Deborah De Williams


Deborah Anne De Williams is an Australian, world record holding ultra-marathon athlete, Mindset Life Coach, motivational speaker, philanthropist, is the first woman to walk around Australia and the first woman to run around Australia, is the founding director of the charity Running Pink, and a passionate breast cancer campaigner.

Biography

Deborah De Williams AM was born in Perth, Western Australia, the only daughter of immigrant parents Karin Haufe and Terry Cook. In 1973 De Williams' parents moved the family to Adelaide, South Australia. During the same year her parents separated which resulted in a divorce in 1974. De Williams' mother remarried Owen Drogemuller in 1976 and De Williams and her older brother Adam changed their surname by Deed Poll to Drogemuller.
De Williams was interested in sport from an early age, and dreamed of becoming an Olympic basketball player. During her school years she played competition basketball at school, district, and state levels. Unfortunately, De Williams fell during a competition game at age 12, resulting in a serious knee injury that ended her Olympic basketball dreams. After the accident De Williams became interested in long distance walking and running.
In 1997, De Williams graduated from Monash University, with an Honours Degree, Bachelor of Arts from the Faculty of Art & Design. In the same year she married artist, Glyn Martin Williams and changed her surname to De Williams.
De Williams' volunteer community activities have included being a Lifeline counsellor, holding positions on various art gallery committees and raising funds for charity by participating in over one hundred marathons, half marathons and fun runs.
In 2001, De Williams participated in her first ultra marathon and started planning her first ultra marathon charity adventure.
During De Williams's athletic career she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities in Australia through various long distance walking and running events.
In Oct 2004, Deborah became the first female to walk around Australia raising funds for Kids Helpline and broke Nobby Young's record for the longest continuous walk, walking 16,825 km in 365 days.
In March 2006, the same day De Williams ran in the Commonwealth Games Queen Baton Relay in Melbourne she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After treatment De Williams founded the charity Running Pink and embarked on another circumnavigation of Australia on foot, this time to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
In May 2011, De Williams became the first female to run continuously around Australia. She broke Sarah Fulcher's record for the longest continuous run by a female, running 18026.4 km in 408 days.
De Williams is the only person who has both run and walked around Australia
In Nov 2010, De Williams was awarded Tasmanian Australian of the Year 2010 by the National Australia Day Council for her athletic achievements and fundraising efforts.
In Jan 2015, De Williams was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia, for significant service to the community through contributions to a range of cancer support organisations, and to ultra marathon running.

Walk Around Australia, Oct 2003 – Oct 2004

On Friday 17 October 2003, De Williams left Melbourne, Victoria to attempt to become the first female to walk around Australia and to break the longest continuous walk record set by Nobby Young in 1993/1994. Under the rules of the continuous walk record, the athlete must travel the whole distance on foot, must walk every day with a minimum daily requirement of 20 kilometres.
During Walk around Australia – A journey for kids, De Williams walked in a clockwise direction, mainly following the National Highway 1, route. The walk raised funds for Kids Helpline, a free, 24-hour counselling service for young people aged 5–25 years.
On 23 September 2004, at 4.45am, in Martin Place, Sydney, De Williams after walking 15,644 km in 343 days broke Nobby Young's previous 1994 record for the longest continuous walk.
After breaking the record in Sydney, De Williams continued to walk back to Melbourne where on 15 October 2004, after walking 16,925 km in 365 days, De Williams established a new world walk record and become the first female to walk continuously around Australia.

Run around Australia – 1st attempt, Oct 2008 - June 2009

A breast cancer diagnosis in 2006 drove Deborah to attempt to become the first female to run continuously around Australia.
On 25 October 2008, De Williams set out from Hobart, Tasmania to run continuously around Australia and to break Sarah Fulcher's record for the longest continuous run by a female. Under the rules of the continuous run record, the athlete must travel the whole distance on foot and is required to run every day, no days off, with a minimum daily requirement of 20 kilometres.
During Running Pink – Running for a cure, De Williams ran in an anti-clockwise direction, mainly following the National Highway 1. The run raised funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Unfortunately, after running through Victoria, New South Wales, ACT and Queensland, De Williams tripped over her running companion, Border Collie, Maggie, in Elliott, Northern Territory causing serious injury to both feet. De Williams ran a further 864 km to Darwin before learning that she had broken both navicular bones in her feet and that surgery would be required.
On 6 June 2009 at GPS co-ordinates S 13° 03.130' E 131°06.663', De Williams ended her attempt to run around Australia after 224 days and 10,824.8 km. Even though the first attempt was disrupted, De Williams raised over $100,000 for the National Breast Cancer foundation and became the first female to run from Hobart to Darwin.

Run around Australia – 2nd attempt, March 2010 – May 2011

On 27 March 2010, after recovering from surgery to both feet, De Williams started her second attempt from Hobart, Tasmania to become the first female to run continuously around Australia and raise funds for breast cancer research. De Williams ran in the opposite direction from her first attempt, travelling clockwise through Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
On 4 October 2010, at 5.35am after running 192 days and 8839.4 km De Williams reach GPS co-ordinates S 13° 03.130' E 131°06.663' the point where she had abandoned her run in 2009. At this point De Williams became the first female to run the around Australia, non–continuously.
De Williams continued back down the east coast of Australia, along the same route she travelled on her first attempt. During her run down the east coast De Williams braved extreme heat, a tropical cyclone on Christmas Day 2010 in Townsville and the devastating 2010-2011 Queensland Floods.
On 6 May 2011, at 1.12pm after running 17925 km in 405 days, at GPS co-ordinates S 42° 46.435' E 147°07.591', De Williams broke Sarah Fulcher's 21-year record for the longest continuous run by a female. De Williams then continued to run for another two days, finally completing her run around Australia on 8 May 2011, at the Hobart Mothers' Day Classic.
De Williams ran a total of 18026.4 km in 408 days to achieve a new record for the longest continuous run by a female and is also the first female to run continuously around Australia.
During both attempts to run around Australia, De Williams raised over $200,000 for breast cancer research and her journey gave hope to breast cancer sufferers, inspired survivors that there is life after cancer, and honoured those who lost their lives to the disease.

Running Pink

In 2006, De Williams was diagnosed with breast cancer. As she underwent treatment De Williams decided to establish Running Pink. Running Pink is a nonprofit organization with Deductible Gift Recipient status that raises funds for breast cancer research, awareness and survivorship programs.

Other ultra marathon achievements