Shannon-Leigh Litt has been running an ultra-marathon a day since January and is confident she has broken the Guinness World Record.
Shannon-Leigh Litt has been running an ultra-marathon a day since January and is confident she has broken the Guinness World Record.
She may have unofficially smashed the Guinness World Record for running the most consecutive ultra-marathons, but Northlander Shannon-Leigh Litt isn’t about to stop there.
The Whangārei criminal defence lawyer set out on her epic mission on January 1 with the aim of beating previous world record holder Candice Burt, from Colorado, who ran 200 ultra-marathons in 200 days, finishing in May 2023.
As of August 29, Litt had completed 242 ultra-marathons and aims to complete 300 – including the final ultra around the Hatea Loop - by Labour weekend in October.
“I’m going to keep going and take it day by day,” she said.
An ultra-marathon is defined as any race that is longer than the marathon distance of 42.2km.
Litt is doing at least 51 km a day.
Litt, a previous New Zealand record holder, was accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records to attempt the ultra-marathon-a-day project last year.
Her first ultra was in Whangārei on January 1, and was followed by runs in Kerikeri, Rotorua, Hamilton, Mount Maunganui and the Dome Valley trail in Warkworth.
In February she ran the Tarawera ultra trail in Rotorua, where she was the fourth-finishing female, then headed overseas and ran ultras in Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Dubai and Austria.
“The body’s holding up ok, I feel like I’ve got stronger since I’ve been doing this,” Litt said.
“But it’s fickle; some days I’m on top of the world, other days it’s really tough and I want to give up and I’ve got sore quads [quadriceps].
“I’ve been really tired, sometimes I haven’t slept a lot, at the weekends I do sleep banking of around 10 hours a night.
“I’m trying to make sure I’m eating and fuelling for the next day and have enough energy.”
Shannon-Leigh Litt was fourth female in the Tarawera ultra trail in Rotorua. Photo / Sportograf
Litt said there have been extreme challenges along the way including running in 35-to-40-degree heat in Dubai, and nearly getting hypothermia during an 85km mountain race in Austria when she got caught in bad weather.
“It was raining, the weather was treacherous, I got wet under my rain jacket.
“My warm clothes were 20km away, so I had to spend time in the ambulance where they checked my temperature and said if I was going downhill to drop out of the race.
“I knew it was touch and go - that was one day that nearly derailed me.”
Highlights have included running her personal best around the 400metre track at the Asia and Oceania track champs in April.
Though there were lots of rules she had to follow to break the world record, she was “confident I have the record”.
She will submit all her data and video footage, along with evidence from 300 witnesses, when she has finished.
“It takes them a couple of months before it’s made official.
“I’m pretty confident I’ve followed the rules.”
Litt encourages anyone who wants to run with her for a while to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering roading, lifestyle, business, and animal welfare issues.
