When Turia Pitt was 24 years old, she felt she’d gone from having her entire life ahead of her to becoming a “real loser.” Pitt had always “prided [her]self and drawn a lot of [her] self-belief from [her] athletic ability.”
But in 2011, as she was running the 100K Kimberly Ultramarathon in Australia, she got caught in a brushfire. The flames surrounded her, and three other runners, making it difficult for emergency workers to save them. “It was so surreal, it felt like a nightmare, and we had to wait four hours for help to come,” Pitt recalled.
By the time Pitt and the other runners were rescued, she suffered from third-degree burns over 65% of her body.
When she woke up later in the hospital, she could barely see any of her body because it was completely covered by bandages.
Pitt initially spent six months recovering in the hospital, but would ultimately spend a total of 864 days in the hospital undergoing physical therapy and over 200 surgeries, including many skin grafts, some amputations, and other reconstructive procedures. After getting burned, most of her fingers had to be amputated, and her nose was rebuilt by taking skin from her forehead.
She remembered, “Doctors told me I would never run again and that was a massive moment for me.”
Over time, Pitt had lost the fit and healthy body that she’d spent so much time and effort building. She could barely sit up in bed by herself, and once she left the hospital, she and her partner had to move into their in-laws’ home because after all of this – Pitt had also lost her job.
“I didn’t have a job, and we were on benefits. I felt like my life had gone from this massive high to this all-time low,” Pitt said.
But she refused to let these hardships define her.
Pitt spent every day out of the hospital completing physical therapy and building her strength, counting out steps and feet until she could build up her strength to go further distances.
A year and a half of training later, Pitt finally accomplished what the doctors told her she’d never be able to do: complete an Ironman.
Pitt finished 137th out of 263 women, and has plans to complete the Ironman again next year. “When I came down the finishing chute—that is an experience that no amount of money can buy because it is a culmination of hours of training and all the sacrifices you’ve made,” she explained.
