Imagine running over 300km in 48 hours.
Nelson’s own endurance wonder woman Katie Wright has just done that – testing the limits of her ability.
The 32-year-old’s extraordinary effort at the Big’s Backyard Ultra in Tennessee saw her complete fifty laps of the 7km continuous course, sleeping as little as seven minutes between laps.
“The body is pretty beaten up now to be honest, everything hurts,” Katie says.
However, despite the pain Katie managed to run further than she ever had before.
The 32-year-old doctor tapped out just ten laps shy of the winner as a niggling injury in her hip was causing extreme discomfort.
“I couldn’t do much more than hobble at that point.”
Even more impressive is the fact Katie only took up the sport two years ago.
Katie says it’s as much of a psychological battle as a physical one when taking on these seemingly impossible challenges.
“I did a lot of preparation and used some techniques I’d learned; the key is not to compare yourself to others who may be looking stronger.”
She says the continuous course wasn’t as monotonous as she expected.
“I always thought it would be horrifically boring, but it was nice to go around and get to know the course better.”
A natural competitor, Katie says she was disappointed not to conquer the beast.
“There’s always an element of being gutted when thinking winning is a possibility but looking at how far I’ve come is a great feeling.”
In the lead up to the race, Katie was covering average about 80km a week.
“I eat sleep, work and run. I don’t socialize a lot, and when I do it’s exclusively with runners outside of work.”
She says her employer had been very supportive of her racing.
“The hospital has been great, but I’ll be coming back to a lot of night shifts and weekends to make up for it,” she jokes.
Following the race, Katie says she completely collapsed on a bed.
But once her body allowed it, she was sure to get out and celebrate in style.
“I bought a bottle of bubbly from Marlborough and enjoyed a couple of glasses.”
