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Remember when you were at school and it would come time for 'physical education' and the teacher would select 2 children as team captains and they would get to choose, one by one, a member for their team from all the kids in the class
Remember that kid that no-one wanted on their team because they really had no sporting ability, no co-ordination and more than likely no potential either?
Yep, it was me
Somewhere down the track I decided running was a good sport to take up, and I wasnt too bad either - just very skinny and I had 'chicken legs'
I then ventured into triathlon and if you took away the swim and the bike I was actually not bad at this sport either!
I loved this sport tho, so decided to do a half iron-man, which is a 2km swim, a 90km bike ride and a half marathon.
It went well and I finished in a half-decent time too.
A few days later I was told that the pain in my foot that I had experienced thru-out the race was in fact from a fractured bone and the 'flu' that I had also picked up and had been dragging me down for the last few weeks of my training was actually a pregnancy - oops silly me.
There ended my sporting ambitions and over the next 8 years I became a full-time mum to my 2 children.
At the age of 7 my daughter (the eldest of the 2), who had been suffering unexplained ill-health for the past 18 months, was finally diagnosed with advanced thyroid cancer.
It was during surgery that this diagnosis was made, unfortunately the surgeons could do nothing but stitch her up - due to the spread of cancer into her lymph nodes and lungs, they were unable to remove the large tumour that had taken over most of her thyroid.
She has recently finished her 11th bout of treatment and I have lost count of the number of times she has been into surgery - but the most significant of these was a 12-hour operation with an amazing team of surgeons who are the reason she is with us today, now 17 years old, and in her final year at college.
It was during all this emotional trauma that I decided to focus some of my time on my own health. My daughters health was becoming more managable and she was able to be taken off several of her machines because she was able to have her tracheostomy (tube in her throat to breath thru) reversed.
I joined a local gym, hoping to put a little weight/size - wherever I could put it!
After a week at the gym I was approached by a trainer there to enter a bodybuilding competition, which was in 6 weeks time.
Thinking it would be a good thing for me to focus on and train towards I said yes, competed, and had a huge amount of fun! I placed 2nd out of 4 and won a trophy - the only trophy I had ever won in my life and I slept with it on my pillow all nite!
I did another competiton 3 weeks later and got 2nd again - but this time out of 13 girls - another trophy (the bed was getting a little more crowded now) With my daughter's condition quite stable I continued training toward the NZFBB (IFBB) NZ Nationals - having qualified at the regionals.
Unfortunately it didnt go quite so smoothly as I fractured a rib in the build-up to the Nationals and it was during a bone scan to confirm this fracture that a large bone tumour was discovered in my humerous (shoulder).
I made the decision to continue with my plan to compete, despite not being able to do any training due to the broken rib, then after nationals I had surgery to remove the tumour and have a bone graft.
Four months recovery and then I was back into it and did a few more bodybuilding competitions, switching back and forth between the figure and physique classes.
Along the way I steadily built up a business of designing and making bodybuilding biknis and trunks (which today is an extremely busy part of my life)
Finding myself in a bit of a lull with my training, and not enjoying it as much as I usually did, it was suggested to me by one of my clients to find myself a trainer - I did, and it happened to be a power-lifter. I'd never had a trainer so it turned out to be just what I needed.
We began working on strength training and I guess one thing led to another and I ended up doing a power lifting competition, and I loved it.
18 months later, having lifted enough weight to qualify for the World Masters Powerlifting Champs in Texas, I packed my bags and headed off to Texas to give it a go.
Ok - now if any of you have ever seen the movie 'The World's Fastest Indian' well that was me - the little country bumpkin from little old New Zealand, oblivious to the whole scale of such a competition and it wasnt until I was standing in the gear-check line so that they could weigh, measure all our stuff like belts, knee wraps bench shirts etc that it hit me what I'd got myself into.
The Japanese girls each had enough gear to sink a ship (like 6 sets of knee wraps, 4 or 5 squat suits, 3 or 4 bench shirts etc), the Americans had even more, and Ali had... one set of knee wraps, one lifting suite and one pair of shoes (they were pink sketchers and I loved them).
The official doing the gear check asked me if 'this was it' and did I have any other pairs of shoes perhaps to check in - so I took off my trainers and put them on the table just for the hell of it.
My coach was not able to come to the comp so he told my husband what I had to lift.
We had an agreement in training and competing that I never knew what weight I was lifting - my trainer would load the bar/select the weight, and I'd just lift it.
My thinking was that if he thinks I could lift it then I obviously could (blonde logic) So this was the plan we stuck to at the World Masters in Texas in 2006, and this was the plan that won me the gold medal in both 2006 and then again in 2007 in the Czech Republic.
Who needs 6 sets of knee wraps and 4 lifting suits anyway!?
Through-out my powerlifting years I continued to compete as a bodybuilder (at times within a week or 2 of each other) and altho I trained solely as a powerlifter it gave me the right body structure that I needed for bodybuilding and I began taking out overall titles in bodybuilding (figure and physique) and breaking NZ/Oceania and Commonwealth open records in powerlifting.
Diet was a key factor - I just didnt do it! I think I have this crazy metabolism that was letting me eat basically anything and it wasnt until I had to leave my sport of powerlifting (disc damage in my lower back) that I focused on a (fairly loose) bodybuilders eating regime.
This was last year (2009), and I think the nutrition focus was just what I needed to give me that bit extra edge which I needed to go head-to-head with the Aussies at the Asia Pacifics!
I'm having a re-think about what I want to do now, sporting wise, so I just sit on the couch eating fish & chips (haha NOT) I still love to train and love being involved with the ANB and encouraging others to give this sport a go - afterall I didnt set foot in a gym until I was close to 40 years old.
Making a commitment to be a life-long drug-free athlete was the only choice I would even consider, and I urge other athletes to stay true to what they believe in and look after their health and most of all enjoy the sport that they have chosen.
I'm proud of the fact that I have been named Counties Manukau Masters Sportsperson of the year 2 years in a row - when I was once that skinny kid with the chicken legs and no potential - just goes to show you that ANYONE can achieve their goals.
Several years ago I found this saying and I now live by it...
"I'm very aware that life is short, that it passes in an instant and we never know when we might die. And so, even tho I might be afraid, when it comes to a choice between doing something or not, even if it was a mistake, I'll do it.
And in that case, I won't say afterwards, 'I could have done it'."
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