Nikki Love, 56, from Leicestershire, shares her epic tale of training for – and completing – a run of 4,000km across Australia from coast to coast. Prepare to be blown away!
WORDS: NIKKI LOVE.
On July 16, 2023, with my trainers still on my feet, I ran into the breaking waves of the world-famous Bondi Beach, Sydney, on the east coast of Australia. Why? Because 77 days earlier I had dipped my feet into the surf at Cottesloe Beach, Perth, on the west coast, signifying the start of my running odyssey: an attempt to become the fastest woman to run across Australia.
Believe it or not, becoming a long-distance runner hadn’t always been my aspiration. As a young girl I wanted to be a ballerina, and I trained up to five days a week. However, after experiencing my first official “long” run (3km) for a school cross-country race at age 13, I was hooked. I made the cross-country team and fell in love with running, especially the being outdoors bit. Running felt like an adventure and gave me a feeling of independence and freedom.
I carried on running for fun, eventually gravitating towards working in the fitness industry. I was an aerobics instructor in the 80s in Australia. Then I moved to the UK in 1999, had my son, and became a PT and sports massage therapist. I still loved running, but it was a background player in my fitness training, not the focus.
However, after failing to finish my first marathon, I put it at the top of my training priority. Six months later, I completed the 2002 London Marathon. Then in 2010, I completed my first big running adventure: seven marathons in seven days around my home county of Leicestershire, ending with the London Marathon.
I ran a few more marathons after that, then delved into the ultramarathon world. I started getting a reputation among my friends for doing long, hard runs. One day, one of them tagged me in a Facebook post saying, “This seems up your street, Nikki”. It was about a British guy who was running across Australia. “Yes!”, I thought, “that is right up my street!”. Mark Allison was his name and as I followed him online, cheering him on from behind my keyboard, the thought of “I wonder whether I could do that?” became, “one day I will do that”.
TYPICAL TRAINING
Although I was born in the UK, my parents emigrated to Australia when I was just one, and I lived in Oz until age 33 before moving back to the UK, so I always consider Australia to be my home. It seemed like a natural choice for an epic adventure.
RunAustralia was 10 years in the planning. During that decade I did things to help
