“I have what I call a tense relationship with my body. Growing up I experienced a disconnect between an awkward natural athleticism and crippling disruptive performance anxiety. I shied away from working with my body to achieve things, and instead tried to make myself as small as possible. The most harmful thing, that I’m still working to heal today, was that when it came to looking in the mirror I didn’t really see myself – just this thing that didn’t fit what I thought it should be. Running is one of the most powerful things in bridging that gap – I am this body, I am proud of it, I am proud of what it can do – I am proud of myself. 

I consider this my third attempt at running, but I’m not worried if there ends up being several more chapters to my running story. This era began, unfortunately, when any kind of movement was off the table after ‘doing a real doozy’ on my ankle and spending 6 weeks in a moonboot. Ironically the healing and rehab process from wiggling my toes, miles of walking in the pool, to being approved to be able to jog on gravel was what really stoked the fire of ‘maybe I could just keep doing, keep moving’, and I kind of fell upwards into becoming a runner again. 

It was the process of achieving the small things that kept building into the bigger ones that kept me going. What really helped was the framing of things as ‘practice’. I was practising walking without limping, I was practising strength exercises, I was practising motivating myself to move and feeling good about it and what I was achieving despite being absolutely irrelevant to anyone else. I still try to think about my running this way today, I am practising my nutrition, practising my training and mileage loading. Emphasising the technical approaches to running and improving performance has let my mind work with my body in this sport. I know some people see themselves and their body as the same but for me, running is one of the only times I truly feel that connection and peace with movement and my mind is calm and focused.  

More-so these-days it’s the joy of the running community that I adore and that motivates me. The people (not just runners) that surround and love this sport are truly spectacular and epitomise the type of people I want to be. They’re positive, enduring, committed to some truly quintessential human ideals of perseverance and ‘just having a crack at it’. An idea that sticks with me at the moment on my approach to running is that if your goals seem impossible maybe you need to grow into the kind of person for whom those goals are possible. This community makes that growth easy.”

Ailsa @ailsamouse
(Christchurch)
Photo taken in Te Anau
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Ailsa Carroll #236 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“Growing up playing cricket, running was always part of the training program. I loved it till I was a teenager and developed growing pains in the knees and ankles. I ended up dreading the 5km training runs and couldn’t think of anything worse. 

As time went on, the body came right after regularly visiting a great chiropractor and doing a bit more stretching. I ended up becoming a Chiropractor and that kinda lights me up now, to spread my work as much as I can.

I am now living and practising in Düsseldorf, Germany and no matter where I am in the world I try to find the ‘local’ forest / hills / ocean / lake and use the running to get into nature and clear my head after a busy day. 

In Christchurch that’s the Port Hills, In Auckland Takapuna Beach, in Haarlem Zandfort and in Düsseldorf the Grafenburger Wald. 

The South Island of New Zealand always takes the cake, and I’ve had a blast doing the Routeburn with some good mates!”

Andrew @drandrewmccracken
(Christchurch/Düsseldorf)
Photo taken on the Routeburn Track, Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Andrew McCracken #235 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“This year I have found so much joy in trail running. Connecting with beautiful humans, whether that be friends, run clubs, people you meet out on the trails, and most importantly connecting with self.

But let’s be real – it didn’t begin with joy!

I was very active as a young lass playing many sports and going on weekend adventures with the family, so outdoors and running aren’t foreign to my limbs, however over the past decade I prioritised movement less and less until I wasn’t moving at all. I really noticed this last year and the toll it had taken on my mental health. I had dug myself a hole and knew movement was one way out. And so it began, my new motto “any movement is good movement, anything is better than nothing”. One step in front of the other. Little by little I continued to lace up and enjoy the journey, the nature time, the peace and quiet, the agility challenge and the endorphins that came with it. 

As I have become fitter it has enabled me to enjoy longer and steeper trails. Running is a challenge and often progress in cardiovascular or strength aren’t linear. Flying like a mountain goat one day and the next my legs feel like they’re growing roots in the ground. I feel fortunate and grateful for the journey and people running continues to connect me with. I’m happier and healthier than I’ve been in years! 

Keep at it, remember your why and the magic that awaits when you say yes!”

