Congratulations! Been a big week firstly with the birth of your second son, Matthew, and then on qualifying for the 100miler in April. How did this last week pan out for you?

Thank you. It was a very eventful week that panned out perfectly. My son arrived safely and was healthy so I could not have asked for more than that. Running wise the week was a disaster due to lack of sleep and chasing my 2 year old around really drained me but I was lucky enough to have support from my family to run defence on him long enough that I could escape for a while and keep my legs moving. Katie reminding me that the work had been done prior to his birth kept me calm enough throughout the week. I was happy lining up with what I’d managed to do.

I know you were an elite track and XC runner, how did this experience compare?

Mentally the preparation was very different. Previously I’d have lined up to race with years of solid base work and be fined tuned to compete at my best, this run was about achieving the only goal I set for myself, which was to finish the 50km inside cut off and qualify for my next big run. There was no nerves and certainly no killer instinct, I went out there to have fun and I did just that.

What inspired you to want to run for so many hours?

I’ve suffered so many injuries and set backs over the years from pushing too hard too soon and focussing on pace instead of actually listening to how my body wants to run. I’ve long since lost the desire to run fast around a track but I still love running so I figured I’d run long instead of fast.

What’s your goal race?

Short term I plan on running 145km around Canberra in April next year with my sister crewing me. Considering I was struggling to run for 30 minutes back in July I’d say that’s looking far enough into the future.