MR DURABLE
“If I’d won last year, I wouldn’t be here,” says Cody Reed cheerfully. The American ultrarunner, 28, is honest in his competitive intentions, while at the same time not taking things too seriously.
My usually shy 8-year-old happened upon him before I did at the Tarawera runners’ BBQ event, and somehow they both ended up walking around being chickens, with legs through t-shirt arm holes.
A strong previous effort scored Reed a second at Tarawera last year, about nine minutes behind fellow US runner Dylan Bowman.
“I was closing hard,” remembers Reed. “I think the gap was 15 minutes at some point and I hammered the last few miles but it wasn't enough. So unfinished business, definitely. I’m here to win.”
Reed first caught people’s attention as an
