I want to inspire you with this post.

If you are sick, if you have goals, if you have had things not go your way, then this is for you. Trust me, I can relate. I've had every bit of adversity possible thrown my way.

On the 16th of December 2022 I gave a speech at our company's 2nd year Christmas party.

I had just been discharged from hospital and my first surgery.

Here is a quote from the speech:

Today is day 7 of cancer, I am going to continue counting the days until I run the Auckland half marathon. When that happens, I will declare myself officially healthy again.

I want to inspire you with this post.

Being healthy and strong is a mindset.

I hated being sick. I nearly fainted walking into the oncology building. The week before getting diagnosed I had run 19km and had recently set my 10k PB. Next minute, I was getting told that I was so sick, that I needed to have urgent surgery and chemotherapy. It felt like a sick joke.

When you get cancer you are constantly told that you are sick. Whether it is your environment that you are in, the gift box that you get, the way people talk to you or the way you lose your hair, it is constantly in your face.

So I've had a countdown going this whole time. I haven't spoken about it until this moment.

It robs you of a lot of things getting an illness and one of the things that I was the most pissed about is the following streak....

No 2023 race for me!

So this year it has been an intense goal to get the streak back and to run the half marathon again.

Where does the inspiration part come in? Well let's go back to show you the progress and if I can do it, you can do it too.

Fitness timeline

• Dec 2nd 2022 - Run 19km
• Dec 9th 2022 - Diagnosed cancer, 1st surgery to remove tumour on the 10th December. Cannot run for 3 weeks as it's in my abdomen.
• Jan 9th 2023 - Chemo starts
• Jan 13th 2023 - Can only walk 1km

It took 4 days starting chemo to only being able to walk 1km. I couldn't believe how strongly it thumped you.

Jan 20th 2023 - Can't even walk. Have to be wheelchaired around the hospital.

Photo from wheelchair

• Feb 1st 2023 - Blood clot in my lung. Have to go on blood thinners, resting heart rate 150 BPM

Photo taken morning of the blood clot

• March 1st 2023 - Chemo finished, told I can walk, but it's hard to do that.
• May 23 2023 - Not all tumours are caught, have to have major operation. Told I won't be able to walk for 3 months. I said to the doctors that I would be back at work in 2 weeks. They laughed.

Spent the entire time in hospital after surgery visualising myself walking.

• May 29 2023 - Day 6 of my surgery and the first time I walked. It was a miracle and shows the power of the mind. No one could believe it.

• Jun 7th 2023 - Because I walked so early, it meant my organs healed faster and I was able to leave hospital early, I was back at work in 2 weeks on the dot. Doctors hadn't seen anything like it. Picture above is me walking myself out of hospital, very proud moment.

You can see me holding my stomach as surgery was through my entire abdomen. I ate off a tray in bed for the majority of 2023.

• July 12th 2023 - 1 month post surgery, can walk but still a struggle, can walk 1-2km at a time, but it's hard.

• December 9th 2023 - 1 year to the date and back in hospital. This time, brain pain, have a brain scan and am told that they need to operate as I have too much fluid, however, this is postponed to the new year as they needed to give me some time to recover from all the surgeries and chemo this year.

Jan 1st 2024

New Year's resolution, to walk/run 2024km in 2024. Works about to be 5.5km a day. I decided at minimum through the year I wanted to do at least 1km.

The above image is the first walk I did of the year. I remember that being an absolute mission.

Jan 31st 2024

Off to a great start. I was able to walk everyday and found my mental health and determination increasing. I loved having the streak. I took a photo everyday. It was nice to just enjoy the day for what it was.

Mar 20 2024

Brain surgery scheduled for this date. Expected to spend 2 weeks in hospital. I asked to be dropped off 1km from the hospital for the surgery so that I could walk and get my 1km in for the day.

Mar 23 2024

Feels like I have been smashed in the head with a hammer. Hurts to smile, laugh or move my eyebrows.

But the mission continued and I just did my walks in the hospital, doing laps of the ward.

For those counting, this is also the 7th time I've gone from not being able to walk to walking in the space of just over 12 months. See what I mean about adversity? If you are getting bored reading this, imagine how annoying it was to experience it!

The 1km a day trick is something really great if you are extremely unwell, it allows you to focus on being present in the day and gives you a controllable goal.

If you are getting started out with running or walking, just move and try to get at least 1km in per day.

April 7th 2024

Walked out of hospital for the 12th time in 15 months.

Jul 30 2024

Consistency pays off. I just kept walking everyday and running where I could. Gradually I started to feel better, I started to feel stronger.

Everyday I just focused on the one goal to move my body.

Aug 2 2024

Fitness starts to rapidly increase on the trip to Europe. Managed to run to Buckingham Palace.

Sep 2 2024

16 months cancer free! Officially cleared for full exercise regime. Begin running consistently without walking for the first time.

Oct 13 2024

Milestone achieved, was able to negative split and run a 53 minute 10k time. Extremely happy with this result.

Oct 31 2024

Only signup to the half marathon 3 days before it starts. It wasn't until this moment that I was confident I could actually do it.

Nov 2 2024

695 days later....

On the start line with Will! What a buzz that was, I felt so incredibly happy and reflected on the journey to get to that point!

My goal was to run the whole way without stopping.

• Second goal was to run under 2:20:00.

Finished in 1:56:27!

I was incredibly stoked with that, considering that my previous best in full health was 1:49:24!

I have lost so much in all of this but I have gained a lot of mental strength.

What a buzz it was to be back on that harbour bridge.

I loved being out there with everyone and just enjoying the moment.

Awesome to be there at the end with Malcolm Hicks! He ran in the 2020 Olympics for New Zealand in the marathon and has a best time of 2:10:04. He was so supportive and it was great to have him there at the end.

So there we have it!

Conclusion

This post might give an insight into why I talk about mindset and high performance so much. I've had to learn a lot of things the hard way and I've had to use these strategies to overcome obstacles in my own life.

I hope that this post inspires you to keep going and to keep pushing through.

• Find a way to break your goal down into smaller chunks
• Focus on the present and what you can do today
• Be consistent
• Celebrate the small wins
• Be strong mentally. Smile a lot and tell yourself that you will get better.

Because if I can run a 1:56 half marathon after all of that, then you can do anything you set your mind to.