On the start-line for tomorrow’s Queenstown half marathon is a 43-year-old who only took up running after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Mara Williams, who moved to Queenstown from Wellington in June, found out she had MS in March, 2017.
She took up running the following January, partly for the health benefits but also ‘‘with the possibility if it did progress, then I wouldn’t be able to’’.
After two eight-week programmes to get her running up to 5km, then up to 10km, she ran her first half marathon in September that year on Auckland’s North Shore.
She’s since run another five, including one she ran by herself when an event was killed due to Covid restrictions.
Her best time was 2 hours 7 minutes for the Hawke’s Bay half in 2019.
As to whether running’s improved her condition, Williams, who’s on a disease-modifying drug every six weeks, says ‘‘I think just being fit helps’’, while ticking off goals also helped with her mental challenge initially.
‘‘It hasn’t really got a lot worse — I was very lucky with it because it was diagnosed fairly early and the symptoms are fairly invisible to most people.
‘‘I’ve got relapsing remitting MS, so most of the time I’m mostly OK.
‘‘With running I do have to be careful because if I get too hot, that’s when my vision will get blurry, so I tend to slow down to manage it.’’
Williams says she’s enjoying training in such a scenic area — ‘‘I keep stopping for photos’’ — and feels fortunate living on Frankton Road as it’s close to the course for training purposes.
She’d love to do about 2hr 30min tomorrow, “but that will be a stretch, I’d be happy as long as I’m under 3hr”.
Friends and family have also recommended songs for her play-list, ‘‘so every song that comes on while I’m running, there’s a person cheering me on, and it gives me a little bit of extra motivation’’.
