I have been running competitively since I was in under 10’s focussing on the sprint events (I once held the Knox U/15 record for the 70m for a few weeks!)

My greatest achievement in my junior running era was when I was selected to represent Victoria in the U/16 National Championships in 200m hurdles where I placed 13th overall. Interestingly, I wasn’t much of a hurdler, I could just sprint between the hurdles but once U/18’s hit I didn’t grow much taller and jumping the hurdles became more like the high jump event for me.

I then moved up in distance once joining Knox Athletic Club in the senior competition - training with the Sommers Stable coached by David Sommers. My racing then shifted towards 400m and to the 800m which I found to be my favourite event due to the mix of speed, endurance and tactical requirements.

Once beginning full time work and starting a family my competitive track running days ended and I continued to increase my distance and discovered trail running. My training group had always had its Sunday runs at Lysterfield Lake which is where the idea of racing the trails began. I competed in the Trail Running Series up to half marathon distances and would occasionally head down to my local parkrun for a faster 5km race.

My running didn’t seem to have much direction after a few years and I decided I needed some structure and I signed up for my first Marathon in Wangaratta, which has been one of my greatest running achievements to day — it certainly didn’t go perfectly or to plan but this is the beauty of running and racing as you can always learn and improve your training for the next goal you set.