Female runner pulled from race due to death threats

[InflagranteDelicto]

Had this pop up on my social media this morning, although through a different news site initially: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2026/01/14/british-woman-removed-from-ultramarathon-beheading-threat/

Basically, Sarah Porter does a lot of fundraising to help women and girls, on this occasion in Afghanistan, and the organisers have had to pull her from the race because of the threats. It's not a race for the weak either, I'd warrant 99% of the ones making the threats would not be physically or mentally able to take on such an event of endurance.

It makes me so angry that she's been put in such a position but also the barriers these men, and I'd bet it's men, are putting up to stop her helping other women. And if we don't talk about how unfair it is, they get away with their behaviour.

Archive link here: archive.ph/oKEVs

I posted about this on my running club FB page and - nothing,

Clearly it's fine for Islamists to threaten women who want to do races and raise money for other women.

Not for the first time, I am disgusted by the lack of interest in the plight of women in Afghanistan (and here!)

Absolutely terrifying, will head to her gofund me.
Actually surprised there’s not been any “yeah but, whataboutery apologists” so far. Is it too early for them?

These are very niche races. I don’t think some posters are quite understanding the terrain and conditions.

it’s a testament to the religiously motivated fanatism of the men who have threatened this woman, that they have made a credible threat within the conditions of this type of hardcore race in extreme conditions and remote areas.

There's a difference between "the race organisers can track the runner" and "the whole world can track the runner". The former is sensible. The latter is moronic.

Not really. This can be dangerous terrain even in the summer months & in bad weather most people shouldn't go further than the nice, cosy pub near the start of the race. Tracking could be the difference between life & death for a runner who's taken a tumble, & I've been up there in a white-out, it's lethal - you could run straight off a crag before even you knew you were getting close to the edge. Then there's the bogs to get stuck in & go hypothermic, or a seemingly solid lump of gritstone that decides this thaw is the day it fancies bouncing down onto your head.

TBF to the race organisers it's pretty common for this kind of event. GPS tracking was introduced for runners' safety ironically enough (& is a disincentive to cheating) but it draws public support for the events too, it's the only real audience option other than start/ finish lines.

I'm wondering if the decision to pull her carries any echoes of Lauren Jeska. There's a strong crossover with fell running in this kind of event & Jeska's old FR club is in Glossop, not far from the race start. Jeska's attempted murder of UK Athletics official, Ralph Knibbs, would have made massive waves in the area. They may take her safety more seriously with that violent narcicisstic psycho as an example, hence the insistence that she leave the race.

(And once more with feeling - why is the murderous male, Lauren Jeska, still in the female prison estate? He doesn't belong there, he never did.)

A bit like ‘walk like there are 3 men walking behind you’. A very male viewpoint that all women immediately spot the flaws with…

It's actually to keep the runners safe in case they have an accident, they are running through very difficult terrain. But this is obviously the downside. I had no idea about this - a member of my running club has been running it though they didn't finish.

I suspect not, We know how it went in places like Rotherham.

Fucking hell. She had a bodyguard with her at all times during the race and that wasn't enough. www.irunfar.com/sarah-porter-pulled-from-2026-winter-spine-race-event-following-death-threats

Donated. Only a man would think "let's broadcast a woman's location to the world when she's alone in the middle of nowhere, nothing bad could happen to her".

Bloody hell.

Ive found another source with a bit more detail and no paywall
https://runningmagazine.ca/trail-running/british-ultrarunner-forced-to-withdraw-from-race-after-receiving-death-threats/

The archive link is at the bottom of the OP.

I wonder if mosques could be drawn in to help, for instance by preaching about Mohammed's women and the way he encouraged them to preac and spread the faith.

The fact that this is happening in 2025 in the UK is fucking outrageous. The men making these deaths threats need to be identified, arrested and charged. This cannot be tolerated.

Prosecuted and imprisoned would be even better.

Her go fund me page is doing well, good to know their threats were counterproductive.
I saw pp comment about girls being sold to the Taliban at 7yrs old and pregnant by 9yrs old. 9 yrs old?!
If the threats came from within this country the swine that made them should be named and shamed.

The part of that which needs to be trumpeted the loudest is that they are in the UK!

How do we identify and remove these people?

The publicity the islamists receive as a result of their threats is really important. It needs to be trumpeted that there are people so wedded to the idea of little girls and women as chattels, that they will target extreme violence on a woman who disagrees.

The religion of peace strikes again.

It's disappointing that the organisers kowtowed to the threat, if she was prepared to go on so should they have been.

I hope the publicity she gets from this incident helps boost her fund raiser and she ends up being able to do even more of whatever it is that these terrorists are trying to stop her from doing.

They are Islamists. Not random men who don’t think women shouldn’t have rights. Not secular men. They are fundamentalist conservative Islamist Muslims who are seeking to terrorize into silence and compliance anyone who they see as undermining the way they believe a ‘true’ Islamic society should be run. This is religious Islamic terrorism.

You’d think - and maybe rightly.

Though white Transactivists are quite capable of threatening & abusing women who stand up for women & girls in Afghanistan.

I appreciate that women - including Jewish women - being publicly abused as “Nazis” is nothing like threats to behead.

Though proverbially “the only good Nazi … for which transactivists often substitute “TERF” …is a dead Nazi”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/12/trans-green-councillor-reportedly-shout-nazis-womens-group/

Yes, there are Islamists ( men and women) in the UK who support the Taliban.

I have donated and shared on social media.
Thank you OP, without your post I wouldn’t have known about this and therefore wouldn’t have donated.
I feel helpless to do anything but hoping the donation and raising awareness will help Sarah raise loads extra.

Yes, it's the same men as those destroying women's human rights in Afghanistan, presumably. The Taliban or men with similar sentiments to the Taliban and who think the Taliban are something to aspire to.

The question is whether our police will take meaningful action against these men.