In the beginning

I've never really been a runner, and yet I've always been a runner. My mother tells me I started running at 9 1/2 months of age (I learned to walk sometime afterwards). I ran in the school athletics competitions, but never trained. My "training" at age 15 was to run around the block before school - a great distance of about 2km. My best 100m sprint time was 12.04sec.

Then life, boys and bikes got in the way; and the next time I "ran" was a painful shuffle up the road and back - my boyfriend at the time was a keen runner, and thought that I should be too. Hah.

Fast forward another few years. Finished uni, got a real job, partner, mortgage, the works - mid-life crisis looming, although I hadn't seen it coming yet. Living in Wellington, NZ (has a few hills), started this running thing again/properly. Can't really remember why - perhaps the bathroom scales were protesting more than they should. Perhaps it was because I'd stopped tramping the hills behind Wellington (BF didn't tramp). I remember one route took me past a Chinese Takeaway, and I would reward myself by stopping in for food. Subscribed to Runner's World, found a podiatrist, orthotics, and bought proper running shoes.

Age 32: mid-life crisis: dumped partner, abandoned job, and ran off to Australia.