Jenny Tough is an adventurer and explorer who has braved some of the most dangerous, extreme conditions on Earth – but she believes there are many different ways for a woman to be strong. Physical endurance is only one of them.
Tough, not only in name but in nature, Jenny isn’t easily daunted. She grew up in Canada and now lives in the Borders in Scotland, which may explain why she is so drawn to wild, open expanses – nature is in her blood.
The 31-year-old has faced illness, mental struggles and stared fear down countless times on her many incredible adventures, and she believes the biggest battles we ever have to face are in our own minds.
Jenny, who’s an ambassador for Shand Cycles, was the first person to run unsupported across the Bolivian Andes, and she says conquering her own fear was almost as big of a challenge as the run itself.
‘The expedition was really ruled by fear,’ Jenny tells Metro.co.uk. ‘It was also mentally challenging due to the high level of risk from human danger, environment, altitude, and bad weather.
‘I was afraid logically of the human danger, high altitude, bad weather, remoteness, and other risks, but I was also struggling with irrational fears as well.’
Jenny was battered with every kind of weather imaginable as she ran accross the stunning South American mountain range.
The run was at extremely high altitude – averaging around 4200m above sea level most of the time – making it incredibly hard to get enough oxygen. At night, the temperature dropped below freezing. Jenny didn’t bring a tent with her to save on the weight, just a bivouac – which is basically just a slight improvement on a sleeping bag.
Because of her rapid ascent into high altitude, Jenny was diagnosed with HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema – fluid on the lungs) midway through the challenge.
‘It slowed me down a lot,’ she says. ‘I had to work extremely hard to finish the challenge before my flight home, meaning I was waking up before dawn every day and running until after sunset every night.
‘It was a mental battle every single day to keep moving despite being sometimes literally paralysed by fear.
‘Coping with it was a real challenge, and took a lot of mental strategies such as positive visualisation, motivational chat, distraction, gratitude, and just plain grin-and-bear-it-bravery.’
Jenny recently won the gruelling Atlas Mountain Race as the fastest female. It took her 6 days, 3 hours and 13 minutes – the fastest a woman has ever completed the 1145 kilometre bike race across northern Africa.
During that time, Jenny also came on her period – completely out of the blue, and with no sanitary products in her supplies.
‘I felt really good that I was holding everything together really well, but then I got a surprise period in the middle of nowhere, which was a total disaster as North Africa is one of the worst places in the world to get your period (tampons can’t be purchased anywhere for cultural reasons),’ Jenny remembers.
‘There were no pharmacies left on the course, there is hardly any running water or private toilets or any of the things I needed, so I had a few pretty awful days trying to come up with a solution.
‘I’ll spare you the details, but I think that cost me about half a day through having to stop so often, the cramps, saddle sores, and problems with heat regulation it causes.
‘The hardest part was probably not resenting the male riders who didn’t have this kind of problem, so I never told anyone what was going on until the ride was done – I knew if I spoke up, I would start complaining and feeling negative.’
Mental attitude is a huge part of what pushes Jenny across so many finish lines. She says it is game-changing to understand that you have some control over your own limits.
‘Your limit is a fluid line,’ she explains. ‘Every time you reach it, you push that line back a little, and expand what you’re capable of.
‘What I considered to be pushing myself to extremes 10 years ago is so small compared to where I am now, and I can’t wait to see how far I’ll be able to go in another 10 years.’
On so many of her challenges, Jenny is completely alone. She says that in isolation, your true nature will be very exposed to you – there’s no hiding from your strengths and your weaknesses.
‘I think this is a really good thing about going solo,’ she says. ‘You’ll learn so much about yourself and then be able to address these attributes to become the best version of yourself that you want to be.
‘Every time I go out on a solo challenge, I seem to receive a new lesson. For example, in Bolivia I had to learn about my bravery and how to harness it.’
Winning the race through the Atlas Mountains is one of Jenny’s biggest personal achievements. Not only for overcoming the physical challenges, but also for overcoming imposter syndrome.
‘I really didn’t think I belonged there,’ she explains. ‘I wasn’t a great mountain biker, and the race was incredibly challenging – only 30% of riders actually finished.
‘In hindsight, it was also one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had in the mountains, despite the intensity.’
Jenny started running as a teenager, but she says back then her motivation came from an overwhelmingly negative place. She hated her body and saw running as a punishment for eating.
‘I would plod around my neighbourhood with my golden retriever, wishing I could be skinny,’ she says.
‘Over the years, however, those plods got longer and more enjoyable. I started noticing that running made me feel great afterwards, and as I grew up and started travelling the world I used running and eventually biking as a way to explore new places.
‘Now I’m in my 30s, endurance sport has become a main pillar of my life, and is essential to my physical and mental health.’
Jenny says it has always bothered her that solo women are discouraged from travelling.
‘We live in a world where women are told not to run alone in their own hometowns – the point being that we are raised to always think about our safety,’ she tells us. ‘The things that women do every single day to minimise risk against them are so ingrained into our habits that we don’t even have to think about them. That doesn’t change when you go out of your hometown.
‘An interesting thing I’ve observed is that because around the world, people are worried about women travelling alone, I’ve always been made to feel extremely safe and welcome in communities that I pass through.
‘I have so many memories of being adopted into homes by people who want to make sure that I’m safe, so the irony is that because there is a perception that solo female travel is dangerous, it actually has regularly ended up being super safe.
‘Of course, violence against women is a global truth, and I’m not diminishing that fact. I just don’t want to see women held back from adventure because of these perceptions.’
To get over her own fears about solo travel, Jenny says she breaks it down into manageable chunks, and only really does around five or six weeks completely on her own.
‘Looking down the pipe at six months is a daunting concept for anyone – but focusing on what you’re doing this month, this week, today, etc. is the way to get through it without getting too intimidated and having a breakdown,’ she says.
Jenny says strength comes from many different places, and manifests in so many different ways – particularly in women.
‘There are so many types of strong women,’ says Jenny.
‘To me, a strong woman is someone who is able to persevere outside of her comfort zone, and blaze a trail for other women coming behind her.’
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