Becoming a triathlete and ultramarathon runner
Viktoria Brown’s motivation to start running was to lose weight. She is mom to three girls, and when the youngest was born she started running. She also started eating foods that were low in carbs and high in protein. She was happy with her results and continued as a casual runner.
She decided to start selling her low-carb baking mixes that she had originally made for herself. Her small business began to grow and now Hold the Carbs products can be found in stores in Canada, and she ships to customers in Canada and the US.
When she was in school she didn’t like any kind of exercise. She preferred to sit inside with a book rather than running and playing. But she discovered a love for horseback riding at the age of 9. Horseback riding is an expensive sport, so she only went once a week.
She decided that since she couldn’t be involved in horse riding as competition that she could still be connected to the sport as a reporter. So she started working at the Hungarian TV station, doing whatever they needed done. Her mother knew someone with a 5th-degree connection to the station, and Viktoria was invited to a tour. She convinced them to let her work for free, and she kept showing up and eventually she ended up as the commentator for the equestrian event for 1996 Olympic games. And her position connected her to the equestrian team and she was able to ride with occasionally.
After she started running, her first race was a 10K, but she says Ironman triathlons were always in the back of her mind because she had friends who did them and she thought if they could she could too. So she started working on that, and later in 2015 she ran a half-marathon. And a year after she ran the 10K, she ran a marathon.
She then moved to triathlons and began working her way up in distance. She enjoyed the challenge and 2 ½ years later she completed her first Ironman. She saw that she was particularly good at longer distances. She placed higher in her age group in the longer distances. She started working with a coach and was able to place 7th in her age group in the half-Ironman distance.
She changed coaches in 2019 and it was a breakout year for her. Races were canceled shortly after, but when she was able to start again she was contending for the podium rather than being a middle-of-the-pack runner and triathlete. The consistency of her training paid off. She traveled to Hungary and placed first female in a triathlon at the same distance as the Ironman.
Then she ran her first ultra because everything was canceled. She saw this race when she ran a half-marathon. It was a 24-hour race and she ended up running 132 miles. And she’d never run more than a marathon before. She won the race outright (first overall for men and women). She broke the course record and became the first selection for the Canadian National 24-hour team. And she broke the 24-hour Canadian-soil record.
Viktoria went into the competition at the 6 Days in the Dome race in 2022 with the goal of setting a new world record. This event was held at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She won the six day race with a distance of 457.4135 miles (736.135KM) which broke the 6-day record for Canadian women. On her way to winning the six day event, she set a new Canadian 48hr with a distance of 219.95 miles (353,991 meters) and the Canadian and GOMU World Record for 72 hours at a distance of 290.41 miles (467,366 meters).
She still had 80 minutes left to run once she passed the women’s 6-day record. She decided she should try to get out and run more since she had only passed the record by a small margin. But the pain that her mind had kept at bay to meet her goal came on so strong that she had to concede and stop running.
She says that the mindset part running ultramarathon distances is certainly a factor in performance. She says that she didn’t really feel the pain she was in until she’d met her goal of setting the record distance she was after.
Bridge questions:
Her fuel on the runs are a natural sports drink called Glyco-durance from F2C Nutrition that come in 4 flavors. Since she doesn’t usually eat in the first few hours and just drinks these drinks.
The strangest thing she has seen was a huge glowing unicorn that was clearly a hallucination.
The phrase that describes her life philosophy is that she likes to be in the presence of light and that she always chooses to be present over something that might come in the future.
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