Ingrid's marathon bet

Photo: NEIL DUDDY

LONG HAUL: Ingrid Frost is preparing to do her 102nd marathon.

Relevant offers

Sport

Plan to combat violence Taking it to the Aussies Soccer clubs rejig Racers seek Ferrari speed Deaf and determined Touch rugby pioneer dies Cribb lends a hand Round the Bays draws 72,000 Wallis surfs his way to national win Fun runners go the extra mile

Ingrid Frost is preparing for her 102nd marathon - and it's all because she lost a couple of bets.

Ten years ago she and her partner Peter O'Malley bet on who could run a marathon.

Injury stopped him doing it but she kept going and soon the next bet was whether she could run 40 marathons before she was 40 years old.

"I went to 50 marathons in 2006 and just carried on," she says.

The Papatoetoe resident hit the golden 100 mark at the Auckland Marathon on November 1 - which she says was "really overwhelming but a great pleasure" - and she kept charging on.

She completed her 101st last weekend at the Southland Marathon in Invercargill. Now she's preparing for the Three Bridges Marathon in Wanga-nui on December 12. That preparation involves running 60km a week, which means over 10 years she's clocked up about 30,000km in training.

Ms Frost says the thing she enjoys most about running is the freedom.

"It's a relief to just get out there and be free. It's a real high."

And she can't see herself stopping any time soon.

"I won't do as many but I'd like to get faster."

Her personal best is three hours, 16 minutes - she'd like to shave even a few minutes off that.

"But age is against me - the older you get, the harder it is to get better times."

Neither Ms Frost's 21-year-old son nor Mr Malley are runners and her sporting activity as a child amounted to "chasing boys at school" so she had to look elsewhere for advice.

"My best advice to budding runners is to join a club. The best thing I ever did was join the Auckland YMCA because they do a structured build-up which really helps."

And YMCA is the only logo she sports when she competes.

"I do it all off my own back and with the support of family and friends."