![\"Shannon-Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/shannon-leigh-litt-ran-in-nine-different-countries-in-a-vari-QGYF3G7ITNDJNKS4SJXR2JWILI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Whang\u0101rei woman has just completed her 1000th consecutive ultra marathon and is eyeing up becoming a Guinness World Record holder. <\/p>\n
Criminal defence lawyer Shannon-Leigh Litt ran 51km everyday for two years and nine months, through nine different countries and extreme weather events.<\/p>\n
“Different weather conditions made it quite tough,” she told Breakfast.<\/p>\n
“I was in a flood, I almost got hypothermia in Austria, extreme heat around up to 40C.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shannon-Leigh Litt ran in nine different countries, in a variety of extreme weather events. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Despite the length of the challenge, Litt said the nearly three years passed quickly.<\/p>\n
“I just got into a routine.”<\/p>\n
To fit the ultra runs around work, she often started between 1am and 4am.<\/p>\n
“Initially, the first 18 months or couple of years it was taking 5.5 to 6.5 hours, but the last few months I’ve had to allow eight hours to do it.”<\/p>\n
While her body remained strong, she said the mental challenge became harder towards the end.<\/p>\n
“I just wanted it to finish. I wanted to not have to do that 51kms every day.”<\/p>\n
![\"Shannon-Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/shannon-leigh-litt-ran-51km-everyday-for-two-years-and-nine-WCYSMI75DZFY3C2NWR4V3VYTRM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Shannon-Leigh Litt ran 51km everyday for two years and nine months. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
To meet Guinness World Records requirements, Litt had to stay within New Zealand’s 24-hour clock, even while travelling overseas.<\/p>\n
“I started at maybe like 6-7am on January 1 2023, I had to stay within that timezone, so if I’ve travelled, I have to get it done.<\/p>\n
“Like in Bali, for example, you have to finish at 8pm their time.”<\/p>\n
The previous record was held by Candice Burt from the US, who ran for 200 consecutive days.<\/p>\n
“Initially, I never planned to do the 1000 [days],” Litt said.<\/p>\n
“It was really when I applied to Guinness World Records a few months earlier … I applied for 250 days, but then decided to keep going.”<\/p>\n
While the challenge is officially over, Litt’s first “day off” on Sunday still involved running a marathon.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t actually a day off. I ran a marathon as a taper, and it felt so much shorter. I could go faster.”<\/p>\n
She said its hard to just stop after so long: “You can’t really go cold turkey.”<\/p>\n
Litt may even attempt another record break over the next few months. She said Guinness reached out about another marathon record they could verify.<\/p>\n
“That’s always tempting, but it won’t be past the end of the year.”<\/p>\n
“I’ll do a marathon for a couple of weeks, see how I feel, no pressure.”<\/p>\n
Litt said she is looking forward to a “complete change next year” with some new hobbies.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including terror close to a British air base, and an unlikely win for the Wallabies. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Whang\u0101rei woman has just completed her 1000th consecutive ultra marathon and is eyeing up becoming a Guinness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,1067,69,213],"class_list":["post-613870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}