Amanda Woodrow
“My legs were destroyed, but I kept running and didn’t give up…” Edinburgh Athletic Club’s Amanda Woodrow has won battles with anorexia and sepsis in the past, so when the going got tough at the recent Anglo-Celtic Plate 100km road race, nothing was going to stop her…
The Anglo-Celtic Plate, seen by many as the pinnacle of UK andIrish ultra-endurance running, features international-level teams fromScotland, England, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The annual eventrotates around different venues in the UK and Ireland, and was held this yearin Craigavon, Northern Ireland, at the start of April.
Woodrow, a 34-year old psychology researcher and qualified athletics coach, originally from Fife, long-time resident of Edinburgh, and now based in the Borders, was making her debut at the 100km distance, and representing Scotland for the first time. She completed the race in a time of 8 hours and 39 minutes, finishing 5th overall and 2nd Scottish female. Along with her Scottish team-mates Emma Murray (8:26) from Jog Scotland Kintore, and Portobello RC’s Catherine Cowie (8:52), Scotland’s ladies were triumphant, returning home with the famous Anglo-Celtic Plate trophy.
Selection for the Scotland team followed Woodrow winning the 2022Scottish 50km road race championships, clocking an impressive time of 3 hoursand 47 minutes. Recently she has also competed successfully in several otherultra-marathons, ran the West Highland Way three times, and completed an epicLand’s End to John O’Groats running challenge.
However, the 100km Anglo-Celtic Plate race didn’t go exactly toplan for Woodrow, in what were unusually warm conditions in Northern Ireland.She said: “It was an early start and the first half of the race was fine, Iwent through halfway in under 4 hours. But in the second 50km, when it warmedup, I got a bit of heatstroke and sunburn. I started being sick and couldn’tkeep any nutrition down. With 15km to go I was destroyed, but I kept runningand didn’t give up. It wasn’t the performance I had trained for and hoped for,but I’m delighted to have finished. It was an incredible experience, and to winthe Anglo-Celtic Plate with my Scotland team-mates was amazing!”
No stranger to adversity, Woodrow has battled back from a number ofdifficult and life-threatening situations, making it all the more remarkablethat she is now ultra-running at international level. She started out as apromising 800m and 1500m track runner as a junior and young adult, and competedall over the UK and Europe. But in the early years of her athletics career,Woodrow suffered from anorexia which subsequently brought on a number ofserious injuries, and she was eventually hospitalised.
She reflects: “I realise now that back then I was overtraining andunder-fuelling myself. It wasn’t sustainable, my body and mind were graduallydeteriorating, and eventually I reached breaking point. Building back to healthwas a tough journey. I know now that it’s vital for athletes of all ages, butparticularly for young and developing athletes, to fuel their bodies well. It’sgood to see that nowadays there is much more awareness about eating disordersand RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport). Sports clubs and coaches seemto be a lot more mindful of the issue. It’s so important.”
Woodrow battled back from anorexia and RED-S, and got her life andathletics career back on track, taking to road racing as well as track running.She also became an ambassador and volunteer for Beat (an eating disorderscharity), began a PhD, and continued with her athletics coaching role.
But this hard-won stability was shattered by a freak case ofsepsis, brought on by a routine injection, which left her fighting for her lifein Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She explained: “Sepsis happens when your body’simmune system over-reacts to an infection, causing serious damage to yourorgans and tissues. Generally, people don’t realise how serious sepsis is. Youdeteriorate very quickly and it’s life-threatening. It completely destroyed oneof my glute muscles, there’s not much left of it now, but I consider myselflucky. I had a lot of rehabilitation work to do, but I was so determined to getback to running, it’s what I love to do and it really gave my recovery afocus.”
Woodrow persevered with her recovery and rehabilitation, andcompleted her PhD, but she could never have imagined that within a few yearsshe would be representing Scotland at the 100km distance. She said: “I was leftwith a massive imbalance because the sepsis basically ravaged my entire leftglute, and I soon realised my body wouldn’t be able to handle the intensity oftrack running and shorter road races. So I started back running slowly, Igradually built up my strength, and I found I was enjoying building up to longer distances. But runningfor Scotland in the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100km race is beyond anything I thoughtI could achieve in athletics!”
Edinburgh Athletic Club coach Alex MacEwen spoke highly of Woodrow’s achievements and contributions to athletics, saying: “Amanda has been with our club for nearly 20 years and has competed at every distance, on the track, road, trails and hills, from local ParkRuns to European track championships to international 100km events. She doesn’t just win medals but also wins total respect from everyone. She has built up a great knowledge of the sport which she passes on to others through her coaching and contributions to discussions on diet and body image. And she’ll always give you a smile and a wave as she runs gracefully past!”
Woodrow has proven her resilience many times, but could be forgiven for putting her feet up for a while in the aftermath of her Anglo-Celtic Plate exploits. However, she is already looking to the future, intending to run the 42-mile “Devil o’ the Highlands” race in August, and then the Valencia Marathon in December. She also has unfinished business with the 100km distance, saying: “I know I can do better in the 100km. I learned a lot from my first attempt, and I know I am capable of a much faster time. So I would really love to go back and give the distance another go, and do myself justice. I also hope that my first Scotland vest won’t be my last…!”
John Lenehan
For further information on the issues raised in this article, see:
www.red-s.com
www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk
www.sepsisresearch.org.uk