Running any distance to represent New Zealand

Ever thought of running the length of New Zealand? In 2009 New Zealand Army Sergeant Alexander McKenzie has done the equivalent four times already and has no plans to stop just yet.

McKenzie has run more than 7000 kilometres this year as he trains to be one of the first New Zealand representatives at the 24 Hour Ultra Distance Commonwealth Running Championships at the inaugural event in Keswick, England in September.

McKenzie is one of only three athletes and the only male who has been picked to represent New Zealand.

Running up to 35 kilometres per day for training McKenzie has found a novel and inspirational way to train – do it for charity. Recently he featured in the ‘Big Night In’ Telethon where he ran over 200 kilometres in 22 hours on a treadmill.

“It was pretty crazy, the treadmill faced out into a path where all the BNI spectators were streaming past from right to left. It started to feel like I was on a ship and made balancing pretty hard,” says McKenzie.

This is not the first time McKenzie has used his intensive sport for good – earlier this year he completed a base-to-base run to raise funds for CanTeen, a charity close to his heart as his nephew was diagnosed with cancer early last year.

McKenzie ran continuously for 140 kilometres, starting out at Linton Army Camp and finishing at the old defence headquarters in Wellington with several town mayors joining him on route.

Though McKenzie says a mere 140km is still considered warm up territory.

“The current New Zealand record for an Ultra Marathon is 247 kilometres in 24 hours, that’s nearly six back to back marathons. Let’s just say that I’m hoping to give that a bit of a nudge at Keswick.”

As with so many of our athletes – there is a lot of talent and not necessarily a lot of money. Sergeant McKenzie was up in Auckland this week where he paid a visit to sella.co.nz, New Zealand’s largest free online auction site.

As a key sponsor of the ‘Big Night In’ sella shared some space with Sergeant McKenzie at the event and were particularly impressed with his efforts.

“We were all absolutely exhausted simply by being at the telethon for 24 hours, this guy ran the whole time,” says Shane Bradley, founder of sella.

“We wanted to see if there was something we could do to support him – turns out he loves Mizuno shoes so we talked to the guys and have tee’d him up with a couple of pairs of his favourites.”

These are no average shoes, McKenzie has been known to wear a pair of shoes out in less than three weeks yet with a pair of Mizunos on his feet he has clocked up to 1300KM before they have gone bust.

“It’s just a little thing but an important one,” says Bradley.

“Every dollar counts for so many of our athletes who have to fund themselves to get on the world stage, and seeing as Sergeant McKenzie has spent so much of his time raising funds for others it was the least we could do.”

 Visit sella at www.sella.co.nz