It take a lot more to do it while facing one of your biggest fears.

Katherine runner Allirra Braun ticked off Sydney’s famous City2Surf on August 10 as part of the Indigenous Marathon Project team but admitted the daunting task was more difficult than it should have been.

“The worst thing was that I got stuck behind this guy with balloons and I have a phobia of balloons,” Braun explained.

“He was running quicker than me and I’d catch up, then he’d stop  to take photos and catch back up, so that part was pretty horrible.”

Braun finished the race in a time of one hour, 13 minutes, 26 seconds, the quickest of the IMP female competitors.

After finishing an impressive 651st place out of almost 11,000 runners in her age division, Braun said she had now ramped up her training back in Katherine in the lead-up to the penultimate challenge of her IMP journey: a 30km time trial in Alice Springs on September 28.

If Braun can complete the event, she will board a plane later this year to take part in the iconic New York City Marathon.

“I’m running over 80km each week now and just increasing my long runs by a few kilometres,” she said.

“The most I’ll get up to [before Alice Springs] is 25km but that’s average; you don’t run the full distance until the event.”

Braun said she expected the Alice Springs course to be flat and dusty, but she will have some passionate support cheering her on during the race.

“I’ve got some family down in Alice and my husband’s family are really big down there,” she said.

“My dad and my husband are travelling down, so it’s going to be good.”