What do you do when the world feels like a dark place? As though the light will never return? What do you do when the pain is so deep, it embraces you and doesn’t let you go? How do you move forward?
Those were the questions Maree Leith was trying to find the answers to when she laced up her running shoes for the first time about eight years ago.
Her youngest daughter was one, and Maree’s body was not only bearing the brunt of motherhood but also of deep tragedy. In the process of trying to have a third child, incredible hardship had struck three times: two stillborns and the neonatal death of her daughter Katie, who passed away at just six weeks.
Maree was devastated beyond belief. The trauma had also left her overweight. She decided she needed to get well, mentally and physically, for herself and for her family.
So, one day, out of nowhere but a deep desire to survive and carry on, Maree went for a run.
What started as just one more attempt to shed the kilos after having her youngest child (a successful birth after three tragedies), and finding some mental space to breathe and process years of pain, ended up saving her life.
Today, the Auckland mother of three is a trail runner – actually, an ultrarunner – and coach who works with women all over New Zealand and
