One Run. Two Journeys (ShAFF '26)

Nikki Love is an endurance adventurer, author, speaker, and Sport and Exercise Psychology undergraduate at Loughborough University. At 56, she set the women’s record for running across Australia — covering 4,044 km in 76 days — after completing challenges including 63 marathons in 63 days and multi-country runs across the UK, Ireland, and Europe, all since turning 50.

Now 59, Nikki is entering her “research era,” combining lived adventure with academic study. Inspired by being told she was on the “wrong” side of the bell curve for peak performance, her work explores confidence, belonging, and identity in sport. Her current study investigates impostor feelings and self-compassion in runners and adventurers — sparked by a question she’s heard time and again at start lines and events: “Do I really belong here?”

Sharif Owadally is the long-suffering support crew behind Nikki Love’s adventures. A project manager by trade and accidental endurance-adventure logistics lead by experience, Sharif specialises in keeping ambitious ideas moving when things get uncomfortable. He brings a grounded, wry perspective to supporting people’s adventures and has learnt that endurance comes in many forms, especially when you’re not the one doing the running.