Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason nine
from Newstalk zb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
An Auckland City Hospital. Doctor has achieved an incredible feat
by completing a self supported ultra marathon on all seven
continents in just one year. In twenty twenty four, doctor
Inneodomatty completed eight races in eight countries Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, Peru, Mongolia, Romania,
(00:33):
the United States and Antarctica, across all seven continents. Each
ultra marathon was around two hundred and fifty kilometers and
took five to six days to complete. Doctor Anyodomatty joins
US now, congratulations on this incredible, incredible feat. I guess
the obvious first question is why.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Ah, that's a very good question. It was a bit
of a combination of I was raising money for a
scholarship that we're starting to help with school kids to
get motivated to partake in sport and tertiary education. Then
the other reason why was I was turning fifty, so
I'm getting old.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
What better way to celebrate bringing up a milestone birthday
like that than doing this. So let's talk about the
logistics of it. The scheduling of it. First of all,
did you I mean, were you? You were obviously confident
that you could fit them all into one calendar year,
but were there any logistical challenges?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It was a logistical nightmare, Like we actually managed to
get all races done in ten months in the end,
but people would cancel races, you know, and then would
have to find another race on another on the same
continent and try to work it with other ones occasionally,
like the worst I had was one rest I came
back from I literally got back to New zealand had
(01:55):
a day, had to repack all my gear, swap it out,
and was back on the plane again the next day.
So yeah, it was pretty tight.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So I want to come back to the shedge. But
in terms of recovery, because how long would recovery for
one of these races normally be. I wouldn't imagine that
one day is the ideal recovery. What is the what
is the normal recovery time after one of these?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Really realistically normally after a big race like that was
the amount of you know, of course you play. I
guess for one a bit of term, you're looking at
about three months, I guess. So you know, turning around
and having like two weeks to be start and as
we're traveling between. It's not the best ma.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It's not, but obviously you you factored all that in
the the one in Antarctica. I think I read that
that only happens every every other year. So if you
didn't do it this year, you would have had to wait
for a couple of years.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Correct, it was the big one. You know. It's like
if I, if I messed up at a race this
year and couldn't finish it, then I had to wait
like another two years.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
When you look back, which one was the hardest?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh, I think the one in Libya and Africa. Unfortunately,
in the first race of New Zealand, I caught COVID
on the last day and so I sort of turned
around in the movie are and it got up to like,
you know, fifty degrees in the heat. So I was
pretty suffering. So that was probably the biggest physical toll.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Because I guess across the continents, depending on the time
of year and all that sort of thing, you came
up against different different weather, different climatic sort of conditions.
Do you prefer the heat, do you like it when
it's a bit cooler. What's your preference?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
No, I I like the cold. I loved Antarctica. You know,
only in Antarctica is made for like short, stocky people
like myself. You know, it's cold, the wind outing or
the really sney you know, runner athlete, all that will
get going around, so it works in our favor.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So these are self supported ultra marathon. So were you
basically buy yourself the whole time?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I read a lot from myself, but the self supporter
side comes into like you have to carry everything you
need on you in your back for the six day,
so all your food, your sleeping bag, everything like that,
and they just provides you overnight with ten ten water allowance.
I've got a really weird running style, so nobody sort
of runs with me for long, so that's quite good.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
What's weird about your running style?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Oh, I've got really short legs, and I think I
run as fast as some people walk at times, and
the big, tall, lanky people.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So actually for these, for these races, you're probably taking
you know, twice as many steps as somebody else is
doing it.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Probably, you know, I probably weighed twice as much as
some of them, as well, but it's all good. It
happens with the endurance side of it.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So how do you split it up? Any do you across?
Do you divide the kilometers evenly across the days? Are
there certain days you run more k? How does it?
