Cam Bulot, 38, who’s originally from France, did the 100-miler last year, but it didn’t go to plan — she got injured and had to shuffle to the finish-line.
She’s hoping to finish between 27 and 30 hours, and will be met at the 120km mark by her pacer, another local, experienced runner Corinne Fournier.
‘‘She’ll be my moral support for sure.’’
Rob Lewis, 29, who’s originally from the UK, will also be out for redemption after having ‘‘a terrible experience’’ during Tarawera’s 100km run last year.
He’s also twice run 100km in the Arrowtown Backyard Ultra but never a 100-miler.
‘‘I just wanted to push myself a little more and see what this 100-mile malarkey is all about.’’
He’d like to finish under 26 hours ‘‘but obviously it can all change on the day’’.
Kerryn Stewart, 46, is also a first-time 100-miler, but did complete just under 140km in a 24-hour race in Invercargill last June — albeit on the flat, whereas this weekend’s run has almost 4000 vertical metres.
With the cut-off time at 36 hours, she’s aiming for 34 hours and will also walk up the hills.
She’ll met by her pacer, Arrowtowner Mike Kerr, at the 120km mark — ‘‘he’s gonna make me up some dehydrated mashed potato and bacon’’.
As to why she’s tackling this distance, ‘‘everyone says you need to have a why, but I crazily can’t think of why I would want to do it ’cos it’s so hard’’.
‘‘I think it’s just being able to prove to myself I can do something so hard most people can’t do it.’’
Former Englishwoman Bethany Rogers, 35, is also a first-time 100-miler, though she completed 100km in the 2024 Arrowtown Backyard Ultra.
She’s hoping for under 30 hours and has a local pacer, Dave Pearson, who’s done the run before.
‘‘He offered to pace me because he enjoyed it so much and he wants to make sure I had fun too.’’
She says the run’s really a mental challenge in the same way her ice swimming is — she competed in the world ice swimming champs in Italy just over a year ago.
Rogers says she and these other runners train with the Arrowtown Ice Breakers Run Club who meet for long runs around Arrowtown every Sunday.
Legend has it it got its name when on one freezing day runners had to smash ice to get off the hill.
