Glenn Sutton on track for "the world's toughest foot race"

24-hour run sets Glenn Sutton on track for "the world's toughest foot race": the Badwater 135

"My goal was to run for 24 hours and I achieved that without any injury so I am happy," smiles the laidback cabinetmaker from Dunedin.

Glenn Sutton's 24-hour non-stop run around Dunedin's Anderson Bay inlet was part of his training and fund-raising for the 2015 edition of Badwater 135 – a 217km running event held from California's Death Valley to the Mt Whitney portal.

It's called "the world's toughest foot race" for good reason: temperatures in Death Valley soar to 50°C with ground temperatures as high as 80°C. To top it all off he has to climb almost 4000m of vertical ascent during the race, which took him 36 hours to complete last year. He is the only Kiwi to be accepted into the event for 2015.

Sutton completed 127 laps of the Anderson Bay inlet – more than 209km – and was joined on nearly every lap by friends, family, supporters and those intrigued by his physical and mental endurance capabilities.

"I had work colleagues, friends, family, and nana even ran three laps," offers Sutton. "I didn’t get a chance to have any dark moments – it was unusual because I mostly run alone and often talk to myself, so to always have someone there chatting away was cool. One guy even did a lap in the nude and I met some people catching octopuses – they had 13 I think and kept coming back for more. The turnout was really humbling."

Sutton raised more than $1200 for his Badwater 135 journey.

"That’s quite overwhelming for me … it took a big team to make this happen – I just ran around while the team made it possible," he adds.

Joining him in California in 2015 will be his boss at Williams and Stevenson, Rob Cunningham, and his friends Bruce Adams and Mark Murdoch. They will perform a crucial role of keeping him fed, watered and below his heat exhaustion threshold during the race.

He finished the race in 33rd position overall in his first attempt in 2014 and learned a lot along the way.

“I know what to expect now, so that possibly makes it harder,” he laughs. “But I am wiser. I know a few tricks from running it last year and I’d like to better my time and place. I’m hungry for it.”

Sutton heads to Darwin on July 16 for a week of heat training before heading to LA where he will acclimatise to the heat expected to greet him on the start line in Death Valley on July 28.

Sutton has launched a Givealittle page to help fund his 2015 campaign: http://givealittle.co.nz/cause/badwater135/donations

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