Resilience – Samantha Amend

Samantha caught up with Ultrarunner Magazine to discuss her journey with Ultrarunning, breaking the British record and her first female position in the 2022 Country to Capital … despite missing the start line!

“After all that I have been through, I have built a strong mindset and the resilience to get through anything. I am still here and still running strong!”

Running Journey

I have always enjoyed playing sports and in secondary school I began to embrace it, especially in team sports, running and cross country. I was not able to take my G.C.S.E in sport, as this was not available at the time. So I did my exams in computer studies, the field that I work in now. At Henley college, I went on to study business and gained a wide skill set, opening up the opportunity to start making some money within the office world. However, the running bug never left me and I kept on top of my fitness by going to the gym. I started to take running seriously in 2005, between the birth of my two children, Emily and Spencer.

I had always wanted to run the London marathon so I put my name into the hat so to speak. I’ve watched the live event every year in complete awe and I wanted to be a part of it. I had not understood at the time of putting my name forward that the London Marathon ballot was a complete luck of the draw. When I found out that I didn’t get in, I was so disheartened.

I had struggled with an eating disorder during school and spent some years finding myself. My love of playing sports made me quite popular and unfortunately, had attracted some negative attention. Mixing bullying with the regular teenage angst and worries as I went through some growing pains this period had quite an impact on me. Thankfully, I can say that I made a full recovery.