Spender Matthews says desert marathon was ‘humbling experience’

Made In Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews says running 30 marathons in 30 days was “a humbling experience” after completing The Great Desert Challenge in Jordan.

Speaking to Amol Rajan on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I’ll always look back at this time in my life. It’s very special.”

Running for Global’s Make Some Noise charity, Matthews now holds the Guinness World Record for most marathon distances completed on sand in one month by a male.

He started his first marathon on 29 July and finished his last on 27 August, having run a total of 1,266km, with temperatures reaching up to 44C.

One of the motivations behind taking part in the challenge was his brother Michael, Matthews said, who died in 1999 while descending Everest.

“A lot of my personal drive for challenges like this has him in the back of my mind”, he said.

“I had a little chat with Mike most mornings, as I do pretty regularly, and I like to think that if he was around, he’d be proud of the efforts that were made.”

During the month, the reality TV star lost 1.5 stone (9.5kgs) in weight and sweat out almost 5l a day.

He said: “It was a question of not being able to replace the calories lost.

“I wear a device that has a pretty good guess pf what I was burning on a daily basis – it’s typical between 7000 and 8000 calories a day.

“So in order to retain muscle and weight through that period, you’d need to be eating an extraordinary amount, which I didn’t have access to.

“So I was eating a lot of rice and a lot of chicken.”

Matthews’s wife Vogue and two of his three children met him at the finish line, after he completed his last marathon distance in four hours and 17 minutes.

“It means the world that they’re here.

“Getting to spend time with them now is what I’m looking forward to the most when I get home.”