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The Independent
4 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
How Tom Evans went from never running more than 10k to becoming one of the world's best ultra runners
Have you ever been on the wrong end of a drunken bet? If so, chances are you wound up downing a pint, texting an ex or generally embarrassing yourself. It probably didn't end with you standing on the podium of the Marathon Des Sables – a 251km multi-stage race across the Sahara Desert. But that's exactly what happened to Tom Evans in 2016. The then British Army captain was enjoying a tipple or two with friends who had just finished the race, when he drunkenly suggested he could beat their times – despite never having run more than 10km. Fast forward 10 months and he was good to his word, becoming the first non-sub Saharan male to finish in the top three. In doing so, he stumbled across the centre of a Venn diagram comprising activities he loved and activities he happened to be incredibly good at. So, in 2019, the now 33-year-old left the army to become a full-time ultra runner, and now the Red Bull athlete regularly travells across the globe to compete against the sport's elite. Below he reveals the merits of traipsing around the Lake District's testing topography for five hours, and why the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc remains his white whale. Tom Evans' training schedule When someone quantifies their weekly running in hours rather than miles, you can be certain they run a lot. 'It's a very time-consuming hobby,' Evans laughs. 'Now, I won't really bother going for a run if it's not at least 90 minutes. In a typical week I will be running for around 20 hours, and biking for about 10 hours.' The pro runner's week comprises a version of training every day – even his 'rest' days include one of these minimum 90-minute runs. From Monday through to Sunday, Evans will be running. This is what his training schedule usually looks like. 'I don't really take a full day off unless I really need to, but as a full-time athlete there is so much stuff I can be doing on a recovery day,' Evans says. 'I've started doing reformer Pilates fairly recently, so I do that once a week on a Monday – that's a 90-minute session. Then I'll go to the gym or I might jump on my bike for an hour, so even on a recovery day you're still training for three to four hours.' Tuesday: ' Double threshold day' 'In the morning I'll typically do something faster and flatter, like a fairly standard session for me is six by 2km,' says Evans. 'There's a loop in Loughborough where I live called the 2km loop, and it's where Paula Radcliffe did all of her training when she was up here. It's not a beautiful run whatsoever, it goes through two different housing estates, but it's as close to a closed road as you can get. You might see one car in a 70-minute session. 'Then in the evening, I'll typically be on my treadmill doing something like 20x1min at threshold pace at an incline of 25 per cent, or something similar.' Wednesday: 'A long day on tired legs' ' I'll drive up to the Peak District or the Lake District or Snowdon, then I'll do somewhere between four and five hours, at a very easy pace, just [to practise] running on tired legs.' Thursday: 'Another recovery-ish day' ' This would typically involve a 90-minute run in the morning, then a longer ride in the afternoon – two or three hours on the bike.' Friday: 'Another double run day focussing on longer reps' 'I might do something like five to eight by 10 minutes uphill, at a marathon effort that's still quite hard but sustainable,' he says. 'And in the afternoon, because Friday is normally a double run day, I will go and run another 10-12km in the afternoon.' Saturday and Sunday: 'Long back to back days' 'Again, I'd go to the Lake District or the Peak District, then I'd do four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday,' Evans says. 'Normally one of those days will have a bit of a session built into it, so maybe something like five by five minutes tempo or two rounds of 10 minutes at race pace, just to mix things up a little bit. And that wraps up a pretty standard week.' Tom Evans sample workout Complete six rounds of the following sequence: Run 2km at threshold pace (3min/km for Evans, representing a 4:1 work:rest ratio) Rest 90 seconds 'I think it's really important to train both faster and slower than you're going to run on race day,' Evans says. This is an example of a shorter, faster session for him. This might surprise some people, given his propensity for covering incredibly long distances. But there are surges within a race, particularly during the first kilometre, and it pays to keep pace with the front runners. 'For me, one of my strengths is being able to run at a 3min/km pace and have it not cost that much,' says Evans. 'I know in a race, if I put a surge in that's a little bit faster, people will keep up, but it will cost them far more than it will cost me. It might not break them immediately, but we probably still have five, six, 10 hours of racing to do, and eventually it will break them.' The diet of an ultra runner If we went through everything Evans ate in a week to support his colossal training load, we might be here a while. Instead, I pried into what his intra-workout nutrition looked like, and it's certainly interesting. 'At the moment I'm working a little bit on body composition and trying to do a bit more fasted training and really optimise my body's ability to burn fats,' he says. 'Having Red Bull Zero – something that has no calories in but still has 80mg of caffeine – is incredibly useful because it gives me the caffeine I need to fuel these fasted sessions while at the same time allowing my body to use fat reserves and the glycogen that's already in my body. 'That doesn't mean I don't eat carbs at all. I probably do that [fasted training] once, maybe twice, a week. Then everything else is fuelled by between 100 and 120g of carbohydrate. To do that I'll use a mixture of real food, sports drinks and normal full fat Red Bull.' And how does one consume 100-plus grams of carbs while on the go? A potato sandwich of sorts, Evans says. 'For the fast races you can do it off gels and liquids, but in longer races like the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB – a 106-mile race through the Alps) I'm having real food as well. 'One of my favourite real foods would be a flatbread wrap with mashed potato or mashed sweet potato inside. You get a mixture of simple and complex carbohydrates, and it's a great way to get tasty food that's easily digestible at the same time.' Avoiding the dreaded 'red line' With his high weekly running volume, Evans says he's 'constantly on the red line' as far as recovery and injury is concerned. For that reason, what he does away from the trails is just as important as what he does on them. 'I do my mobility and my activation stuff in the morning before training, but around that typically if I'm not training I'm not training, so I'll sit on the sofa with my recovery boots on and basically just chill,' he says. 'I think that's one of the great things about being a professional athlete; you have the time to do those things.' Evans will also incorporate strength training exercises into his week such as plyometrics and heavy weighted step-ups to strengthen the tissues in his lower limbs and 'coach the body into recruiting as many muscle fibres as possible'. 'The more workers you have, the quicker the job can be done, so my strength work is very much on trying to recruit as many muscle fibres as possible,' he explains. Sleep is another important tool in Evans' recovery armoury, and thanks to his military background Evans says he can do it any time, anywhere – even while standing up on some occasions. He aims for roughly 10 hours each night, leaving his phone outside the bedroom and donning a sleep mask to improve the quality of his slumber. 'I also try to have a nap every afternoon,' he adds. People say you should get eight hours of sleep per night, but I try to get an extra eight hours of napping over the course of a week. That's a rule of thumb for me, and I've found it works quite well.' However, when we spoke he was weeks away from becoming a father for the first time. His daughter Phoebe Evans arrived on May 13. 'I'm sure with a baby the napping is going to be a little bit more tricky, so I'm banking my sleep now and letting the interest run on it, although I'm told it doesn't really work like that,' he jokes. What's next for ultra runner Tom Evans? The obvious answer to this question is fatherhood – a prospect Evans describes as 'a cause for congratulations and also bloody terrifying at the same time'. But speaking to him, it quickly becomes clear that he has unfinished business with one race in particular: the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. 'We'll have a baby, and from there I'll stay at home for a little bit,' he says. 'Then I guess my big goal for this year is UTMB in Chamonix at the end of August. 'It's been a race that's eluded me so far. I'm very meticulous in race planning and race strategies, and a lot of the time I get it right. Whereas with this race I've never got it quite right. 'It's definitely a big itch to scratch. I'm planning to have a better race this year, and I have a couple of new strategies that we will implement in the race and add into training to try and get the result I'm searching for.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hallucinations and starvation: Meet the man who ran ultramarathon in Sahara Desert
