north east regional extra | September 4 - 10, 2019
nemedia.com.au
1.
September 4 - 10, 2019
By STRUAN JONES
FEW people in their lives will ever entertain the idea of running a marathon, and fewer still will complete one. But how about running across an entire country? And no, not Vatican City or Fiji – how about the length of New Zealand’s north and south island? Well Bright woman Lucy Clark is into the final three months of training to run the 3000km Te Araroa trail in November, normally a renowned epic hiking track that only two other women have ran before. The fastest completed run by a female is 78 days, and Lucy is setting herself a goal of under 70 days. That’s 70 days, averaging more than a marathon a day, and taking in enough elevation to summit Everest nine times. Lucy, 33, works from her Bright home as a media manager for the health insurance company Bupa, but when she’s not behind a computer, she’s chalking up some pretty scary hours out on the trails around Bright. After cycling the UK top to bottom with her husband Tom a few years ago, she got thinking about other epic journeys she could attempt. A standard week of training has built up to involve running about 110km, plus a couple of gym sessions to stay strong. The cooler weather of winter came as a welcome relief for Lucy, but it also meant dark, icy mornings running by the bouncing pool of light coming from her head torch. Now in spring and with only three months to go, Lucy said she’s feeling as fit as ever, and despite an intense 12-hours of training each week balanced with a full-time job, has avoided injuries and illness. She said even more important than the 110km she’s running each week, the key to her success in training has been a disciplined indulgence in sleep.
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Running across a nation ◆ AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN: Bright runner Lucy Clark running the hills around Bright. PHOTO: Tom Wright
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