Three Queenstown runners proved they have big tickers during a recent endurance race.
Brandon Purdue, Jub Bryant and Adam Keen were in the 15-strong New Zealand team competing with 36 other countries in the Backyard Ultra world team championship.
The teams had a simple mission — on the hour, every hour, run a 6.7km loop till you’re the last team standing with a minimum of two runners.
Competing at Auckland’s Puhinui Reserve, the NZ team finished a commendable 11th, its top runner, Sam Harvey, completing 46 laps over 46 hours, or 308.2km.
Purdue completed 34 laps (228km), Bryant, 32, and Keen, 26.
While pretty happy with his run, Purdue, who’s 41, says he was ‘‘a little disappointed’’ he only matched his personal best, set in Christchurch in July.
‘‘Every race you enter you want to improve on the last one, but, hey, there’s always next time.’’
Bryant, 34, says, possibly only half-jokingly, he missed out on a Speight’s at lap 30.
‘‘I was having one every six hours — that would have been my fifth Speight’s — and I dropped out two hours later, which says it all.’’
Keen, 39, who was the best-performed Kiwi team member in 2020, completing 35 laps, says it’s ‘‘awesome’’ the entire NZ team reached 24 hours, or 160km — one of only eight teams to do so.
Through his business, AerobicEdge, he also coached NZ’s second- and third-best runners, Scott Bougen (45 hours) and Johan Bergman (40 hours).
He says having to start at 1am, to synchronise with the American team, which started at 7am, meant the Kiwis drew the short straw.
‘‘I think I didn’t sleep for almost three days, but what a blast.’’
The championship was won by two Belgians who ran for 101 hours (676.7km), breaking the previous backyard ultra record of 90 hours.