HALLUCINATIONS, sandstorms and starvation were just some of the things Grant Smith wrestled with when he completed the Marathon des Sables. The 157-mile route in the Sahara Desert in Morocco sees participants run six marathons in seven days, while carrying their own food and survival equipment. Smith, 46, from Brize Norton, needed more than half a year to get into the physical shape required for such a challenge. READ ALSO: Hoops learn what division they will be in for 2025/26 season He told this newspaper: 'I'd never done this one before. I'd done half-sized ones previously, but this was the full one. 'I've been running for 20 years because I find it helps with work stresses and life pressures, but for this, you ramp it up and before you know it, you're running in the desert. 'Training-wise, I was doing 10 to 12 hours a week, carrying 10kg of weight. One of the furthest runs was from Brize to Broadway in Worcestershire on the back of doing a couple of 10-milers in the week and various strength and conditioning exercises. 'The preparation was over six to eight months, with the focus being able to carry that sort of weight for a long period of time. 'I wore a sweatsuit during my training. I would go on the treadmill in a room with the doors shut and the radiator on before then going out.' Grant Smith completed the Marathon des Sables (Image: Grant Smith) For all Smith's training, there were some things that Brize Norton and its surroundings couldn't prepare him for. He said: 'The temperatures get to over 40 degrees, and for one part, there was a horrific sandstorm which blew up, and there was lightning in it. That was scary, but amazing as well. 'I always knew it was going to be the hardest thing I'd done to date. I've climbed Kilimanjaro, but this is the Everest of running. 'In the race, I was conscious that people were hallucinating, and you lose all sense of reality. I hallucinated that people were running past me the other way. 'You have to self-medicate your feet, so that included daily trips to the triage tent to inject your feet and sort out blisters. 'The weight loss is quite considerable. We're burning from 4,000 to 8,000 calories a day, so starvation kicks in. 'I've got a knee problem which I've had to manage for a long time, but I had to get through it. There are the usual aches and pains, which is where the training helps you deal with it.' Upon his return to Oxfordshire, having made a vow for 20 years, there was only one thing for Smith to do. He explained: 'I've never had a tattoo before, and I'd always said if I did this that it would be the only time I would get one. 'The first thing when I got back, my wife, kids and brother got me into the shop, and I got the logo on my ankle.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Desert race was 'once in a lifetime' experience
A man who took part in what has been dubbed "the toughest foot race on earth" has described it as a "once in a lifetime" experience. Charlie Parish, 36, took part in the 252km (155 mile) Marathon des Sables through the Sahara Desert in Morocco to raise awareness of men's mental health and has raised more than £2,000 for charity. He carried all of his gear and food during the seven-day race, and slept in a tent with eight other people. Mr Parish, from Harrogate, trained in a special heated laboratory at Leeds Beckett University and expected temperatures to be up to 50C (122F) - but was pleased it turned out to be a little cooler. The terrain ranged from sand to hard paths, he said, adding: "Finding myself running up near vertical sand dunes was soul destroying at times." "We got rain on one day and I was loving it," Mr Parish said. "It felt like I was back in Yorkshire, it was surreal to get rain in the Sahara." However, the temperature reached more than 30C on most days, he added. Mr Parish said he had also underestimated how tough it would be to camp in the desert. "In the evenings we were bombarded by winds and sandstorms and our tent came down at night," he said. "Looking across at a tentmate wearing swimming goggles because sand was everywhere will stay with me a while." But it was the views and scenery that really made the experience special for him: "I kept waiting for the Lion King scene - when the monkey lifts up Simba. "It was definitely a once in a lifetime thing. The views were surreal." Mr Parish was fundraising for suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) and said that was a huge motivation for doing the race. "One of the major positives [during the race] was being surrounded by like-minded people and the amount of men talking about mental health was great," he said. Out of 847 competitors in the Marathon des Sables, Mr Parish finished in 158th place and said he was proud of what he had achieved. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. 'I'm doing Sahara race for men's mental health' Marathon des Sables
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Harrogate man completes Marathon des Sables race
