NEW ZEALAND ultra runner Ruth Croft made headlines last year when she won the 85km Old Ghost Ultra outright, blitzing both the men's and women's fields in 7 hours and 31 minutes. This year, Ruth’s name was again in the spotlight when she achieved the same feat at the Tarawera Ultramarathon 102km race in 9 hours and 21 minutes.
The Kiwi runner, born on the West Coast but currently living in Wanaka, says she is proud to inspire other runners – women in particular – but does not like it when conversations about running treat it as a men-versus-women competition.
Ruth does think biology might play a part, though. Her own empirical experience during trail races shows that she paces herself better than most men, who tend to go “all out” right from the start.
“I always feel like a lot of males go out way too hard, and I find myself catching up to a lot of them in the second half of the race,” she says.
Besides better pace making, Ruth suspects that women are better at coping with pain, particularly over a longer period of time, as is the case in ultra events.
“I’m not sure on the biology side of things, but males haven’t been given the ability to give birth, so maybe we’re better at being able to cope with
