Laura Siddall wins in New Zealand

Off-road Marathon win a week after IRONMAN New Zealand

What a difference a week makes….

If there is one thing that we’ve known about Great Britain’s ‘global’ athlete, Laura Siddall, for a long time it’s that she is both exceptionally resilient and consistent. She rarely has a ‘bad’ race, is a regular on the podium in a remarkably high percentage of her event and in 2018 – with three full distance wins at IRONMAN New Zealand, IRONMAN Australia and Challenge Madrid / ETU European LD Champs – entered 2019 off the back of her best season yet, seemingly improving every year.

Her career mantra has been  Don’t Die Wondering, and so when – by her standards and expectations – she started 2019 with off-par races at Challenge Wanaka and IRONMAN New Zealand, in a country that is all but a second home, you can feel her pain. Making no excuses, reading her brutally honest social media posts like, “...come race day for some reason I’m not delivering it’s frustrating and upsetting – letting all my team down that have put in the hard work to support me and help me“, is painful – but also a raw and honest insight into the mindset of an Elite athlete. The highs are great… but it doesn’t always go well, despite the best of preparations.

How do you get out yourself of that potential hole? For some, perhaps the best way is to back off a touch and take a break to recover, both physically and mentally. For Laura, taking on the Macpac Motatapu Off-Road Marathon a week after IRONMAN New Zealand (along with three days of mountain biking immediately prior), may well prove to be the ultimate re-boot to 2019.

While she won the race, having a day when “…I had the biggest smile, I was laughing, this was ridiculous…it was friggin AWESOME”, might well prove to be an unconventional and unplanned way to re-find your mojo and far more important than any position or time. Reading her Instagram post below, it could well be inspired.

Congratulations ‘Sid’ – it’s great to see the smile back. Time for a (brief) rest now?!

View this post on Instagram

Wow! That was not expected! But an absolutely awesome surprise and stoked to win the @motatapu_nz Off-Road Marathon! . As said yesterday… I wasn’t sure what my legs would be like after IMNZ and the 47km Mountain Bike event the day before. The goal was to just run and enjoy the incredible scenery of Motatapu, and take all the pictures I couldn’t take the day before whilst clinging to my mountain bike! . Yesterday’s run was just incredible. There were times in the race where I looked in front of me… and couldn’t see anyone…I looked behind me and couldn’t see anyone… it was just me, running, surrounded by mountains… just running. I had the biggest smile, I was laughing, this was ridiculous… I sang and yelled… listening to it echoing off the hills. It was friggin A W E S O M E ! . To find myself at the front of the race was definitely not in the plan and was a little bit of a shock and surprise. “Sh*t just got serious”, and “am I now in a race?” did spring to mind. But no, I just carried on running for the love of it. I did also think … “you’d better not f*ck this up now” 😂 . What a weekend, the mountain bike and then the run! Just stunning scenery and an awesome event! One of the best and definitely bucket list! Thank you Motatapu!! . . . #dontdiewondering #dontdiebreathing #inpursuitofexcellence #motatapu #newzealand #offroad #offplan #trails #chasingsummer #hokaoneone #timetofly

A post shared by Laura Siddall (@lmsid) on Mar 10, 2019 at 10:36pm PDT

Macpac Motatapu Off-Road Marathon – Sunday 10th March 2019
Queenstown, New Zealand

Women

1st – Laura Siddall – 3:26:56
2nd – Lucy Batholomew – 3:39:56
3rd – Claire Rayner – 3:42:50

Men

1st – Ewan Cameron – 3:00:22
2nd – Vajin Armstrong – 3:00:35
3rd – Hamish Elliott – 3:07:03

FULL RESULTS