her passionate belief

about veganism and about

her animal sanctuary.

Part of what makes her so incredible

is that she's just so humble.

Her life and her work with the animals

with her sanctuary

drives her, and it gives

her a focus for her running.

For so many reasons, I want Fiona

to succeed in her

running and her advocacy.

I think sometimes

people look at individuals

like Fiona, and it's like

oh they're super human.

Maybe she does have some genetic abilities

that have helped her, but she's got

an incredible amount of will,

and she's a great example

for what you can continue

to do throughout a lifetime.

(dramatic music)