Jenny Wordsworth

[00:00:00] Jenny Wordsworth : And she explained that that was my, I was, so I told my brain that, that we were going to the South ball. So my mind just, just making stuff up. So my mind to me that is scabbing and it’s getting better. And that’s absolute nonsense. Like if you look at the pictures clearly, not that and I, I was, I was just getting there no matter what

You, you had had your first ex expedition to the South pole which hadn’t gone to plan you’d got back and your determination to go out for the second attempt was what? Nine months? Eight months? Yeah. Eight months away. I, I knew on the plane [00:01:00] home that I was going back. I wanted to wait a couple of months before making the decision because I was worried.

It was just tied up in feeling like such a failure. Like I remember even in the hospital, my phone was on airplane mode in London. I didn’t want to deal with anyone. I wasn’t ready to speak to anyone just yet. I thought I’ll be safe reading the Metro paper and I opened the Metro paper and there’s a second page is a picture of me and it says.

London lawyer in the size pool failure, I was like, Oh, get rid of that. I wanted it to make sure my, my, my wife going back was, you know, the same as it had been the first time or maybe even better. And then also it’s quite a big decision to go back all that money together again. And I also think for me, it was a joint decision with Matt and I Because it could be quite a selfish undertaking doing expeditions like this, like [00:02:00] your whole life for the next nine months, again, would be about me.

And I talked to her there’s interviews to do there’s press stuff to do there’s filming for a documentary to do. And every free time we all the free time we have together is, is, is focused on me and my training. So then weekends are, you know, where are we going in the leaks this weekend so that I can train.

And he’s never once or twice fully supported it. Cause a lot of similar things themselves it’s still is not something to be taken advantage of. I don’t think I thought it was a lot to ask. And Matt was like, yeah, sure. So pick a deal after all. And then the other, yeah, fact I’d say, do it kind of was I promised work.

I promised the board of the company that I worked, that I would So my first trip to Antarctica was the last major expedition I’d be doing and major in terms of the amount of time I needed off work, which was about eight, eight weeks. And I said, after that, you know, all everything I do will be in normal annual leave.

There’ll be nothing mental. Don’t worry. That was [00:03:00] my like verbal promise. And so yeah, asking for that time off again was a bit awkward. So I was just keeping it under wraps for a little while, until I knew it was definitely happening. I had had my thyroid removed in February before I could do any training, I had a very very overactive thyroid took a while to be diagnosed, failed it so that I have to be taken night.

And as soon as that was done, I got back into training. Got a new coaching team together, an amazing coach in the us. Mike McCastle and then one here in London. . And there’s such incredible coaches. They’re never, ever going to get rid of me and I, and yeah, the training was a dream. It was just such a great time.

I’ve never felt as strong as I did. And it was a really great lead up to leaving again. For the aim was another world record attempt, but I think what I liked. That changed for me between the first attempt. And the second attempt was the first one. I [00:04:00] think I said, I was hell bent on the world record.

Nothing else would even interest me. And I remember. Martin family saying to me, before I went, you should maybe have that as a secondary goal. Like, you know, there’s so many, so many things I have to go right for you together record. I know that it doesn’t matter. My, you know, super optimistic, this is going to happen.

Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s go. And that year I actually spent a lot of time reframing and the primary goal was just to make the South pole. And the second goal would be to get, get the record. And for me to see that and actually mean it. It was a huge win for me. And I think I think it’s made me a better person.

Actually. I’m still very, very competitive. But it was nice to actually feel that if I just made the poll, I’d be genuinely happy with that. And I’ll get home. And a month later it’d be like, well, I was kind of lame. I think I could have dumped bad. I didn’t, you know, beat yourself up. And so, yeah, it was just, just getting there.

But I, I [00:05:00] trained so hard. I can’t tell you, they might’ve hours. I put into training training to me is everything because it’s a way of controlling the controllables. There’s so many things, especially if you choose to do exhibitions in these environments, that you have no control over the way. I kind of deal with that.

If you like. Is you control what you can and then the rest, and it’s got nothing to do with me, what will be, what will be so training? I never miss session is everything. And yeah, I left in, I think it was about someone taught me a friend message a couple of years ago to say, Oh, this is, this is when you left to start second attempt.

