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Bahrain national team midfielder Deena Rahman, who has notched five Guinness World Records over the years to raise awareness about gender inequality in sport, has now conquered the marathon madness trail in the UK.
The 38-year-old director and head coach of Tekkers Academy Bahrain was bitten by the running bug a few years ago and participated in a running expedition in Malawi in 2018 and finishing sixth in the women’s category of the 100km ‘London 2 Brighton Challenge’ in 2019.
This time around, Rahman laced up to complete five 21km half marathons organised by Sussex Trail Events, set in five different locations over five days.
“Before the pandemic, I had already started this journey of challenging myself but I do feel it definitely has magnified the desire to embrace opportunity and set myself goals and challenges to see what I can achieve,” said Rahman, who lives in Al Qurayyah .
“My motivation behind these challenges is generally to keep myself fit as much as possible, but just like with playing football, you are always motivated by your next match or tournament.
“It’s the same for me with running. I’m always looking for either something unique or the next distance challenge I haven’t yet done to push myself and see what I can achieve. “
Rahman came to learn about this challenge through her friend Kate Custis and since she was back in the UK, she signed up for it.
“The five runs were all slightly different,” she added. “There were three based along the seafront at different places and two trails – one in a country park and the other by the river.
“The trail in the park, which was the third event, was definitely the toughest. It was up and down hills, uneven ground and a hot day for the UK.
“There was a set of steep stairs in the middle of the course and we had to complete five laps of the course to get the half marathon distance.”
It was all worth it in the end as a beaming Rahman now has five medals to add to her sparkly collection of accolades.
Rahman will be participating in the full continuous Isle of Wright Challenge next in July 10 and this event is particularly near and dear to her heart.
“It’s 106km and I will be walking with my sister Heba Jackson continuously, hopefully between 24 to 26 hours, until we finish,” she explained. “This was her goal for her 40th birthday last year but it was cancelled due to Covid-19. It’s actually quite special as it has fallen on her birthday this year so we will be walking on her birthday and it will now finish her 40th year!”
After that, it doesn’t look like Rahman will be slowing down any time soon. “I went through a stage where I felt triathlons and Ironman were my next goal,” she said.
“I got a road bike and started to train, but I really don’t like swimming and, therefore, that desire fizzled out. It’s still something I think about though so maybe I will invest in improving my swim technique and revisit this.
“I’ve completed three marathons to date and lots of half’s and less but my furthest distance achieved through running is the 100km Ultra and so now I would like to do a longer distance, maybe a 100-miles one, and also potentially one of the hard-core multi-day running events. There are a few things I have my eye on so let’s see what happens!”
For details, follow @deenas10 on Instagram.
