THE first Wings for Life World Run saw a Busselton local take out the top honour on Sunday night.
Laiosa Thuama who moved from Ireland six years ago took out the women’s title after completing 36.3 kilometres before the catcher car overtook her.
More than 500 runners took to the road in Busselton for the unique event which saw 50,100 people compete across 35 different locations.
Thuama not only won the Australian women’s title but finished 17th in the world for her category.
The global winner for the females was taken out in Norway with Elise Selvikvag Molvik running 54.79 kilometres.
Thuama admitted she was embarrassed to have all the attention on her when she did not make marathon distance.
“I consider myself lucky that so many people went in the Ironman the day before,” she said.
Thuama nearly fell over when a Red Bull worker rode up alongside her and told her she was in the lead.
“It gave me a huge mental boost- you could even say I was running with wings,” she said.
Thuama works in Bunbury and is a part of the Bunbury Runners Club who was well represented with more than 20 competitors on the night.
She said their support was amazing when she arrived back to the Red Bull event.
“They were all cheering for me, which was brilliant,” she said.
However, she said she would not have been able to keep going without her support crew who followed her in a car the whole way.
“They definitely kept me going, cheering me on and offering banana bread - they were unbelievable,” she said.
The unique concept of the event was what drew Thuama’s attention to sign up with everybody racing around the world at the same time.
With all the proceeds going towards finding a cure for spinal cord injury, made it that much more important to get on board.
“I couldn’t think of anything worse than not being able to run – it would be horrific,” Thuama said.
As the night went on we saw our male winner finish in WA man and ultra runner Dave Kennedy.
Kennedy reached 43.89 kilometres before the catcher reached him and finished 29th in the world.
The male global winner was Ethiopian Lemawork Ketama who ran an amazing 78.58 kilometres.
Thuama and Kennedy now get to choose anywhere in the world to race in the 2015 Wings for Life World Run.
