When people quit smoking, they often swap one addiction for another. But when Shirley Thompson took up running, little did she know just how much it would become part of her life.
I
n another life, Belfast born Shirley Thompson would probably be a mogul in the entertainment industry. Born into a musical family, Thompson grew up surrounded by names like Van Morrison
and Rory Gallagher. As the main fi nancial backers of Radio Caroline, Thompson's father and uncle helped bring pop to the UK airwaves. But music didn't hold much of an attraction for Thompson, who instead took to the skies for a career in aviation, escorting the rich and famous around the world in private jets. All this glamour is a world away from
Thompson's new world of ultra distance running. Now when Thompson jets off to some far-fl ung location, it is no longer at the behest of rock stars or minor Royals, but to take part in one of her jungle marathons or for one of her eco-tourism ventures. Not a woman to do things by halves,
Thompson took on the gruelling Marathon des Sables just seven months after taking up running. The 250km track across the Sahara Desert is not a challenge to be taken lightly, as the rookie runner quickly discovered: “I had hideous blisters and on the last two days I only managed to stand once the morphine based painkillers from the medics kicked in!” But Thompson dragged herself to the fi nish,
when plenty of runners didn’t: “I felt very proud of myself. I had never slept in a tent before, and I arrived with far too much kit, all the wrong things, and enough toiletries and cosmetics to sink a ship.” But the Sahara experience cemented
Thompson's passion for running (“It was a life changing experience”), and she returned the following year, only to be pulled from the course by medics after completing just 8km in 6 hours – much of it on all fours while suffering a chest infection. From there, more races and greater distances followed: TheTrans 333 (333km ➻