“I did athletics for quite a few years during school and I even got the opportunity to compete in the Trans Tasman over in Australia. It was a whole other level once you get over there for sure, but it was just an awesome experience to go and I really enjoyed that. I liked cross country too but never really did much training for long distance running until maybe I was 16 or 17. I guess that’s when I started to do my first 5k’s, where previously I just enjoyed sprints.
I also got into mixed martial arts and just started long distance running as cross training. Eventually I stopped doing MMA, because of the injuries and with travelling overseas I wasn’t able to train consistently, so the easiest way for me to be able to get that same kind of intensity in training… was running. I used to work on boats and superyachts for quite a few years so running was actually the easiest way to train – you get ashore and go for a run, or some boats have gyms.
Goals? I’ve always wanted to run a marathon so that’s one of the goals this year. Road or trail, it doesn’t really matter but I would like to achieve that. My dad and older siblings have all ran marathons so I guess that’s something I want to do too. Even my best mate’s done one, the bastard beat me to it. There’s a competitive element, definitely.
I guess really though, I run just for the enjoyment of it. And for the challenge. I’ve done the Coastal Challenge in Auckland which was definitely a bit of a shock with the added element of racing my mates – it’s 33km of coastline along rocks and beaches. Oh and you swim some estuaries. It was pretty intense, especially the parts where you’re running over big boulders and things – you can easily get injured there, it’s pretty nuts.
I never thought I would have enjoyed running as much as I have and I never thought it would have become a big part of what I do. It’s just a really easy activity to, well, ‘fuck yourself up!’ You can train as hard as you want and just use up all your energy. And it’s the easy access which I really enjoy, you can do it anywhere. I wouldn’t say it’s my most favourite sport, but it’s the simplest in terms of access and just doing it. Sometimes I can go a month without running and then get back into it and go three or four times a week.
It’s good like that, running is just there if you want it.”
Tane @tane.tarlton
(Auckland)
Photo taken in Te Anau
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