Previously...

Everyone has a story. In that respect, I'm no different.

I certainly wasn't an athlete at school. I liked sports, I played netball, softball and cricket but I had real difficultly running longer distances. In fact running around the block hurt and I could see sports teachers frustration at my slowness. I couldn't breathe. I didn't realise that wasn't normal.

It wasn't until after school that I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. Medication made a huge difference and finally made running possible. But that wasn't until much later.

In 2002 I found myself in attached to someone that was awesome but was in the end short lived and unsustainable as he had plans to live overseas for two years. I went from the happiest I'd been in years to the saddest and the depression kicked in. I started binge and emotional eating. I put on 7 kilos in 4 months, which is a lot to take for my small stature. I hated what I was doing to my body. I knew I had a problem when I was too depressed to leave my apartment for a close friend's birthday.

Then something clicked. I decided to take up cycling. I bought a road bike and signed up for Around the Bay. I loved the training and the challenge of completing 210km in one day. It was such a buzz, the sense of achievement especially. That I did that. I wanted a bigger challenge and triathlon (particularly with the running element) was it. I roped some friends into the sport and raced mini tris for the first time in 2003.

I went OS in 2004 and kept running. I found it a great way to see parts of cities I wouldn't have usually seen. I came back not particularly race fit, but participated in the 2004 tri season and it grew from there. I knew I wanted to come back and run a half marathon. In 2005 I ran my first and not much has come close to the relief of crossing that finish line.

I've pretty much run a half marathon every year since. The Great Ocean Road half is a challenge and highly recommended, be prepared for hills (and rain).

I knew if I could run a half marathon, then I could do a Half Ironman (1.9km swim/90km ride/21.1km run). There were three before it lead to the inevitable Full Ironman (3.8km swim/180km ride/42.2km run). Sure it took me 14:02 hours, and I could have gone sub 14 had I not balled my eyes out on my way down the finish chute finding first my coach and then my Mum to give them big salty hugs, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

To this day, my IM finish still gives me strength and I tell you what, if I can do it, anyone can. Over the course of four years I went from training for 7 minutes to training for 7+ hours!

I am taking the piss here. I swear.

I was single during IM training (which made things a whole lot easier, it's a crazy selfish sport) and soon after met my man. We'll we'd known each other for ages and the timing was right. It's easier to train for marathons than triathlons, so I did one of them too up at the Gold Coast in 2009. Only it took me for freakin' ever. Like 5 hours.

So now continues my quest to become a better, leaner runner and perhaps even make a racing comeback. That IM was in 2008. The memory is fading.