Kate @kateejohnston
(Christchurch)
Photo taken on the Routeburn Track, Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Kate Johnston #234 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“Why do you run?” is such an interesting question! The simple answer these days is that I want to be able to, at the drop of a hat, take up the invitation to do a crazy adventure. A prime example of that would be the recent “Hey, wanna run the Routeburn in a day?” which is where this photo was taken and was a very last-minute decision on my part.

I really only started running during COVID-19 as it was the only exercise that I could do that was remotely interesting near my home. Prior to that, I didn’t understand the appeal of endurance exercise and had never really run more than 5km. Since starting, I’ve run a couple of 50km races and regularly get out for 20 or 30km on the weekends, just to keep fit.

I’ve found that running is probably the best way for me to get out in nature, clear my head, and relieve stress and anxiety. I don’t suffer terribly from mental health concerns, but when I do feel particularly down, I can always get out and find the space that I need when trotting through the hills. I’ve had some pretty emotional moments when running that I wouldn’t usually give myself the space to experience otherwise. Life is too full of distractions, but the hills are not (save for the views!).

Perhaps it’s a function of being fitter now than I’ve been in the past, but during a long run is one of the only times I can truly switch off and zone out. I can get into my head without distraction. A perfect example of this would be the fact that I can listen intently to and absorb audiobooks while running. I can’t even do this while walking through town due to the small level of concentration needed to navigate people, streets, etc. But running, even on terribly uneven trails, somehow gives me that space and ability to power down my brain slightly. It’s a fantastic privilege.

I’m always very thankful for my ability to run long distances and the opportunity for adventures that this provides me. I’m Irish, and now living on the south island of New Zealand, I’m grateful every time I can get out and experience this wonderful country. The facilities and landscapes we have here are out of this world and having a body that’s fit and able enough to take full advantage of that is something that I’ll never take for granted and forever endeavour to maintain.

Adventure, health, fitness, beauty, freedom, companionship, friendship, clarity, nature, air, breath, space… these are some of the reasons that I run.”

Shane @shane_whooley
(Christchurch)
Photo taken on the Routeburn Track, Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Shane Whooley #233 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“I was a rat-bag, a sports mad kid, and I loved the outdoors, so running happened naturally from a young age. Though, as a hyperactive, mischievous young fella growing up in Stokes Valley, I was usually running away from something rather than towards it. 

I frothed on the school cross country and tried out track running in the 1500m, which I enjoyed but didn’t fall in love with. My passion burned brightest when I found trail running and adventure racing in my teens. I’m grateful for the training I received on the track as it did help me develop some running fundamentals, like form and the understanding that the majority of my runs are gonna suck, which have served me well.

Day-to-day I work as a mental health and addictions clinician, and operate my own personal training business in my free time. I truly believe in the benefits of physical activity as a supplement to other traditional treatments like therapy and medication, helping you be the best version of you you can be.

My reasons for running have changed over time and I need to practise what I preach. I no longer run from things, but toward them. 

I run toward my own wellbeing or te whare tapa whā. Running for me is a spiritually, physically, mentally and socially rewarding experience. The connection with nature, the physical health benefits, having space to process difficult thoughts and feelings, and the social connection of running all strengthen the pillars of wellbeing. I also love being in competition with myself, seeing what I can accomplish and striving to be the best me that I can.

I run toward community and connection. I share my activities in the hope that people might see my efforts and be encouraged, motivated, or inspired to take on their own challenge, to show themselves how strong and capable a person they are and to keep going when things are tough. If I can support just one person to do this, then I am a happy man.

A highlight of running for me would have to be the Pigs Backyard Ultra I competed in this year in Dunedin. In this busy world of competitive point to point and races, individuals smash goals and break records, the Pig’s Backyard brought things back to basics. Seeing the connection between athletes, supporting and cheering each other on, as well as the quirky format were a huge part of it. 

I had to be in the present, and find my ‘flow’ in a situation where the most important lap was simply the one I was running. I also had to be there for others, supporting and encouraging them as it got tougher.

Participating in the Pig’s Backyard reinforced my reasons for running, and epitomised the importance of being mindful and building community in achieving great things. I was also reminded of my favourite proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.

Jason @jasonhodge07 @flow.health.and.fitness
(Invercargill)
Photo taken on the Routeburn Track, Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Jason Hodge #232 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“I run to engage with my past.

