Crawley woman raises £50k in ten years after running 73 marathons worldwide

Judy Scrine, who is clinical director at Mayes & Scrine Equine Vets in Horsham, has completed 58 official and 15 unofficial marathons in support of Breast Cancer Now since taking up running a decade ago.

In total she’s covered 1,912.6 marathon miles, as well as clocking up around 2,500 training miles each year.

Judy has crossed the finish line of the famous London Marathon six times – five times dressed as a witch – but her love of running has also taken her all over the world, and she’s completed long-distance races on every continent.

The adventurer has even achieved 26.2 mile runs on Everest and at the North Pole and Antarctica, making her the first woman to complete the combination of the highest, northernmost and southernmost marathons.

Last year, Judy set herself the goal of running 20 marathons in 2020, but had only run four when the country went into lockdown.

She then ran three virtual marathons, before suffering a serious ankle injury. Once it had healed, she was determined to squeeze in the other 13 marathon distances between October and December 31.

“I’ve done so many marathons it’s very easy for me to work out a 26.2 mile route, and I planned and did those 13 runs around Sussex, Surrey and Kent,” she said.

“I was lucky that I had some time off work that I could use to meet my target, and I often ran two marathon distances in a weekend.”

Judy’s efforts to complete her 2020 aim coincided with a charity challenge by VetPartners, the larger veterinary group that Mayes & Scrine is a part of, and she was able to join colleagues at vet practices all over the country who were clocking up the miles by walking, running, cycling and horseriding in support of two other worthy charities, Pets As Therapy (PAT) and Vetlife.

PAT supports communities by arranging for volunteers and their pets to visit hospitals, special needs schools and nursing and care homes. Vetlife provides support to anyone in the UK veterinary community who has emotional, health or financial problems.

“It was an excellent opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, helping the VetPartners charities while hitting my own personal target of 20 marathons in 2020,” she said.

For someone who has achieved so much on her own two feet, amazingly Judy couldn’t run as a child, due to, in horse terms, bad conformation, and only took it up as an adult.

“I played a silly amount of squash especially at university and ended up suffering Achilles tendon injuries affecting both ankles, which looked like ending my sporting career. But then I found a podiatrist who put me back on track with the right orthotics, which are special shoe inserts,” she said.

“At last, I’d found something that enabled me to actually run. In horse terms, I am essentially remedially shod!

“After several years of trying, finally I managed to sign up for the Moonwalk, which is a night-time walk of 26.2 miles in aid of a breast cancer charity, and was pleased with how I coped with the marathon distance.

“It encouraged me to apply for the London Marathon and then I found out you could run a marathon at the North Pole. As someone who loves exotic travel, running opened up a whole new world of adventure to me and was a passport to explore the globe.”

Judy has gone on to run all around the world in many different countries and took on a gruelling challenge to complete seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. She’s also devised her own running adventure to complete a marathon on an island on each of the seven oceans.

“I take on these wonderful challenges to make up for the fact that I’m not very good at running,” said Judy. “I’m not very fast, and my personal best time of 4.54 hours, which I achieved in Iceland, is embarrassingly bad.

“But I have loads of determination and stamina, and I can keep going whatever the conditions, whether that’s intense heat or deep snow. The temperature was in the high 40s when I ran in Petra, Jordan, a huge contrast to -40 degrees at the North Pole.”

In these difficult times, with people being at home much more, Judy says she highly recommends running as a way of staying positive.

“I’d really encourage people to run, although they don’t have to cover the distances I do! I commend anyone who gets out there and runs any distance.” she added. “It helps you stay fit and gets you out into the fresh air, which I feel is so important, especially when we’re all having to spend so much time indoors.

“When I finish a run it gives me the most incredible feeling, and I can’t help but feel motivated and happy, not to mention the fact that I’m a complete endorphin junkie.”

Judy’s far from running out of athletic inspiration and has many goals she wants to tick off her marathon wishlist. She plans to run the Great Wall of China, play the alphabet game by running in every country from A-Z (X is currently a problem) and take on the world’s lowest marathon, 200 metres below sea level on the shores of the Dead Sea.

Judy is also hoping to complete her Running the Seven Seas challenge on King George Island on the Southern Ocean, and if there was a marathon on the moon, she’d be there!

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