Compared to carrying 140kg of extreme body weight, Beerwah’s Reesha Lewis says running 100km of mountain trails — and smashing the record — was not hard.
The mum-of-two, who used to be severely obese, has stunned again by winning The Blackall 100, Queensland’s most iconic ultramarathon, which was staged on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.
Not only did she win, she smashed the long-time women’s record that has stood since the inaugural year in 2014 and was set by an Australia representative athlete.
To top off her already momentous achievement, Reesha did it all on her first-ever attempt at a 100km distance after last year winning the 50km only six months after taking up running.
But she says racing up and down the unforgiving mountain trails on the Blackall Range was nothing compared to the exhaustion of just trying to walk when she was badly overweight.
“I would remind myself (during the race) that this isn’t hard; I’d go back to my past and giving birth to Nevayah in the front seat of my car — that was hard,” she said.
“Walking up Ngungun at 140kg, that was hard — everything’s hurting, your knees are hurting, you’ve got so much weight on, you’re heavy, you’re sore, you’re puffed and you can’t breathe.
“(But now) I’m light, I’m running, you feel good, you can breathe, you feel healthy. This (running 100km) is not hard, this is what you train for…this is why you’re here.”
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Sunshine Coast News first shared Reesha’s amazing transformation story from overweight to ultra-fit last November after she came out of nowhere to win the 50km distance at the same event and follow-up with wins at subsequent 50km ultramarathons.
- Related story: How Reesha Lewis ate like a champion to lose 75kg
But she had never been tested over 100km and on Saturday she surprised even herself by streaking ahead of seasoned trail-runners who had been racing for years and had the benefit of coaching.
Reesha’s weight loss journey began around six years ago when she struggled to keep up with friends on a walk along her local Mt Ngungun trail. This upset her so much she began waking at 3.30am several times a week to tackle the climb.
As the weight began melting away from the regular exercise, Reesha changed her eating habits from grease and sweets to a predominantly vegan diet.
On Saturday, she ran the challenging Blackall course in 10.41.26, which was about 18 minutes faster than the record set in 2014 by Shona Stephenson, who at the time was ranked eighth in the world.
Reesha said her only desire ahead of the event had been to enjoy the day because compared to her old life, it felt fantastic to be able to run.
She said for many years when she was eating badly and gaining many kilos, she had completely forgotten how it was to feel healthy and strong.
But today she leads an extremely active life in which her special treat on her 35th birthday in September was to go out and run 56km with friends in the Gold Coast hinterland — followed by cake.
In the months leading up to The Blackall 100, it was anyone’s guess who would win the women’s event because of the incredibly strong line-up, which included another Sunshine Coast star Cecelia Mattas, a dental technician who had this year won Australia’s premiere trail race, Ultra-Trail Australia (UTA).
Of the contenders, Reesha was the only one untested over 100km and also the newest to the sport.
But despite the expectations of the trail-running community, Reesha said she blocked it all out to focus on “doing me”.
“I just wanted to have fun and I loved every moment of it. I felt like a little kid, high-fiving everyone, encouraging everyone,” she said.
“I thought ‘It’s going to be a long day, enjoy it and just take it as it comes’ and that’s what I did. I took the race out of it, because it’s 100km and anything could happen at any moment.
“Everything just fell into place and it was the perfect race.”
Reesha said she was still trying to wrap her head around the unforgettable day.
“When I got to the 80km mark it was sort of like an out of body experience. I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m moving so well, not that it was easy, but because it’s over a long distance I really felt like I was cruising the whole day.
“I didn’t gas myself, I wasn’t out of breath, I wasn’t huffing, I just felt like I could keep running.”
Nearly 900 runners from across Queensland took part in the annual event, which is now in its eighth year and includes 100km, 50km and 21km distances. The courses showcase the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk, taking in such sights at Kondalilla Falls and the Gheerulla Bluff overlooking Kenilworth.
The sold-out event had a record number of participants who packed out the township of Mapleton where the race starts and ends with the iconic ringing of the Blackall bell as every 50km and 100km runner crosses the finish line.
The event is hosted by Run Queensland, a trail-running events company founded by Brett Standring, from Glass House Mountains, which stages five other trail races on its annual calendar.
IN PHOTOS: The Blackall 100