A man who took part in what has been dubbed "the toughest foot race on earth" has described it as a "once in a lifetime" Parish, 36, took part in the 252km (155 mile) Marathon des Sables through the Sahara Desert in Morocco to raise awareness of men's mental health and has raised more than £2,000 for carried all of his gear and food during the seven-day race, and slept in a tent with eight other Parish, from Harrogate, trained in a special heated laboratory at Leeds Beckett University and expected temperatures to be up to 50C (122F) - but was pleased it turned out to be a little cooler. The terrain ranged from sand to hard paths, he said, adding: "Finding myself running up near vertical sand dunes was soul destroying at times.""We got rain on one day and I was loving it," Mr Parish said."It felt like I was back in Yorkshire, it was surreal to get rain in the Sahara."However, the temperature reached more than 30C on most days, he Parish said he had also underestimated how tough it would be to camp in the desert."In the evenings we were bombarded by winds and sandstorms and our tent came down at night," he said."Looking across at a tentmate wearing swimming goggles because sand was everywhere will stay with me a while."But it was the views and scenery that really made the experience special for him: "I kept waiting for the Lion King scene - when the monkey lifts up Simba."It was definitely a once in a lifetime thing. The views were surreal." Mr Parish was fundraising for suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) and said that was a huge motivation for doing the race."One of the major positives [during the race] was being surrounded by like-minded people and the amount of men talking about mental health was great," he of 847 competitors in the Marathon des Sables, Mr Parish finished in 158th place and said he was proud of what he had achieved. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
CNN
28-01-2025
- CNN
Why this female explorer, 61, is walking across Saudi Arabia
She's been described as the 'Indiana Jones for girls,' and after becoming the first woman to walk the full length of the Draa River in Morocco, UK explorer Alice Morrison is embarking on a new challenge — walking across Saudi Arabia. Accompanied by camels and local guides, Morrison will traverse through deserts and mountains during the 2,500-kilometer journey, which will take around five months in total. 'It's a massive adventure,' Morrison, who has been walking around 25 kilometers (15 miles) a day, tells CNN Travel via Zoom. 'I seek challenge, knowledge and connection. And I think you get all of those doing what I do.' Morrison, who speaks fluent Arabic, concedes that she isn't necessarily a typical explorer, and was actually working as a CEO of a media development company up until 2011. 'I feel like I've had lots of different lives,' she says, recounting how she signed up for the Tour d'Afrique, a 12,000 kilometer bike race across Africa, after a series of events led to her giving up her job. After completing the race, Morrison went on to enter the Marathon Des Sables, known as 'the toughest race on Earth,' as well as trek across the Sahara Desert. 'I left the rat race for a bike race and I never, ever looked back,' she says. While Morrison admits that she's never been particularly athletic, she's always been the adventurous type, and would often go on adventure holidays like mountain biking in Guatemala and ice climbing in Peru, during her vacation time. 'It's really odd because I'm not really sporty,' Morrison admits. 'But I love adventure and I love being outdoors. 'So the sporty side has to kind of tag along reluctantly to all the things I want to do.' According to Morrison, her trek across Saudi Arabia, which will see her become the first person on record to walk this particular route if successful, has been several decades in the making. 'When I was 11, my dad gave me a book called 'Arabian Sands' by Wilfred Thesiger,' Morrison says, recalling how the story of an Englishman crossing the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia struck a chord with her. 'The grandeur of the challenge stuck with me. I've always wanted to explore Saudi because I studied Arabic at university. So those early kind of pointings in that direction really have come to fruit.' While the prospect of exploring the kingdom in depth had previously seemed unfeasible, everything changed when the country opened up to tourists back in 2019 and Morrison realized that she too could take on a grand challenge across Saudi Arabia. Determined to make her long-held dream a reality, Morrison set about finding sponsors to fund the epic trip, as well as coordinating with experts on the ground to determine a route. 'People say, 'Oh, exploring is terrible. It's a colonial concept,'' she reflects. 'And I see exactly what they're saying. 'And I think exploring now is very, very different. It is about working with the people of the country you're in to find out about them and to tell other people about them. At least, that's what my exploring is.' The grueling journey was deemed too long to complete in one season due to Saudi Arabia's notorious hot weather, as well as the fact that the holy month of Ramadan is expected to begin in late February this year, so Morrison has split her trek into two stages. 'I'm finding Saudi Arabia absolutely fascinating,' she says. 