It’s faintly ridiculous to hear Sara Eydmann describe herself as “nothing special”.
What the Dunfermline woman has already achieved is, by any estimation, remarkable but it’s her next challenge that has the potential to give her something approaching legendary status.
Next month, Eydmann will attempt to set a new world record for running the North Coast 500.
The route, which begins at Inverness Castle, snakes through Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness and ends, 516 miles later, back at Inverness Castle, typically takes several weeks to complete on foot.
Eydmann’s timescale is considerably more challenging, though.
As it stands, there is no female record for running the North Coast 500 with only men having attempted the challenge to date, with the current world record, set by Luke Ivory in 2021, five days, 23 hours and five minutes. Eydmann, in her understated and modest way, believes she can better this.
Her quiet confidence, though, should in no way be taken for any kind of ignorance about what lies ahead.
Eydmann’s attempt, which begins on the 4th of June, will involve her running around 100 miles per day and getting just three hours sleep each night. It is, she is well aware, an audacious plan.
“I'm expecting it to be insanely hard,” says the 29-year-old from Edinburgh.
“Typically, I don't go after records, I just focus on doing the best I can but with there being no female record for this, I know that as long as I finish, I’m going to set that record.
“Initially, that was my only aim but then I looked at the male record and thought, actually, why wouldn't I go after that? It does feel achievable although whether I’ll manage it or not, I don't know. But why wouldn't I try?
“It’s going to be so tough physically and especially mentally. I can’t even envisage how difficult it will be mentally. But when I start thinking about how tough it’s going to be, I always repeat to myself is that I'm choosing to do this and actually, it is such a privilege to be able to try something like this.”
An active child, she dabbled in a number of sports without ever finding her niche.
As she hit her twenties, she began running for what she describes as the “classic reason of trying to lose weight”. From that point on, the time she spent running gradually increased before, during the pandemic in 2020, it became something of an obsession to the point even Eydmann recognised she was running excessively.
The obvious progression for the Scot, given she was doing around 150 miles per week in training, was racing a marathon but numerous times, she signed up to race before withdrawing meaning it wasn’t until 2023 she actually made it onto the start line.
And despite being entirely unsure as to how her first attempt at 26.2 miles would go, her performance exceeded all her expectations.
“I didn’t do my first marathon until October 2023 because before that, I kept bottling it,” she says.
“But then I reached a point where I just wanted to go for it. My first marathon was Loch Rannoch which is a small race so it felt like no pressure. It felt safe.
“Going into that first marathon, I really worried it might be a disaster but I won it, and so I thought, why not try an ultra? So the following month, I did my first ultra. I was first female across the line and that's when I thought, oh, this might be something.”
The Edinburgh woman competed the route between Scotland’s two biggest cities in 7 hours 39 minutes but even before that remarkable run, the idea of this North Coast 500 attempt was already brewing.
Eydmann’s motivation behind this record attempt, however, is far deeper than purely wanting to run fast.
In 2023, she was diagnosed with autism and so the desire to prove that the condition need not be a barrier has been a significant motivation for Eydmann as she pursues these feats.
She has been living with autism all her life but her diagnosis gave her a clarity that was missing previously which has, in turn, given her a far greater understanding of herself, and her capabilities.
However, Eydmann is quick to point out that she does not, given all the challenges that come with the disorder, see autism as a superpower, or certainly not a superpower for her.
Rather, it’s something to which she’s had to learn to adapt, with the added bonus that she’s proving to other autism sufferers that remarkable things remain achievable.
“Before my diagnosis, I thought everyone felt like I did and it was just that I was really bad at coping with it all,” she says.
“My diagnosis helped a lot because with it came self-acceptance - that this is the reason I am this way and not that I’m just dealing with everything really badly.
“I'd like to be able to highlight some of the challenges that come with having autism and it would be nice to show that autism isn't necessarily a barrier. I also recently got diagnosed with ADHD, and some people talk about having these things as strengths but I don't see them as strengths or a superpower at all.
“If you have a superpower, it doesn't come with all this extra baggage. Okay, maybe I am a little bit superhuman in terms of running, but there's other stuff that I feel like I just can't do.”
And her desire to further women’s sport as a whole is exactly why Eydmann would be delighted to firstly, set a female record next month before then witnessing it being broken by someone else in the future.
“It feels crazy to be doing the things I’m doing and if, a few years ago, someone had told me I’d be here, I just wouldn't have believed it,” she says.
“Yes, I want to set the female record for the North Coast 500 but really, I'd love it if next year another female runner came out and beat my record. That would be such a great thing for women's sport.
“Ultra running is great because it’s much more of a level playing field than some other sports in terms of female athletes competing with the men and next month, it would be nice to show what female athletes can really do.”
