Kaz Thorburn Defies Scoliosis Odds, Runs 551 Marathons

The woman who was told she would never play sport and never have children ran across the finish line of the Sydney marathon with her three kids cheering her on. It was 2001 and Kaz Thorburn had just completed her fourth marathon. The Queensland woman, who had to relearn to walk as a teenager, has now run 551 official marathons, the most of any Australian, according to the Australian 100 club website, which tracks Australians running more than 100 marathons. At age 12, Ms Thorburn was a Little Athletics age champion before she was diagnosed with scoliosis and had a steel rod surgically fused to her spine. "They told me as a kid: 'You're going to have this major surgery, and you're not allowed to play sport, ever. And you won't have children, and you won't work a job,'" she said. "I thought I couldn't do anything." Proving them wrong But after marrying young, Ms Thorburn soon, to her surprise, soon became pregnant and gave birth. It challenged her concept of what doctors told her was possible. Ms Thorburn would load her one-year-old son into a running pram and run around the block "just to see if I could," she said. And she could. She registered for the 14-kilometre City2Surf in Sydney and completed it three years in a row. "It sort of took off from that," she said. "People started to see I wasn't too bad at this so, 'Why don't you try a marathon?'" 'Cluelessly' tackling a marathon Ms Thorburn said she was "clueless" when she completed her first marathon on the Gold Coast in 1999. "I thought, 'If I get through this today, it will be a miracle, and if I don't break something or dehydrate myself or fall over. If I just make it to the finish, it will be amazing,'" she said. She has now completed what is known as the "six star marathons": Tokyo, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin and Boston. She has now run in Boston three times and qualified for 2027. In 2024, she ran 70 official marathons, the record for an Australian woman in a calendar year. That is one marathon every five days, a feat Ms Thorburn said was only achievable through competing in multi-day marathon events. She organises one such event in Townsville, which sees competitors fly in from all around the world to run 30 marathons in 30 days, covering 1,265km. "The only way to get through is to keep going," she said. "Every day is day one. Even on day 29, I'm saying, 'Today is day one.' As the days go on, you actually start to feel better." 'Gone a bit crazy' Ms Thorburn juggles running 70 to 100km every week with her full-time work, two things doctors told her teenage self she would never do. "My husband has to stop me from running," she said. "Scoliosis challenged my mental health. In between marathons, Ms Thorburn decided to learn to swim so she could complete an Ironman triathlon, swimming 3.9km, cycling 180km and running a full marathon (42.2km). She has now completed eight. Rick Patzold from the NSW south coast, who has run more than 450 marathons, the most of any Australian man, said Ms Thorburn had a passion burning inside. "It's a determination to want to achieve something and she's gone a bit crazy with it recently," he said. The two recently ran together in a marathon in Sydney, the first event where two Australian runners competed together with more than 1,000 marathons between them. Weakness turned into strength Ms Thorburn still carries the metal rod fused to her spine, but she said it helped her maintain an upright and efficient posture. "I get sore legs. Everyone gets that. I get tired, I get hungry. But I don't get a sore back," she said. "I could have done all this stuff 20 years ago. I'm making up for it now." There are frequent moments when she feels like quitting, but she keeps on running. "People ask me: 'How many? What's the number you'll stop at?'" she said.