He was also ‘‘pretty shattered, pretty sore’’ afterwards.
The Dunedin man ran 245.5km in 24 hours at the weekend during an ultramarathon festival in Christchurch.
‘‘It would have got me the world record six months ago for an old bugger,’’ Mr Bayne, 61, said yesterday.
That 60-plus mark was pushed out at the world championships in October last year.
Mr Bayne believed his own effort was the farthest run by a New Zealander in any age-group in a ratified 24-hour event in more than 30 years.
He had to go deep into his ‘‘pain cave’’ to achieve it — the last quarter was particularly difficult.
‘‘Everything is screaming,’’ he said.
‘‘Just continuous running with a couple of little 20-to-30-second walks just to break things up to promote a wee bit of muscle recovery,’’ he said.
‘‘I'm pretty good in terms of staying positive and staying focused. I think a degree of stubbornness certainly helps.’’
Mr Bayne is a former New Zealand representative rower. He ran marathons in his 30s and 40s, then started doing double-marathons and beyond.
He had a competitive drive ‘‘burning away, and it doesn’t seem to wane as I’ve gotten older’’, he said.
‘‘I think it’s probably got worse.’’
The event at Hagley Park was a six-day festival, meaning other athletes ran for several days.
Mr Bayne started on Saturday at 2pm and finished on Sunday at 1pm, after daylight saving had finished.
‘‘I don't know if there's a lot of enjoyment in the actual doing of the race but, afterwards, you get on a helluva high, that's for sure,’’ he said.
Once he gets past the pain, that is — hamstrings, shoulders, chafing, blisters — ‘‘my core’s pretty toast’’.
‘‘Not too bad, though.’’
Mr Bayne said full recovery would take about a month, but he planned to go for a light run in the next day or two.
