Constable Bethany Fuzzen describes herself as a “daydreamer”. A quality she exploits while running in extreme, long-distance events. In fact, she incorporates a mental strategy called the pain cave.
“You just picture yourself in a cave…It's not a happy place, but it's the pain place where you hang out and you kind of just make it your own,” said Fuzzen.
She used the tactic during the River’s Edge Ultra Marathon. Fuzzen took on the most difficult portion of the race and began training during her maternity leave after giving birth to her son Xavier.
“I ran a hundred kilometres in 14 hours and 58 minutes.”
Fuzzen was the top female and finished third overall. Much better than expected according to Fuzzen.
“The main goal was to just finish the race…The adrenaline kicked in, so I didn’t really realize the pain I had caused myself until I got into bed that night.”