Sep 17, 2025
Amy is a world-renowned author who in 2022 toed the line of
the iconic Marathon des Sables.
The race planted seeds for a story, one of
ultra-running and mystery. In June 2025, 'RUNNER 13' was
released.
Amy joins the podcast to discuss the book
and her MDS story.
Runner 13 is a thriller that drops readers
straight into a deadly stage race across the Sahara, echoing the
notorious Marathon des Sables in Morocco. McCulloch’s own
experience running that event shapes every detail - the brutal
desert landscape, the psychological toll, and the obsession with
endurance that defines the sport. The story follows Adrienne, a
once-great ultrarunner forced back into competition, and Stella,
daughter of the race’s manipulative director, Boones. His events,
modelled on real-world extreme events, they aren’t designed to be
won, but to break runners. Central to the mystery is Runner 13, a
symbol of both glory and doom. Told in sharp, cliff-hanging
chapters that jump between present and past, the novel feels like
Agatha Christie transplanted to the Sahara: a brutal race where
survival, not victory, is the prize, and where Morocco’s desert
becomes both the setting and the trap.
