{"id":91937,"date":"2024-07-10T14:57:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T14:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/10\/spencer-matthews-to-run-30-marathons-in-30-days-all-through-scorching-desert\/"},"modified":"2024-07-10T14:57:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T14:57:09","slug":"spencer-matthews-to-run-30-marathons-in-30-days-all-through-scorching-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/10\/spencer-matthews-to-run-30-marathons-in-30-days-all-through-scorching-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Matthews to run 30 marathons in 30 days – all through scorching desert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spencer<\/div>


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Former reality TV personality Spencer Matthews is preparing to attempt a new Guinness World Record by running 30 marathons in 30 days – through scorching temperatures in the Jordanian desert.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old is now an endurance athlete, podcaster and entrepreneur, and has previously completed three ultramarathons in the Amazon Rainforest as well as the Arctic.<\/p>\n

He has also taken part in the Marathon des Sables, dubbed the “toughest footrace on Earth” – a seven-day, 250km-ultramarathon in the Sahara Desert.<\/p>\n

And he’s about to undertake the equivalent of five of those, back-to-back.<\/p>\n

“I think I will come out of this quite different”, he said.<\/p>\n

Matthews spoke to Sky News about his latest endeavour, running 786 miles completely on sand, and in temperatures likely to average in the mid-forties.<\/p>\n

He will start near the Wadi Rum on the edge of the Arabian Desert and finish near the Dead Sea – nothing of this kind has ever been done before.<\/p>\n

To meet the world record criteria, Matthews must stay on sand and only sand – a layer of sand over a field of grass would not qualify, for example – and all marathon runs must be finished within six hours.<\/p>\n

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\n Spencer Matthews training for the challenge
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Sharing his inspirations, he nodded to Dan Lawson, who ran the Brighton Marathon eight times back to back in 2012, Pete Kostelnick, who crossed the US<\/a><\/strong> by foot, and Camille Herron, who recently ran 900km in six days.<\/p>\n

History with alcohol<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think when considering a challenge like this, there are obviously very personal elements to it\u2026 in this case, there’s also hopefully a large charitable element to it as well,” Matthews said, referring to his alcohol abuse throughout his 20s.<\/p>\n

“When you finish [ultramarathons] there’s this kind of beautiful sense of accomplishment, and it’s a nice feeling that is very personal, particularly if you’ve come from a place of abusing alcohol for many years and feeling somewhat ashamed of yourself.<\/p>\n

“I sometimes think of myself a few years ago, and I get a kind of sickly feeling. It helps me continue driving forwards.<\/p>\n

“I sometimes think about the days where I used to drink whisky really early in the day and find any excuse to have a drink, and would drink daily. And I look back at those times and I struggle to understand.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think me now and myself five, 10 years ago would even be friends. We’d have nothing in common.”<\/p>\n

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‘I could have died’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthews, who before his career in TV was a city trader in London, has previously admitted he “could have died” at the height of his drinking in his 20s.<\/p>\n

Speaking to his wife, Irish model and TV presenter Vogue Williams, on her podcast Taboo Talk earlier this year, he said: “It’s not like I just fancied giving up drinking. I could have lost you, I could have lost work, I could have died – not to be overly dramatic about it, but that’s the way it was heading.”<\/p>\n

The father-of-three has made a huge personal and physical transformation in recent years and has reflected on the difference in how his family treated him while he was struggling with alcohol.<\/p>\n

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\n Spencer Matthews pictured in 2019. Pic: PA
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“I’ve noticed a big difference in how my own family treat me,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I kind of at one point felt like a bit of an outsider in my own family. I actually felt like there was a lack of trust towards me, which was probably warranted.<\/p>\n

“You know, I’m not complaining or whinging because I’m a very privileged person, but my relationship with alcohol was pretty dark at times.<\/p>\n

“It was disheartening to see my own family think very little of me at one point, and now I enjoy a kind of very balanced relationship with alcohol. And by ‘balanced’ I mean I very rarely drink.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure I’ll enjoy a cold beer at the end of the challenge, you know, if we’re successful.”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Spencer\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Gruelling training and medical observation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthews has set himself a target of raising \u00a31m for Global’s Make Some Noise charity, which funds grassroots projects and gives small charities a chance to reach over 26.6 million weekly listeners across its radio brands.<\/p>\n

During the record attempt, he will have a team with him including a doctor to ensure he is monitored, paying particular attention to his heart rate and internal body temperature.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the podcaster came 69th out of 840 people in the Marathon des Sables, which that year had a drop-out rate of over 75%.<\/p>\n

His preparation consists of weight training, long-runs and using a heat chamber – to replicate the gruelling conditions he will soon be facing.<\/p>\n

Wife ‘thought he was joking’<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n Spencer Matthews with his wife Vogue Williams. Pic: PA
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The Great Desert Challenge seems an insurmountable feat – and his wife Vogue thought the same.<\/p>\n

“When I first told her that I was planning 30 marathons in 30 days\u2026 she thought I was joking,” Matthews said.<\/p>\n

“And then when she realised I was being serious, her exact words were ‘but that could kill you’.”<\/p>\n

Matthews will be sleeping in a tent and will be watching his diet.<\/p>\n

“I’ve covered over 2,000km, in preparation for the challenge, which is kind of a challenge in itself, I suppose”, Matthews said, laughing.<\/p>\n

“On the larger days you burn over 7,000 calories. So, you’ve got to replace those. You’ve got to be thinking about your nutrition a little bit more than you would do ordinarily.”<\/p>\n

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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

Tap here<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Matthews doesn’t expect to inspire others in the way he has been by other ultramarathon runners, but if this does just that for one person, then “that would be amazing”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got kind people in the street shouting, good luck with the challenge,” he added.<\/p>\n

“So it feels like I’ll have a lot of people on the journey with me, which I think will be more than I bargained for.”<\/p>\n

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Former reality TV personality Spencer Matthews is preparing to attempt a new Guinness World Record by running 30 marathons in 30 days – through scorching temperatures in the Jordanian desert. The 35-year-old is now an endurance athlete, podcaster and entrepreneur, and has previously completed three ultramarathons in the Amazon Rainforest as well as the Arctic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/07\/768x432\/skynews-spencer-matthews-running_6622990.jpg?20240710134207","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3495,18148,8293,46132,3084,12219,53276],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91939,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91937\/revisions\/91939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}