Blaxland's Heidi Rickard had a summit to tackle last month and she did it.
Competing in the Gone Nuts 101 km Tasmanian running adventure from Stanley to Wynyard on February 29, she surprised herself by being the seventh person to cross the finish line - and the first female.
"I didn't know that I'd won, it wasn't until about a metre before [the end] ... because I started in the dark under headlamps ... it was a real mental challenge ... it was good not to know [my placing]."
Rickard said the run "was on my bucket list". She has holidayed there many times. Rickard finished the event in north west Tasmania in 13 hours, 53 minutes and 18 seconds.
The event starts with a lap up and around Stanley's The Nut - where the runners battled a flock of muttonbirds and it then traversed the Rocky Cape National Park, finishing around volcanic monolith Table Cape. The last 25 km of track includes private land not accessible outside race day.
Rickard, 46, has been running since she she competed in the 3km cross country at Springwood High. She moved on to triathlon, ironman and marathons.
"We don't get faster as we get older, but we can run for longer, " she said.
Training for the event had proved challenging because of the bushfires, so she had done "a lot of road running along Hawkesbury Road".
Rickard is also the proud mum of former St Columba's College student Breanna Tarrant who has just started her professional football career, after being picked to play for Melbourne Demons with the AFLW late last year. She missed her daughter playing in the AFL bushfire fundraiser event, but watched it on TV from her hotel room. When Tarrant's teammates asked where her mum was, her daughter replied: "she's crazy, she's running, she's literally Gone Nuts".
Apart from a few cuts and blisters on her feet, she was back to swimming and bike riding days later.
The male winner Drew Beswick crossed the line in 11 hours, 15 minutes, 48 seconds.
