Rodney Stevens
Aimee Pirie, who spent 14 years growing up in Yamba, recently completed the toughest challenge of her life, the Spartathlon in Greece, running the final 85km with a severely sprained ankle due to ‘inflammation from extensor tendinitis’, becoming the youngest Australian woman ever to finish.
Described as the world’s most gruelling race, the 246km Spartathlon runs over rough tracks and muddy paths, crosses vineyards and olive groves, climbs steep hillsides and, most challenging of all, takes the runners on the 1,200-metre ascent and descent of Mount Parthenio in the dead of night.
Yamba Pest Control owner, Aimee’s father Mark spoke to the CV Independent about his daughter’s incredible achievement completing the Spartathlon in a time of 35 hours and 10 minutes.
“Aimee was born in Cornwall, United Kingdom in 1996, we came over to Australia in 2010 and she became an Australian citizen in 2014,” he said.
“In 2020, Aimee moved from Yamba to Greece around the time that Covid hit, and she settled in Athens and met a guy, Walter Preston who was an ultramarathoner and fell in love with him and started the journey to become an ultramarathon runner.”
Mark said before 28-year-old Aimee, who has dual Australian and British citizenship moved to Greece, she was only a social runner who occasionally ran distances up to 5 or 10 km.
The day before the Spartathlon began on September 28, Mr Preston emailed the CV Independent from Greece to inform us of the potential for the first Yamba local to finish the event.
“The toughest road race in the world is happening tomorrow morning,” Mr Preston wrote.
“The race is the iconic Spartathlon where world record international athletes will be competing from around the world to finish the gruelling 246kms in hot and harsh conditions in under 36 hours.
“There have been, as far as I know, 3 women from Australia to complete this race since its start in 1983.
“Aimee Pirie who has been living in Yamba for 14 years with her family who settled there and are still residents there will be competing.
“We are hopeful she will be the fourth ever Aussie woman and the first ever Aussie from Yamba to complete this race.”
To prepare for the Spartathlon, Aimee spent the past 5 years training with Mr Preston, a seasoned ultramarathoner.
“Recently Aimee finished 3rd female for the Olympian Race in Greece which is 180kms and 5000 meters of elevation gain,” Mr Preston said.
“This November, after the Athens Classical Marathon run on the original marathon route from the 5th century BC, she will return to Yamba with her family to get her master’s in teaching.”
Mark said after completing 246.8km in 35 hours and 10 minutes, Aimee was the youngest ever Australian woman to complete the Spartathlon and the youngest ever British person to finish.
But trouble struck about 85km from the finish when she severely sprained her ankle, requiring a superhuman effort to continue, let alone finish.
“At about the 160km mark when she was running through the mountains, she severely sprained her ankle and she was praying that they would tell her to drop out, but still with 30 minutes to the cut off times, she forced herself to push through,” Mark said.
“She ran the equivalent of two marathons with a sprained ankle…it was just pure adrenaline that got her across the line.
“There were Olympians who ran the race that just could not finish, she went past a lot of very famous runners who have written books and competed around the world and they came up to her afterwards and said ‘Aimee what you have done is literally incredible to run in that heat with a busted ankle that distance and in that time’ …she has gained a lot of friends and is feeling very proud of herself.”
After she finished the race and was treated for her sprained ankle, Mark said Aimee sent him a text message expressing how excited she was.
“Wow, I’m so stoked,” Aimee texted.
“Youngest ever Brit to finish is mad and second youngest ever Australian, the youngest person was a guy who was born in 1997.”
Mark said it was incredible that Aimee was the youngest ever British citizen to finish the event.
“Which is crazy because the British have a big contingency for the Spartathlon, whereas the Australian’s only have maybe 10 or 20 people competing as opposed to the Brits who will enter 50 or 60,” he said.
“It was a hard enough race, but she had a heatwave, and it was 32 degrees on the day, so she ran in basically a heatwave which made it even more tough.
“No positions are awarded after fifth position because to finish that race is just so incredible, just finishing times are recorded.”
Mark said the family was excited for Aimee to move back to Yamba in November where she will work as a primary school teacher while competing in Australian ultramarathon events.