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

Can a group of people not take turns to run along side her as extra protection to try to keep her safe and keep her in the race. I think this is an occasion other men need to step up and say 'we're not having it'.

Really good interview! If the link above doesn't work (it says it's a private video), try this one: https://runultra.substack.com/p/sarah-porter

That would probably work in some scenarios, but not in the Spine. It’s about as difficult a race as it’s possible to imagine. Very few people would have both the skills to do that (even in shorter sections) AND to protect someone from extreme violence.

I have donated, I am just so appalled that this happened. I can understand why the organisers felt they had no option but to withdraw her after such a graphic threat. Logistically to put in safety measures around her at such short notice would have been impossible. It is a brutal course, and it’s not a high numbers event compared to some events. The amount of training she must have put in, just to have this happen.

It was too late to do anything for that race, but she may run the route later. In the interview, she said:

"I'll do the spine challenger route on my own when nobody knows about it. And then I'll tell the story afterwards, which is one option."

"Do you know what? I've had a few really amazing female runners - and apparently some of them are really incredible, like they've won races and stuff - who have reached out to me and saying, uh we would do this with you so i'm thinking that could be one route"

In some ways what's happened is a parallel to what is happening to women and girls in Afghanistan, and she will get lots of publicity now I hope. It seems unlikely that whoever pledged 100k if she managed to do it would say 'well I'm going to let the violent men who don't want girls to have human rights or an education win' - I hope at least.

It must be awful to have trained so hard for this to happen and I hope she does get to do it eventually with some other amazing women.

Why the coyness from posters on this thread? Why the faux innocence about ‘what sort of men would do this?’ ‘Who are these men?’

And why the reference to ‘men’ in general.

We all know which men and why. They are Islamists. It’s those men. Those are the men who behead people and threaten to behead people. Why are posters pretending they don’t know this? It’s Islamists who don’t want women and girls educated. Why are you pretending you don’t know this?

You know from fighting gender ideology, the importance of being able to name a problem to tackle it. Why are you refusing to name this problem?

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.

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

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/

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.

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.

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 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?

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.

Prosecuted and imprisoned would be even better.

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.

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 archive link is at the bottom of the OP.

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/

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".

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

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

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.