"I want to get a mental feel for what [the course] looks like and I'll be making sure I'm comfortable and confident with whatever shoes I go with."
It was a combination of the efforts of Kirkwood and event organiser Paul Charteris that enticed Herron to New Zealand.
"Paul got in touch with me about a year and a half ago after I won the 100km world championship.
"I said I've had this in my bucket list for a couple of years because of our friend Craig who's been trying to recruit me for the race," said Herron who moved up from running marathons to ultra racing in 2015.
Herron was keen to do the ultra a year ago, but ended up running her first trail race in April last year.
"Everyone wanted me to do my trail debut domestically and that ended up being a good strategy because I ended up being able to run a few trail races and get used to the logistics of trail running.
"So now, coming in this year, I've got quite a bit more knowledge of what I'm doing and I'm hoping for a really good experience.
"I've had a couple of injuries this past year and I've been trying to get over those, but at the same time I think I've had a really nice progression into the running and learning the hydration and fuelling and all that.
''I've had my transition year and this year I'm hoping to have more breakout performances on the trails to go with all the road stuff I've done.''
One of those injuries, a hamstring tweak, saw her robbed of the chance to defend her world 100km title in Spain in November.
"It was really a bummer as I was running so well last fall and doing a lot of speed work in the leadup to the 100km world championship, but my hip got really tight during a race.
"I got it checked out and realised I needed to take a break and rest it. In the grand scheme of things, I was planning to rest after the world championship, but just ended up resting sooner.
''Everybody wanted me to do it, and I probably could have, but it was a bit of a gamble and didn't want to take that risk and make my hip worse.''
Herron made her comeback at the 100km US championship a month ago.
''I ended up getting second in that with pretty minimal training so I've been trying to build on what I did a month ago. My fitness is getting better now and I'm getting stronger after my injury.''
That might not be the only ominous sign for the rest of Saturday's field.
''It goes without saying, I'm pretty competitive,'' she said.
The Tarawera Ultramarathon starts at 6am on Saturday at the Redwoods Visitor Centre.
