Tina Wild

The highlight of this time was being 1st reserve for the New Zealand Cross Country Team to the World Championships - missing out on the traveling team by one second from a certain Alison Roe. I also had the British Best time for 10 miles on the road and the 1 hour track race, the latter also being a “Commonwealth Best” and 4th ranked in the World.

I moved into 1980 with personal bests on the track and had won a few titles over the country again so I was in good form coming up to the important winter races that are held in July and August each year.

I went for a training run with my coach on July 20th and on that night my life was changed forever. Whilst using the zebra crossing near the then "Roundhouse" now demolished and known as the Westpac Stadium, a reckless, drunken driver overtook all the stationary cars and mowed us down.

I could have quite easily died due to the injuries sustained, e.g. two fractures of the skull causing an 80% hearing loss, permanent loss of smell and taste, broken and detached arm which needed to be re-attached to the shoulder joint, broken leg which needed a bone graft from the hip bone and the general attachments that goes with this procedure and on top of this the stress both physical and mental that goes hand in hand with such a traumatic accident (even if one is very fit at the time!).

I was incredibly lucky to have a surgeon at the time that thought to try and save my leg rather than just "chopping it off" and becoming an amputee! However, other than this ‘bright spot’ I was surrounded by negativity in the medical world, so I set about reading as much as possible on recovery with natural vitamins and herbs. I combined these new ideas with willpower and set on the long road to recovery. I had to learn to walk, talk, write and slowly - ever so slowly, get fit again.

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To gain further knowledge of the human body on the physical side, I studied for my Diploma in Exercise Science at Wellington Polytechnic and at the same time slowly learnt to walk and then jog again, all feeling very alien to what I had always been used to. I also set running goals.

In 1984 I ran my first marathon in Christchurch and finished 2nd in a time of 2 hours, 45 minutes and eleven seconds. I had started the marathon with my partner Law but he had told me at the half waypoint that the pace was a "little too quick" for him so I continued on my own.

Tina Wild

The following year I returned to Christchurch and bettered my time by 5 seconds! (A long way for a small gain but I was chuffed.) Then I was selected for the New Zealand team to run the World Cup in Japan, which was a wonderful experience! I was 1st home for New Zealand, as Lorraine Moller didn't finish.

In this stage of my running career I also ran and won the Wellington Marathon, and the Perth Marathon in a Western Australian record time of 2 hours 48 minutes, and in New Zealand colors! Having done these marathons and proved that my body could cope over 26 miles (42kms) I moved back down to normal distances and raced over the road and cross country for Wellington Harriers, the high point being reached in 1996 when we won the New Zealand National Road Relay Championships in Palmerston North.

I have been ‘running’ my Health Shop in Johnsonville since 1995 and cater for all walks of life from the elite athletes to everyday health conscious people looking for natural products to increase their quality of living. A healthy lifestyle should be sought by all, as the length of one's life is not ‘only’ what counts but the quality at which one lives it!

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