I first went for a run 22 years ago while on an exchange program in Germany. Running hadn’t been part of my life growing up in post-Communist Romania up to that point. The way a Bulgarian friend (also a runner) put it, if you were out running people would think you were being chased by someone. Besides, I was the opposite of a sporty kid — nerdy, plump, uncoordinated. Running somehow, barely stuck with me after that first run with my host family through cherry orchards on the Elbe. I would go for a run in my hometown in Romania about once a week throughout high school.

Life and a scholarship took me to an idyllic university, a liberal arts college in the Northeastern US. That’s where I first encountered running on trails – the paved, flat Norwottowuck Trail connecting Amherst, Massachusetts to Northampton. Running became a more common habit as the stress of university accumulated. It was also a way to deal with my coming out as a gay man and to make sense of what had been my past up to that point.

After university I ended up in graduate school in the San Francisco Bay Area, truly an ideal place for runners of all kinds. I picked up running again on the Stanford Dish trail, the first time I encountered any vert. I also ran my first half marathon then, with a magic crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Running ceased for a while in graduate school. First the structure of the first years of graduate school gave way to a hectic interdisciplinary free-for-all in my research career. Then my father, living in Romania, was diagnosed with terminal stage lung cancer. I went back to Romania 13 times that year to witness his inexorable and unrelenting decline. After he passed I felt like an empty shell and running became my coping mechanism. For about 4 months I did a race every week in various parts of the Bay Area. This is when I ran my first trail half marathons, although I had no idea that’s what they were (I was still wearing road shoes and walking the uphills felt like cheating).

Running became an episodic thing throughout my 30s. I didn’t give it up entirely — even ran two road marathons in the process — but I also wasn’t consistent about it. I started running again when I moved to New Zealand a few years ago, but then the pandemic and its ensuing restrictions killed whatever motivation I had left. 

Exactly a year ago, something happened. My partner and I moved back to Wellington, a town which we had missed dearly. I went for a run for the first time in months. Only 3k (or 2 miles — my preferred unit of running measurement) up to Mt Albert and back. I remembered then the long arc of running in my life, which I retold here. I was hooked again and it has stuck since. 

Finding community is a big reason why running stuck with me this time. It started with the WoRM Tuesday Spectaculars up Mt Vic and then progressed to Big Sunday Runs. I have met tens of kind and resilient people, who are both encouraging and inspiring in their embrace of adversity. For there is adversity aplenty on trails in the lower North Island! This time I have not been running through perpetual Californian sunshine and on groomed pathways but through winter gloom, horizontal rain and knee deep mud. And despite this I have been at it for a year — the longest continuous bout of sustained physical activity I have ever done in my life.

This kind of running feels less like athletics and more like the kind of tramping I grew up doing with my rock climbing-obsessed older brother and his friends. I can’t say I loved those trips — I was always the slow and uncoordinated one, but after the WUU2k half I finally understood why my brother had himself gotten into trail running, to the point of organizing events. I have run many races since, including several ultras. After the Tarawera 50k I was able to join my brother and nephew on the UTMB index, which now serves as a kind of friendly family league tables, connecting our achievements on opposite sides of the Earth.

Running provides a metaphorical trail through a hectic personal history. It connects me to people and places that are part of who I am. Every time I get out I get to explore this trail a bit further.”

Bogdan @bogdanstate
(Wellington)
Photo taken on the Kepler Track, Te Anau
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@RunnersNZ

The post Bogdan State #231 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“I started running as a teenager some 15 years ago, mostly because I started playing football (soccerish one) and just couldn’t keep up with others. It wasn’t much, just up to 4km now and then, but surely enough to get that stamina up.

A few years after that I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, where any activity helps control the blood sugar, so running got a bit of a healthcare dimension.

But most important for me, running has to be fun.

I’ve never ran more than 14,5km, never was competitive enough to push harder, faster, longer. It kind of takes the fun out of it. I always compared only with myself. Getting better pace time to time, and seeing those kms adding up in Komoot feels nice.

I loved running the same 8.5km track during the year in scorching 35C or freezing -12C, seeing the changes happening around. I love the motion, and the change it brings. It really is life in a small scale, just passing through.

I loved the atmosphere of running events. All the people, all the different motivations just panting together for an hour.

I love simple things. And running is simple.”

Marián Vrana
(Te Anau)
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Marián Vrana #230 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“I grew up swimming competitively. When other life commitments got the best of me, running became a natural transition, providing an outlet to re-ignite my competitive drive. It became a solo pursuit, an everyday habit to push myself mentally and physically. However, running sometimes felt lonely and became monotonous and demotivating with constant comparison.   

