Welsh woman who hallucinates, infests piranha water and mutilates pain for pleasure

“Excuse me. I’m a little stretched out right now. “I think I’m allergic to dogs.”

Despite completing 10 marathons, two Ironmans and some of the most extreme races on the planet, Lowry Morgan may actually be human.

She may be too humble to admit it, but the 48-year-old is arguably one of the most successful endurance athletes in the world and her body has endured extremes beyond the wildest nightmares of most mere mortals.

In fact, many civilians would consider the prospect of putting on a pair of running shoes and signing up for a regular marathon extreme. The idea of ​​running 350 miles through the Arctic or wading through piranha-infested waters in the Amazon rainforest would be almost universally viewed as absolute madness.

“I was with a tribesman who spoke English. “I was basically saying that healthy piranhas are harmless,” he told WalesOnline. “Maybe the movies gave them a bad name! Anyway, he assured me that these particular sluts were healthy.

“I think in this situation you have to trust what they say.”

She’s fine with it, but I can’t help but feel that her attempts to protect the poor, clueless slut will probably go unheard.

“There were also warnings about jaguars, but I remember this indigenous man saying that in 40 years of living in the jungle he had already seen a jaguar once, but he said he had lost count of how many times he had seen a jaguar!” she added.

“I actually started donating to charities that help open up pathways for jaguars. I’ve always believed that wherever I go, it’s important to give back.

“They must be very shy creatures.”

Again, the prospect of being pursued by the Jaguars is a tough sell, but Lowry has always been curious to see how far she could go. His time in the Amazon took place on camera as part of an S4C program in 2008, where he took part in the Jungle Ultra marathon, an incredibly grueling 140-mile race through the rainforest in scorching heat and, from the sounds of it, under the gaze of several animals capable of inflicting varying degrees of physical damage.

Of the 150 participants that year, only 50 crossed the line. Lowry finished tenth.

“Sometimes there is the idea that running a marathon or an endurance race means pushing your limits. But I prefer to think that it’s more about pushing boundaries,” she says.

“There are different things that hold you back. Your mind may tell you that you’ve reached your limit, but your body can still keep going.

“Thinking is an incredible thing,” he adds. “I talk a lot at conferences about this. It fascinates me.”

One can’t help but think that his mind was probably working much harder than anyone else’s, with physical punishments that far exceeded what most would consider acceptable.

“I lost all my toenails in the Amazon,” he recalls. “The pressure and swelling caused by the heat, which can reach 40 degrees, make this quite common. I also had trench foot.

“There was another moment during the race when I stepped on a hornet’s nest and it stung me really bad.

“I just remember feeling like my tongue was swollen and thinking, ‘I’m going to have to stop here,’ so I told the doctor, ‘My tongue is swollen,’ thinking I was having this allergic reaction. They picked one up, looked me in the mouth and said “no, you’re fine.”

“So it was fine with me. It was all in my head. “I told myself I needed to stop, but actually I was fine.”

Completing this journey through the Amazon would be the pinnacle for many endurance athletes, but 18 months later, Lowry will face a challenge that she says will be even more difficult.

The infamous Arctic 6633 is a grueling 380-mile non-stop race around the Arctic Circle. During the 16 years of existence, 264 people joined. Only 51 managed to finish. It is widely recognized as one of the toughest endurance challenges on the planet. And once again Lowry tried to do it in front of the S4C cameras.

During his training, he ran around 4,000 miles in 12 months and trained with special forces in Norway. She even ran into an industrial-sized freezer to try and acclimatize to the brutally frigid conditions that awaited her.

“The cold bites right to the bone,” he says. “At times I cried in pain. The sunsets were beautiful, but at first I hated them because I knew it would get dark soon. I learned how to set up my cooking equipment blindfolded so I could do it in the dark.

“Then I broke my leg at the end. I don’t actually remember breaking it, but I pulled the leg and it looked black. Then I felt a lot of pain.

“I was sitting there thinking I couldn’t go on, but I remember thinking about the couch at home and how disappointed I would be if I didn’t go on.”

