Heike Pawzik

About

Heike Pawzik is a German ultrarunning legend, a police officer from Schwerin who has completed more than 200 ultramarathons worldwide since taking up the sport in 1991, including roughly 20 races of 100 miles or longer and, by around 2019, her 100th individual 100-miler. An eight-time finisher of the 246km Spartathlon in Greece, she placed third overall twice, and she gained wider recognition finishing fourth in the 2009 Trans-Europe Foot Race, a roughly 4,600km stage race from Denmark's northern tip to Gibraltar completed in 64 days. Her other career highlights include finishing the 1997 Western States 100, winning the 2004 Ultracentric 48-Hour with 164 miles, finishing the 2006 Badwater Ultramarathon, and placing third at the 2008 Across the Years multi-day race with 200 miles. In 2003, at age 40, she set a world age-group record for 48 hours with 203 miles. Still racing in her late fifties, she competed in the 2023 DeutschlandLauf (Germany on Trails) as a member of the LG Mauerweg Berlin running club.

Notable Wins

• — Spartathlon 8x finisher (2x 3rd)
• — Trans-Europe Foot Race 2009 4th
• — Ultracentric 48-Hour 2004 winner (164 mi)
• — Across the Years 2008 3rd (200 mi)
• — 48-hour world age-group record 2003 (203 mi)

Race History