‘Maybe the suffering is the point’: what does it take to run 163km up and down a mountain? (opens in new tab)

Guardian Australia joins ultrarunner Joanne Walker in an excruciating race through the Blue Mountains, where men outnumber women four to oneSomewhere before the finish line the body starts to break down, Joanne Walker says.“The pain starts in your feet but before long it moves up to your knees and eventually you feel like you just can’t move your legs any more.” After 30 hours with no sleep, running alone through the cold darkness of the Megalong Valley, the brain can break as well. “At one p...