UK mother of 3 shares secrets to record-breaking success in running

Watch: Runner jogs above the clouds

Helen Ryvar goes through the same routine every night.

She checks the weather forecast, lays out her running clothes, puts her running shoes by the front door, charges her cell phone and flashlight, and sets the alarm for 4 a.m.

By 4.15 a.m., she’s out the door — rain or shine.

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"I’m just an ordinary person doing extraordinary things," says Ryvar, a single mother-of-three who runs her own cleaning business in normal daytime hours and pounds the streets, paths and trails of north Wales at a time when the rest of the world would typically be asleep.

Helen Ryvar runs through an underpass in Wrexham during a half-marathon in Wrexham, Wales, on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

The 43-year-old Ryvar took up running in 2020, just before Britain went into lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic and after being told her ex-husband had died following a mental-health battle.

Four years later, she is a world-record holder for consecutive half-marathons — her day-on-day tally, which features in the Guinness World Records book, has reached 743 this past weekend — and an inspiration to many, all while raising money for her favorite charities.

"The runs have become the easy part — it’s juggling life that has become the daily ongoing task," she said.

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Ryvar classed herself as a "mediocre runner" while at school and was never really into sports. Even now, she doesn’t have all the latest running gear, doesn’t follow any special diet — just three balanced meals a day — and doesn’t really care about her speed when she runs.

It is more, she says, about building a strong mindset and getting to know her