56 56
COMMUNITY AND EVENTS
JACQUI BELL: PUSHING THE LIMITS Jacqui Bell never intended to be a runner, let alone an ultra-marathon runner. But life sometimes throws you a curveball that makes you reassess everything...
SHANNON KING
Digital Marketing & Communications Officer
I
magine running a marathon in the blazing heat or extreme cold across some of the most rugged landscapes on earth, carrying on your back everything you need for the week except for water and shelter. You collapse, aching and utterly exhausted, into your tent at night, only to wake the next morning to do it all over again. In 2018, at 23 years of age, Jacqui Bell became the youngest female to conquer the four Deserts ultra-marathon series, a multi-stage endurance footrace covering 1,000 kilometres of beautiful, but harsh, desert terrain in Chile, Mongolia, Namibia, and Antarctica. The following year, she made history again, becoming the youngest person in the world to complete ultra-marathons on all seven continents. Jacqui didn’t grow up running. She was a Tennis player with aspirations of going pro, but admits to having a terrible temper on the court. “If something didn’t go my way I’d shout, swear, throw my racquet,” she said. “One day Dad had enough. He packed the balls in the car and drove off.”
Plus Ultra | June 2022
After a while, Jacqui realised he wasn’t coming back, so she had to run home. She discovered that she quite enjoyed running. At age 19, Jacqui competed in her first 50km race and to her surprise, placed third. This led to her entering several events over the years for fun and as a personal challenge. But the story of how Jacqui came to compete in ultra-marathons really started with a run of sports-related injuries and health issues in her early 20s which affected her mentally and triggered self-destructive behaviours such as binge eating. She describes looking back on her behaviours as ‘confronting’. “I was suffering in silence,” she said. “And I didn’t know how to ask for help.” In an attempt to ‘get clean and reset’, she travelled to Bali to become a yoga teacher, but a violent mugging resulting in a fall from a scooter left her in hospital for 10 days with significant injuries. Jacqui returned home to Brisbane, and it was while she was sitting on the couch, eating chocolate and scrolling through social media that she realised she was falling back into old habits. “I was watching other people living their lives, rather than living my own,” she said.