Stress fractures in his feet meant he had to finish the race on crutches, but the physical trauma was nothing compared to what many outsiders would consider madness.

“At first I slept about 20 minutes a night,” he explains. “I think the most I slept was about two hours. It was a stage, so time was always passing. If you are sleeping, the clock is always ticking. “I was in the Arctic before I became a mother, so to be honest, I think I would probably be better off without sleep!”

She’s playing now. But the lack of sleep combined with the extreme conditions created a void that was soon filled with strange and sometimes downright disturbing sights.

“I had hallucinations and saw cartoon characters in the snow. The TV crew said, “Ah, this must be good entertainment for you.”

“Not these characters. They were really dark. Too dark.

“Then I remember running, I thought I saw dead bodies on the road. I knew it wasn’t real, but I still had to use my hand to block it.

“There are others that are more frivolous. I remember telling the producers, “I really need a chair.” I was walking and I saw the truck drivers going to work, obviously they were all sitting down and I’m really jealous.

“I finally saw a bench in the park. I thought, “Oh, they heard me and gave me one.” I actually approached her and she obviously slowly disappeared. Then I had to get some sleep!”

After 174 hours and eight minutes, with 50 pounds of gear in tow, Lowry finally crossed the finish line. She was the only one who did it that year.

The journey earned Lowry awards for Best Presenter and Best Documentary Series at the 2012 BAFTA Cymru Awards, but she has rarely shown signs of slowing down since. In 2016, as part of the Welsh Year of Adventure, he completed three 50-mile ultramarathons in three days, from Snowdonia to the Brecon Beacons.

She has also had a successful career as a TV presenter and S4C presenter, while her book, aptly titled Beyond, is now in its fourth edition. There is no room for relaxation yet and we could see her back in action very soon.

The mother-of-one is already considering the Tour Divide, a 2,700-mile bike ride through the Rocky Mountains, and also plans to swim the English Channel, so it’s unlikely we’ve heard about her latest exploits. .

Many understandably wonder what one gains from challenging themselves through these feats of endurance. But Lowry’s commitment to perseverance isn’t exactly new, although his athletic career may have taken a different path in a different life.

“Before entering university, I dedicated myself to running”, he remembers. “So I applied to Welsh schools and then Swansea Harriers. From the beginning I realized how much running helped me. Not only physically, but also mentally. It was simply a relief from schoolwork and the stress of GCSEs.

“Then I went to university. Some of my friends who I ran with who were older than me ended up on the Cardiff University rugby team.

Rugby became a great passion for the young Lowry, which interestingly enough started thanks to a member of the Welsh rock and roll royal family.

“Cerys Matthews was actually a partner and basically left to create Catatonia,” says Lowry. “They were at the beginning of the journey. So I went and took his place, basically. I met Cerys when we were young. Our parents are doctors and they knew each other, so we were family friends.

“I walked away and promised to play until they found someone. But after the first game against Aberystwyth I fell in love with rugby.”

Lowry has shown tremendous promise on the rugby field. But when he was just 18, his world came crashing down in a match against Loughborough.

“I crushed my knee and tore the cruciate ligament in my leg,” he recalls.

“The doctors said I would never be able to run again. I think I got hungry to go and do everything. I saw my friends move on and pursue athletic careers and I think that definitely motivated me to start pushing myself with my body.

“I remember walking from post to post trying to slowly get up.”

Lowry recovered in style and continued his rugby journey to eventually represent Wales, his first cap coming against Scotland in 1996. However, the injury still left its mark. Her love for running is already part of her mind, so the fear of getting hurt came back to haunt her.

Over time, running supplanted rugby as his main passion, and as he worked so hard to defy his doctors, it was perhaps inevitable that he would move beyond what many would consider more conventional marathon events.

As we conclude our long conversation, it is clear that she takes pleasure in not living up to expectations. More recently, motherhood has likely become a factor as well. Inspiring his son Gwilym, he says, is perhaps his biggest drive of all.

“I always wanted to show my son that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things,” he added. “I am very excited about this message.

“There is a lot to explain about what I do. But this is definitely one of the biggest.”