SWINDON ultra star Nathan Montague is resting his weary legs and celebrating the biggest win of his career after success in the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Desert Marathon in South Africa, writes KEVIN FAHEY.

The 34-year-old teacher from Swindon wrote himself into the history books as the first British male winner of the gruelling event, which is now in its 16th year and established as one of the toughest ultra races on the calendar.

“I am very excited and proud with what I have just done and at the same time, just a little frazzled by it all,” said Montague.

“Since coming home to Swindon, I’ve been catching up with all the messages left for me on social media as I had no contact whatsoever out there.

“But I can’t say enough what a truly amazing experience it was and apart from the birth of my two daughters, it is the most unbelievable thing I have ever done in my life.

“I am ecstatic about it all.”

Winning ultra distance events of this nature are by definition demanding but Montague’s triumph was even more impressive considering the conditions he had to endure during the week of racing.

“We had a heatwave during the week and the temperatures reached 50C or 122F, when normally it is around 30C at this time of year,” added Montague.

“In that sort of heat, the medical advice was that we could not race so one stage was ended early. It was the highest-ever temperature recorded in that part of the world and there was no way we could run, so the organisers had to re-jig the race.”

Montague had trained for the race by converting his conservatory into a hot room with extra heaters and a treadmill to try and simulate the conditions he would face in the Kalahari.

“The South African runners and the Turkish athlete, who finished runner-up, kept asking me how an Englishman could be used to these hot conditions but my treadmill and heaters were only a minor thing compared to what we faced,” he said.

“It is more about adapting to your environment and managing both your body and mind to the conditions and coming up with the right solutions, which I think I did pretty well.”

On day one, Montague shared the lead with Turkey’s Mahmut Yavuz but after that, he established a lead that was never threatened and at the finish line, had opened an advantage of almost an hour over the 158-kilometre distance, clocking a total time of 13 hours 55.41 minutes.

“This win opens up a lot of potential opportunities for me,” said Montague.

“I’ve already had a return invitation to defend my title next year while there is also the possibility that my sponsors, XNRG Event race organisers, will help me get into the Marathon des Sables (across the Sahara), which is probably the most famous ultra race in the world, but that is something we will talk about in the future.”