And I wouldn’t have known that. So yeah, it was like a year ago this week. Good. And so sort of, cause yeah, you had eight months to do it. You landed in Antarctica. And then what was the sort of mindset you had for that trip? Because I imagine it was very different to the first attempt. Yeah. The difference is just what it was that I was going to get there.

And that would be enough. [00:06:00] And if I got the world record amazing, and that was so different from the first year where I was just like, now, if I don’t get the record, then that’s rubbish, blah, blah, blah. It was, it was very strange going to do the same thing again because there’s so many other things I had planned for that this year, that year.

So some way, like 10% of me was a little bit annoyed that I was going to do this again. And also I thought Antarctica I’ll be going there once in my lifetime. And that’ll be it. It’s such an incredible place. It’s so expensive to get to. I never thought in this lifetime, I’d be there twice. So I had a little bit of guilt over that, and I think I had guilt as well, because I know how many people want to do things like this.

Like if my laugh is not a huge amount of people, people want to do this and it’s so hard to get the money together. No, all exhibitions come on down because of it. And for me getting them funding for the second time, it was really straightforward. I called my sponsors [00:07:00] and it was a case that we thought you’d never ask.

Like, we’re so happy you’re going back. So it was really easy and it felt a bit, a bit handed, you know what I mean? Like I quite be quite, I think you get a lot from fighting for it and having those failures like, Oh, that person’s not gonna respond to me after all that company is. And Oh, this isn’t where all those things and this time it was like, yeah, he go.

And that was really odd. There was no fight. And I was a bit worried. Is that going to take away from my performance? I mean, nonsense. It didn’t. But yeah, it was a bit of a different mindset. It was a more grown up mindset, I think actually it was probably a bit ridiculous to, you know, have your, your primary goal was being the world record, but that’s the way I was.

Yeah, so. Started it was amazing. The weather was normal. I was like, this is normal. I talked to whether there’s a couple of big storms, but I was like, these are fine. I’m I’m skiing through them. And I was ahead of the world record [00:08:00] pace by nearly two days. All the way until things started going wrong.

I say never to play day. Yes, exactly. But really the main, you know, what led to everything going wrong with the was the leg? So I had a a condition called polar thigh mostly on my left inner thigh. And that is it’s fairly common amongst more women than men actually doing really long. Polar expeditions.

And there’s a lot of other walls, rather doctors kind of a bit unsure about what causes it and why. And they’re really, the best explanation we have for now is it’s kind of like a severe children. And obviously staying in the call makes it progressively worse and asked the skin is trying to heal.

So be sorry, I jumped a step. Miss a step. What happens is you have these ulcers on your leg. They’re very small to begin [00:09:00] with. And then they basically started to grow. So you’re like, Oh, that doesn’t look that great. I’ll just cover that up. And then it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the reason they kind of keep growing, you’d be like, as they have with Dr.

Schooler reprofusion element. So as the blood flow is going back to the extra and he’ll actually causes more inflammation, more area gets damaged and it keeps growing. So there’s pictures of my injury. On the, on my Instagram account and they’re pretty horrible and you can kind of see how it’s. So they started off being really small.

And I only had one little sheet of granny flats, which is a kind of dressing we use on big expeditions where you can just quite fit. It’s like a slab of dressing or you peel it off, whack it on, and that’s not going to go anywhere until you kind of finished get home. You’ve had a long shower. And I was running out of that.

So I like looks a bit like a patchwork quilt near the end. But everything came on done. I had a really, really benign for, in a white type fell over nothing. And as I [00:10:00] landed, I heard and felt all the ulcers crack open, basically split open into one big. Leg wound. And it was, it was absolutely horrific.

I’ve never heard a noise like it, and I lay there is looking up nothing. It was a white eye and just crying. I mean, it was the most fun of physical pain I’ve ever been in. And then at that point, I think I had about a hundred, 150 miles to go, something like that. And it was like, wow. I, I I’m still going.

And by that point I went from skiing really well. I mean, everything was going so well. Like I said, I was ahead of the world place, world record pace, and suddenly I’m skiing and dragging a leg behind me. Sorry. I don’t think I explained at the beginning, I’ve got a huge sled behind me with my tent or my food supply.

So you, everything I could need, so that’s not white and I’m suddenly dragging this leg on it. It, it just became so, so difficult. Even things like putting the tent up and dine, [00:11:00] which in high winds is a fast, speedy job. You’ve got to be on it. And there’s lots of, kind of Europe. You’re dying. You’re putting snow here, building snow walls there and try and do that with my leg open.

