Q How many days have you been on the road this year?
A We have been away six months of this year, in Australia, United States, Canada and Costa Rica.
Q List the cities you have been in this year.
A Ogden, Denver, Steamboat Springs, Crested Butte, Moab, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Encinitas, Banff, Canmore, San Jose and Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica.
Q What events have you been to in the past 12 months?
A Port of Tauranga Half, Coast to Coast, XTERRA Rotorua, XTERRA Asia Pacific, XTERRA USA Mountain Champs and the XTERRA USA Champs.
Q What is life like on the road as Braden's support crew?
A Our life is an adventure. We chose this path and we love what we do. We feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to travel as a family. Each year we look back and feel as if we never would've predicted what we have achieved. We had quite a bit of down time while away this year, and it did become a little bit lonely at times. For the children too, as they missed their friends, home and dog. But it was also really good for us because we are not a family that gets the luxury of too much down time.
Supporting my husband is something I have become better at over time. I was once very independent and self-driven to achieve my own big goals. But I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the process of helping my husband with his career as an athlete. And with that, comes the need to have someone to sort out his life, plan in advance and make sure he doesn't overtrain etc. It's a pretty hard gig trying to perform 12 months of the year. You sort of need someone to have your back and I don't mind playing that role.
Q What do you enjoy about attending international sporting events with your husband?
A I loved competition as a kid, and turns out it's still within me. It's quite a buzz to be part of something, where anything can happen.
Q You also travel with your children aged 2 and 7. Is that challenging?
A Yes, but probably every mother would agree that you quickly learn to roll with the punches and the more you challenge your life with children the more resilient you become in any situation that life throws at you. I remember last year we were in Italy in a town that was 2000 years old with no-one who spoke English and both children came down with chicken pox. It was horrible. They cried all night and it rained every day. We then had to hide the children's faces as we boarded our next flight. Otherwise we were going to have to stay behind in Italy while Braden went to race.
Q What have you learnt from being the wife of an athlete?A I've learnt to let stuff go. Nothing in our world is predictable in any sense of the word. Sometimes in the past Braden has left for a race and I have thought to myself, ''he better win this one, or we are going to be broke''. Luckily, he is fairly reliable and we have made it this far. But our life has been full of the unexpected and we wonder how we actually made it to where we are - living in the town we always wanted to live in (Wanaka), in a house we helped build with a dog we love, a vege garden and a big sunny deck. I am just loving the moment and the art of loving the moment has empowered us to achieve everything we have so far.
Q Braden has an intensive training regime. What do you do as a family when you are on the road?
A Sometimes Braden will bike while I drive to a new place. I will swim with the kids while he does his laps. I stand on the side of a track, ideally next to a park where the kids can play and time his kilometre splits. When we have a base life is a bit easier. Last year in Europe we travelled to 10 countries in 11 weeks. It was super frantic and I had a lot of time in random places doing my best to figure out where the cool stuff was, and keeping the kids happy by feeding them gelato and croissants.
Q What sporting event/international destination have you enjoyed going to the most?
A Last year we travelled to Sweden for the Sweden XTERRA. It wasn't on the original agenda but Braden decided he wanted to race last minute. He won that race and it was his first international XTERRA win. It was incredible. Braden and I also got to go out in Stockholm one night and have dinner while some new Swedish friends looked after our children. It was quite the treat. We travelled to the archipelago, which is a collection of 30000 islands off the south end of Sweden. Our friends owned a little bach on a small island. We slept in the boathouse, which was right on the water, and swam around the island for training. They also had a traditional Swedish hot tub which was heated by a fire. There were fresh blueberries everywhere that you could pick and eat and the sun was shining. It was pretty incredible.
Q How do you maintain structure and balance for your young children while travelling?
A My son Tarn is quite conscientious. While his sister slept during the day, he would get his homework out, write in his diary, do his maths on a programme called Mathletics and do his spelling on a programme called Spellodrome. He would often read his sister books and put her to bed for us and write to all his friends and family via email. He has come back to school and it's like he has not missed a beat. Bella was able to go to preschool in Steamboat Springs, as they had a drop-in centre at the local swimming pool. This gave her an hour or so a day with some other kids and I managed to do a few laps while she was playing. In the mornings we would all try and do something together after Braden came back from training. And the afternoons we would keep pretty mellow but again try and get some adventures in.
Q Do you have days when you wish that your husband wasn't so competitive?
A I think the amazing thing about my husband is that he can just flick a switch and go back to being an awesome dad, and husband. He is incredibly young at heart and loves having fun. So I think he has a great balance in life and one that has enabled his career and our family life to work so well together.
Q Are you involved with sports yourself?
A I competed in my first running events this year: Routeburn, Rotorua XTERRA 21km (placed eighth overall, women) and the Pisa 10km (first) and my first XTERRA event in Colorado in July and won my age group and came third overall. I will be competing in my first multisport event in January, Red Bull Defiance, which I managed last year. It's an incredibly unique event that crosses eight high country stations otherwise inaccessible to the public.
Q Will you encourage your children to take up multisport?
A I'm a bit of a free-range mum and I really don't mind what my children do. I certainly haven't pushed them into any sports, as I think it's awesome to just be kids for as long as possible. I hope that I can inspire them to enjoy their lives and have lots of fun adventures.
