Tough Girl Podcast Beth Whitman - completed the Grand Slam Plus with Racing the Planet. This included running 5 separate events, each 250K, across Georgia (the country), the Namib Desert in Namibia, the Atacama in Chile, the Gobi in Mongolia and Antarctica.
Beth is a traveler first and foremost. With 35 years of travel experience, each year she spends three to four months abroad, combining her love of adventure with vacation and business.
For 15 years she has been running WanderTours, focusing on women-only tours, where she encourages and inspires women to dive deep into cultures and to challenge themselves by getting out of their comfort zone.
She recently discovered running and, at age 50, ran her first marathon. She then discovered ultra-running and has been using these as an excuse to explore remote destinations around the globe that few people ever see.
Most recently she completed the Grand Slam Plus with Racing the Planet. This consisted of running five 250K stage races across four deserts: the Gobi in Mongolia, the Atacama in Chile, the Namib in Namibia, Antarctica and, the one non-desert race, a run across the country of Georgia.
While many people have completed these races, she is part of a small group of competitors (only seven women!) who have completed them in a year's time (OK, slightly longer due to Covid).
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We first spoke with Beth - Feb 11th 2020 - Running her 1st Marathon at 50, completing the Snowman Trek in Bhutan.
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Show notes
- Who is Beth Whitman and what she does
- Speaking with Beth at the end of 2019 where she shared more about running her first marathon and completing the Snowman Trek in Bhutan.
- Going back to the start of 2020
- 4 desert races - with Racing the Planet
- Wanting to run these 4races in 1 year (Namib Race (Namibia), Gobi March (Mongolia), Atacama Crossing (Chile) and The Last Desert (Antarctica))
- Continuing to run and train, even when races and borders were getting closed
- Not knowing what was going on, and continuing to hope that the race would go on.
- Running every street in your city/neighbourhood
- Having a purpose to get up every day and go running
- The rules of the ‘running every street’
- The mental side of always being ‘on’ while running
- The challenges of running a tour company during covid
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Her first race - running Georgia (country) in 2021
- Dealing with stress
- Using mediation and becoming more aware of her thoughts
- Needing to know what was happening and starting to doom scroll
- Becoming more aware of her habits
- Cutting back on caffeine and sugar
- Moving on quickly from each trip/race
- Needing to spend more time in reflection and appreciation for what’s been achieved
- Revenge travel
- Having 7 weeks between the Georgia race and the next ultra in Namibia
- Fuelling ultra marathons being a mostly vegan
- Magical moments and highlights from running
- Running in Antarctica and the challenges with the terrain and weather
- The mental struggle and thinking that she wasn’t going to be able to carry on while running in the desert
- What kept her going during the tough times
- How to find out more about Beth and her tours
- Being most active on Facebook
- Final words of advice
- Having something to look forward to
- The power of making a plan
- Why you are capable of so much more than you think
Social Media
Website:
Instagram:
Facebook: @bethwhitwa