I am like every other normal person – i’m trying to keep active, loose weight, and be healthier.
I was doing really well at the beginning of this year (2016), I was running three times a week, eating healthily, and doing my best to cut down on chocolate and anything sweet.
I signed up to do a quarter marathon (10.5km) run, for Nelson Shoe Clinic as a challenge and to help motivate me to keep up my running. I was unbelievably nervous, because I hadn’t even ran 10km before let alone take part in an event, and only 2 months previously, I struggled to run 1km without needing my inhaler.
When the day came I had my support crew (Kirsty) waiting at the finish line, and being surrounded by other runners going through the same thing as me, I was subconsciously able to keep going, and I crossed that finish line in under 1hour 04minutes, which I was pretty chuffed with, because I wasn’t focussed on a time.

As soon as I crossed that finish line I felt amazing. Dead, but amazing. It’s hard to explain the feeling when you finish a race, and when you complete it without stopping – something I wanted to achieve, rather than a certain time.
But after that I was just exhausted, both mentally and physically, after doing really hard work at my job (bending over cutting ‘laterals’ off trees for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week – a lot harder than it sounds) and after dealing with some fake friends, I was just drained. My chronic fatigue (an illness that caused 2014 to be a blur) was starting to set in again, and I needed to be careful not to let it take over again.
After a month off I decided to try get back into running, but the nights were drawing in, and so was the cold, and it was just making me worse trying to get back into it.
I then got hit with glandular fever which caused me to stop working and meant I was needing naps all the time, with a very sore throat, it was not a fun experience.
I am now in another country, dealing with stress and anxiety which is causing pains in my stomach (I think thats the reason anyway), but I am determined to not let my mental health get the better of me. It’s hard to talk about because I guess not many people do, and it’s always a hard thing to understand, but I’m learning.
So my aim is to start again with my fitness journey, to get running again, and feel healthier, and i’m going to post updates on here about it, so you too can get involved without feeling like you’re starting surrounded by fit people. Just remember, it’s not a diet, you’re changing your lifestyle.