How to run 189km non-stop

ON THE MOVE:Graeme Butcher, 189km in 24 hours. PHOTO/FILE

GRAEME Butcher, a long-time Greater Wellington Regional Council biosecurity employee, completed one of the biggest personal challenges of his life during the weekend competing at the International Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship competition.

The race, held in Turin, Italy, on Saturday saw Butcher complete with a ranking of 111 in a field of 179 men, clocking up 189km over the 24-hour, non-stop race. The New Zealand men's' team finished 24th of 34 teams with the NZ women achieving a ranking of 18 of 28 teams.

Months, and in reality years, of preparation saw "Butch" qualify as one of a team of four elite NZ athletes earlier this year. Their ability to push themselves through the physical and mental challenges of 24-hour, non-stop running defies belief.

Butcher has been running since he gave up rugby some 30 years or so ago and has raced over a range of distances and on all terrains. Preparation for this competition has been "business as usual": clocking up as many road miles as possible and expanding the tally of well over 96,000km he has recorded since he started logging them after his "fourth or fifth marathon".

He has represented New Zealand once before at the Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship held in the Netherlands, and been selected a second time, yet forced out through injury. Butcher has also represented NZ in 100km races.

"Running 100km is one thing, racing it is completely different - it's a different mental preparation. You need a clear strategy. In New Zealand there isn't a whole support crew like in Europe or the USA. You have to work out the nutrition, psychology and physio aspects for yourself," says Butcher.

Alongside the physical and mental preparation, Butcher anticipated the challenges of overcoming the international travel, food and time differences, but most of the all "expectation".

"The expectation I have of myself is huge. You don't get many chances to go back and do it again. Maybe running more marathons - there's always one somewhere. You get the chance to test yourself and try new physical and mental techniques; a bad race might be a 10-minute time loss.

"But with 100km races there may be two a year - with ultra even less. You can easily lose 60km and coming back takes extreme mental determination."

Preparation is everything. Butcher has spent months pounding Wairarapa roads, targeting 150-200km a week. In addition he has focused on improving his race walking technique, doing some weights for strength and thinking through the demands of race-day.

"Nutrition is a whole area you just have to learn, knowing what you need before you need it. Food starts to taste disgusting 10 to 15 hours in. Your body is under stress and it's a challenge to digest the food and get the energy flowing round, keeping the food down is a real issue, if you fail at that there is really no coming back."

Competitors access a trackside station, Butcher's was stocked with jelly, pasta, soup, sports drinks, although the last few hours is a diet of glucose tablets and chippies.

"It's a great team spirit at these events. The competitor's support crew all work together with moral support, food and equipment and knowledge. I just run.

"Everyone has bad spells in a race. In ultra these can stretch over a couple of hours. You need mental fortitude to battle through. Recovery is usually a week or so, after a bad spell in one race it took me a fortnight to get back to normal maintenance running."

Butcher left New Zealand with five days to un-stretch his muscles after the long-haul flight and with time to acclimatise.