“James started running before I was born, so I can’t speak for him. He was born to run. He has been 100 times faster than me for his entire life. He is more mountain goat than human.
I started jogging when I was 20 and very unwell. I had a goal of training with, but not being on, the cross country team at university, where James was already on the team. I went to the tryouts in my 4th year in 2001 and luckily only 12 women showed up; so I was allowed to run with the team for the season but not in any of the important races… because I really sucked at running. The coach even told me after one of our races that I hadn’t contributed to our team winning. So when I started training with my late coach, Kevin Ross, I used to think of that moment to help conjure up enough anger to get through my 9th or 11th or 15th 400m rep on the track. Kevin’s training, and my running group, were the cornerstone of my life and saw me through all of my best races from 2005-2017. Kevin passed away suddenly in July last year and left a massive hole in all of our hearts.
Our whole family run. My daughter Naomi ran her first race at the Wellington Scottish Night of Miles in 2014 when she was two, and Rowan the Scottish Twilight Series in 2020; he was 5.
James and I are so proud of them every time they run, and our dream is to one day have a four-person family relay team (like the old Tarawera ultra relay, or maybe Molesworth). I love to see their faces full of pure joy while they are running.”
Emily & family @sparrow_bryn
(Wellington)
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All Runners. All Stories.
@RunnersNZ
