Ultra-marathoner begins epic run

Ultra-marathoner Lisa Tamati on a lonely Southland road, two days into her epic run up the length of New Zealand.

She's already run through Death Valley and the Sahara.

But this week New Zealand ultra-marathoner Lisa Tamati began a run that will test even the world's best endurance athletes - running the length of the country: 2,200 km in just 33 days.

That's the equivalent of 52 marathons in a little over one month.

Some days she'll run more than 80 kms, with most of the month seeing her put up daily mileage of at least 60 km.

After starting in Bluff this past Saturday, Tamati is now heading north north through the South Island, before stopping at Auckland Airport.

There she'll fly to Kaitaia, drive Cape Reinga before running southto conclude the mission in Auckland - hopefully on December 2.

Along the way she'll be posting updates and sending through photos. We'll be following her progress here at nzherald.co.nz.

Tamati is raising money for two charities through the event, CanTeen (for teenagers and their families fighting cancer) and Curekids (dedicated to finding cures for illnesses that affect children).

The push to get New Zealand children outdoors and active is another part of her mission.

Tamati will be trying to get as many schoolkids as possible to run alongside her for short stretches as she makes her way up the country throughout the month.

Speaking to nzherald.co.nz while driving down to Bluff last week, Tamati said she was more than ready to start the run, after a few weeks of only very light training.

"I feel overweight and unfit, but that's the way it should be, since I'm going to be using so manby of my reserves over the next month."

"It's like I'm really a bull at a gate," she said.

While outwardly confident, Tamati does fear what might happen to her body during the gruelling run.

"It's injury or sickness or for some reason not being able to complete the task. Accidents - that sort of thing, I'm worried
about the traffic - it's a bit of a scary thing here in New Zealand. Letting people down, that's my biggest fear.

"Everyone says 'yeah, you'll be right' - but I know what it's going to take, what it's going to take out of my body. It's
not a done deal"