Face to Face: Audrey McIntosh, endurance runner

She has competed in the North Pole Marathon, the Volcano Marathon in Chile's Atacama Desert and was the first Scot and only the second British woman to complete the Antarctic Ice Marathon and Antarctic 100km double. You would think after ticking all that off her to-do list, the mother of two from Cathcart, Glasgow, would be hanging up her running shoes and taking life easy.

But, in fact, the 52-year-old is now in the early stages of planning her next project: she wants to be the first woman to finish seven ultra marathons on seven continents in seven days. Looking at a map of the world and factoring in flight times and the inevitable jet lag it doesn't even seem possible. It is and McIntosh has set her sights on it.

"A number of ultra runners out there have done it. It is feasible but the logistics are very hard and your window for running is tight. The best starting point is Antarctica because that is where you're going to hit delays, so I want to get out there and wait until I have a window that means I can spend seven or eight hours running and immediately get on a plane," she explains.

"At the moment I'm looking at Antarctica, South America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. So that would be Antarctica, Punta Arenas in Chile, then Miami, Madrid, Marrakech, Dubai and Sydney.

"I would want it to be a creditable challenge and that means measured distances. For me, coming out of the front door of the airport and setting my GPS and running isn't really what I want to do. I'd like to hook up with running clubs in the relevant cities and hopefully get some help from them so I would get a measured route and a bit of support."

A latecomer to the world of running, McIntosh was in her mid-30s before finding her stride. She didn't excel at sports at school growing up in Fife, thoroughly disliking team games, and only started going to the gym when she was studying drama and history of art at Glasgow University.

McIntosh ran her first 10K in Glasgow in 1998, when it was still a relatively small race with about 800 runners, and she wanted to raise money for the haematology unit at the Victorian Infirmary where her husband Alasdair has received treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"I let it slip and just went back to my normal gym attendance and the following year I thought, 'I might raise some more money for the unit so I'll do the 10K again'. For two or three years I ran the 10K, let it go, trained again and then thought, 'This is crazy, something is drawing me back so maybe I do like running and longer distances'.

"I like the challenge, I like pushing myself. The longer distances and more extreme races I've discovered suit me because I'm not fast but I do have lots of strength, stamina and determination. Endurance events have that incredible level of challenge physically and mentally, which means you are developing techniques and ways of keeping yourself going, pushing yourself and testing your boundaries."

Over the years McIntosh has raised £20,000 for Alzheimer Scotland and another £10,000 for a handful of other charities close to her heart, ranging from McMillan and Teenage Cancer Trust to Blesma (British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association). Her mother had an amputation and McIntosh wanted to raise money for disabilities and amputees.

Coming up with a business plan to attract potential sponsors to fund the seven continents challenge might be daunting for some. Bearing in mind McIntosh works as a freelance IT business consultant and project manager and the numbers on the spreadsheet start to fall into place. Finding a solution to a logistical problem is all in a day's work.

"I can't fund it myself, I don't have that amount of money. Ideally you want someone like Richard Branson to step forward because that would also help with the logistics. I may find it is a viable and a feasible challenge but if I can't get the backing it's not something I personally could do. I would need a small support team," she says.

Over an average week McIntosh can run anything between 20 and 80 miles, depending on whether she is training for a race or in a recovery period after an event. That translates to roughly about 2,000 miles a year. Ahead of the two races in Antarctica she entered a number of marathons and ultra marathons to push her distance and endurance on increasingly difficult terrain.

"It was a big change in my approach to training and events, I had to be very focused and make sure I was strong so I tidied up my diet. I've always been a great veg and salad eater so that was really easy for me. I cut out some fruit because it's sugar. I dropped a lot of my wheat-based carbohydrates and focused on things like potatoes and rice and pulses," she says.

"Fat was an interesting one: I increased my fat and then decreased it a bit. I started fasting, doing the 5:2 diet and I put my fast days on consecutive days because initially when I first started training I wanted to drop some weight but I also wanted to improve my fat burning."

Fitting it all around work and family life is a constant juggling act, made slightly easier by the fact daughters Briony, 23, and Rowan, 20, are away at university and her working life is flexible. McIntosh's husband, who was the inspiration for that first 10K, has a vital role in her support team at events.

"I think they're very proud but also think I'm absolutely mental," she laughs. "Alasdair is an absolute rock. He knows how to spot all the signs with regard to how I am physically, mentally and emotionally and has absolute faith in me. He is the most patient man in the world especially if I am having a 'bit of a moment'.

"Recently, when talking to someone about my running and explaining that my unfit, sport-hating husband was my main support and what it involved, for example, staying up for 24 hours in pouring rain, hail and thunder to support me, they said: 'If you ever wonder if you married the right person there is your answer. That is true love. There are not many people who would do that.'"

McIntosh's passion for running has now broadened to encourage other participants. She set up Loch Katrine Running Festival in 2013 as a one-off fundraiser for Alzheimer Scotland but it has been so popular it has returned every year since and will be back on the calendar in 2016.

It hasn't been all plain sailing and like anyone who racks up a high mileage, injuries are inevitable. McIntosh eventually had to take more than a year out after continuing to run when her pelvis and hip were twisted out of alignment.

What is McIntosh like when she cannot train? "A nightmare. I get very jumpy and a bit short-tempered. I'm definitely addicted," she laughs.

She admits the Volcano Marathon in Chile was the toughest race yet, pushing her to the limits of endurance. The combination of temperatures reaching more than 30 degrees centigrade, the wind and the altitude (14,500ft) proved to be a serious test.

"It was also rough terrain underfoot with quite a lot of climbs. When I finished I was completely and utterly spent, there was nothing left in the tank at all and I needed oxygen," she says. "The North Pole by contrast was a slog in a very dry intense cold but at the end of it I wasn't as spent."

What keeps her going, when most of us would have thrown in the towel? "In Antarctica when I was doing the 100K there were a couple of points when I just hit rock bottom. I was so tired, so lacking in energy, so cold, on my own out in the frozen wastes and thinking, 'What am I doing? I could just stop.'

"It was the same in the Volcano Marathon, I hit a point. Then you think, 'I can't end it here'. You've done all the training and have all the support. I just give myself a bit of a talking to and get going again."

She admits to being inspired by the events organised and completed by Irish runner Richard Donovan who won the Antarctic Ice Marathon, the Inca Trail Marathon, the Everest Challenge Marathon, the Antarctic 100 km and the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race. More importantly, he ran seven marathons in seven continents in less than five days.

Though McIntosh says ticking boxes doesn't drive her, she is certainly trying her best to follow quickly in his heels. This time wearing the correct footwear, of course.