'The scenery has been incredible and very varied.' Since setting off earlier this month, Morrison has discovered two new sets of petroglyphs, including depictions of an oryx and gazelle — different types of antelope — etched into stone, as well as two ancient stone hand axes, along the way. 'The amazing thing about doing long, slow journeys is, you walk and you walk and you walk, and then you get there,' she says, recalling becoming caught up in a camel stampede as well as seeing the moon shift from a crescent to a full moon. 'And, we've seen the most incredible things en route, and that's been very exciting.' Aside from searching for further new sites and discoveries, Morrison will be 'walking through climate change' and recording her findings, as well as retracing ancient caravan routes. Morrison, who has been bedding down in a winterized tent, has already been hosted by many locals, who have welcomed her warmly. 'It's quite overwhelming,' she admits, before describing how villages have held huge gatherings to celebrate her arrival, and people regularly stop their cars to offer her water, snacks and encouragement while she's 'trudging along a road.' 'Genuinely, the kindness of people… The enormous warmth which greets me everywhere I go is so nice,' she says. Although she's very much enjoying the journey, Morrison says she's had terrible blisters since her first day on the road and has been experiencing 'quite a lot of pain.' 'They've just got worse and worse and worse,' she says. 'And because you're walking 25 kilometers a day, they've got no chance to get better. 'So I am mainlining painkillers and trying to wrap them up as best I can and just keep going.' Saudi Arabia has long been criticized for its restrictions on women, and the kingdom has made some significant changes in recent years, with its controversial ban on women driving finally being lifted in 2018. The following year, Saudi women were finally allowed to hold passports and travel abroad without the consent of a male guardian. Being able to connect with women, including Saudi's first ever female wildlife rangers, throughout the journey is hugely important to Morrison, who explains that she's keen to 'see what their dreams and hopes are.' 'I've got an explorer superpower: being a woman,' she said in a statement before embarking on the adventure. 'The view of Saudi women in the West is very one dimensional. As a female explorer, I'm uniquely able to spend time with Saudi women and tell their stories.' Morrison fondly describes a recent encounter with a young Saudi woman who spoke of her aspirations, declaring that she wanted to 'to be part of this change' currently taking place in the kingdom. 'So many young Saudi women have traveled,' says Morrison, pointing out that women make up at least half of the university intake in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 'Things are really changing for them in Saudi now. I mean, very rapidly. So for me, it's an interesting time to come and to talk to young women and see what their dreams and hopes are.' At the time of writing, Morrison had reached AlUla, an ancient Arabian oasis city located in the Medina Province, which she previously visited while filming BBC show, 'Arabian Adventures: The Secrets of the Nabateans,' and was hugely excited about returning to an area settled more than 2,000 years ago. 'It's crammed full of history,' says Morrison. 'It's where the Nabataeans and the Dadanites traded through. 'So when I walk into AlUla with my camels, I will be literally walking in the footsteps of people who've traded that path with camels centuries ago. 'And I just love that thought that I will be doing something that people used to do centuries ago.' Morrison is scheduled to reach Madinah on February 14, just before Ramadan, bringing the first section of the expedition to a close. During the second leg, which will begin later this year, she'll make her way from Madinah towards the coast and down to Jeddah, passing through Rijal Almaa and the Uruq Bani Ma'arid wildlife sanctuary, before finishing up near Najran at the border with Yemen. 'My real aim is to communicate what I'm seeing and hearing and discovering to people,' she says. 'So I would love it if they see or read about me, that they feel that they're a little bit on the adventure with me.' Morrison has been chronicling her journey on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and aims to encourage others 'to visit Saudi Arabia and see for themselves what it's like.' 'I would like them just to be inspired by the beauty of another country,' she says. 'Because we all know there is a negative stereotype of Saudi Arabia.' Morrison, who stresses that she 'couldn't have attempted this at 25,' as she 'needed the life experience' to get to this point, is also hopeful that her experiences will inspire others to seek adventure whenever possible. 'Adventure can be very small,' she says. 'It can just be going out for a hike or doing something that's outside of your normal experience. 'Anything could be an adventure if you bring the right kind of attitude to it.'