Like that was. Awful. But yeah, there was, I was never, ever stopping that never, ever entered my mind. I moaned a lot to my dad as the expedition manager. And so I could, there’s a way of sending sort of text messages to my daughters and the Garmin inReach. And I’m very, I don’t, I’m not uncommon with a lot of people because it takes too much time.

So it was just Matt and my dad. I swear, every message was just my leg. I was so much buried. You don’t start and then I’d apologize promoting so much. I still don’t know how I did it. I don’t I had a very few painkillers left and these were painkillers that were. At my emergency bag. And they were in case I fell down and crevasse broke his shoulder, not be medivaced and they were to pop and take while I was waiting for the [00:12:00] helicopter or whatever, they were not meant to helps you like get to the sidewalk.

So I couldn’t see that during the day, because on a silhouette expedition, it’s just you and you need to have your wits about you for navigation, for you. Can’t be completely out of it. So I would take them at night until I run out and then I remember actually, Cause you can’t everything to be the lightweight bag.

So my painkillers roll a little labeled like food bag, snack bag. And I remember I was sitting there licking the inside of the bag to get the very last remnants of Bangler and Yeah, it was terrific. I arrived at the pole. The day that I saw the Paul, when it came into sight, I need that it was still very, very far away.

And I probably should have stopped and camped between between the two places I didn’t. I skied for 19 hours straight. For the last four or five hours, I didn’t stop for, for a drink or food. I was just like, I’m getting there. This is, this [00:13:00] is it. Got there at about two in the morning at the South pole met by the South pole guide camp manager, rather dev and he handed me a beer.

So yeah, it was, it was very, very strange for people listening. What is it like at the South pole? It feels mostly like a scientific base and you feel like you’re intruding. I wouldn’t say. So if you imagine this it’s the American scientific basis that were just huge. And also I think very messy.

I do remember thinking, God, you guys are untidy. There’s all sorts of equipment. Just like listed in their back garden. They’d be like, and I was really surprised they went more tidy, but anyway and a little bit as a South pole right outside their, their base the kind of barber pole that we all know and love.

And then maybe half a mile away from there is the, I guess what you’d call the tourist camp, which is tiny. I think there’s [00:14:00] about eight tenths. Maybe. And then a slightly bigger tent where like a mess, then you can come in and eat and play cards or whatever, and that’s where I’m allowed to be. But there’s very specific rules about where you’re allowed to go around the scientific kind of base camp.

I would say it’s the most welcoming place actually. It was very, very cold. The skylights, very old. Sometimes I was convinced I could see curvature, which obviously couldn’t, but it was, it was just very strange place to be. And I couldn’t believe after all this time, I’m finally here. But there was a doctor there, there isn’t normally a doctor at the site for camp.

But I should explain. So with my leg every night when I was skiing with that injury, I would tap to make a satellite phone call to the main base camp and speak to the doctors. And that was compulsory. And every day they say me to Maddie back, you need to you back here. And as you know, I’m well [00:15:00] versed in medivacs and I’ll start to get to this point.

And there’s no way I was being medivaced. And the reason being is I was not unwell. I had no fever. There was no signs of infection in my leg. Like it’s a very clean, sterile environment, Antarctica. And so I could not see the merit in being. Medivaced other than this is just going to get worse until you’re out of the cold.

And I decided I didn’t, I didn’t care about that. And I also thought my leg was getting better. So it kind of makes more sense if you can see the first photo of my leg with what I call the patchwork quilt of school, a little patches of Granuflex dressing. And in between that you can kind of see is dried blood, but I.

Hand on heart, just absolutely convinced that that was scabbing healthy scabbing. So it’s getting better underneath this dressing. That’s my mindset. I now know, cause when I got back to the UK, I was in hospital with it. [00:16:00] They brought in a sports psychologist and she explained that that was my, I was so I told my brain that, that we were going to the South pole.

So my mind just, just making stuff up. So my mind to me that is scrubbing and it’s getting better and that’s absolute nonsense. Like if you look at the pictures and I, I was, I was just getting there no matter what. And yeah, so there was a doctor waiting there at the South pole because I repeatedly refused to Maddie back from the needed to take a look.

