K8 NZ

For a few years now I have said I wanted to go and do the Queenstown half, feeling that it was unlikely though as it's so far away and expensive to get to.  This year my hubby said "If you want to do it, make it happen".  So with that, I entered us both in May (the event is in November), and booked both flights and accommodation immediately! At the time, I was coming off an ITB niggle that put a bit of a halt on my training for a few weeks, but once I had that sorted, we were 10 weeks out from the half marathon which is a perfect build up for me.  The training went well - building those weekend long runs slowly with an occasional easier week (and a trip to Rarotonga in the middle!) and getting in three other shorter runs during the week.  My longest run was 17km (which I did two weeks in a row), with a two week taper.  The weekend before the race I set a new 10km PB which was a great confidence booster heading in to the half marathon. Then all of a su...

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...

Recently I ran 'comeback' half-marathon (race report here ).  It was my first in two years after I suffered a serious injury shortly after completing my second half marathon in 2016.  Since the injury (which took me out for six months), I'd not had too much interest in running, entering only a 5km and 10km event.  I've had a few setbacks including complications from varicose vein surgery as well which had put the brakes on any fitness gains.  It felt like there was a lot of 'starting again' over the past two years. I felt like I had unfinished business with the half marathon distance, and always in the back of my mind wanted to do 'at least one more'.  However, m entally, I wasn't quite ready to take a chance on training for another half marathon.  The desire was there, but the fear of re-injury was much greater.   After parkrun on a Saturday morning earlier this year, I said to the Great Forest Events race organiser, Chris, that I was think...

14 April, 2018.   The day was here. My first half marathon in two years.  The half marathon I wasn't sure I would run again after 'that hip injury' in 2016.  It took a long time to physically recover from that injury but a lot longer after that to mentally recover.  The fear of re-injury, to the same level, or worse, was real.   It was a chilly morning - there was snow on the nearby ranges after the storm that week - but it was dry and fairly still. Perfect running conditions. I arrived around 8.15am for a 9am race start, which gave me plenty of time to get myself organised, a porta-loo break (or two) and a bag drop of food and warm clothes for afterwards at the tent. Kevin found me in the starting area and pulled me closer to the front.  He was only one of a few I'd shared my sub-2 goal with.  He intended to do the same, and had some advice for me.  "You gotta come up closer to the front," he'd said in our chats over Instagram th...

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 ...

It was about this time, a year ago, as 2017 was about to begin, that I started speaking out loud what it is I want to 'do'. I left the workforce when my eldest son was born, eight years ago, and haven't been back.  I have a Bachelor in Engineering (Environmental Engineering) that took me four years and earned me first class honours (with scholarship).  I worked as a consulting engineer for precisely 4.5 years, just a little bit longer than I studied, then I became 'Mum'. I'm now a proud stay-at-home Mum of three boys.  My youngest is three and has started kindy, three days a week.  It is now I am beginning to catch glimpses of 'freedom' that is when all my children are at school, and questioning 'what is next?'.    Since I started running, and found out the physical, mental and emotional benefits that came along with it, I knew I wanted to share this with other people.  Especially mothers.  I know first-hand how all-encompassing mothe...

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...