CALGARY HERALD - TOP NEWS - PAGE A3, JIM HOLT
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD - MONDAY, JULY 30, 2001.

Death Valley

Former TV reporter turned runner has burning ambition to become…MARATHON QUEEN OF THE DESERT.

Sandra McCallum holds the swollen blistered foot of ultrarunner Stephen King. She studies his injury. She studies his face. This is the look of someone who has just run 68 kilometres in temperatures over 49°C. The flap of skin hanging from the ball of his left foot must be removed. King knows it’s all part of running. Now McCallum knows, too.
The 39-year-old Medicine Hat woman holds the runner’s foot steady as fellow crew member Rhonda Benyo snips, squirts lotion and wraps the injured foot with gauze.

“There’s so much I have to learn about this race. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned on just the first day- I had no idea,” McCallum said.

And that’s a good thing, because Sandra McCallum wants to become the first Canadian woman to tackle the formidable race next year at the Badwater 2002. But her goal does not end there. McCallum – a familiar face to many Calgarians who remember her as a Global Television news reporter- sees the race as a stepping-stone to a more ambitious endeavour.

She wants to hike across the North African deserts on camelback in 2004, from the west coast of Africa to the Nile and back again. To do that, she has to learn all she can about survival and endurance in the desert.

So, when she found out about the annual Badwater 2001 Ultra marathon through Death Valley – the world’s hottest most gruelling race, she jumped at the chance to help Stephen King run it.

She arrived here from Canada last Monday and immediately got her first lesson. It’s hot. She and the rest of King’s crew – veteran Death Valley runner Richard Benyo, his wife Rhonda and runner Murray Coates – had a second or two to appreciate 49°C in the shade and 93°C pavement.

On Wednesday morning, King and his crew gathered at Badwater – lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere at 86 metres below sea level.

“This race is incredible. You look at this ribbon of road and it seems to go on forever. That is a challenge. You have to come prepared for this psychologically.”

King, 52, of Penticton, B.C., finished fourth in the ultramarathon Thursday afternoon, having run 217 kilometres in 30 hours, 30 minutes and 51 seconds. From 6 a.m. Thursday to 2:30 pm when King crossed the finish line, McCallum ran with him through the long flat desert to Lone Pine and then up Mount Whitney.

“All the inspiration I need is right here,” she said at one point in her climb, patting King’s shoulder.

Is McCallum serious about traversing the Northern part of Africa? Would just anybody hike across 240 kilometres of the Sahara Desert for four days if they weren’t serious? That’s what McCallum did – twice. And, she wants to do it a third time. She’s registered to run the Marathon des Sables this coming April.

McCallum was sidelined the first year she tackled the Marathon des Sables when she contracted dysentery and became delusional, dehydrated and very ill. She fell ill again this year, in April, but finished.

She vowed last year she wouldn’t run it again. Now, she wants to return to Africa to finish the race healthy. If everything goes according to plan, McCallum will have run three ultra-marathon desert races within the next year. In November, she’s off to the Middle East to run 160 kilometres through the Jordanian desert for the inaugural World Championship Desert Cup. Then in April, she returns to Morocco for a final rematch with the Marathon des Sables.

And, this time next year, she hopes to be running in the Badwater 2002.

“It’s just by pure luck that I got on with this crew. They’re such an experienced crew, so I felt extremely fortunate just heading out here. The main reason I wanted to come out here was to help Steve. I am planning on doing this next year and I am so glad that this came about because there is so much to learn about getting a runner through this race. You have to have a good team and I am with some of the best and they are taking good care of Steve. It’s made me realize I really have to work on getting a team together right away. I’m so glad this came about,” said McCallum, who has completed eight other marathons since 1994. “When I see what’s required in terms of all the coolers and ice and fresh produce. You need a pace van. There’s so much to learn.”

One person she wants on her team is Cal Zaryski, a Calgary exercise physiologist specializing in endurance performance and who trained McCallum for the Marathon des Sables.

“I always felt a calling for Africa. I don’t know why,” she said. “As a reporter, I found myself becoming more and more cynical. Always thinking the worst and that everyone has an agenda. I didn’t like who I was becoming,” she said.

“When I quit my job and wanted to do something, I started reading everything I could about the desert…I’m still learning.”