Carradale runner’s success
‘It was an incredible feeling to reach to top and cross the finish line’
A KINTYRE athlete reached one of the pinnacles of her life in New Zealand.
COMPLETING a brutal ultra-marathon was one of the ‘highest moments’ of a young Kintyre runner’s life.
Lauren Milstead, 26, from Carradale but now living in Wellington, New Zealand for the past four years, only started running three years ago after becoming ‘hooked on the Wellington hills’.
When she found out about the WUU-2K, a 60km ultra-marathon held recently around the Wellington Trails, taking in almost 3km of climb, she said she ‘couldn’t resist’.
She said: ‘Training for it was loads of fun and I was so pumped for the event weeks before the actual day.
‘The race began at 6.30am in the middle of winter, so the atmosphere at the start in the dark was awesome.
‘The race started by running up Mt Kaukau (400m elevation), and then up to Makara Peak, the high point of Makara Mountain Bike Park.’
The run was a mixture of several different tracks which Lauren had already tackled in training, with some more difficult than others.
She said: ‘The ‘salvation’ track is evil. I told Amy and Brent (her running mates) they should shout at me until I cried to keep me going.
‘It’s not a hard track, it’s not technical and it’s not steep – it just goes on and on forever.’
Lauren had been given lots of advice from other runners, including her friend Brent.
She said: ‘Brent told me before starting that if it began to get hard, take a moment to look around and appreciate where you are. So I definitely did that.’
Exhausted but not beaten, Lauren crossed the finish line in a time of nine hours and 20 minutes.
She added: ‘It was an incredible feeling to reach the top and cross the finish line. It was one of the highest moments of my life and I’ll never forget it.’