“I run for thinking time, for exploring time, and sometimes, for me time. Running is always something I’ve enjoyed and I love being able to pass that joy on to the next generation.
Aside from cross country events at school, my first ever event was in Adelaide, Australia, when I was 18 weeks pregnant with my daughter. I must have passed the running bug onto her! I had friends in Adelaide who were into trail running and I heard about Ultra events from them for the first time. I’m sorry, pardon? An event so long that you have meals along the way?! Are you crazy? (I’ve since learned that this is a runner’s favourite compliment!) With snakes and spiders added to the mix, I stuck to the river and beach trails and didn’t venture much further than that.
When we moved to Lower Hutt just over 5 years ago, I suddenly had beautiful snake and spider free trails at my doorstep. Running uphill hurts to start with, but gradually it gets easier, and I’ve become hooked on trail running. I love being in the native bush, exploring new trails, running in mud and pushing my boundaries. This led me to discover Xterra Wellington events and I slowly built up my ‘tribe’ of running buddies. First, my daughter Amelie asked to join me, then my youngest, Leo, said he’d like to join in. My sister Helene then ran with us for a couple of events, then my middle child, Raphael came along. Finally, we cajoled my husband Cory to run with us for the final Xterra event of the year. He’s a NZ Cricket umpire and spends a lot of the summer away from the family, so it was really fantastic to be able to run an Xterra event all together. The sweet treats and dumplings at the finish line certainly help with motivation and these are events that we’ll hopefully continue to run together.
Running with my children has been a great opportunity to take my foot off the pedal and be reminded that it’s OK to stop to observe a cheeky pīwakawaka, to say hello to a friendly horse or to have a lolly as the GPS watch beeps for another kilometre completed. It really doesn’t matter where you place in an event; it’s about enjoying the journey and the process.
Training for, and completing an event is such an empowering feeling. I never thought I’d be a marathon finisher but I can now say that I am! I have my sights set on Ultra events and the number of trail running events I’d love to attempt keeps growing. I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from running and love looking up at the hills later in the day, knowing that I was up there earlier: it’s such a euphoric feeling.
I don’t think I ever want to stop trail running. I hope it’s something I can continue to do for a long time yet and I’d love to be able to increase the distances I run with my children too!” – Susannah
“My name’s Amelie and I’m eleven years old. I love to trail run with my family in summer which I have been doing for the last two summers. I run because it’s a great thing to do with my family. I love putting on my running gear and going out to run, it makes me feel free and I really enjoy it. My favourite runs are when we run in the sun, through the bush and I also love running downhill! The uphill is often tough, but makes the downhill all worth it. I love running!” – Amelie
“I run because I can run fast.” – Leo
Susannah & family @smblack.nz
(Lower Hutt)
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Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ
