by Alan Quick

KATHARINE Lowrie, who has just published a book “Running South America with my Husband and other animals”, based on her and her husband, David’s world-first running expedition covering 6,504 miles and across five countries, will give a talk at Crediton Community Bookshop tomorrow, Thursday, October 26 from 6.45pm to 9pm.

Environmentalists Katharine and David ran through 10 pairs of shoes each, a third barefoot or in barefoot shoes, chatting to schools along the way about wildlife and running and raising money for their favourite nature conservation charities.

The couple are the first people to have run the length of South America, from the glaciers of Patagonia in the south to the warm blue seas of the Caribbean.

Their venture took 15 months and they gained support from Prince Charles and Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Katharine was brought up in Devon, went to school in Exeter and used to spend a lot of time with a friend who lived just outside Crediton.

She says she has fond memories of frequenting the Crediton bakery.

She and her husband now live just outside Exeter and it was from the Exe Canal that they left on an old wooden sailing boat for South America.

Copies of her book will be available to purchase at the event and there is just a £3 charge to attend the talk.

Katharine told the “Courier”: “It’s the story of two runners obsessed by running and wildlife who ran a continent to meet its wild animals.

“We lived life at its rawest; with insects crawling over us, sleeping in jaguars’ ‘back yards’ and washing in ditches by the side of the road.

“Running marathons back-to-back for days on end, this crazy feat nearly cost us our marriage, health and lives.”

For further details, visit the website: www.5000mileproject.org .