Barabara Fieberg, who once struggled to do 5km shows women how to go the distance later in life

A Western Australian long-distance runner set to compete at the world ultramarathon championships hopes she can inspire other women to take up the sport. German-born nurse Barbara Fieberg only took up competitive running after her 40th birthday, admitting she previously struggled to run around the block. She has now completed 24 ultramarathons and is in training to represent Australia at the world championships in Croatia in September. Competitors will race over 100 kilometres — the equivalent of more than two full marathons. Seven men and seven women will represent Australia in Sveti Martin, following paths used a century ago by Croatian farm workers who regularly went on 100km errands. Never too late to take up running,she said. Ms Fieberg never believed she would have been capable of achieving what she had in the sport. "It would be great if I could inspire anyone to give it a go and a try," she said.

posted Saturday July 28th