Shirley Thompson – aka Jungle Shirley – only got into running in her forties as part of a successful attempt to quit smoking, she has certainly made up for lost time. Not only does she compete regularly on the marathon circuit, but she also runs one of the toughest ultra-marathons on the planet – the UVU Jungle Marathon – that takes place in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.
Having graduated in Scotland, Shirley moved to London and spent most of her working life in private aviation. This saw her catering to the needs of a host of pop stars, celebrities, politicians, royalty and other high-net-worth individuals. However, once she started running she soon got hooked, especially on long distances – as she put it “swapping one addiction for another”. This obsession lead to her eventually ditching the jet-set lifestyle and the trappings of first-class travel for a hammock in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil and starting a love affair with the jungle that has given rise to her “Jungle Shirley” nickname.
Getting off to a flyer, Thompson ran four marathons in quick succession within the first six months of starting running. The fifth marathon saw her take part in her first ultra race, the 250km Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert. “I had hideous blisters and on the last two days only managed to stand once the morphine-based painkillers the medics gave me kicked in!” she recalls. “But I dragged myself to the finish, whereas plenty of runners didn’t.” Not bad for someone who hadn’t even slept in a tent before!

Thompson describes running this first ultra marathon as a life-changing experience, and it kick-started a passion that has become an obsession. She has since run ultra events across the globe, from the Trans 333 in Mauritania (333km non-stop across the Sahara), to the Guadarun, a six-day race on the islands of the Guadeloupe archipelago. The highs of her running career have far exceeded the lows, but Thompson has flirted with disaster on a number of occasions, such as when she nearly died of hypothermia while attempting the Yukon Artic race.

Notorious for running her early marathons with entirely the wrong kit, Thompson has come to appreciate the importance of wearing the right clothing to improve her performance and safety, becoming an ambassador for extreme running brand UVU.

Now in her fifties, rarely a day goes by without her going for a run, and running remains her “perfect way to release stress, switch off, sort out problems in my head and get inspired”. Outside of running, Thompson speaks French, German and Portuguese, along with her native English tongue, and even has a pilot’s licence.

She is currently working on a new race, while also preparing for a second jungle marathon in Vietnam in 2013 and a crazy new adventure that’s due to launch in Brazil at the end of 2013.

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