Adventure Racing
The young Aussie on a mission to run an ultra on all seven continents
In a bid to conquer her personal demons, Brisbane’s Jacqui Bell decided to become the youngest person to ever run an ultramarathon on all seven continents. And she’s well on her way to achieving it.
In Jacqui Bell’s Twitter bio, she describes her as an ‘avid runner’.
In March 2019, she ran a 323-kilometre race in New Zealand. She did it fully self-supported and, as the youngest female competitor in the race (the Alps 2 Ocean multi-stage), the 24-year-old was up against some of the best and most experienced ultra-runners in the world.
For most of us mere mortals, the idea that someone can actually run 323 kilometres (over stages) at all is hard to fathom. But then Jacqui Bell isn’t your average mortal. And her effort on the Alps 2 Ocean stage is actually just one part of a much grander plan: her bid to become the youngest person in history to run an ultramarathon on every continent. And she only has two continents to go.
Watch Jacqui Bell in action:
In 2018, she conquered the 4 Deserts ultra-series, which involved running through Namibia’s Namib Desert in April, Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in July, Chile’s Atacama Crossing in September, and Antarctica in November. All this considered, calling Jacqui an ‘avid runner’ is a bit like calling a Neil Armstrong a ‘keen pilot’.
Of the four deserts, it was the Namib that tested Jacqui the most. She’d never attempted a 250-kilometre race before, and her body didn’t know what had hit it. “You know how runners say they ‘hit the wall’? I found that at 160 kilometres,” she says. “That one day, I was out there by myself for about eight hours, crying, I had barely any food left – only a dry pack of mac and cheese – and I was so delirious. I don’t know how I got through that day. I had heat exhaustion, heat rash, bleeding lips from the harsh sun, my Achilles were blown up…”
Jacqui Bell during Chile's 250-kilometre Atacama Desert ultra.
© Michael Murphy
Up until the 160 kilometre mark, Jacqui had been holding onto third place and was trying to get up to second. With her chances of a podium finish dashed, she had no choice but to switch her priorities. “The biggest thing for me was thinking, ‘Alright, stop sulking about not being able to compete, you just have to get this done’,” says Jacqui. “So I just tried to enjoy where I was, and push on with a positive mindset.”
I was in the hospital for 10 days and I had over 200 stitches across my whole body. That was a real wake up call for me to sort myself out.
That positive mindset has played a huge role in Jacqui’s story up to now. In 2016, she broke five bones – both wrists, her ankle, a toe, a finger – and had her tonsils out, all in the space of just 12 months. During this time, she wound up getting hooked on prescription painkillers.
She started taking them at a normal rate to help with the pain from her broken bones, but it was after having her tonsils removed that her addiction really took off. “I was chasing that euphoric feeling,” she says. “From there I just fell into a bad way with different drugs. My parents didn’t even really know what was going on.”
Jacqui Bell during the Antarctica 250-kilometre ultra.
© Thiago Diz
The habit consumed much of Jacqui’s life for the next year and it took its toll. The highs came with the inevitable lows, and her mental health began to suffer in a big way. “You’d have these euphoric states, and then you’d have the depression,” she says. “I really struggled for a while there. I was cancelling plans, I’d miss work, I’d spend days in bed and my family didn’t even know. I was embarrassed about it but didn’t realise that I was in such a bad place. I just didn’t know my purpose.”
Eventually, in an effort to change her trajectory, find balance and channel her addictive personality into something more positive, she moved to Canggu, Bali, to undertake yoga teacher training. She began working in a health and fitness retreat and, a week into her job, she got the new start she was searching for – but not in quite the way she was expecting.
Jacqui was riding her scooter when two men riding alongside her snatched her bag from her shoulder. The thieves got more than they bargained for, and Jacqui went tumbling to the tarmac. She's since posted the horrific extent of her injuries on Instagram. “It was a really bad accident,” she says. “I was in the hospital for 10 days and I had over 200 stitches across my whole body. That was a real wake up call for me to sort myself out.”
When Jacqui recovered from the accident, she moved back to Queensland. Now she’d seen how quickly things can get out of control in life, she was determined never to lose that control again.
Jacqui Bell photographed in Mongolia.
© Brett Hemmings
So she ran. And she challenged herself to run further than she ever had before.
For Jacqui, that challenge became the 4 Deserts, and she set her sights on achieving it one literal step at a time. A lot of people said she couldn’t do it, but that only served to spur her on. “As soon as someone gives me resistance I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m doing it.’ I knew the only way to get myself out of all these bad habits was to take a massive challenge that would overhaul my habits.”
I needed that bigger purpose to keep me on track, and to prevent me from falling back into my old habits ... I can't do anything half-heartedly; I can't do anything that doesn't mean something to me.
She’d already laid the groundwork for running long distances in years previous – gradually working her way up from running five kilometres to 10 kilometres and beyond, always mixing up her training to help her avoid injury. Her first long race was a 35-kilometre trail race on the Gold Coast. She came first.
Jacqui ran her first ultramarathon – a 50 kilometre road race – on the Gold Coast too. She drove from Brisbane down the coast at 4am, ran the race, came third, then drove herself home to attend a friend’s 21st birthday. Nobody knew much about Jacqui’s running at that point, and when they asked her what she’d been up to that day, “They were like, ‘WHAT!?’” laughs Jacqui. “That was the furthest I’d ever run. I signed up for the 30 kilometre initially, but then though ‘bugger it, I’ll test myself’.”
And then came the 4 Deserts, which Jacqui self-funded with her own money and by securing a range of sponsors (because travelling to four continents in one year isn’t cheap).
Jacqui warms up after a swim during the Alps 2 Ocean ultra in New Zealand.
© Brett Hemmings
Jacqui’s completion of the 4 Deserts in December 2018 meant she became the youngest female in the world to ever complete the Racing the Planets 4 Desert Grand Slam. And after she’d done that, ticking off the rest of the continents seemed like the next logical step. With New Zealand tucked away, Jacqui will this year jet off to Iceland’s Fire and Ice ultramarathon in August and the Grand 2 Grand ultramarathon at Arizona’s Grand Canyon in September.
Through it all, she’s raised over $17,000 for the White Cloud Foundation, a not-for-profit that provides early intervention for Australians with or at risk of developing depression, PTSD, or perinatal depression. “I needed that bigger purpose to keep me on track, and to prevent me from falling back into my old habits,” she says. “It meant a lot to me. I can't do anything half-heartedly; I can't do anything that doesn't mean something to me.”
And, of course, she’s kicked her unhealthy addictions to the curb.
As if the last 15 months of Jacqui’s life weren’t impressive enough, she achieved almost all of this with a serious foot injury. From the starting line in Namibia right through to the finish line in New Zealand (where she missed out on the top five for self-supported women by just one minute), she’s been battling plantar fasciitis, a condition that manifests in chronic heel pain. “My podiatrist had no idea how I got through four 250 kilometre races with it,” she says. “I had a 30% tear in my plantar fasciitis – it was really bad. I couldn’t run much between the races so I had to do a lot of cross training. Now, I’m just looking forward to getting my foot better and getting back out there.”
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Jacqui would like to thank her sponsors Jaybird, Flight Centre and True Protein. You can keep up with her exploits on Instagram
