Kia ora,
My name is Coach Maree and my life has been an incredible personal journey that has lead me to this place that I would have never, ever imagined! I live on the sunny Hibiscus Coast in Auckland, NZ with my amazing hubby and children. Honestly, sometimes I have to pinch myself when I wake up in the morning because I sometimes feel like I have the best job in the world. I get to help other
women go through what I went through after I started running. As a full time, professional running coach - I get to help my clients achieve things that they never ever thought might be possible and its so rewarding. With an online community of over 20,000 women, running groups established in 8 cities around Australasia and having coached hundreds of runners to reach their goals, gain confidence and to learn how to really enjoy running has taken me over 7 years. But it wasn’t always like this….. My Story
‘I have been where you are, let me share some of my journey with you’ Coach Maree. In 2011 I carried 35kgs of unhealthy weight related to a very tough and dark time in my life. I had just had my baby girl Amelia and through the years of trying for her unfortunately I went through giving birth to 2 stillborn babies Holly and Liam, then 1 year later a little girl Katie who passed away at 6 weeks old. Because of the years of absolute devastation and heart break I had gained weight and lost myself in the process. My confidence had been shattered and I just didn’t know how to climb out of this hole. I wanted to turn my life around and find something for me, find something that was uncomfortable and extreme. I found out that thing was running! Crap it was the hardest thing I had ever pushed myself to do. I taught myself to walk/run lamp post to lamp post (I had never run before in my life) and from there built up to doing my first 6k event in Auckland city. I blossomed from there and just kept stepping up into different distances, trail races, half marathons and then into the ‘crazy’ world of ultra distance marathons (but we will talk about that a bit later). At first the process was long and tough especially carrying so much weight and having very little confidence. Even running in the dark or away from people as I felt embarrassed. Was I doing it right, everything was jiggling, everything hurt and I felt like an imposter !! From the consistency, blood, sweat and many tears came easier running, better eating habits and my results took off. I met some amazing people along the way that inspired me and pushed me out the door to train for these massive goals. I finally found myself again with a passion for running. I was finally giving my body and mind the attention it deserves while achieving some pretty awesome goals along the way. Some of the proudest moments in my running journey would have to be guiding for the Achilles NZ team 2016 and travelled to New York for this epic bucket list Marathon. Being the official Coach for Oxfam Trail walker 100km event 3 years in a row and helping making a huge difference for people in poverty. Then pushing my mind and body to the absolute extreme, doing something unimaginable which was the 100 mile race in Hanmer 2021. I was last on the course, I ended up 3rd women and I had endured 34 hours doing the one thing I could always rely on ‘getting s**t done’. I couldn’t be more proud of myself.
‘I Can Confirm That For Me The Mental Toughness Growth Is By Far The Best Gain I Have Received Through My Running’
As I continued to develop myself as a runner, I met more and more women on a similar journey. Women of all shapes and sizes, all ages who all had one thing in common - they liked to run. As I talked to these women - I realised that a lot of them were needing support. They were asking for advice. They were looking for information on training and some were looking for coaching but their options were pretty limited. At that time, I had been trained up and was now working as a personal trainer and pilattes instructor. So I go this idea - I’d start a Facebook community just for women runners to share ideas and inspire each other. I named it, ‘Go Run Girls’. That’s where things got interesting! It’s super challenging as women to balance everything in life, especially when you add running and training into your life. Our Facebook community just grew and grew…. from a few hundred, then to 1000 and then over 5000! The same questions and problems kept coming up. I realised that this community of women runners was asking for a coach that could understand them. So I came up with Go Run Girls to help guide women through in a realistic, raw and open way. In these last 6 years I have taught myself to run long distance, trained to become a Qualified Pilates Instructor, Qualified Lydiard level 1 and 2 Running Certificates and level 5 Personal Trainer (along with cross country coaching, run groups and Athletics coaching). This meant that I could go on and help other people be consistent and accountable to training. Go Run Girls Coaching was born! I started out small with face to face run coaching - just helping people who came to me and then things quickly expanded and I needed to take things online. I bundled all of my experience, knowledge and skills to create an online coaching system which gives runners access to plans, support, videos, tips and our community directly from their phones. It works - really, really well! Since launching Go Run Girls, we have seen some incredible success getting our runners to the finish lines of events all around New Zealand and Australia. I still see a little bit of myself in each of my clients and just love seeing them all succeed in their own journey. So that’s my story - what about yours? We all have our own stories and I am so happy to share a snippet of my journey with you. Going through my darkest time and using it as my motivation plays such a big part in who I am today. I’d love to hear your story one day and I’d love to help you on your next step of your running journey. If you’d like some help - go check out my website for my coaching options. I keep it simple and cost effective because I want to help as many woman as I can. Make ‘you’ a priority and do something small every day, trust me it will grow. x Coach Maree.
