One woman. 150 marathons. 150 days.
Erchana Murray-Bartlett has just broken the world record for consecutive marathons in a row, all while raising over $120,000 for The Wilderness Society.
The determined 32-year-old marathon runner first began her journey in Far North Queensland in August.
After 6,330 kilometres, 10 pairs of shoes, and a whole lot of resilience, Erchana crossed the finish line in Melbourne last Monday, completing her goal in just under six months.
Watch: What does it take to be an Aussie sporting hero? Post continues after video.
On Wednesday, Erchana spoke about her incredible achievement on Mamamia's Here If You Need podcast.
"I’m so excited I’m not running today! The support is overwhelming. I haven’t really had time to process it yet," the 32-year-old said.
Across her 150 day journey, Erchana quickly learnt that it wasn’t just a case of running from point A to point B. And after an early scare on the trip, multiple plans were put in place to avoid her getting lost in the great Australian wilderness.
"I didn’t account for how remote it would be. I would go hours and hours without seeing any water source," Erchana shared.
"During the first stint, my parents were supposed to meet me 42 kilometres south, but they thought I would take a different path to what I did. I hitchhiked to where I thought they would be, but they weren’t there. I started to panic," she continued.
"In the end, it took about four hours of navigating and asking strangers to drive me to where I thought camp would be. By day four, I realised we needed to have a plan A, B, C, and D!
"We got flooded in a few times too, and at one point I got stuck in the same place, so I had to do three marathons on the same road back and forth just to keep the continuous streak."
Not only did it take extreme physical strength for Erchana to complete the distance. In fact, it took a level of mental toughness too.
Listen to Mamamia's Here If You Need below. Post continues after podcast.
"It was difficult. I had a lot of days where I would be crying in the first six kilometres because I had three or four hours left of running. I had techniques I would lean on, I had downloaded playlists to pick myself up, but then I got sick of those so I would move to a podcast," she shared.
"I learnt to be one with myself. I realised that negative thoughts will come, but they will also go, and to let myself feel them. I learnt a lot about resilience, and understanding patience in the face of extreme fatigue. It has definitely made me a stronger person."
A few months prior to Erchana completing her arduous journey, another Australian was completing his own mammoth achievement.
On October 17, 2022, Nedd Brockmann arrived at the Bondi promenade to a crowd of thousands after running almost 4,000 kilometres in 43 days from Perth.
Brockmann quickly became a household name, picking up 250,000 Instagram followers and raising over $1 million for Mobilise, a charity that helps those experiencing homelessness.
It goes without saying that both are remarkable achievements, but it begs the question: Why didn’t Australia support these athletes equally?
Erchana is cautious not to take away from Brockmann’s achievements, but admits it's hard not to notice the difference in support and media attention.
"I have so much respect and admiration for Nedd’s run. It’s a phenomenal effort, it’s such a mind blowing distance he was trying to accomplish every day and the amount of money he raised was astronomical," Erchana told Mamamia.
"You can see the difference, I don’t have to point it out. I just don’t know how to change it; I’m just trying to do the best I can. It’s not Nedd, it’s how it was received, how it was shared, how it was marketed. What he did is phenomenal. It’s society that was different. And the difference in support comes down to gender. It’s a complicated issue.
"I’ve been a passionate advocate for women in sport for a very long time. It’s hard as one person to change it, but I just wanted to go out and do it and show that it doesn’t matter what gender you are, you can do an incredible thing like this. Seeing me cross the finish line hopefully inspires a lot of young girls, or anyone, to accomplish something like this."
Feature Image: Instagram.
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