Why I’ve decided to compete again

Hey champ,

Last week I officially signed up to compete in my first event since having Hakavai!

I’ll be doing a component of the iconic Kathmandu Coast to Coast event – an epic bike/kayak/run event that sees adventurous dingbats like myself traverse the New Zealand countryside, literally running, cycling and kayaking from one coast to the other.

It’s kind of become a rite of passage for athletes, with over 18,000 people having competed in the event in 35 years! Pretty major.

Now, notice I said I’d be doing a “component” of the race. I’m not doing the full thing. I’m doing the Mountain Run – a 30.5km run up, as the name ever so cleverly suggests, a mountain.

It’s funny because a few months before I had Hakavai, I told my team that a year after having a baby I wanted to do an Ultraman – a three day endurance event that involves nothing short of a 10km swim, 421.1km bike ride and 84.3km run. Yeah, it’s super chill.

Then I had Hakavai and said “you know what, maybe I was overly optimistic about Ultraman”. The next thing on my list was the Kathmandu Coast to Coast, so I turned to the team and said  “Yeah, I’ll do Coast to Coast! Can someone help me look into kayaks? I’ll need to learn how to kayak”.

And then when Hakavai was about six months old, with zero plans to get anywhere near a kayak, I finally said “OK, how about I just do the Mountain Run”.

You can’t fault me for being ambitious, right?! ???

Now, if I’m being honest, a few weeks ago I almost didn’t want to announce that I was “only” doing the Mountain Run. Because, you know, I’ve done Ironman events and ultramarathons, and I coach people to take on massive goals – I have a whole online school dedicated to this! Surely I needed to take on something bigger?!

Plus, I’ve seen some incredible mums sign up and take on Coast to Coast year after year. If they can do it, I thought, surely I should be doing it too.

But here’s the thing, a “massive goal”, or a champy as I refer to them, is relative. The right champy is one that is right for YOU.
You can’t compare yourself and your champies to what other people are doing, or even to what a past version of yourself was capable of.

And taking on a multi-day challenge doesn’t feel right for me right now. I’ll be honest. Before I had Hakavai, I thought I could live my life and spend time with Hakavai, but he is my life at the moment.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to challenge myself to set and get big champies. It just means the goalposts have changed.

When I check the Mountain Run against my Champy Checklist, this is what I see:

• Does this champy scare you a little? Yes.
• Does it stretch you? Yes.
• Does it force you out your comfort zone? Yes.
• Will you be really proud of yourself once you’ve achieved it? Yes.

The right goal is the one that is right for YOU.

I’m super bloody excited, and yes, a little nervous about getting back into training! As soon as my foot heals up from my last surgery I’ll be hitting my training program up pretty hard. It’s definitely going to be challenging – and fitting in training alongside looking after Hak, and running my business will be tough.

But that’s why we do these things, yeah?

Because the tough things, the things that scare us and force us out of our comfort zone – those are things that help us grow. 

That’s why I’m doing the Kathmandu Coast to Coast. And that’s why I want you to take on a champy too!

Oh, and I should add that after enduring hours of me regaling them with tales on the philosophical value of running, the importance of setting oneself a good challenge and the pros and cons of various training programs (pretty much a live, three hour version of this blog post!!!),  the guys at Kathmandu totally caved and let me be their event Ambassador too! Pretty sure that last bit was just to shut me up, but stoked nonetheless ?

Now, to start mapping out my training schedule….
Turia x