For studies and work purposes, I moved to different countries and running, in particular, became a great way to explore different places and connected me to a community. Running largely became a social pursuit for me, where running friends have turned into lifelong friends. Running in a group taught me the essence of embracing the achievements of fellow friends and celebrating their successes rather than comparing.

When I decided to walk the entire length of New Zealand on the Te Araroa trail, despite all the uncertainties and questions, I felt good about the walk. I was able to bring in different elements of running into my walk, such as setting healthy expectations, listening to my body, knowing when to push for long days and embracing the walking community, which has helped me to get all the way from Cape Reinga to Bluff over 3400 km in four months.”

Tsewang @tsewang.sherpa
(Te Araroa trail)
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Tsewang Sherpa #229 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“In all honesty, running was something that I was pretty well deterred from since I was about 15. Although as a kid I was absolutely in love with it, doing every event possible through school and a few cross countrys… and not to brag but I was doing bloody well in them. I guess life happens, we all fall out of that love with certain things like that (or so I thought). 

Around age 16 was where life hit me in the guts fairly hard. Severe depression from trauma caused by losing good friends sent me into a horrible spiral of drugs, alcoholism and what seemed to be a never ending thought of suicide. Fair to say I lived a very destructive lifestyle because to me I really felt I had nothing left. About 8 years of the same repeating lifestyle and one really bad night later, I decided to get up and within a couple of days I had booked a one way ticket to leave it all behind and move here to Queenstown. It took some time to gather myself, still being pretty unwell and now without the comfort of family and friends, it became a very lonely life very quickly. That was until I met one very special lady while I was out getting some things from Mitre 10. 

For about 3 months I thought she despised me because whenever I came in she would quickly run away to do something else, but funnily enough she never hated me, she was just far too shy to talk to me. One thing after another and we made contact and this is where I found out she was a madly obsessed runner, and far out was I impressed by everything she had accomplished! I thought I would never stand a chance. So the first thing I did? Went for a run. Can’t be that hard right? Oh how wrong I was. 

50m in and I was on my hands and knees, heaving, having almost just fainted. I decided to try walking for a kilometre and tried again… in comes the stitch from hell. Best way to describe it was like a heart attack in my stomach. Managed to scramble a run for about a kilometre and it actually felt really good finishing. I think that was where the switch tripped in me and I just had that want to run back in me. Mostly fuelled by the need to impress this girl. And well I guess it worked! Over a year later and we are still cranking out our runs together! My love for running is completely back, although there are parts of me that definitely still think I need to do it just to impress her!  

I haven’t ever been able to express how thankful I am for that girl, and how she pulled me up off the ground and gave me that drive, that want and that love for running again. Having done a few events now and my first marathon late last year, I am determined to keep going. I have a thirst for it, to go further, to be faster. I love it, and it’s all thanks to my beautiful partner, Jayde. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for her and her amazing soul. 

Here’s to many more years of running and a whole lot more km’s!”

Josh @joshsboyd_
(Queenstown)
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Josh Boyd #228 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“People say “why?” and I like to say “why not?”. Training, whether running or CrossFit, has become an essential component of my life over the last 9 years. 

At school I did ok in the annual cross country and athletics. My parents were both hard workers and neither were into sports, so growing up I never had the support to pursue sports or fitness in general. After a long term relationship break up in 2005 (my eldest daughter was 4) I trained and completed my first half marathon in Kerikeri – unfortunately that was a flash in the pan moment for me. Fast forward another 10 years and after being coaxed by a friend to a local bootcamp in Winton, “it will be fun” she said…..I nearly lost my lunch after a sprinting session –  but I kept coming back!  

I completed my first (and only) Luxmore Grunt event in December 2015. I recall bursting into tears as I crossed the finish line in a mix of emotion, with no one there to meet me, unable to believe that I had just completed it, but also physically exhausted as I had left it all out there. After pulling myself together, I watched in awe as the 60km Kepler Challenge runners started coming across the finish line… I decided then that I would try the ‘big one’ the following year. 

This was where CrossFit Wild South entered into my life, Kepler Challenge was big enough that I decided I needed to strength train to complete it. Since 2016 I have been fortunate enough to enter and complete every Kepler Challenge, kept up with my strength training at CrossFit and have entered longer distance events as my level of fitness and mental strength grows. 

