Super fit gran hopes to inspire after running 100 miles on a treadmill in just half a day
A fitness influencer broke a gruelling world record when she ran 100 miles on a treadmill as fast as her legs could carry her.
Ashley Paulson (USA) clocked in a time of 12 hr 47 min 10 sec when she claimed the record for fastest 100 miles on a treadmill (female).
Her incredible effort, in Boston, Massachusetts, on 18 April, beat the previous record by an hour and a half!
Ashley, 44, a professional marathon and ultra marathon runner, has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Many of her fans were there to cheer her on as she took on her record attempt at the Boston Marathon Expo.
Ashley, who shares four kids and a grandchild with her supportive husband Matt, told us: “I’ve wanted to attempt this record for several years. I’m a passionate runner and have run many ultramarathons of 100 miles or more.
“Many of these were faster on the road than the previous record on the treadmill. So, I knew I had the ability to set the record on the treadmill. Additionally, as an on-camera trainer for iFIT, it just made sense.”
Ashley trained by logging countless miles on the treadmill – or the “dreadmill” as she jokingly calls it.
She also already had a record under her belt – the fastest run Badwater 135 ultramarathon (female) – which she completed in 21 hr 44 min 35 sec in 2023.
The California-based race covers 135 miles (217 km) and is considered one of the toughest races in the world because it starts at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level in Death Valley and climbs to 8,360 ft (2,548 m) at Whitney Portal, with runners facing extreme desert heat as high as 54°C (130°F).
Read about more record-breaking athletes in our Sports and Fitness section.
Ashley says the treadmill is a normal part of her training, but that running 100 miles will never be an easy feat.
She said: “ I think one of the biggest challenges is there is no variety of terrain to work different muscles. You’re not turning left or right or going uphill or downhill. The same repetitive movement caused a different level of fatigue to hit certain muscles that I had to push through.
“Additionally, running the 100 miles at the Boston Marathon Expo meant I had lots of people watching the entire race. In traditional ultramarathons, you can be alone on the trail for miles, so when you go through a mentally dark place, you can fight it alone. At the expo, when I had ‘dark’ moments of pain, I had thousands of eyeballs staring at me.”
Rules of the record permitted Ashley to take as many breaks as she wanted, but the clock wouldn’t stop until she reached the 100-mile mark.
She took a few quick bathroom breaks during her attempt, but mainly tried to keep going to the finish line. Her longest continuous run was three hours.
Thankfully, she had a lively atmosphere to keep her going. Some of her followers even went along dressed in pink wigs, a tribute to her signature neon hair.
She said: “As the crowd grew, the feeling was electric. I had people from all over trying to speak to me and share their running stories. I had a podcast interview me while I was running. I met iFIT members from around the world that follow my workouts on their treadmills at home. It was an amazing experience!
“One of my favourite moments was seeing my son who was in attendance hold up his iPad while he had my other children on FaceTime watching me break the record.”
Running is Ashley’s passion and to date, she’s completed over 140 marathons, over 25 Ironman triathlons and multiple ultramarathons including several 200+ mile races.
She said of claiming this record: “Doing something that no one else has ever done is always a good feeling but showing my kids and grandchild that you can dream big and achieve it through consistent hard work is what made me feel the best.”
Ashley is planning to attempt more records in future, but the message she wants to send for now is: “Work hard, be consistent, and dream bigger.”