Spencer Matthews has completed his first desert marathon of 30 and was ‘remarkably chipper’ after a brutal warning from his wife Vogue Williams.
The 35-year-old TV star has embarked on his intense Great Desert Challenge plans, aiming to set a Guinness World Record by running 30 marathons in 30 days across the Jordanian desert.
He previously admitted to Metro.co.uk the ‘dangerous’ feat caused friction between himself and Vogue, 38, who he married in 2018.
After his 4am run, the former Made in Chelsea icon said he just needed to ‘get the first one under my belt.’
‘After months of anticipation, those final kind of few days before leaving were quite a lot on the mind,’ he told Heart radio. ‘And now that we’re here, things feel much better to be honest.’
Presenters Jamie Theakston and Zoe Hardman remarked how ‘chipper’ despite facing 1,266 kilometres in over 40 degrees Celsius — all to raise money for Global’s Make Some Noise, who support small charities across the UK.
Spencer continued: ‘Terrible night sleep last night, because I was so excited about getting going. We had a 4am start, I slept for two hours, the whole thing was a bit rushed.
‘Anyway, whatever, we got to the start line and cracked on, and yeah, I have to say that we feel privileged almost to be here doing this, it’s really awesome! I’m sure I won’t feel that way in 20 days’ time, but today has been incredible.’
The marathon was also a particularly quick time according to Spencer, who added he needs to slow things down to safely tackle the huge challenge.
Before heading out to Jordan to start the frankly terrifying-sounding run – which takes place from July 26 to August 27 — Spencer told Metro.co.uk just how fearful the mother of his children had been.
‘She literally looked at me and she said, “But that could kill you,’ Spencer, who lost his brother Michael to an Everest climb, revealed.
He has tackled endurance challenges before, including the Jungle Ultra Marathon and Marathon des Sables, but nothing this intense.
That being said, in the history of the seven-day, 250 km ultramarathon in Morocco three people have died.
Spencer had initially mentioned doing another extreme run to fellow TV star Vogue around Christmas but ‘she didn’t take it seriously at all’ until months later.
Once the date and the 30 marathons goal were set, Bear Grylls: Mission Survive winner Vogue ‘wasn’t very happy about it’ and couldn’t understand his drive to do these extreme feats.
‘I’m really interested in pushing myself physically and mentally,’ Spencer explained. ‘I come from an alcoholic background where I’ve spent a considerable amount of time feeling quite ashamed of my behaviour and myself.
‘I’ve come quite a long way from there and I’m keen to explore just how far I can go.’
Vogue has now changed her tune, seeing the effort and passion her husband has put into creating this world record attempt and is even taking on her own 30-day challenge — although not in the desert.
For Global’s Make Some Noise charity, she will be running 5k per day for 30 days, though the TV star will be on solid ground not in sandy Jordan.
While Spencer admitted he might be ‘slightly psychotic’, the CleanCo founder explained each mammoth challenge helps him grow and develop — plus he’s really keen to raise £1,000,000 for the charity.
He was never tempted to throw in the towel completely during training but admitted there were ‘doubts’ in the face of brutal heat chamber running and his gruelling training.
The TV star said: ‘This is a dangerous thing that we’re attempting. We’re going to be in the middle of nowhere, hours and hours and hours from the nearest town.
‘If something goes really badly wrong, we’re in trouble.’
The training has been incredibly intense with Spencer bringing on board an entire team of people help him prepare, from his coach Chris Taylor to supplements company Heights’ founder Dan Murray-Serter.
His transformation became quite a touchy topic as Spencer was hit with huge waves of body shaming comments, which he said were surprisingly from women.
The TV icon was bombarded by messages from people saying they were concerned about his weight loss, which he slammed as ‘detrimental’.
‘I was surprised that people are so willingly open to be quite rude about people’s appearance,’ Spencer said. ‘It’s more the fact that it all came from women that I found odd.
‘I’m preparing for a world record attempt to where I need to be slimmer. Leave me alone.’
He hit back at people online in a post about body shaming and shared that he has not seen a single comment on his looks since.
Spencer added: ‘As a father and having a daughter in particular, I know that when she grows up if people are being rude about her or her weight online, it’s going to have a really detrimental impact on her.
‘She’s going to struggle with it as any young person might. So I wasn’t reading these comments and going “Oh, this is offensive to me”. It gave me a bit of an overview of how toxic that might feel to young women in particular and I thought I’d like to say something about it.’
Spencer notes he hasn’t seen that much ‘toxicity’ and ‘hatred’ in his inbox since his Made in Chelsea days but hasn’t let the comments bring him down at all.
He joked he was ‘bouncing off the walls’ with excitement, praising the Heights supplements for keeping his energy levels up throughout training.
‘I am full of energy,’ Spencer said. ‘I am sleeping well despite being disturbed every night by Gigi — three times last night.
‘I don’t mean to hail it as something that everyone needs to take but it makes a big difference. When Dan came on board with the Great Desert Challenge, I was delighted because [Heights] is really helping me.’
Little Gigi is just three years old so doesn’t quite understand what her dad is up to, neither does Otto, 23 months, but Theodore is cheering him on.
The five-year-old is oblivious to the ‘dangers of it’ and believes dad is ‘just going for a long run in the desert’.
Spencer’s family is coming to meet him at the end of the run, with a big meal planned — he’s even hoping they will travel with him for the last few marathons.
After 30 days of sleeping under the stars with no tent, no bed, and no toilet, the TV personality said he may shed a tear or two when it’s all over, despite insisting he really doesn’t cry often.
‘I’ll cross the line and it’ll feel amazing but it’ll be a few days until it sinks in,’ said Spencer. ‘I imagine there’ll be some tears of joy, which is honestly really unusual for me.’
Listing off the things he’s most looking forward to after the challenge is over the dad-of-three laughed: ‘A big, big, big hug with my kids and Vogue before a beautiful big meal. A nice hot shower and I won’t say that sitting on the toilet is gonna be great but having a toilet will be nice.
‘I’ll probably have a couple of hours where I can talk about it with Vogue before she switches off. So I’ll fill her up on the stories for two hours and then there’ll be a ban on talking about it for some time.’
When asked what he’s planning to eat, Spencer’s eyes lit up at the thought of pizza and said: ‘I love pineapple on pizza. I don’t really care who has an issue with that.
‘If you’re not a pineapple lover on pizza, I think there’s a good chance that we might not be mates. Pineapple on pizza is a delight and should be enjoyed by all.’
You can donate to Spencer’s Great Desert Challenge through Global’s Make Some Noise website.
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