Taupō librarian Kevin Collins takes ultramarathon in his stride

Kevin Collins runs 100km in a time of 13 hours 23 minutes at the Taupō Marathon 2022. Photo / Supplied

"You've got to think big and dream big".

So says Taupō Library librarian Kevin Collins, who put his money where his mouth is and completed a 100 kilometre run at the Taupō Marathon at the weekend.

While there was no 100km race on offer, the determined 50-year-old ran the 21km half-marathon route four times, as well as the 10km, 5km and an extra kilometre to make up the distance.

The run took him 13 hours and 23 minutes, starting at 2.30am on Saturday and finishing at 3.53pm. He says crossing the finish line was a proud moment, but he had mixed feelings.

"It's kind of sad in a way, you have flashbacks to the 40-odd weeks of training leading up to it and you're happy to be finished, but a bit sad it's over. Overall, it went really well, I had a great day out there.

"The third lap of the half-marathon course was the hardest because 42km was the furthest I had run before that, so I had to overcome that mental barrier. I just kept turning the mental cogs over and used any pain or fatigue to motivate myself to get to the finish line."

Kevin's biggest motivator is being a good role model for his children, Alex, 18, and Cara, 14. He wants to teach them that "when your heart decides to do something, reality doesn't come into the equation".

Two years ago, he took on a full Ironman, despite not being able to swim and having a fear of deep water. With help from some friends, he taught himself to swim and completed the Ironman in 15.5 hours.

Taupō librarian Kevin Collins says you have to think big to dream big. Photo / Supplied

What made his Ironman efforts more impressive was that he did the training and race itself while sticking to the diet of a Type 1 diabetic. His son Alex has the condition, and Kevin wanted to show him he could still dream big.

Alex walked the half-marathon distance on Saturday.

"That was definitely my highlight, when our paths crossed out on the course. I did this one on Alex's diet as well, which is basically low-carb."

The team at the library always support Kevin in his adventures, even if they find them outrageous. He says he enjoys seeing them shake their heads when he tells them his next idea for a challenge. Many of them joined his friends and family to cheer him over the finish line, which he said was "lovely".

Running an extreme distance is not the first method he has used to get out of his comfort zone.

As a 12-year-old he was taking piano lessons, and his piano teacher's son was a black belt in karate. At the same time, he had started playing Dungeons & Dragons.

"My best friend and I started playing it and I liked reading the different books, one of which was an oriental adventure, and the ninjas and all their moves fascinated me."

Previously he's run 42km - over the weekend, Kevin Collins ran 100km. Photo / Supplied

That combination of interests saw him take up karate himself in 1985.

"I was completely out of my comfort zone as I hate conflict," he says.

"In time I found part of it was actually learning how to de-escalate a situation."

Since then, he has earned a black belt himself, in both karate and kickboxing, and ticked off a range of impressive martial arts achievements, including representing his country - he was the first New Zealand lightweight to win an Oceania title. He later gave back to the sport by coaching, although family commitments, not to mention long-distance event training, mean he has taken a step back from the sport as of late.

Kevin has not decided what his next challenge will be, but after a couple of days off work to recover he said his body felt good, and he was looking forward to getting back to work at the library.