A little-known Scottish runner has broken the women’s record in the world’s toughest, highest race – run in the shadow of Everest.

Angela Mudge is the queen of racing at altitude, a sport that is so demanding that few can even begin to imagine what is involved. She has returned home after beating the long-standing record for the Everest Marathon by 13 minutes.

Mudge, who is 37, finished eighth overall and was the second Western entrant to cross the finishing line of what is officially the highest race in the world. The start was at about 5,200 metres (17,000ft) and the race included 2,000m of descent and ascent, with temperatures veering between minus 20C (minus 4F) and 20C (68F). Many runners competed wearing down-filled jackets.

“The big challenge wasn’t the race, it was getting to the start line fit,” said Mudge, who completed the race in 5 hours 2 minutes, fuelled by nothing more sophisticated than jelly babies. During the long trek to the start, near Everest base camp, about 80 per cent of the competitors suffered diarrhoea, altitude sickness, deep-vein thrombosis, reduced lung capacity or chest infections. “I was surprised how much the altitude affected me,” she said. “I didn’t get altitude sickness, but I had a loss of appetite and I felt rough.”

Mudge is unaffected by publicity and glittering prizes, yet her achievements are remarkable: for the past two years she has been world champion in the Buff Skyrunner Series, races run across the highest peaks of Japan, Malaysia and the Alps. She has won the World Masters Mountain Running Championship and the World Mountain Running Trophy for several years in succession, trouncing the Americans in their own mountainous backyards of Colorado and Alaska. She is regularly the Scottish hill-running champion and the British fell-running champion, and has twice been been second in the European championships.

Her most recent successes have been inspired by the death of her twin sister, Janice, who died in 2006 of bowel cancer at the age of 35. She was also a runner. The twins, who were born with their feet pointing backwards and had to wear casts in their early years, were close. Mudge cared for her dying sister and now lives in her house in Stirlingshire, looking after her dogs.

“I used to take my running very seriously, but since Janice died I am more laid back and I’m running better. It puts it all in perspective. I had a knee operation at the same time as she was diagnosed with cancer, and she didn’t let on. There was me moaning about my little knee, and she was giving me all the sympathy in the world.

“I’m very cynical about the advice to eat healthily, not to smoke and not to drink. Janice was the example of a perfect lifestyle. It’s just fate.”

She competes on steep, rough terrain, where few elite track runners would dare to risk their profitable bodies. “A lot of track runners couldn’t do the sport anyway, because you are always breaking your rhythm. The pure, flowing athletes wouldn’t be able to do that,” she said. “A lot of athletes find they are brilliant going uphill – it’s all about cardio-fitness – but can’t descend. Coming down the rough stuff is the skill. I love that sense of letting go. I’m pretty sure the top athletes wouldn’t set foot in these races because of the injury risk, but that’s why I love the sport, because it’s not mainstream.”

Mudge, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry, grew up running on the moors of Dartmoor. She adopted Scotland as her home after moving north to take a master’s degree at the University of Stirling, which is when she discovered hill running. She gave up chemistry – “I realised the lab environment wasn’t me” – and works as a sports masseuse to fund her running. She gains small but valuable levels of sponsorship from the sports equipment company Salomon, and during the summer running season in the Alps lives in a tent, cooks on a stove and cycles everywhere.

Instead of consuming expensive sports supplements, health drinks, energy bars and caffeine gels, which she regards as a waste of money, Mudge swears by jelly babies, Bounty bars and water and diluted orange juice. “I don’t have to earn a lot of money to live and I’m not materialistic. Too many people do jobs they are not happy with just to pay overheads. I live for the day. I don’t worry about my pension and what happens when I retire.”

Mudge is considering how her running career will develop. “As you get older you lose your speed so you step up in distance. I’m always looking for new challenges.”

This year she is considering taking up ultrarunning, in which races are held over distances of up to 100 miles. She also intends to take up the international Ironman competitions, a form of extreme triathlon involving cycling, running and swimming, when she is 40.

She will first have to improve her swimming, and is already making plans. “I can swim, but if I do it I want to be competitive.”

The Iron Woman is coming.

Hitting the heights

- The Everest Marathon is listed in Guinness World Records as the world’s highest marathon

- The start is close to the Everest base camp in Nepal, and the finishing line is at the Sherpa town of Namche Bazaar at 3,446m (11,300ft)

- Among the most notable winners is Jack Maitland, another Scot, who in 1989 set a record of 3hr 59min 4sec, which was unbeaten for a decade

- The present men’s record is 3hr 50min 23sec. The women’s record had been held by Anne Stentiford, a Briton, who finished in 5hr 16 min 3sec

- Before the race all runners meet for a 25-day holiday in Nepal so they can acclimatise to the high altitude

- Competitors are subject to a medical before the race, and are checked every three miles for the effects of altitude sickness The race has been held 12 times since 1987. It has also raised more than £400,000 for Nepalese charities

- Some 84 runners took part in the 2007 race, which was won by Lok Bahadur Rokaya, of Nepal, in 4hr 12min 21sec

- Running at high altitudes boosts the body’s levels of red blood cells, making it a popular choice with serious runners as it is thought that the subsequent increase in haemoglobin, the blood protein involved in transporting oxygen, can help with future performances at lower altitudes

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