NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport

Mounts, marathons king

By Graham Skellern
NZ Herald·
25 Feb, 2017 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

John Gluckman on Mt Everest - he has climbed the highest mountain and run a marathon on all seven continents.

John Gluckman on Mt Everest - he has climbed the highest mountain and run a marathon on all seven continents.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Gutsy Gluckman doesn’t shy away from challenges and is set for his fourth summer World Masters Games.

No challenge is too big for John Gluckman. He has climbed mountains, even Mt Everest, run marathons around the world, even in Antarctica, and skied at the Winter World Masters Games.

"I do it because the opportunity is there," says Gluckman, a retired dairy farmer from Matakana. "Why not? Someone has got to do it. I don't analyse these things. I just love the challenges and meeting people."

Modest, maybe, but Gluckman, now aged 66, is proud of his achievements. He has reached the summit of the highest mountain on all seven continents and has run a marathon on each continent.

He has completed the Shackleton Crossing expedition in Antarctica and, this May, plans to ski the ice caps of Iceland and scale its highest mountain, Hvannadalshnkur (2100m).

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A month before that, he will set his sights on the World Masters Games athletics in Auckland, competing in three events - the 800m and 1500m on the track, and the 10km road race in the 65-69 age category.

It is his fourth summer World Masters Games, having competed at Melbourne in 2002, Sydney 2009 (reaching the 1500m final in the 55-59 age group) and in Turin, Italy, 2013.

"I'm not sure whether I will get a medal [in Auckland], but you never know," says Gluckman, younger brother of Sir Peter Gluckman, chief science adviser for the Prime Minister. "I will do my best. I never thought I would get a medal at the Winter World Masters Games and I never thought I would get up Mt Everest. Sometimes, the most unlikely people make it.

"After all the long-distance running, I found I had a mix of speed and endurance in the shorter distances. I never realised that in my younger days.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The shorter ones don't tire me out as much, but I have to improve on my start - it's awful at the moment."

Gluckman travelled independently to his second Winter Games at Quebec City in February 2015 - he also attended Bled, Slovenia, in 2010 - and won bronze in the 60-64 age group, combining with a Russian and two Frenchmen in the 4x5km cross-country ski relay.

"I felt like the Jamaican bobsleigh team in Cool Runnings [the movie]. I trained at the Snowplanet [in Silverdale] beforehand.

"I'd take my cross-country skis, walk up the slope and ski down. I could get up twice as fast as the lift and I did that routine 41 times in an hour.

Discover more

Entertainment

The best way to hit the slopes this summer

18 Jan 05:00 PM
New Zealand

Sir Edmund Hillary's notebook for auction

15 Feb 06:10 AM
Travel

Everest: Ultimate mountain rescue

19 Feb 02:02 AM
Lifestyle

Extraordinary story of last true hermit

28 Feb 02:08 AM

"I entered the relay [at Quebec] to make up the numbers, and I met the Russian and Frenchmen on the day. They didn't speak much English and I haven't had contact with them since."

Gluckman climbed Mt Everest in 1993 with a group of 10, taking five days to get to the summit and two days to return to base camp.

"I really didn't think I would get up - I thought only the powerful, strong climbers get up.

"So I thought 'Can an average guy do it?' The climb was difficult, yes, but it wasn't nearly as impossible as I thought it would be.

"I was on the summit for 20 minutes and took a couple of photos - that was it. You don't see a great deal - just the Tibetan Plateau to the north, the foothills of the Himalayas and plains of India to the south, and the Himalayas to the east and west.

"I was a bit tired to appreciate it all and it never sunk in until two days later," he says.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He returned to Nepal in 1997 and ran the Everest Marathon, taking him eight hours, because of the altitude and rough trail.

"Ninety started and I finished in the middle of the field."

In 2002, Gluckman experienced a "hostile" environment, running the Antarctica Marathon on the snow, ice and stones of King George Island in a time of 5h 20m.

To accomplish the feat of running a marathon on every continent, he ran the Frankfurt and New York events within seven days of each other in 2003.

"It was fairly hard - I ran them in four-and-a-quarter hours."

Earlier that year, he ran the Gold Coast Marathon in 3h 58m.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The adventurous Gluckman also tried an Ironman in Auckland in 1984 - 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km marathon. He completed the event in 12h 40m.

"I didn't do any more - it takes too much time training."

He will mix crossfit and running in his preparation for the World Masters Games in Auckland.

"I'm not over-organised. If you become a slave to a training schedule, it doesn't always work."

Gluckman ran his 100-hectare dairy farm at Matakana for 33 years, until he sold it and his herd of 240 cows last June. He kept one hectare and his house, and planned more adventures in his retirement, including taking in the World Masters Games in Kansai, Japan, in 2021.

"The way I see it, life is a journey, not a destination," he says. "I would like to keep running for another 10 years and if I can't run any more, then I will take up something else."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Formula 1

‘Who the hell was that?’: Lawson taken out on first lap at Silverstone

06 Jul 02:20 PM
Sport

'A nice marlin': Kiwi skipper makes history with $2m fishing triumph

06 Jul 07:33 AM
All Blacks

'They all stepped up': Robertson celebrates debutants but All Blacks eye fixes

06 Jul 03:00 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

‘Who the hell was that?’: Lawson taken out on first lap at Silverstone

‘Who the hell was that?’: Lawson taken out on first lap at Silverstone

06 Jul 02:20 PM

A collision ended the Kiwi’s British Grand Prix after just five corners.

'A nice marlin': Kiwi skipper makes history with $2m fishing triumph

'A nice marlin': Kiwi skipper makes history with $2m fishing triumph

06 Jul 07:33 AM
'They all stepped up': Robertson celebrates debutants but All Blacks eye fixes

'They all stepped up': Robertson celebrates debutants but All Blacks eye fixes

06 Jul 03:00 AM
Warriors outclassed by Roosters in NRLW return

Warriors outclassed by Roosters in NRLW return

06 Jul 02:30 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP