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Runner combines love of Ipswich and ultramarathons

Inspirational Ipswich runner Jacqui Bell is the youngest person in the world to complete ultramarathons on all seven continents but as the COVID-19 pandemic has shut most of the world down this year she has turned her sight homeward and will explore her own back yard.

Ms Bell will be running 161km along the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, the longest rail trail in Australia, in one go starting at 3pm on Wednesday, 12 August and finishing on Thursday, 13 August.

For an ultramarathon runner who has run through seven deserts in the last couple of years covering 1,850km and losing 10 toe nails, an easy 161km through the Brisbane Valley’s bushland, farming forests and towns shouldn’t be too challenging.

Except she will be running the race all at once and will be doing so completely unsupported as she aims to set the Fastest Known Time Unsupported for the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.

That means she will need to carry everything needed from start to finish including water and food and she will not have anyone running alongside to pace her for support.

Ms Bell will be crossing the finish line at Riverlink Shopping Centre near the Reject Shop between 12noon and 3pm on Thursday and the community can head along to support her as she runs in from the equivalent of four marathons back to back.

About the trail

The trail follows the disused Brisbane Valley rail line that runs from Wulkuraka in Ipswich to Fernvale before looping west to Lowood before continuing north to Coominya, Esk, Toogoolawah, Moore, Linvale, Benarkin and Blackbutt before arriving in Yarraman which is in the Toowoomba locality.

Ms Bell will start at Yarraman at 3pm on Wednesday, 12 August and run overnight finishing up the official run at Wulkuraka on Thursday, 13 August before heading to Riverlink Shopping Centre for the community to cheer her across the finish line.

She is aiming to complete the run in about 20 hours which would put her at Riverlink Shopping Centre from midday onwards.

Ms Bell grew up in Ipswich and attended Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School.

“Some of my favourite places to run in Ipswich are Limestone Park and River Heart Parklands,” she said.

“I was very competitive in school and I have some fond memories of the cross country at Limestone Park.”

Ms Bell said Ipswich was a great place for families.

“It is a great place to grow up, everyone is down to earth,” she said.

“It’s like Brisbane but on a smaller scale, everything costs half as much, there is no traffic jams and you don’t have to wait in line.”

Ms Bell works as a personal trainer but noticed during the pandemic that she had begun to get a bit too comfortable.

“All of my international races were cancelled this year and I found I wasn’t jumping out of bed each with a purpose, not as focused as I like to be normally,” Ms Bell said.

“I had to go back to the drawing board as all of my plans got flipped on their head.

“I was looking for a trail and this one is great, and close to where I live.”

Running this kind of distance is a mental game as well as a physical one and Ms Bell explained the first few steps are the hardest.

“You learn to get pretty comfortable inside your own head,” she said.

“Being positive is important and limiting the amount of negative self-talk.

“If I find myself hitting a wall of some kind I remind myself that it is temporary and after five minutes of ignoring it, keep pushing, it passes and you find yourself in a better headspace.”

Ms Bell is an ambassador for the White Cloud Foundation which promotes awareness about depression.

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