9 Feb 2021
Judy Scrine has completed 58 official and 15 unofficial marathons in support of Breast Cancer Now since she started running 10 years ago.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
A vet’s extreme running efforts have helped to raise more than £50,000 for good causes in a 10-year spell.
Judy Scrine – clinical director at Mayes and Scrine Equine Veterinary Practice near Horsham, West Sussex – has completed 58 official and 15 unofficial marathons in support of Breast Cancer Now since she started running 10 years ago.
Miss Scrine has completed extreme marathons on Everest, at the North Pole and in Antarctica, making her the first woman to complete the combination of highest, and most northerly and southerly marathons.
In total, Miss Scrine has covered 1,912.6 marathon miles and clocked up around 2,500 additional training miles a year. She has crossed the finishing line in London six times – five of them dressed as a witch.
Miss Scrine had set herself the target of running 20 in 2020, but had only 4 under her belt when the first lockdown hit. She ran 3 virtual marathons before suffering an ankle injury, but she was determined to squeeze in the final 13 between October and the end of the year.
Miss Scrine said: “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.
“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.”
Miss Scrine’s efforts in 2020 coincided with a charity challenge by VetPartners, the group Mayes and Scrine is part of, and she was able to join colleagues across the country in raising money for Pets As Therapy (PAT) and Vetlife.
On running, she said: “After several years of trying, finally I managed to sign up for the Moonwalk, which is a night-time walk of 26.2 miles, 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.”
Miss Scrine added: “I take on these wonderful challenges to make up for the fact that I’m not very good at running. 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°C at the North Pole.”
Future marathon plans include the Great Wall of China, running in every country from A to Z (with the exception of X) and taking on the world’s lowest marathon on the shores of the Dead Sea. The Seven Seas challenge on King George Island is another hope.
