Ultramarathoner plans to run on all five continents

At Auckland City Hospital, a doctor is on a quest to become the first person on earth to run a self-financed, multi-stage ultra marathon on all five continents - in a single year.

Dr Inia Raumati is aiming to raise 10 dollars per kilometre, totalling around $20,000, to support the athletes of the future.

Raumati has faced many challenges in his life, from emergency medical situations to army roles in Iraq with the New Zealand military. He is, therefore, well-placed to face the intense demands of ultra marathons. As a youngster, he first embraced running as a means of escape from real-world pressures, and eventually moved into ultras, running races across the Sahara, Atacama, Gobi and Antarctica, all in the same 12 months - a feat no other Kiwi had ever managed.

Now, Raumati aims to surpass these feats by running eight ultramarathons across every continent. While this may sound daunting, he finds his inner peace running along trails, through jungles and across deserts, in part because it offers a reliable disconnect from a stressful job.

Raumati is familiar with adversity, having run in 57C heat in the Namib Desert and facing off with bears in Romania. His ability to overcome these pressures he attributes to simply being aware, rather than any unique mental toughness.

Indeed, with the mission he has set himself, running eight ultramarathons on eight continents, the planning aspect has at times proved more complicated than the actual running, as it encompasses races in Queenstown, Peru, Namibia, Mongolia, Romania, the US, Australia and Antarctica.

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