Aussie teen Lucy Bartholomew holds her own among much more seasoned ultrarunners
The 18-year-old proves the adage if you're good enough you're old enough
At only 18, Lucy Bartholomew is an anomaly in ultrarunning. It's typically a sport for the older athlete, with runners tending to start in their 30s and peak in their 40s. Against the trend, Bartholomew ran 11 ultras before her 18th birthday.
She was the youngest runner in the 1,000-strong field taking part in the Asian Skyrunning Championships in Hong Kong earlier this month and finished sixth overall in the women's category in the 50km distance, with those ahead of her seeming a generation away. "I definitely felt like the baby," said the Australian. "I was sharing a room with Kasie Enman [eventual third-place finisher], and she is 35 - that's double my age."
I was so excited when I turned 18 [last year] as it meant I could stop pestering race directors to allow someone underage to race and finally accept bottles of wine as trophies
Last year her performance at the Skyrunning World Championship earned her the title of junior world champion (for 16- to 19-year-olds), and if her performance in Hong Kong is anything to go by, she looks set to gain the title for a second year. The sport essentially entails long-distance running in mountains.
This is her "gap year", but she won't be babysitting or working at a bar. Instead, she'll run some of the world's most treacherous ultramarathons as a sponsored athlete.
"I was so excited when I turned 18 [last year] as it meant I could stop pestering race directors to allow someone underage to race and finally accept bottles of wine as trophies," she beams.
Her foray into long-distance running began at 15. She would accompany her dad, also an ultrarunner, on his long training runs. Too young to drive to support her father in his first ultra in 2012, she instead ran from checkpoint to checkpoint - a distance of around 60km in one day.
"It was me, Google Maps and my two legs," she recalls. "I'd take the shortest route possible, or the bus where I could, and run from there."