‘My Body’s Used to It’: This Full-Time Lawyer Ran an Ultramarathon Every Single Day for 1,000 Days

Shannon-Leigh Litt occasionally listened to legal papers while running more than 31 miles before work. Because when your morning run takes six hours and your day job involves criminal law, some multitasking is understandably unavoidable.Kicking off on January 1, 2024, Litt decided to run an ultra every single day. Yes, you read that correctly. She even deliberately went an extra kilometer beyond Guinness's 50K minimum just to give herself some wiggle room. By day 1,000, the 47-year-old New Zealander had logged roughly 52,000 kilometers (32,311 miles) and secured the women's record for the most consecutive days running an ultramarathon distance.And a full-time job wasn't the only thing she was squeezing in. Litt continued entering substantially longer races throughout the challenge, including a 249K backyard ultra that lasted 37 hours. She even admitted the logic of racing those distances while maintaining her streak was somewhat questionable.A 200K race might ordinarily take about four weeks to recover from, Litt told Radio New Zealand (RNZ), which is a bit difficult to accommodate when you're still running another 50K every day. She admitted that entering those extra-long races was “probably a stupid thing to do,” especially knowing she'd have to get up and run again the next morning. “But I feel like my body's used to it.”Her original ambition was considerably smaller. Litt had wanted to attempt consecutive daily marathons until a friend convinced her that, given her ultrarunning experience, she might as well increase the distance. She initially targeted 250 days, enough to surpass the previous women's mark of 200.The streak also came at the expense of a spot at the 100K World Championships, which she'd finally qualified for after 14 years of trying.“I did want to beat the 200 days and certainly did not think I'd be going for all of this time,” she told RNZ. But once she'd passed that number, her thinking changed: “No, I'm gonna keep going.”Making it to 1,000 meant plenty of 1 a.m. starts, sometimes just three or four hours of sleep and running through everything from extreme heat to freezing conditions. Litt also battled severe flu three times this year.“It got a bit too much, so I decided to keep motivated just to change the times that I was running,” she told RNZ, explaining why she eventually began allowing herself later starts. With the milestone behind her, Litt plans to cut her daily mileage back to a marathon, at least for the time being. That's nine fewer kilometers than she's used to running, which, apparently, counts as easing up for her.But for all the hard work and incredible sacrifice involved, Litt told Guinness World Records that her favorite part wasn't actually the milestone itself.“The best part has been running with the community and being part of a big wider family of runners.”Find Your Next Running PlaylistSean Abrams was the Senior Editor, Growth and Engagement at Men’s Health. He’s a former hip hop dancer who likes long walks on the beach and large glasses of tequila. You can find his previous work at Maxim, Elite Daily, and AskMen.