“Why do I run? It started out as fitness but it’s turned into a lifestyle.
A number of years ago when my father passed away, it was a life-changing event. I was overweight, lazy and wasn’t really enjoying my quality of life. So one day I decided that something had to change… otherwise I was heading towards a similar fate. So I started jogging around my neighbourhood for fitness. Slowly at first which eventually moved onto longer distances. Then when I could jog a few km at once, I signed up to my first ever run event – Round the Bays 6.5km.
I spent a good few months training for that distance and I completed it. I had no time goal, just the goal of finishing – which I did & I was stoked! I kept up that level of fitness and then the following year I did the 10km. That’s when I decided to set a bigger challenge for myself… the 21km 1/2 Marathon.
I joined a running group and started running multiple times a week. This was new and quite exhausting, but kept thinking of the end goal and knew the hard work would pay off. Race day came and I was as prepared as I could be. With my mindset trained as much as my fitness was, and with the support of the group, I finished that 1/2 marathon and I felt like that was the greatest thing I had ever done. Little did I know what path I was laying for myself.
Running then turned into Triathlon which turned into Ironman. Fun runs turned into Marathons which turned into Ultramarathons. My biggest running success was the 100km Cuyumaca Ultramarathon in California, October 2019. I celebrated that with getting a tattoo of the awesome WoRM group from Wellington, who I do a lot of local runs with.
What’s next? Who knows? I want to do a Miler one day, but not sure when or where yet. Until then I’ll just enjoy running wherever I am and whoever I’m with!”
Paul @scoobydoo_nz
(Wellington)
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