Allirra Jennings has become the first Aboriginal woman to run the world's six official major marathons, after crossing the finish line in the Boston Marathon on Monday, local time.
The Kungarakan and Gurindji woman fought a head cold to finish the Boston race holding an Aboriginal flag in just over five hours, saying it was the hardest marathon she had run in her historic journey across the world.
Having previously run the marathon majors in New York, Chicago, Berlin, London and Tokyo, the Boston Marathon was the final race Ms Jennings needed to achieve the feat.
Jennings — a self-described "country bumpkin" from Humpty Doo, near Darwin — said she had not always thought herself a runner.
"If you would've said to me 10 years ago that I would be running marathons, I would have laughed straight in your face," she said.
Wake up call
Jennings said a pivotal moment in her motivation to run marathons was when her grandmother passed away from diabetes, a condition that disproportionately affects Aboriginal Australians.
According to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Framework, around 13 per cent of Aboriginal people have diabetes and the disease was the cause of 7 per cent of Aboriginal deaths from 2015 to 2019.
Jennings said the loss of her grandmother was something of a wake-up call.
"I was weighing down the end of [my grandmother's] hospital bed, and feeling pretty disgusted with myself," she said.
"I just made a promise, then and there, that I was going to honour the body I was given".
She started by walking the 3 kilometres to work and eating healthier.
Then, one morning — when staying at her dad's house — she decided to go for a run down to the shops.
She ran about a kilometre, felt pretty good, and maintained her stride.
"I just kept on going, and kept on telling myself I'll run to the next set of lights," she said.
"Accidentally," as Jennings recalls it, she had run 12 kilometres.
"I said, 'Dad, how many kilometres in a marathon?' and he said '42, love' and, from then, the seed was planted," she said.
"If I can run that far without training, a coach, a program, then I could pull off 42 with a program and a coach".
At the beginning, Jennings would "shuffle" 50 metres at a time, building up her ability, until taking on her first big race, the New York Marathon in 2014.
Jennings now joins around 11,000 other people who have run all six of the world's major marathons and been rewarded with a "Six Star Finisher" certificate and medal.
The final race
Fighting a cold in the lead-up to this past weekend's race, Jennings said she knew the Boston Marathon was going to be challenging.
She said the Boston Marathon could not be compared to all others she had raced.
"It's amazing. It's above and beyond," she said.
"The first 10 kilometres were great. They kind of just flew by. I had a bit of a knee blow out at 28 kilometres.
"Once you hit 30, everything hurts, and it's all just kind of a blur
"It was a really tough course with the hills. Lots of up and down."
After the marathon, Jennings said, she would love to see more Indigenous Australians running long-distance races.
"I do think we have the good genes for long-distance running," she said.
"We're natural athletes and, if we train our bodies the right way, we can achieve great things."
Jennings said the felt "blessed" for the support she had received, and was not planning on stopping any time soon, with her next marathon set for a return to Berlin in September.
"I feel guilty if I don't run, because it's a gift," she said.
