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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Miles Herbert

‘Maybe the suffering is the point’: what does it take to run 163km up and down a mountain?

Ultrarunner Joanne Walker on the move
‘No matter how much I am struggling, I promised myself I was going to have the best hair out of anyone on the trail’: Joanne Walker competes in Ultra-Trail Australia. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Somewhere before the finish line the body starts to break down, Joanne Walker says.

“The pain starts in your feet but before long it moves up to your knees and eventually you feel like you just can’t move your legs any more.”

After 30 hours with no sleep, running alone through the cold darkness of the Megalong Valley, the brain can break as well.

“At one point, I did not even know where I was going; I was swerving all over the shop,” she says.

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