Interview with Deidre O’Leary (300km, 10 days crossing of Saudi Empty Quarter)
The memory of December 2014 which was my longest run in the UAE for the second year in a row are still fresh in my mind, especially when my dear friend, Deidre O’Leary (known as Dee) came to support and accompanied me on the final 30km (out of total 575km in the 7 Emirates Run) from Sharjah to Dubai.
4 years have since passed by and once again I have the privilege of speaking with Dee. I can really feel her sense of pride as an explorer (not only as an ultra- runner) after she and Kyle Knight recently completed their epic expedition, crossing Rub’ al Khali, the Saudi Empty Quarter in 10 days in early January. In the following interview to celebrate International Women’s Day, I catch up with Dee about hiking the world’s tallest dunes, being the first woman known to cross this remote desert from South to North on foot, the challenges faced in this tough expedition, the strength factors, and how she adjusted back to life in Dubai.
1. Question: What is it like to be the first women to cross the Rub’ al Khali, Saudi Empty Quarter on foot? Is this your proudest running achievement so far?
Four years of training in the desert of the UAE allowed me to have the biggest adventure of my life. I felt like an explorer and was shocked by how motivating that feeling was (I had never dreamed of coming first in anything related to running!). We crossed 300km of remote desert in 10 days, gaining more than 6,000m of elevation over the sand dunes, and feeling like we’d been to the edge of heaven on earth. My only comparable experience was cross-country running in the UAE with you, Aida in 2014, the pain of that run (535km in 11 days) having convinced me that anything is possible if you learn from the experts and train appropriately.
2. Question: What was your favourite moment during this Empty Quarter Ultra challenge?
My favourite moment came every night at 5:30pm when the sun went down, and there were two hours of total blackness before the moon appeared and out came the stars. During those times – when we really needed a lift after a long day – the sky was completely alive with stars. We would put on music and crank out the last km’s to our target, our favourite tune being Kygo’s “Stargazing”. We didn’t listen to music all day, to save it for that moment when we needed it.
3. Question: You seem to have had a few great adventures with sand, crossing over deserts (i.e. you’ve completed the Liwa Challenge in 2016). How is it different to road/trail running?
I love all kinds of running, but from the first moment I ran in the sand dunes, I knew that was my favourite. Being from Canada, the desert always reminds me of looking at a beautiful snowcap but painted golden and without the chill factor! The Liwa Challenge 100/200km event in the Abu Dhabi oasis was the start of an obsession with desert running in 2016. We carried all our supplies on our back, and at night just laid down on top of a dune and went to sleep. It was intense and I got hooked!
4. Question: What were your strengths and weaknesses going into this expedition? How did you capitalize, and overcome them?
My main strength was my running mate Kyle Knight, a fellow Canadian and Liwa Challenger who I’d been training with for almost four years. We could make each other laugh in the worst situations (like facing 100m+ walls of sand, at night, with flat head torch battery). He taught me to plan routes and navigate using technology.
About 4 months of detailed planning and preparation on logistics (routes, permits & visa, life insurance), contingency (emergency rescue, medical supplies) and communication have been another key strength factor. We equipped our expedition with high powered walky-talkies, local communication network, and emergency SOS system. Training solo also helped a lot when in the remote Empty Quarter especially when Kyle and I traversed at our own pace – often we didn’t see each other for some distance.
We also had a four-man Saudi support crew (Meteb, Abu Rayan, Saleh, and Mansour) from Amazing Tours. They are complete desert experts, but more used to their clients riding inside the four vehicles. Before our day began at around 8:30 am, we spent an hour taping our feet – which felt ridiculous since they could walk across burning sand without any shoes.
The main weaknesses we faced were basically our own doing, as we decided to cross the Empty Quarter from South to North, which meant that we were moving up the dune escarpment faces (up to 400m high) and with a permanent headwind. We crossed up to ten dune ridges a day, inching up the sand, faced with up to 50 degrees’ gradient, and then running down the sloping side of the dunes and crossing the salt plains between them. I overcame this with the thought that nobody was likely to come this way, to see these exact same views, for a very long time (if ever!).
5. Question: We can survive without food more than 3 weeks, but water is a different story. Talk to me about hydration – what did you encountered in the desert with regards to fluid consumption, running pace, and sweating?
Water supply was our biggest problem during the day (so was the limited petrol supply). Having showers was out of the picture. Meteb and our support crew needed to find their own way through the dunes, to avoid the risk of their vehicles getting stuck and wasting petrol (we had 1,200 litres and had none to spare). Normally, the crew was behind us as they often needed to drive twice as far as we ran to find a pathway through the dune ridges.
We worked out that we could manage with 9-10 litres of water per day. Practically, this meant that we needed to meet Meteb once per day to get more water and make a safety check that we were all okay. As the days wore on, we both developed edema (excess fluid in the skin and tissue). Our legs and feet were swollen. Kyle found a mysterious dent in his leg one day, which concerned us until we realized that it was just a handprint.
6. Question: It’s been 2 months now and you are back to normal civilization. Are you still recovering?
I’ll never forget; (1) the nights we spent around the campfire, wearing long Bedouin jackets and eating Saudi “risotto” with camel, lamb or once even a pigeon, and (2) how it took 90 minutes to climb each dune face (or longer if you stopped and slid down), and that sometimes I was progressing literally inch-by-inch. I keep these thoughts in my head, along with the memory of the peaceful landscape, for all the times that “reality bites” back in the busy city. And I’m back running again.
7. Question: What would you do differently (if any)? Any dark moments or regrets?
I was really concerned only twice, once when I seriously twanged a leg muscle for one day and another when Kyle was ill for almost two days. Fortunately, we brought the right medication. We cut down the distance from the daily target (about 30km per day) and made up later in other days. I supported my friend through his tough time but was too hard on myself.
8. Question: We are both women in the 40s. In your opinion, does age play any roles in completing a tough expedition?
Yes, I know now what doesn’t work for me and I don’t mind if I need to seriously adapt a plan to keep on training. Other people are fast runners and I am not, and that’s okay with me. My fast friends can run with me when they’ve been out late the night before! Also, for the first time, I hired a coach (John Hampshire) and I realized what a boost it is to have that bond with someone who is cheering for you.
9. Question: How was it being away for 15 days from your family?
My husband is my greatest ally in this whole running lark, and my children Alasdair and Roan (both eight) still remember our 7 Emirates Run. So they all think 10 days of running is relatively ‘normal’. When I was away, I thought about them constantly and look forward to us running together when the boys are old enough.
10. Question: Marking International Women’s Day on 8th March, any advice you want to give to other women in the UAE or the Gulf?
Yes, just choose to be confident – rather than perfect – and run on. Saudi Arabia was very welcoming to me, as was the UAE when we ran around it, and you find more supporters out there than you could ever imagine. Enjoy! ■
Words + Interview by: Aida Othman
Photos by: Supplied
Aida Othman (@_aidaothman_) is a lifestyle writer and content creator behind the website, “Slice of Torch Ginger.” An avid ultra-runner, her longest run was the 7 Emirates Run in the UAE, covering 575km in 12 days to raise funds for the medical bills of a toddler born with deformed legs and the only woman to achieve this distance, two years in a row.
