Wānaka’s ‘marathon woman’ Victoria Taylor has ended her consecutive daily marathons after being struck down with a bad case of influenza.

Victoria’s last run day - and her 498th consecutive daily marathon - was Monday July 29, leaving her just two days off her next target of 500.

“I’ve been badly knocked down by influenza,” Victoria said.

“I ran through Covid two months ago and that was hard.”

Victoria began running consecutive daily marathons on March 13, 2023 to raise awareness for mental health. At that time her goal was to break the women's world record of 151 daily consecutive marathons.

“The whole motivation behind it in the first place, I was doing it because a loved one died from suicide, so I was wanting to do it to raise awareness for mental health,” she said. 

“I figured if that happened to the nicest person I knew something needed to be done about it.

“The run went on a lot longer than planned … I was just taking it day by day. Sickness could have knocked me out at any time, I was aware of that.”

Victoria said her history in sports conditioned her both physically and mentally to manage the marathon challenge but it did come with many sacrifices.

“There was a lot of sacrifice to be doing it for that long,” she said. 

“I didn’t have time to be having a social life or anything, or spending extra money. I was too busy running.”

Carbohydrate-based foods like pasta were a staple in her diet and “quite a bit” of chocolate helped settle the sugar cravings.

Victoria said she set several world records during the 498-day effort, including the most consecutive daily marathons by a woman, the first woman to run consecutive daily marathons for a year, and the most marathons pushing a pram (on 221 occasions Victoria completed the marathon pushing her son in a pram).

“Running a pram marathon is hard,” Victoria said.

“The actual prep to make that happen to ensure Brax [her son] was happy and content the whole time I was running was just about as hard as running the marathon. 

“It was a mission.”

The next goal for Victoria is to complete her personal trainer certificate and she said she has been approved (by Guinness World Records) to run across Australia.

Read more:

• ‘It’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done’: Wānaka woman to attempt record-breaking run
• Wānaka woman's marathon effort

PHOTO: Wānaka App