My solid support network of my husband, children, granddaughter, family and friends keep me motivated as I strive to make them proud with my training and crossing the finish line at events. There are too many pros to list as to why I keep going, keep training, keep pushing… but I know that I will do so as long as I am physically able.

Do what makes your heart sing!”

Tash @run.n.lift
(Winton)
Photo taken on the Kepler Track
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Tash Hamilton #227 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“I am a runner, as I think we all were once. As children we run to get there faster, to be free, to outrun the ball, win the race, or tag a friend.

When I was small I remember biking next to my mom as she ran. As I got older I would run with her and my dog, then when I reached high school and joined the cross country team, I would run and my mom would bike alongside me. Since then I’ve always run to one degree or another.

When Robyn and I came to Auckland in 2020, we jumped (or ran) into the running community right away – enjoying the MUD puddle at XTERRA Waiuku, exploring local tracks from the WildThings directory, and making friends along the way. 

When I was ring shopping, before we got engaged, I was having a hard time picking something out.  What would she like? Flashy or subtle, rugged or delicate? Then I stopped and thought about how Robyn had fallen in love with trail running in New Zealand, and I realised that the best engagement ring wasn’t a ring at all… And that’s how I proposed with a running watch while looking out at Rob Roy Glacier! 

She still loves running, but shares it with me as we adventure around the world. I still try to run to get there faster, to be free, to see beautiful trails, do my best in a race, or be able to tag my friends (though that usually happens on Facebook or Instagram).”

Teddy @teddyeyster
(Wanaka)
Photo taken in Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Teddy Eyster #226 appeared first on RunnersNZ.

“How I got into running is a bit of a funny one. In highschool I’d come to the conclusion that I couldn’t run. I grew up tramping and spending lots of time outdoors, but there was a guy who would steal my shoes (in a fun way) and I’d run as fast as I possibly could and I couldn’t catch him, so I decided I was slow. And when my mom gave me a couch to 5km walk-run program to try, I jumped ahead to week three (because I thought I was active enough to skip the intro). I tried a few sessions, but was absolutely dying, so determined I couldn’t run (in retrospect I was trying to run much too fast).

A few years later, the summer before my first year of college, I was sailing with some friends and they convinced me to go on a run with them. I told them many times that I couldn’t run but they said that we’d go slow and I’d be fine. I begrudgingly agreed and it wasn’t easy but I made it through. After the run my friends were chatting about how far we’d run, 3 maybe 4 miles. And I said “no, that’s impossible. I can’t run that far!” They didn’t mince any words and said, “well, you just did”. That was the moment I learned that I could run.

Fast forward a decade of running casually for cross training and for fun. Then late 2020 I carpooled to an XTerra race in Waiuku, outside of Auckland, and found out that trail running races on trails was a thing. I was promptly hooked. Hooked by the trails and the feeling of pushing myself, but also hooked on the people. A community that we’d just entered which was already opening its arms to us as brand-new-comers.

I ran as many Lactic Turkey trail adventures as I could and signed up for Mt Difficulty 42km the next fall. Next was a summer of galavanting in the mountains, pushing distance and time on feet with regular 40-50kms, 5,000m vert, 14-18hrs. Running in the mountains was our playground.

Through a program with @Scotty Hawker I got some professional coaching and was introduced to the bigger world of competitive trail running. Being at a transition point in life and work, I decided to take an unconventional leap, and go into running full time.

I decided to try a year, a year of dedicating myself to full time pro running and see if a) I liked the way of life, b) I liked the people, and c) if I was good enough to pursue this thing. I got a resounding yes regarding all three and so I was IN! But I had to figure out what my next driver was. My tests worked, I knew what to do next, but was missing a full why…

It took me about a year and a half of pro running & racing internationally (plus lots of thinking!) to figure out my why, and now I have it. I run professionally to take advantage of this amazing opportunity that I have, to run all over the world, to make memories, to meet amazing people, to be on the start lines with fabulous women, and to run my heart out. Thank you body – for letting me run, thank you world – for being beautiful, and thank you friends present and future – you make it all worthwhile.”

Robyn @trails4smiles
(Wanaka)
Photo taken in Fiordland
–
Portraits of Runners + their stories
@runnersnz

The post Robyn Lesh #225 appeared first on RunnersNZ.