K8 NZ

I have the great privilege of being involved with the 261 Fearless organisation.  It's a global network of women, united together to find their own strength and fearlessness through running.  It is comprised of womens running clubs in the US, UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Albania, and New Zealand. It all began with Kathrine Switzer, a woman who came to be a pioneer of womens running, wore as the first official female entrant into the Boston Marathon in 1967.  Back then, it was a mens only event, women were not allowed to enter as they were considered too delicate for the long distance. Because Kathrine entered under her initials, K.V. Switzer, and due to the cold conditions was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and track pants, it wasn't until a couple of miles into the race that she was spotted.  A woman, in a mens race! The race director tried to forcibly remove her from the course, but he was stopped by her then boyfriend at the time.  Upset and ang...

For my birthday the last few years (except for 2017 when I was injured) I've set myself a running challenge to celebrate another year old.  Basically, any excuse to do a new adventure and challenge myself really!  In previous years it's been running the length of the river track in Palmerston North (it was the first time I had done it, and the first time I'd run 10km after the birth of my third son), and running the Gorge for the first time. This year I had the Paekakariki Escarpment track in mind.  The last few times we've driven to Wellington along the Kapiti Coast, I've pointed out the trail to my husband.  It's a track cut into the hillside between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay.  I'd seen photos on Facebook and Instagram from others who'd done the track, and was keen to give it a go for myself! Imagine my luck to be invived along with Gerry and Wouna to do the track on the day before my birthday! I was in!  I invited Kel along too, thankfully she...

I've been involved with parkrun for just a few months (not including the months beforehand whilst setting it up) and I'm already a convert.  I thought I'd share a bit about my experience and what it is I love about parkrun. Firstly, (in case you're not familiar with parkrun), here's a quick overview how it works: People sign up on the website and get their own personal barcode.  (this is free, and they only need to do it once). They then turn up just before 8am on any Saturday they like with their barcode, and line up with the others to start. Upon finishing, their time is recorded on the stopwatch (with a lap number) and they receive a finish token with their place number on it. The finish token and personal barcode are then scanned in together by a volunteer. The results processor then uploads data from both the stopwatches and barcode scanners and the software lines up the time and position (from the stopwatch) with position and parkrunner (from the ...

I found instagram a couple of years ago when I was having a month-long detox from Facebook (replace one addiction with another, right?). I started off with a private profile, following other family and friends, a few celebs, and running pages such as @womensrunningcommunity.  I connected with a few overseas women runners and before long had created another instagram profile (@k8__nz) to share solely running and fitness related posts. I've since connected with all sorts of people - New Zealanders, other runners, other gymgoers, mothers (especially fellow mums of boys!), Christians, etc.  Some of the most supportive people of my running and fitness journey are these people I've never met in real life.  Their label is 'follower' but to me, they're friends.   The real beauty of instagram is you CHOOSE who to follow. Y ou're not obligated to follow everyone you're related to, or used to be friends with back in high school... we've all got th...