Claudia Raven made it her goal to run 21 half marathons before she turned 21

By the time she turned 21, Claudia Raven had run 21 half-marathons, and now she's on her way to running 2018 kilometers in 2018. Raven, who reached her milestone birthday on April 2, first picked up her running shoes in 2013 when her class at Sacred Heart Girls' College had to run the 21.1km distance. "It kind of freaked me out with how far it was," she said. She completed that first half-marathon in 1 hour 52 minutes.  "It took me 21 half-marathons to get to my PB again." She got back into running halfway through her first year at Auckland University of Technology, planning to run every day for a month. Then it became six months, and then a year.  Raven says running gives her a break from studying without being stuck in a gym. Raven's current goal is to run 2018 kilometers in 2018, which is 40km a week.

posted Thursday April 26th