The Ultramarathon – Taking Running to a Whole New Level

After having a couple of small cancers removed from her shoulders a couple of years ago, Sue Hardy couldn't play tennis so decided to revert to her original love: running. She'd run at school and decided to get back into it and while she was at it, to tick off doing a marathon.

"It's just one of those things that you want to tick off," she explains, "but I wasn't that thrilled with my times. I think as you grow older, it's harder to get a good time.”

A new challenge

So after five marathons she looked around for something a little different. The first time she heard about Ultramarathons was after a short distance race through the Hunua's a few years ago, when everyone was talking about The Kepler.

"I thought The Kepler, what's The Kepler? So I had a look online and the interest just grew from there. Once you find one ultramarathon, you can find many others online. The focus of an ultramarathon is more on covering the distance, than the time you take to do it and that appealed.”

Ultramarathons start at 50 kilometres and extend from there. They run on tracks and trails and roads. There is no outside limit to the distance they cover. The longest certified ultramarathon is The Ultimate Ultra, the annual Sri Chinmoy 1300 mile (2092k) held each autumn in New York.

The rules allow runners "to go as you please”. They can stop to eat, rest or sleep when they want to with no penalty except the impact the time they lose in doing so has on their overall finish time.

On one of the ultramarathon sites, David Blaikie explains more about the event: "There are two kinds of ultramarathon events: "those in which runners set out to cover a fixed distance (whether it be 100 kilometres, 1000 kilometres or more) and those in which runners attempt to cover the greatest possible distance within a fixed period of time (such as 24 hours, 48 hours or six days)”.

Ultramarathons can be loop or point to point. Sue's next race will be The Northburn Station 100, 100 mile or 160k loop course. The 51 year old has trained for this for a year, usually doing 30-40k runs. She uses trail running shoes because she finds they have better soles, and a better grip and carries all her gear with her in a 5kg pack. Runners need to take food, clothes, night vision gear, and emergency first aid supplies including a hypothermia blanket and of course, water.

Because it is a loop track where you cross the finish line three times, you can drop off and pick up drop bags containing the gear you need for the next leg which is obviously preferable to lugging it the whole way.

Why does she love it?

"When you cross the finish line knowing you've achieved more than what you thought you could do not just physically, but mentally, it's incredible. It's a huge challenge. Crossing that finish line is so emotional – The Kepler is 60kms – a four- day tramp. If you are fast you can cut it out in 5 hours or so or like me, finish in 9 hours. It's beautiful. You run most of the time by yourself. You are 1350 metres high and can almost see out to the Tasman. There's the thrill of being right out of your comfort zone, achieving something that part of you thinks is impossible. It's an amazing feeling and absolutely addictive. "

Sue conquered The Kepler way back in 2008. Since then she has competed in four more ultramarathons. Now her husband has caught the bug. Soon he'll compete in The Tarawera Ultramarathon which has attracted a world-class field of roughly 400 competitors.

This is the second time she's doing The Northburn 100. Last year she had to withdraw with hypothermia at 70K, but clearly it hasn't put her off and this time Sue Hardy will definitely nail it. She has the Mont Blanc Ultra Trail in her sights next year, a course that tracks across three countries: France, Italy and Switzerland.

Ultramarathoning is a growing sport in New Zealand. Sue puts the average age of competitors at 40-50, though she says, more young people are coming into the sport – one you get the feeling that Sue will not tire of any time soon.