“As soon as I could stand on two feet as an infant, I ran everywhere I could. I liked to go fast. So much so that my parents literally had to leash me up when I was near roads for safety purposes.
A decade later, I had become one of the top ranked tennis players in the US. At age 12, I began a bi-weekly training regimen that focused on body alignment and fitness. Because tennis is a fast-twitch, quick-burst sport with elements of endurance, we mostly focused on stretching, sprinting and agility drills, but would also regularly run longer distances, up to 5km. I was never the fastest in quick-twitch drills or sprints, but found that the longer I ran, the better I fared compared to my peers, appealing to my competitive side. I continued on with this type of training over the next 7 years, but it wasn’t until my third year of university at UC Berkeley, in 2011 that I ran ‘for fun’.
I remember deciding to go for a solo two hour run on a trail in the Berkeley hills. After the run, I was physically sore, but mentally fresh. I told myself and my teammates that this run was for training purposes only, but deep down, I really just wanted to test my boundaries and do something different. Disagreements with coaching philosophies and lack of progress in my game had me fed up with tennis, and I soon thereafter moved on from the tennis team, hanging up my lifelong dream of being a professional tennis player. I made the decision to put all my energy towards studying earth sciences and focusing on mental gains rather than physical gains for the first time in my life, which put running on the back burner.
I entered a postgraduate program and became a field geologist/hydrologist, spending several summers in the bush doing long consecutive days in the field, measuring various qualities of the landscape while mapping variations in the extent of stream networks. This work required 15-30km of bush travel per day and fed my craving for movement and physical activity while opening my eyes to the magnificence of the natural world in ways I will forever appreciate.
As soon as I earned my M.S. degree in 2016, I took off on a world trip, keen to visit my former university teammates, with a first stop in Queenstown. Though I managed to visit many other countries over the following years, the natural beauty and purity of the South Island and the Southern Alps held onto my heart with a firm grasp from first sight.
In 2018 I moved to Te Anau, and within weeks joined up with a local running club in an attempt to find friends. Here, I was lucky enough to meet Crystal Brindle (the inspiring ultramarathon runner and general badass who was recently featured here on RunnersNZ). As I dug deeper, I discovered a strong community of adventurers, outdoor enthusiasts and likeminded folks. I regained my connection to tennis, working as a tennis coach, and began tramping in all my spare time. For the first year or so, I almost exclusively embarked on solo missions, but in 2020, I began tramping most weekends and holidays with Crystal. That year, I took up running with more consistency than I ever had in an attempt to keep up with her on tramps and spend more time with this lady on the go. I still can’t keep up with her on most runs, and likely never will, but have reached a level of adequacy on tramps.
We have since found ourselves competing in adventure races together, and will be lining up for our 2nd Godzone Pure in Fiordland next February.
Running has always enhanced my base ability to compete in just about any sport, but more recently it has unlocked a different connection to nature that allows me to explore and adventure in a new, fast way, while constantly pushing my own physical and mental boundaries to find out what I’m capable of.
Though I did just recently sign up for my first running race – the Luxmore Grunt this December, I wouldn’t consider myself a runner. The possibility of becoming one, however, intrigues me.
Despite some familiarity with running my whole life, I think my running journey is only just beginning to unfold, and I’m excited to see where it takes me!”
Sky @skys_9_lives
(Te Anau)
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