Christchurch woman runs 10 marathons in 10 days dressed as a chicken

Hadani Woodruff after her final marathon. Photo: RNZ / Anna Sargent

A Christchurch woman has run a marathon a day for 10 days straight around Hagley Park to raise money for a mental health and addiction recovery charity.

Hadani Woodruff is a volunteer coach at Speed Freaks, an organisation that supports recovery through running and walking group sessions.

She said exercise and running helped her when she struggled with her own mental health, and she wanted to support Speed Freaks so it could help others.

Woodruff finished her final marathon on Monday.

She said she had run about 422 kilometres over the past 10 days and completed all the runs dressed as a chicken.

"I just thought it was funny, it's so ridiculous. It's really been spreading the message. A lot of the community have been coming in and giving us a hand and running with me through Hagley Park, people turning up with food, it's just been such an awesome experience."

Hadani Woodruff is a volunteer coach at Speed Freaks. Photo: RNZ / Anna Sargent

Woodruff said she had prepared for the mammoth running effort.

"I run quite a lot so about six days a week, do some gym training and strength training and overtime building that up so you can handle more and more distance."

Woodruff said she had always disliked running, but found that it changed her life.

"With my own experience of mental illness as an adult, I struggled a lot managing that, and eventually I discovered exercise and running which I absolutely did not like normally, so I gave it a go and it made such a difference with my outlook and my confidence, self-esteem.

"It changes everything in a lot of different ways, and I really wanted to spread the word and support other people going through their own struggles and helping them get through.

"[Speed Freaks] supports people in recovery and people with experience of mental distress and we use running, walking and connection and community to get people together. It makes such a difference in people's lives."

Givealittle page

for Woodruff's 10 marathons has so far raised more than $7200.