Broome’s Sarah Ludowici tackles World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Austria

The trailblazing athlete who made history as the first woman to win the Broome Marathon, recently embarked on another extraordinary challenge by participating in an ultramarathon in Austria.

Sarah Ludowici, who clinched the title at the Broome Marathon last year, competed in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships held in Austria from June 6 to 10.

The ultramarathon event sees up to 1400 athletes from more than 60 nations compete in the heart of the Austrian Alps over four days of competition in four different events — uphill mountain running, classic up and down mountain running, short trail and long trail.

Competing in the long trail event, Ludowici took on the massive 86km ultramarathon which included at least 6km of elevation gain.

But after about 45km, the elite level runner decided to stop and keep herself in good shape to tackle another upcoming running event.

Reflecting on the experience, Ludowici said the event was one of the must challenging she had ever undertaken.

“I’ve been running for 10 years now and this was probably one of the hardest, most mentally challenging runs that I’ve done,” she said.

“It was a brutal event. My knees started to niggle. and my iliotibial band started to flare up on the dissents and I knew that I probably wouldn’t have been able to walk at the end of it.”

“I didn’t push through to finish just for the sake of finishing because I’ve got another race in August so I stopped early in order to recover, train better and be more prepared for the next race.”

Ludowici is now preparing to take on her next ultramarathon event, the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc, from August 28 to September 1 this year which will see her tackle tens of kilometres of mountainous terrain.