“I started running 20 years ago simply because my friend was doing a half marathon. We were very competitive, so if she did a race, that meant I had to too. I had 6 weeks to train, so I started run walking. I can still remember so clearly the day I could run 6km non stop. I thought I was a bloody hero!
The race was great and I loved it, but I didn’t race again until the following year when my friend said “let’s do it again”. Hmm what the heck? So I entered again, shaved 10 mins off my previous time…. and I was hooked. It also helped that I liked having a beer. I pretty much ran, so I didn’t feel guilty about drinking beer. When I got home there would be a Corona opened and waiting on the bench for me. Got to love that!
More races followed, mostly half’s for a while, and my times kept improving. The competitiveness with myself got more and training became a normal thing to do. Soon I thought, I could do a whole marathon.
We had moved to New Plymouth where I didn’t know a single person. I turned up at Pukekura Park one Saturday and nervously asked if I could join the running group that met there. I went most Saturday’s and quickly made new friends. Having friends to run with is quite simply what makes running so much fun! We laugh, we chat, we tell each other our stories, there is nothing else so motivating and inspiring as seeing other people run, and think…. I reckon I can do that too.
So I managed to convince a friend that we should train together to run a marathon. Thanks Anita! We ran the Mountain to Surf marathon. I loved it, had a great run, even had energy to spare…. well, a tiny bit. That was the day I knew I could run further still.
The Length of the Lake Solo Taupo came next. I loved that I could run that far. 80K around the mountain, eeek that was a hard run, but I went back and did it again last year too. Then I did 10 marathons in 10 days in the UK in 2018. What a huge race. I’ve now just entered to do 20 marathons in 20 days later this year.
You don’t know you can do this stuff unless you try. Just go and have a try. It’s amazing what you can do when you really truly believe in yourself. Dream a dream, decide you can do it, make a plan, then turn it into a reality.
Somehow running just gets in your blood. When you run, it’s great, just getting out there running. It’s hard to explain, but it just makes you feel better 99% of the time.”
Paula
(Taranaki)
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Portraits of Runners + their stories
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