“The question I often ask myself is not why I run, but why I stopped running.
As a young teen I was handy enough and had the expert coaching of Alan and Sylvia Potts growing up in Hastings. I ran at the national schools’ track and field and cross-country champs and didn’t embarrass myself, but I was a long way behind the best, and the best was from my own, relatively, small school.
Richard Potts was, to coin a phrase, different gravy. When you competed against him second was the best you could hope for. It was no surprise that he went on to represent New Zealand at two Commonwealth Games.
But for me, team sports like cricket and football held more allure. I don’t know if it was me accepting the fact that I’d never beat Pottsy or the enjoyment I got by being part of a team, but by my mid-teens running was something I did to assist my other sporting loves. I was no longer running for the sake of running’s sake. Then, like other teens my age, vices like smoking, drinking and the opposite sex took on greater importance and running was consigned to the sidelines.
Fast forward 30-odd years and the smoking had been ditched, I was married with a young son and the drinking – hey, you need one vice!
But I was nursing a fractured collarbone sustained playing over-35s football and feeling a bit sorry for myself. That’s when a promotion for Tarawera popped up on Facebook. I thought to myself “I used to run – how hard will it be to run 50km?”. So the idea was planted, the target identified and now came the training. But the event was in six weeks so like a complete noob I threw myself into training and went big early – too big….
My ITB was not having it and the last few weeks was spent nursing myself to the start line. The race didn’t go well – the uphills were fine, but the downhills and the flats were absolute agony. I crossed the line a wreck. But the spark had been ignited.
Since then there has been a host of other events including a return to Tarawera (a redemption run), Taupo ultra, Hawke’s Bay marathon, WUU2K, Wai2K, Triple Peaks, Mukamuka Munter, Aorangi 100 and a host of mountain and wilderness adventures – three Great Walks in 5 days anyone?
Events have lost a bit of their lustre and it is adventures, shared with mates, that feeds the addiction to keep on moving and I enter my 52nd year. That’s not to say events aren’t off the cards – pacing at Tarawera recently gave me a serious case of FOMO and some challenges, like the next run, is just around the corner.”
Sean @seanmartinnz
(Wellington)
Photo taken on the Kepler Track, Te Anau
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