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If you saw Amber Wood down at the shops, you’d think she was just like all the other mothers of teens grabbing some groceries - in a hurry, slightly distracted and looking a bit tired. In other words, just a normal person.

But while Amber might look like a normal suburban mum, in reality she’s someone who regularly achieves the extraordinary. Like running 100 miles - 164k - up one side of Mt Kosciuszko and down the other in the pouring rain, pausing for two hours as a thunderstorm passed overhead.

Or running 120k through the Dolomites at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Italy. Or taking on the 128k West Macs Monster in the heart of Australia. In fact, when I meet Amber and ask her to take me through her ultra running CV, she says she’s not sure she can remember all the races she’s run.

“I’ve done something like 10 100k races or something,” she says. When you factor in the two “milers” - 100 mile races - and dozens of other ultras longer than marathon length but less than 100k, it’s quite a record.

And this month she’s jetting off to run in the race she calls “the pinnacle”, the miler at the UTMB finals. These days UTMB is an organisation that runs more than 50 events all over the world. But the original remains the blue ribbon event - the 100 mile race at the Ultra-Trail Mont-Blanc - the race that gave the series its name.

It’s arguably the highest-profile ultra trail race on the planet, attracting the world’s best runners. The course is as savage as it is beautiful. It’s a full circumnavigation of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. And it’s tough. So tough, the cut-off time is 46 hours.

The race starts and finishes in the French ski resort of Chamonix, but the 1,500+ competitors will also traverse Swiss and Italian territory on the 174k course. When it comes to atmosphere, this race is next level. The crowds are huge. Think fanatical, Tour de France-style cheering as runners take on what totals around 10,000 metres of elevation.

Just getting to the start line at Chamonix is an awesome achievement. To finish would be extraordinary. And that’s Amber’s aim.

Built to endure

Amber hasn’t always been a runner. When she was young she was more interested in endurance horse riding than running and she “hated” sport. “If my PE teachers could see me now they’d fall over,” she says.

But over time, she slowly got the running bug. And her first “proper” race - a half marathon in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik - showed her running is a great excuse to see amazing parts of the world.

Amber really started getting serious about her running around 17 years ago when she entered her first marathon. As a relatively time-poor mother, running made sense. “When I had kids and I didn't have much time, it was a good way to get out, get the heart rate and up and have fun. It's just easy. You can do it anywhere,” she says.

“I think my brother was the same. He wasn't into sport, and he does the same thing.” Around 2010 Amber began thinking she might be able to run a bit further than 42.2k, so she started toying with the idea of running an ultra. She was interested to find out how far she could push herself. And this has remained a fascination for her as she’s run further and further.

“You can get to a point where you know you can't keep going. And that can be in any aspect of life. It can be people who hit rock bottom and then end up thriving because of it. Or physically, you're out running and you feel like you're going to die and you know you can't keep going. And then an hour later, you're still trudging along and you've got a second wind,” she says.

“But then some people just don't have it. They just can't get past that point. I guess that really interests me.”

Amber made the switch to trails when a friend in the US suggested she join her for a race in Death Valley. Nothing like starting with a challenge! Her transition to trails didn’t start too well. She planned a training run for Death Valley on South Boundary Road, a well-traversed fire trail in the D’Aguilar National Park in Brisbane’s north-west.

But the authorities had been burning off and the vegetation on either side of the trail was still smouldering. “I ran a little bit in, and I was like, ‘This doesn't feel right. It's sketchy.’ It was a bit smoky so I turned around,” she says. “But I went and did Death Valley and that was amazing. And I have pretty much never done a road run since.”

‘Supportive competitiveness’

Amber’s next challenge was the Coastal High 50 in the Gold Cost hinterland. “Loved that. It was slow. Took lots of pictures, was just in it for the sightseeing,” she says.

By this stage Amber was running with her brother Matthew. She says they are quite similar in ability, so soon began “benchmarking” each other. When I ask Amber if there’s a bit of sibling rivalry going on here, she says: “We’re not competitive.” Then she thinks for a moment and adds: “It’s a supportive competitiveness.”

This “supportive competitiveness” has seen them progressively raising the bar ever since. “My brother and I entered Surf Coast Century down in Victoria. It was funny because I didn't tell anyone, but I signed up for the 100 [rather than the 50k] and Matthew had signed up for the 50 but asked if he could upgrade to the 100.

“So we both thought the other was doing the 50, but we were both doing the 100.” And since then they’ve run events together all over the world. “It was an opportunity to go and check out a new place and do bit of sightseeing,” Amber says.

This pattern repeated at the next event they tackled, the UTMB Tarawera in New Zealand. “Neither of us admitted that we had actually signed up for the miler. We said ‘Yeah, we’re going to run the 100.’ But then we’d both entered the miler,” she says.

They run together so often now, all over the world, that it’s become a central part of their relationship. “It's been a really good way to spend more time with my brother. We've always been close, but we went off and did our own thing and it was running that gave us a reason to spend more time together,” Amber says.

This month they’ll both be enjoying the amazing scenery at UTMB along with Matthew’s wife Jacqui, who will be running one of the other races at the event - the UCC 50k. The three of them have entered as a team, having spent a number of years working away to complete the fairly onerous qualification requirements a race of this popularity imposes.

Training is hard

It’s not easy to train for a race in the Alps when there are no high mountains near where you live. So Amber has had to get creative. “I’ve been doing weighted repeats. Long stretches instead of short, sharp, hill repeats,” she says.

This has involved fast hiking uphill wearing a weighted vest, then putting in an effort on the way down. “I've been doing repeats of that for hours, just trying to replicate the length of the climbs. I haven't done anywhere near enough elevation in my training, but I've tried.

“And strength. Again, I haven’t done as much as I intended, I had visions of doing more strength sessions during the week, but that hasn't happened.” Finding time for all this extra running is difficult. It takes sacrifice and dedication.

“I don't have a life. I think I've been running about 10 or 11 hours a week. I work four days a week. And I run around after kids,” she says. “I get frustrated that I haven't trained as much as I wanted to.” And the 4am starts to fit it all in have been exhausting.

“I’ve been falling asleep on the floor during the day. I look at the dog lying in the sun and I'm like, ‘Ooh, that looks nice. I'll just lie down with you.’ And then, ‘Oh, shit’ - I've been asleep for 15 minutes."

But she has been working with a coach, and that has helped keep her accountable. So while the “nice to haves” like strength have not eventuated, Amber says she’s managed to get through all the running sessions her coach has set for her. And, for the first time, she’s been using poles.

Despite that, she feels like she’s under-trained. But she also acknowledges that’s always the case. And she says she simply couldn’t have done any more. There are not enough hours in the day.

First and foremost, finish

Amber’s experience at Lavaredo, which she’s run twice having pulled out at the 97k mark the first time around, has given her some experience in running in the high mountains.

“There's this valley that you climb up for about 10 kilometres and the mountains are just so huge and you're looking around thinking, ‘I can't get out of here. I can't climb those mountains and I can't see any other way out!

“And it was just … it was soul destroying. And it was just as bad the second time around.” So she knows what to expect.

Amber was driven to return to Lavaredo the second time to finish the race. It’s fair to say things weren’t going so great at that same aid station about 97k in where she’d pulled out the first time around.

“I was lying under my raincoat whimpering, ‘Oh my God, I just want to go home!’ But I managed to pull myself together,” she says. But she knew she’d invested too much time, effort and money to mount the second attempt to DNF again.

This has been on her mind ahead of UTMB too. So much so that she’s struck a contract with herself - reasons she’ll allow herself to DNF. It’s a pretty short list. “Being told to get off the course by a medical person, running out of time … natural disaster. I have to work out if there are any others,” she says.

There is method in this madness. Amber knows from her Lavaredo experience that the urge to quit is strong. And she’ll need something to push back with.

When I ask her what her overall goal is, Amber doesn’t hesitate: “Finish.” With a little prompting, she expands a little. Using her UTMB index (a system UTMB uses to rate athletes who compete in UTMB races according to their performances over time) as a guide, she’s predicting a finish time of between 40 and 42 hours. So that means two nights on the course.

As for tactics: “Trying to be sensible the whole way,” she says. “Walking the hills, trying to keep the legs strong enough that I can still run downhill. That's the challenge with these mountainous races… if you can’t run downhill [because your quads are cooked] you’re kind of screwed,” she says.

“Start slow, stay slow. But fast enough to make the cutoff.”

Amber describes the prospect of running UTMB as both awesome and terrifying. But she’s looking forward to the full experience. The hype generated by the crowd will be amazing. She expects the race to be more than the sum of its parts.

“It's so many things. It's being part of an event with the best athletes. It's like going and playing golf with Tiger Woods - who gets to do that? And the scenery, such an amazing location. And so challenging… It's a package of things that make it attractive, I guess,” she says.

Whatever happens, it will be an amazing experience. Amber describes UTMB as “the pinnacle”, and while there are other races that can legitimately claim the same, I’m inclined to agree.

So what comes after the pinnacle?

“I think this might be my last miler,” Amber says. I’m not sure I believe her. She’s made a habit of making the extraordinary seem routine, with each challenge greater than the last. I can’t see that changing anytime soon.

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around Australia.