Ultra-running: Inside the mind of the woman who ran 1000km in 12 days

“I just have to take one step, one kilometre at a time… Ultra-running is a love-hate relationship,” said Natalie Dau, in a voice message she recorded somewhere along the eastern coast of Malaysia.

The 52-year-old had covered a third of her 1,000km run from Thailand to Singapore, and the going was getting tough.

“Today is the first time in four days I have questioned if I would actually finish this thing. I love the challenge of the sport, love the rawness of it all, but hate these low points. And they come often,” she said.

Natalie had to clock at least 84km a day – the equivalent of two marathons – to achieve her goal of finishing her run in 12 days.

Natalie is an ultra-runner – they race distances that exceed 42.2km, the length of a marathon. But she has not trained as an athlete all her life. She began racing only in her late 30s to get fitter.

While running has taken off globally, most data shows that growth in Western countries. Figures for Asia are hard to come by, although several countries in the region host popular marathons, such as Taiwan, Cambodia and Japan.

The challenge is finding more takers among non-professional athletes who, like Natalie, run for causes, often documenting their arduous runs on social media.

“Whether you come in first or last, it doesn’t matter. You’ve done something almost superhuman, something that 0.05% of the world’s population will never do,” she said.

But it takes a toll. She was sunburnt and exhausted from running for hours under the searing South East Asian sun. Her hip had started to seize up on the first day. On day three, she got a urinary tract infection.

She eventually crossed the finish line in downtown Singapore on 5 June, along with hundreds of runners who had come to support her on a weekday.

Clad in bright running gear, they ran through the city’s industrial estates in the early hours, just as daily-wage workers, with their backpacks and plastic lunch bags in tow, made their way to work.