Dunedin ultra trail runner Glenn Sutton has set the bar for runners on the Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail.
Mr Sutton (42) arrived in Oamaru just after 6am yesterday after 45 hours and 29 minutes running the 301km from Mt Cook to Friendly Bay. His was the first known attempt at a continuous run of the length of the trail.
The run, purely for personal achievement, left him feeling "pretty pumped, just thinking 'wow, what happened there'.''
"As strange as it seems, it went pretty quick; it was a bit of a blur,'' he said.
"There's just so much happening all the time - it was just fantastic, it really was.''
Mr Sutton was at home with his feet up on the couch when he spoke to the Otago Daily Times yesterday afternoon.
He spoke about the scenery along the way, the colours coming down from Lake Pukaki, the stillness of Lake Ohau, but he also talked about hitting the wall and pushing through it and the help he had along the way.
"Exhausted'' at Sailors Cutting on Lake Benmore, he jumped in the back of his support van and closed his eyes for about 20 minutes for a "recharge''.
"It was about 18 hours into it and I just crashed. I needed to have a wee power nap to get myself back on track again.''
It was 12km after Omarama where doubt crept into his mind, and he thought it might have been too ambitious a plan.
"I must admit when I got to the halfway point, which was Omarama, 156km, I was sort of saying to one of the boys ‘I don't know where I'm going to get 150km more from'.
"You've come all this way, but you've still got to go all this way again. You're only halfway through.
"But we broke it off into stages - there are eight sections on the track itself - and we just knocked them off one by one.''
The final section, in the dark, early yesterday morning, got "a bit crazy'' and tested his mental toughness, he said.
"Nearing the end, it was so close, but yet it was still so far away. That last section, or 55km, I'm not sure how long that took; we're talking hours. But it was just like ‘We're getting there, but it's bloody slow'.''
For Mr Sutton, it was the support he had on the trail that helped him push through.
About 20 friends and family members supported him, running or cycling beside him.
"It was pretty cool, eh,'' Mr Sutton said.
"And that happened through the duration of the run and kept me going.''
"I ran it, but also relied on a lot of friends and family to give me a hand. If it wasn't for them, it wouldn't have been possible. It was really cool to suck in those people and get them to experience what I like, what I am so passionate about.''
