“I started running because daddy used to run.”
Cassidy’s love of running started at a young age watching her dad go out for an evening run after work. She harassed us constantly to be allowed to go with him, so after discovering @parkrun.nz had finally come to New Plymouth, we channelled her passion into completing a weekly parkrun. She did some practise runs and ran her first 5km parkrun a few weeks before her sixth birthday in a time of 37:34. Her obsession with running evolved from there.
“Can I run with ….. this week?”
There’s definitely the social side that attracts Cassidy to running. She participates regularly in a social Tuesday running group run by local parkrun superstars and often asks if she can run with parkrunners other than daddy on Saturday mornings. They are usually happy to oblige but often comment that ‘may not keep up’. She will happily slow down her pace to accommodate so she can chat more. Her dad has a rule though – what they talk about on the run, stays on the run.
“I want to do 10km!”
After achieving well at her weekly parkrun, with a PB of 26:45 and wanting to run at every possible opportunity, Cassidy decided she wanted to run further. With a bit of daddy training, she entered her first 10km event the week before her 7th birthday, completing it in a little over one hour. Taranaki doesn’t offer many running events, so we explored further afield and over summer she entered into two more 10km events, one in Tauranga and one in Auckland. She convinced us to let her complete the North Shore Run Series in Auckland and has many more in sight in the upcoming months. Her furthest distance ran is a little over 15km and the struggle we have now is reigning her in. Her next goal – a half marathon.
“I don’t know why I love running, I just do!”
Cassidy
(Taranaki)
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Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ
