Rob Waugh

Rob Waugh

Rob Waugh was brought up to have an affinity with the outdoors and physical challenge. It is a tradition in his family that your first munro is undertaken when you are six years old. Climbing Scotland’s mountains has been a constant in his life since that point, though he hasn’t pursued the grand goal of completing the full list yet. At school he excelled at rugby and athletics but the greatest physical undertakings were the long range, multi-day expedition he and Duffy planned into the mountains of Scotland. It was at school, in the late 90s, that Callum first mentioned the idea of the Marathon des Sables to Rob.

Time in the Army Reserves as a student afforded more opportunity for physical challenge, but Rob realised soon enough that he was better working under his own initiative than in a military role. So he embarked on a career in international development, spending several years managing projects in rural Uganda, as well as more strategic roles in the UK. After getting married he and his wife set off to circumnavigate the world and came back with a baby bump.

Two and a half years of fatherhood later, with its fairly typical lack of exercise and use of take away meals when too tired to cook, means he’s very much an example of the “Dad Bod”. Overweight and frustrated he knew that he needed a big scary target to force him to shake things up and get back to exercise and there are few physical challenges bigger and scarier (especially to someone who hates long distance running) than the Marathon des Sables.

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