It was kind of luck that he was there though, to be honest. And he took a look at the leg the next day. And him and dad who was helping bandage my leg and they couldn’t remove any of the Granuflex need a hot shower to do that. There’s no showers at the softball, so they just covered it in big, comfortable bandaging, just to keep me cozy.

And I was put on a diet of morphine and beer until we could fly out of the South pole. And you can’t just leave this. I thought this would be a clear [00:17:00] weather window at the side pole and the main base camp. And it’s like a. I think it was a four hour flight in between. It’s a long way. I mean, I thought it was huge.

So we were there three or four days and I was high the entire time. I don’t remember much of it. I do remember getting fed up and being high and they were just trying to keep me comfortable and also doing anything to avoid infection. I’m now around other people. I can’t get like infected, but what I do know is that when they first looked at my leg, they both the doctor and dad recoiled at the smell.

So you can see this in the second picture. And it was a big area of black tissue. Once they removed the ground flux. So that is necrotic is completely dead tissue. And apparently it’s stank something, obviously it doesn’t smell like rotting dishy. I did not smell that at once. And the sports psychologist, again, explain that, is your mind saying this there’s no smell there.

There’s something wrong with this leg. We’re going to the South pole. And I think the power of the mind then once it [00:18:00] was explained to me that way, that’s just, it just believe your way. And no one could believe I can smell it and I’d get my nose right into it. And then we’d be like, Oh God, Jen, how could you not smell that?

And it just couldn’t. So yeah, I had a great time at the pole. I drank beer, drank whiskey kept taking so many bankers. Eventually we flew back to the main base camp where I was put in a shower. That was a really traumatic experience for me. Peeling off that granny flux alarm list. Doesn’t make sense to you see the pictures, but appealing those bits off in the shower and in the shower I had instead of by the shower gel walls they gave me a bottle of whiskey.

And doctor’s orders was just keep sipping that whiskey. This is not, this is going to be awful. And fi fed me painkillers through the shower. Goten people said, I sounded like a howling animal and it was, it was very, very difficult. I was in a lot of physical pain. And then [00:19:00] yeah, then we waited for the flight home and there was no urgency around at this time because I was fine other than my leg.

I wasn’t unwell. And again, it just kept me drunk and high until I could go home. When straight home, thanks to BA to Heathrow husband needs me at the airport and he’s a plastic surgeon. And so he would normally do this operation on my leg, but couldn’t, didn’t fancy operating on his wife’s. It was colleague did it, but the weird thing in the airport, when I saw him, I hadn’t seen him in a long time.

It’s very exciting. Is he’s like, we’re going to the hospital right now. They’re waiting for you. And I was like, Whoa, dude, come on. No, I, I knew I needed to go to hospital, but to me I’m still in the mindset. I’m explaining if I can’t smell anything, I think it’s healing. I thought they needed to replace the bandaging since I was on plane.

And I also believed they just want me to have a look. It’s very rare to see qualify. It’s not very common at all. [00:20:00] I did not realize that I needed surgery. At all I thought, I thought Matt was crazy. Get to the hospital. They had a meeting by my surgeries. Meanwhile, I be in two backs of Chris two chocolate bars and they come out and say, we’re going to operate on you immediately.

And they couldn’t because I just stuffed my face. But yeah, I running all night, but step to your operations. And once you remove all that dead tissue, all the black bits and the horrible bits, second one was a big skin graft. And which took, I think 60% of it took. My recovery was really long. I had to go back to all celebrity.

You want to two days to get the dressing change. And I didn’t look at my leg for maybe six weeks. Psychologist really encouraged me to, and I just couldn’t. I thought, I know it looks horrific. I can tell from people’s reactions and I think I’d rather see it once it’s slightly more healed and then surely it’s more palatable to me.

And the psychologist was amazing. I got really bad flashbacks to the shower and Antarctica. So getting into a [00:21:00] shower at home was. Really scary. And I didn’t, like, I felt quite polished over that and I didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t a case of like, Jen, just woman up, like, you’re fine. It’s just a shower. It was, it was a really big deal.

Not for long move at two weeks. And I also kept having these recurrent dreams in the hospital. I was in hospital for a week and a half and at home where the entire ward would turn into a huge storm. And I talked to her. And I could see the pole. It was like couple hundred yards in front of me. So I’d been on the road for, it took me 44 days in the end.

