Endurance sport is a long experiment. You’re constantly figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and how to keep improving while still enjoying the process.

I never really planned to be a runner!  I've always been happiest in the outdoors, but like a lot of people, I started running only as an adult after giving up team sports and wanting a 'simple' way to keep fit.  Over time the runs got longer, the terrain got hillier, and somewhere along the way I fell in love with trail running and ultramarathons. 

I live in Alexandra in Central Otago where the hills and skies are huge, and it suits me perfectly - the more vert, the better!  The races that suit me best are ultra-marathons with the most vert and the best scenery possible. 

 Everything about running fascinates me: gear, food, routes, pacing, racing, training philosophy, and the running community.  I can’t get enough. I’m a scientist by training and I love systems and processes, and I’m endlessly curious about how different people respond to training and nutrition.  For me, training and racing is the most enjoyable way to use my brain.

 Like most runners, I’ve learned plenty of lessons the hard way.  I’ve overtrained, plateaued, and burned out, and spent years not fully understanding the relationship between training, nutrition, health, enjoyment, and fulfilment.  It’s the same pattern I now recognise in many runners, and those experiences are a big part of what led me into sports nutrition and run coaching.  I'm now all about training smarter, not harder.

I founded Real Health Sports Nutrition in 2023, where I work with endurance athletes to help them fuel their training properly so they can train consistently, perform better, and stay healthy over the long term.  My mission is to make nutrition accessible and practical, and to help athletes approach endurance training as something that enhances their long-term health — physical, mental, and emotional.  Ultimately, I want athletes to become self-reliant so they can make the best decisions for themselves every day, and if that eventually makes me redundant, I’m completely cool with that!

For me, running isn’t all about race results. It’s about following a process that allows those results to happen when the time is right.  Being outside, moving our bodies, venturing into places we wouldn’t otherwise go, seeing incredible scenery, building friendships, growing as an athlete and as a person, discovering new depths, and redefining what we’re capable of — that’s what does it for me.