Legendary runner ready to celebrate

Kiri Price works tirelessly to help abled and disabled athletes to succeed.

Inspiring athlete will tackle her 100th marathon next weekend.

Marathons are in Kiri Price's blood - her earliest memories include waiting for her father at various finish lines - yet the 47-year-old fitness instructor was a relatively late starter.

Price ran her first marathon when she was 29, after suffering a third miscarriage. "I stopped focusing on trying to get pregnant and instead concentrated on running a sub-four hour marathon in Rotorua."

Children began arriving shortly after, and it wasn't until she was 35 that Price ran another marathon. The following year she ran two more.

"I am very goal-driven so decided to run 10 marathons before I was 40, including London. My husband suggested that - since I was going all that way - I should run Boston on the way back. A travel agent mentioned Paris was the week before London.

"I was nursing a hamstring injury and people said I couldn't run three marathons in three weeks, which made me even more determined."

Price completed the three events in a combined time of less than 12 hours - and continued on her quest until an undiagnosed stress fracture led to complications. A doctor told her it was the end of her running.

"At first I was pretty depressed, then I got angry and sought a second opinion. I was told not to run for six months, then reassess.

"I ran in the pool for four months, had an x-ray that came back clean, and ran the Rotorua Marathon a week later with a friend who had just had a pacemaker fitted. We agreed to support each other as neither of us knew if our injury was going to hold up. My friend said, 'Well, you will know if mine lets me down!'."

In 2012, Price ran her 50th marathon in Auckland wearing a purple tutu, and raised $3000 for Women's Refuge NZ. The busy mum was coaching running at Get Running and AUT Millennium - and studying.

"I had contacted the 100 Marathon Club about a paper I was writing for my coaching qualifications. Suddenly, I thought:' I could do that'. I changed my goal to running 100 marathons before I was 50."

Price will run her 100th marathon on September 12, raising funds for the NZ Cancer Society and the Achilles Foundation. Achilles is a global organisation that supports disabled athletes to participate in mainstream athletics: the NZ chapter has been sending disabled athletes to the New York Marathon for 20 years under founder Peter Loft.

Price is a volunteer coach for the Achilles runners and will head to New York in November as team manager for the competing Kiwi athletes.

Achilles athlete and multiple sclerosis sufferer Nic Miller-Clendon attributes her return to running to Price: "I aspired to manage 5km when I set myself the goal of running again. Kiri told me to come along to Achilles and I would be able to run the New York Marathon. You only have to look into Kiri's eyes when she's telling you that you can do something and you will believe her. She exudes an aura of inspiration, and has given me the tools to get myself to New York."

Fittingly for a woman who relishes challenge, Price has chosen the Lydiard Legend Marathon to be her 100th. The events were devised with Arthur Lydiard before his death in 2004, and trace the footsteps of the famous coach and his proteges over gruelling West Auckland terrain. Price hopes at least 100 people wearing purple will join her over one of the four Legend distances.

Lydiard Legend Marathon

What: Marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km run/walk
When: Saturday, September 12
Where: Shadbolt Park, New Lynn, Auckland
For more information: http://thelegend.co.nz/