health & fitness | Hails Trails

I love Monday and Wednesday evenings as I get to be a part of the Nike Pitt St Sydney store’s Run Club. A free initiative for people of the city of Sydney.

I started running with them about 18 months ago in the lead up to the 2012 Nike She Runs the Night (13km run through Centennial Park) and then continued running with them leading up to my first half marathon (details on that to come in another post). They are such an inspiring group of run leaders and there was a real sense of community spirit, so it was lots of fun.

These days I am lucky enough to be a run leader and I usually take the beginner runner groups to help people who are in the same situation I was 18 months ago. I really enjoying helping motivate them and taking them to distances they have never run before. Just seeing those smiley faces and how happy they are after the run is enjoyment enough for me. Running can be such a solo sport that it’s a great opportunity to be able to give back and share my love of running with others and let people know that they are not alone.

Last night while running through the city I was having a conversation with a beginner runner and she was asking what sort of km’s I run each week. As an example I said that last Friday I had done 17.7km, Sunday I had done a hilly 3km, Monday 12km with run club and then of course the 7km we were doing that night. She was very impressed with the amount of kilometers that I was covering and asked me about when I had transitioned from ‘beginner’ to ‘runner’. I could not think of a particular moment in time when I felt that I had stopped being a beginner and could call myself a runner, and I think it’s because I feel like there is still so much to learn. So I was stumped for a response and also felt quite shocked that 5km was a ‘walk in the park’ for me these days. When did that happen?

After I got home I realised that the Nike Run Club has played a huge part in transitioning me from a beginner to a runner and for that I am very thankful. If it was not for the dedication of the guys in-store who promote the club, the organisers and the run leaders then I would not be in the position I am today. So if you are a beginner too then get yourself signed up to a run club, they help keep you accountable and on track, plus you get to learn from people who have taken the same journey that you are embarking on.

Thank you Nike Sydney Run Club, I owe you guys big time!

Another great run in such a gorgeous city.

Over the past few months my friends have been telling me I should start a blog. So here it is. I don’t pretend to be a good writer, but i’m here to share the journey to my first marathon and beyond.

My name is Hailey, but my friends call me Hails or Napster. I work full time for a large accounting firm in Sydney, and I also run my own part-time mobile personal training business which has been up and running for almost 4 months. I am also a Nike Run Leader with the Pitt St Sydney store 2 nights a week, however I am no running expert as I have only been running again for the past 18 months.

As a kid I did a lot of sport and I did not sit still, i’m sure my mother was relieved when I finally got my license and could drive myself around to training, carnivals and the many team sports I played. At one point I think I was in 7 Netball teams, 4 Volleyball Teams and that was when I was studying my HSC. It was a busy but fun part of my life.

There is a lot of other information that I could write here about my life up untill this point, but the City2Surf is where my running journey first began, so I thought it appropriate to be the main subject of my first post.

In 2007 I entered the City2Surf, one of Australia’s biggest fun runs, if not the biggest. I planned to walk the 14km track with a friend and that’s exactly what I did. It took us 2 hours & 46 minutes and it was so beautiful crossing the finish line next to Bondi Beach under a clear blue sky. I made a promise to myself that I would run it next year.

In the lead up to the 2008 City2Surf I had not done any running. I had however been playing some netball and cycling long distances on weekends. I did not feel prepared and when I was struck by a cold/flu 2 weeks before the race I thought I might have to pull out. But the thought of all the money I had raised to help the Lupus Association of NSW kept me on track and I made it to the start line. I was ‘Back of the Pack’, and for anyone who has run the City2Surf you will have felt my pain. For the first 5km it felt like all I did was duck and weave in and out of people going all different paces and in all different directions, I could not find my rhythm. Eventually people started to drop back and I had to walk up Heartbreak Hill, this seemed to be the spot where people started thinning out. And then I found my stride, I finally got some momentum and slowly ran the second half of the race finishing in 1 hour and 31 minutes. Could I beat this time next year?

For several years I ran sporadically with no set plan and continued to improve my City2Surf time each year, eventually setting a PB of 1 hour 19 minutes in 2012 – a time to hope to beat this year!

Please feel free to ask questions on anything you see posted here and I will happily try to answer them. I hope you enjoy my posts, happy running 🙂

Celebrating another finish on the beautiful Bondi Beach

Hails Trails

I love to move and be outdoors, a lot.

Tag Archives: health & fitness

Running Free with Nike Run Club

Introduction