So I’ve been going for a long time. And father Christmas just stepped out and was like, Oh, you can’t go to the pool. It’s close today. Sorry, you need to go. You need to go home or a different innovation each time, but someone preventing me getting there. And again, it’s like, I’ll just explain that to your brain now, catching up the, you actually.

Made it and you’re home and it hasn’t quite processed that yet. And so you’re still getting this like, fear that you’re still there and haven’t made it yet. [00:22:00] So it’s always, all of that was quite a bit yeah. Deal some days, some ways. It wasn’t I lost no function to my leg, which was huge to me. It’s the first thing I asked.

After both my operations, when I woke up all groggy was like, have I lost any function? And if had lost function, I dunno what statement it had to be in. And I’d have been really, really upset because like manger didn’t need to be this bad. This is purely me wanting to complete something, but there’s no loss of function.

There’s just a very, very big sky. That’s an incredible story. And as you show incredible determination and drive to sort of push through the sort of pain barrier. And as you said, that sort of mentality, have you always had this drive and this determination from, were you always ultra competitive growing up?

Not really growing up, but definitely, you know, this kind of loss teenage years where I was. Do you know what I was doing? [00:23:00] Just kind of figuring my fight. It wasn’t like that then. I think once I started getting into ultra running, and first of all, it starts with a half marathon, then a marathon, then a longer Bathum you start to think, wait a minute, all these kinds of limitations I’d play some more.

I assumed I could do absolutely nonsense. And then suddenly you’re doing like 400 mile races and that seems insane. And then someone’s like, well, have you heard about this 500 mile race? And you’re like, well, hold on. No, I haven’t always been super competitive. Not in my younger years, but as an adult, definitely, but only ever with myself, I don’t play the comparison game with anyone.

I care about what I’m doing, what I’m getting up to. So no, I don’t, but I forgotten the question though.

I do remember what it was. Yeah. So the, the drive and determination aspect of it. I’ve always known that it’s definitely in me. Like if I say I’m doing something, I mean it, and it’s going to happen and I [00:24:00] will organize my life, my lifestyle, everything to make it. So but what speaks to me about this expedition is I did not know that I had the mental strength.

Is it strength? I don’t know, to push through that level of pain. And some people think that’s amazing. I think that’s a bit scary. Something that needs to be kept in check a little bit, because I think I said this earlier on, but I I’ve, I’ve done events where I’m a huge amount of physical pain. Had a broken bone, but I run through, I can, I can put the pain somewhere else in my mind and it must be adrenaline as well.

You’re doing a race. And then when ends, like you feel the injury tenfold, you deal with it then. And when I was younger, especially I would train through injuries. Didn’t care. I just keep going, keep going. I’m not, I’m older. I don’t do stupid stuff like that, but I definitely use certain care and I was in pain, but being able to.

Carry on skiing with that leg wound. That’s crazy to me. And so I knew I had that mental strength [00:25:00] there, but I am, I think it’s something too. It’s good that I’m aware of. But. Yeah, you definitely there’s a balance. You’ve got to keep that in check a little bit, because it might not end that way next time.

Did you get into ultra running after your cancer diagnosis? Yes, it wasn’t, it wasn’t cancer and they treated it very aggressively because it was so large. They couldn’t do any biopsy of it. And so I was given a strong form of treatment to shrink it in size between the really sick. And then they operated on it from the hospital in London.

I signed up to my first ultra from there and I’d never done anything like it. I signed up to the marathon dis up from bed and I don’t remember doing it. It was like the day after my surgery. And so obviously I was put on a waiting list. I didn’t automatically get a spot. I think it was only like.

It would have been just for [00:26:00] Christmas and the races, I think in April or something. I can’t remember. And it was, yeah, I got home. And then at Christmas, I remember my, I got an email one day from someone called Sarah saying, congratulations, you’ve got a place on the map and decide you’re on the waiting list.

And the spots come up and I was like, what the hell? And I was like, Oh my God, I do remember something about that. And I was like, well, this is a sign. I’ve got to do it. So I just paid the deposit and that was it. But that was my first foray into really long distance. I’ve done marathons before that, but nothing like big ultras.

