Rotorua's Jessica Bach, 21, has completed five different distances at the Tarawera Ultramarathon. Photo / David Beck
Rotorua's Jessica Bach, 21, has completed five different distances at the Tarawera Ultramarathon. Photo / David Beck
Every year, runners from all over the world come to Rotorua for the Tarawera Ultramarathon. However, this year it was a local who ticked off an impressive milestone.
If Rotorua's Jessica Bach sets herself a goal, you can expect her to achieve it.
The 21-year-old nursing student completed the 102km distance at this year's Tarawera Ultramarathon, which was impressive in its own right. The fact that it was the fifth different distance she has completed at the event is remarkable.
She first ran the 50km when she was 17 and has since completed the 42km, 62km, 87km and 102km.
"I joined Jogging the Powerpoles [a Rotorua fitness group] when I was 16. I did a little bit of running at school and at an athletics club but I hadn't done any long-distance running before then," Bach says.
"I met Kerris Browne, the coach at Jogging the Powerpoles, and saw the Facebook page with all they were doing - the long Sunday runs and the events and I thought 'I want to do that'. It's the social side as well, it gets you out, gets you talking with people."
She trained nine months for her first Tarawera Ultramarathon event, the 50km, and completed it in nine hours and six minutes.
"We kind of built up the kilometres every Sunday, I think my first run was 12km and then every weekend it was a little bit more. So it was two short runs during the week and a long one in the weekend.
"We wanted to get under 10 hours, that was the goal, so it was well reached. That definitely gave me the bug for running. You tend to forget the pain and only remember the good things so you keep coming back for more."
Despite completing longer distances since, she said that first 50km would always be the most special because that was when she proved to herself she could do something of that magnitude.
"The feeling whenever you finish is quite hard to explain. It's relief that you've done it but you kind of feel a little bit sad because you've had this big goal for such a long time and then you've done it so you wonder what's next. You almost don't want it to end.
"You tend to forget the pain and only remember the good things so you keep coming back for more."
"Once I'd done that first 50km I thought it could be a good goal to try and do them all. It is something I'm proud of. The first 50km was so new, it was a feeling I'll never forget."
She said the 102km a fortnight ago was "difficult".
"It's a very hard course, it's quite exhausting but it's beautiful as well, and the atmosphere, the support is amazing. For me personally, I take quite a while to get going. The first 30km was long forestry roads so it was a bit boring and because there's so much more to do I get into a bit of a negative head space.
"It is overwhelming but once you get to about halfway, you know you just have to get through the second half. The end of a race often feels better than the start for me, it feels more achievable.
Rotorua's Jessica Bach takes in the scenery during the Tarawera Ultramarathon 102km race. Photo / Supplied
"When I did the 87km I finished in the early hours of the morning so there wasn't really anyone around. This year I finished around 7am so people were actually up, the sun was up, which was nice. It took about 23-and-a-half hours."
Bach's love for exercise has not diminished. The Tarawera Ultramarathon organisers added a 100 mile (160km) race two years ago so she has added that to an ever-growing to-do list but has her eyes set on another event first.
"They've added the 100-miler now so that's another goal. I'd probably look to do that not next year but the year after because I want to do the Ironman next year.
"I enjoy the freedom of running, the fact that I can think and process the day while I'm running. It's my way of releasing my energy and my emotions from throughout the day, it just feels good."