How does it work?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So typically they run about on the same format, so
you run roughly marathon a day, and there's a time
cut off that you have to make, and then they
totally have a long stage where they sort of double
it up, so you might be running eighty to one
hundred k's and that can go overnight. If you're quick enough,
you almost get a whole day off before the final
sort of sprint days to finish.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And in terms of sleep, how many hours of sleep
are you're getting per night on average?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Well, I think I'll probably get more than when I'm
working as an emergency tells the truth? You know, before
you've got to do, is you wake up for a run,
eat and have a bit of a sleep. No, I
sleep quite well, intense I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I imagine after doing the case during a day, it
wouldn't take much to nod off in a race of
this length, in a two hundred and fifty kilometer run,
which are typically the hardest kilometers.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well, I think the early days and that's when most
people will or quit because you haven't really invested much.
And every time you start a new race, it's like
your body hurts. And then come about day three, my
brain just tells the body to shut up and get
on with it. So I usual to get better as
(06:08):
the days go on.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So how did you get the ultra marathon bug.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It was a little bit through my dad, really, Like
I sort of I hurt my back quite barely in
my thirties through work looking on the chop, the service
and the and then just sort of gradually got into running.
And my dad was always into like running. So one day,
you know, the priceless earthquakes, he signed me up or
he told people I was going to run ultra marathon
(06:36):
to raise money for charity. And that was the first
one and it sort of just took off from there.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And because I guess people get the running bug, right,
they do and they run. They might run a ten k,
they might run a half marathon, they might run marathons.
The ultra marathon just seems to me to be an
entirely different commitment all together. And where do you train,
Did you manage to train at all? Or was it
just race to race to race?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yes, my training was actually done in twenty twenty three.
I guess I spent a lot of time in the
gym some what it's on purposes and muscle and running
long back to back runs on the weekends, or you know,
I could get off work and then last year you're
really just recovery between races. You don't really need to
train if you're doing that many runs, You're just trying
(07:22):
to rebuild enough to get back into the next one.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Where does your mind go during these runs? Do you
solve the problems of the world? Do you do you
do you play music? Where does your mind go during
these races?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But yeah, sometimes I have little epiphanies and sort of
I have to quickly think about jotting them down about
you know, fixing the healthcare system, things like that. But
mostly I don't listen to music. I like to switch off.
I get sort of bombarded with you know, questions and
all that sort of stuff every day all the time.
(07:54):
So I like to switch off and go to my
own little space and maybe have a bit of a
chat with some of the other runners. And you know,
learn about why they're doing it as well, and that
sort of helps with other things I'm trying to organize. Yeah,
it's sort of sometimes I'll run in case whatever. You
don't even know it because you've just switched the brain off.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Incredible, incredible. So what does twenty twenty five hold for you?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Well, at the moment, I think now that all the
big races are over, my body is sort of in
that it sore and it's wanting to recover a bit.
It's going to be a busy start of the year
because I'm getting married and I've got one more race
to do to try to set another record, and then
hopefully the second half of the year will just be
lounging around it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, you've earned it. What's the what's the race you
have to do to and what's the record that you're
looking to set with us next one?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Oh well, there's a four deserts race series run by
Racing the Planet, and so I was the first New
Zealander and so far the ownly New Zealanders do all
four in a year of those. But if I finished
the next race in March is a group of us.
There's a few of us that if we all finish,
will be the first to do it twice, and that
(09:08):
is that.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
One amazing and then marriage It'll be a breeze after
all of this.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I've been told that I have on s screen to
the shop at the winning of a bird face I'm
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You will be in trouble. That's very good advice from
whoever gave that to you. And he's been such a
such a delight chatting to you, mate. Congratulations on this
incredible feat of mind over matter and of physical resilience. Mate,
just terrific. It's been been awesome to get the chance
to chat to you.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Thank you very much and you have a good new year.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You have a good new year too, any here, doctor
Enniodo Matti. There eight races and eight countries, and not
just races, ultra marathons self supported on all seven continents
in just one year. Remarkable.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
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