Do you think that diagnosis, there was a sort of kick in terms of you to pursue these adventures? It definitely wasn’t it was this coming back to the job I was doing at the time I was, I was working and it was like, I mean, I never, ever believed that it was going to be a cancer diagnosis. A lot of family and the doctors are very worried about me, but they just, I didn’t feel [00:27:00] unwell, I guess maybe don’t a lot people said they don’t, but I just didn’t believe there’s anything wrong with me.

I just needed to get through this, but I still hadn’t moved. We still are faced with life. Could look very different. Or it could be shortened, massively. And so what am I doing with my time? What matters to me? And it’s certainly not earning a fortune as a lawyer, so God, and so there’s a sort of part of the show where we are the same five questions to each guest each week.

And the first is on your trip. Let’s say to the South pole, what was the one bizarre thing that you craved or miss from home? So I don’t miss anything when I’m away. I really don’t, I don’t miss things. I don’t miss food. Like I love dehydrated food which most people do not, but I adore it. And if I’m being really lazy and [00:28:00] there’s no one around to cook, I make a dehydrated meal for dinner.

I really do. The one thing I remember craving a couple of times on his last expedition was being able to crawl into my own bed. That’s all I can. I just want you to get into the bed, like preferably with a dog. And just be like cozy. I think it is what my leg was really, really painful. I just wanted my own, I do have a daydreaming by, Oh my do these amazing.

Oh, and there’s my pillow. Oh, it’s such a good, but no, I don’t. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t crave anything. At all, I love getting away from everything. So it was no cravings. We had Judy Stewart on on episode four and he was saying, he wrote his book about traveling the world. And one of them was you don’t quite appreciate it.

Home until you come back to your own pillow is your old pillow, is everything. Yeah, that’s [00:29:00] the only thing I thought about it. Wasn’t Doobie and my pillow. Yeah, I imagine with the temperatures in the South pole, must’ve, must’ve really emphasized it a bit, just wanting to hide and yeah, it’s that it’s actually quite warm and your tent in places like that.

Except your member, there’s 25 sunlight. And so your, your tent becomes this kind of soundtrack? Not always. But yeah, it’s not too cold in the extra time. Did you have like a favorite adventure book growing up? Sorry, looking at my bookshelf behind me, like, which one’s my favorites. What sort of books inspired your adventures?

Oh, gosh. Anything about the outdoors? Like cycling around the world? Mountaineering books all around are fine books. I mean, I’ve got all of them and I’ve read them all many times. Oh, the race to the pole with James Cracknell Ben Fogel. That [00:30:00] was a five-part TV series as well as a book. And it’s on YouTube still.

And I’ve watched that so many times. I find it comforting, just having it on in the background. Also my husband’s in it, but they’re my favorite book that I have read at least 10 times. And I read it both times before I went to Antarctica again is by, for the CS. And he is, I think the world’s leading female polar Explorer.

And it’s called alone in Antarctica. She was the first woman to do a full crossing and I talked to her. She’s amazing. And it’s so beautifully written. She’s such a great writer. So yeah, that’s my favorite favorite book. And if you need it, if you haven’t been trying to tie it together, but you want to kind of understand what it’s like, that book takes you there.

Oh, like, I love it. Did you have an inspirational figure growing up? [00:31:00] I grew up in Borneo and there was a huge amount of poverty. And so I obviously knew that we weren’t poor, we weren’t on the poverty line and I used to play with a lot of kids who lived in like the called them combines. So kind of like the shanty times next door to where we were.

So we were there because parents worked for an oil and gas company. And so you’re in a nice kind of estate if you like, and everyone else was next door, which I really struggled with as a kid, but they, it was the. The children that I played with in the rainforest or out in those shantytowns because we were always in there as kids we weren’t supposed to be, but it was more fun.

They had nothing like really nothing. And I had all these toys and I was like, but they are just as happy as I am. And they’ve just grow going up there. Everything I buy [00:32:00] that place, set a lasting influence on me. And my mom has a memory of this story where I had a big birthday party. All these presents given to me and mom and dad popped out for like 10 minutes and they came back and I’d given away all my presence over the offense.

You know, God, I just really struggled with having so much and I really, really struggled settling back into the UK and we moved back when I was 12. And I thought that UK was the craziest place ever. I really didn’t like it. I didn’t understand why people cared about wearing branded clothing.

Why that’s so much stuff. And I find it really, really hard, but in terms of he’s always inspired people like that, that I grew up with because they had nothing.

Do you have like a favorite quote or motivational quote? Yeah, I’ve got loads. I actually write a lot of quotes on the inside of my tent, my expedition time [00:33:00] and what I’ve got in big. So it’s the first thing you see when you wake up on the roof of the tent and inside is let routine take command or feeling harsh.

Remember you say that this is really bad with someone in the polar community. I think it’s early in Calgary actually. It’s basically. No matter how you’re feeling, you have a routine to follow because on polar expedition, any kind of expeditions, especially long ones, the routine you have every day of I’m up at this time takes 20 minutes of all the water and eat that I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m on the road by nine.

You have to stick to that routine, especially when you’re by yourself. Like if you and I went to do something together in Antarctica, if you were having a bad day, I’d be like, come on, dude, let’s get going. You’d be like, okay. Yeah. And you do the same for me the next day if I was low, but when you’re so low, there’s no one there.

To do that for you. So you really, really are independent in the, in the true sense of the word. So the routine becomes everything. It’s almost like the rule book. And [00:34:00] so no matter how you’re feeling, don’t worry about the tent. Don’t want to do this state stuff cause there’s a routine. So the routine is King.

And then also number one thing was to never look outside the tent. Before you got up properly, because if you saw there was a whiteout, you’d just be miserable, getting ready, like an extra 20 minutes is going to be a rough day. So I would never look until I, till I got outside. Good. How did you find your routine and lockdown and fine?

A lot of people assumed I would struggle in lock down and go a bit crazy, but actually I had, I really liked it because I had no pressure to do, to say yes to things or be anywhere. No one can make me because in the light castle, I definitely did have a routine though. I stuck to my training. Yeah, I didn’t miss any training and locked down.

It was just doing it in the living room or on the bike indoors. So yeah, the routine was just as important in some of my locked down and everyday kind of became [00:35:00] Groundhog day a little bit. Yeah. And I suppose people listening are always keen to travel and go on these sort of grand adventures. What’s the one thing you would recommend them to get started?

I always tell people to find self mental. Especially if it’s something that you think is pretty big or is quite Neeti, whereas maybe an area that not many people have been to find someone who’s maybe done it before and nine times out of 10, they’re more than willing to give you a hand. And help you out.

And I think like I mentor a lot of people who want to do things in Antarctica and it, you know, the first phone call it’s like, I just got this crazy dream. I don’t really know it’s possible. I think it just helps speak to someone he’s like, that’s totally possible. You just need to speak to this person needs to do this and dah, dah, dah, and just break it down.

And it’s like, Oh, that’s totally achievable. Yeah, it’s fine. But when it, when it’s, because I had the same mentor when I first want to do something in Antarctica and I think it’s then your circle of friends or your family. [00:36:00] What you’re suggesting to them is your little idea is absolutely bananas. So you need to speak to someone, you know, that’s, that’s not crazy, totally doable.

And then you’re suddenly like, Oh, you’re standing up, but totally you’re like, wait, I think I can’t do this. And so I always say that. Yeah. Okay. And what are you doing now? What are your sort of future plans with your adventures and how can people follow you? So 2020 was canceled. Everything for 2020 was moved to 2021.

The, what I was doing that was rowing the Pacific, the team of three other women. And that was going to be next Jean. But then something more exciting came along. So I’m currently pregnant. And so a lot of things for next year being canceled, not canceled or rescheduled related date. Yeah, but the one thing I do have in diary for next year I got a document they’re filming a documentary at the moment.

And then in [00:37:00] October next year is the adventure race world championships in Spain. Which I’m in with a team of three others and that’s the the first ever all female team to take parts part and the adventure world champs. It’s very exciting. And so I’ve never, ever retrained as something like that with a newborn, but I’m going to give it a go God.

Oh, good luck. And sounds amazing. And how can people follow this journey? Just on Instagram, just an assistant, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. Okay. Okay, amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the show today and I’m sure like everyone listening is being an incredible story, just in unbelievable determination and drive.

Please ignore the Make signals may kilohm gain off in the background, [00:38:00] but yeah, just a remarkable stuff. Thank you. Yeah, I do remember the last thing my surgeon said to me was I hope you wear the scars with pride. Well, I think it kind of do. Yeah. Well yeah, they, as, as you were describing and the pictures show, it was quite a horrific injury.

Yeah. Well, again, thank you so much.