That is not to say the 24-year-old middle-distance runner is taking anything for granted, before catching a flight yesterday from Nelson to Napier for the annual Allan and Sylvia Potts Memorial Classic in Hastings today.
It is hard to fathom that the six-time reigning 800m Potts Classic champion isn't an Olympian already although she came agonisingly close to it at the 2012 London Olympics.
"I'm only 24 so with 800m you hit your peak around the mid-to-late 20s," she says from an exotic Abel Tasman National Park beach location in Kaiteriteri, about five hours drive from Christchurch.
Consequently she sees the 2020 Tokyo Games as the defining stage of her career although she's mindful there are runners in their 30s who are still dominant.
"I don't want to stop until I reach my limits," she says, emphasising it doesn't matter whether she's in the top field or 20th but pushing herself in training will remain the same.
Her mentality is not to sit on her laurels after a good race but to follow it up with others to show selectors she's all about consistency.
For the youngster who drew inspiration from TV footage of Sir John Walker and Sir Peter Snell crossing the finish line with their arms up in the air before collecting gold on the podium, her parents, Liz and Mike Smit, played a pivotal role in chasing that dream.
Her mother was the chauffeur to race meetings mostly at QEII Park in Christchurch and the sight of tracks gave her knots in her stomach.
But the biological black box sometimes has its own peculiar way of converting nervous energy into positive reinforcement.
"One day we were going to a race and it was pouring down and they cancelled the meeting and I just burst into tears," she says with a laugh, coming to the realisation that it was something she had subconsciously become addicted to but also needed to take in her stride, as it were.
Petty's sub two-minute time (1:59.06) on July 10 last year at the Summer University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, wasn't just a gold medal befitting a world champion but, more importantly, a visa to a new realm of existence in track.
The doors to the already saturated Diamond League meetings didn't open quickly enough last year as she scrambled on to the waiting list but her highly publicised acquisition has boosted her confidence levels immensely.
Her position as the world No7 in 800m was a timely reinforcement but finishing at the World Championship opened her eyes to how much she has to invest after 10 athletes smashed their PBs.
So where does the humble Hastings meeting sit in that complex global equation?
"I want to do a good time but I'm not in my PB shape," she says. It'll be her first outing at the distance since August although she has done a couple of 3000m races.
No doubt she wants to record a better time than she has at previous meetings here, especially if she is to make the cut for the Rio Games.
"I want to make a low two or maybe 2-2 or 2-3 or somewhere like that will be good."
Petty finished fifth at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. In the last Olympic qualifier she was around the two-minute flat mark but, in hindsight, she needed to be a bit fitter.
"I was gutted at the time to miss out but I wasn't ready for it but I'm a lot more focused now," she says, hoping to make an A standard time by July.
Petty, who has made gigantic strides since switching to a gluten-free diet, rates the 800m Potts Classic "very special" and the biggest in New Zealand.
"Sylvia is someone I used to look up to and Allan, who has now passed on, and that's really sad, is someone I admired so it's a nice event to support and a good start to the season," she says, mindful there are bigger 800m events in Australia.
The added incentive is to meet and run alongside the "stars of the future".
The four-time national champion is expecting last year's third-placed classic runner, Katherine Marshall (nee Camp), to push her in breaking the classic record time of 2:03.72.
Last year's runner-up, Nikki Hamblin, isn't returning for the 17th edition of the meeting today that enticed a record 181 athletes.
Also in the women's 800m field is national secondary schools' champion, Lucy Jacobs, 2012 national youth champion Ariana Harper, North Island champion Alison Andrews-Paul, who ran 2:10.17 in Palmerston North last month, Jenny Hauke and Australian 15-year-old Heidi Demeo, who won the Australian junior U15 title in 2:11.49.
Petty relishes afternoon and evening race times and is looking forward to the 7.40pm start to her event.
Also on the agenda is watching at 7.13pm the much-anticipated men's 800m race with Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis and his fellow Michigan-based training partner, Craig Huffer, an Australian who is a sub-four minute miler.
Last year's national champion, Brad Mathas, is Petty's training partner but she isn't going to be drawn into who she'd like to see win, considering Willis "a hero".
Organiser Richard Potts says without the sponsorship of Sir Graeme Avery, of Sileni Estate Winery, and 18 other backers the task of staging an international-class meeting in the Bay would be difficult.
WHAT'S ON
12pm-4pm: Potts Classic Ribbon Children's Meeting 3yrs to U14.
4.15pm: 3000m track walk Open women-men field Allan & Sylvia Potts Track and Field Classic.
4.45pm: Hammer women/men.
5pm: Long jump women.
6pm: Discus women/men.
6.15pm: Long jump men.
7pm: Shotput women/men track.
5pm: 100m heat 1 women.
5.05pm: 100m heat 2 women.
5.10pm: 100m heat 3 women.
5.15pm: 100m heat 1 men.
5.20pm: 100m heat 2 men
5.25pm: 100m heat 3 men.
5.45pm: 3000m NZ Junior Championship women.
6pm 100m: U14 hcp (top 2 - 11 to 14yrs) girls.
6.05pm: 100m U14 hcp (top 2 - 11 to 14yrs) boys.
6.10pm: 100m final elite women.
6.15pm: 100m final elite men.
6.20pm: 3000m NZ Junior Championship men.
6.30pm: 400m B race women.
6.35pm: 400m elite women.
6.40pm: 400m B race men.
6.45pm: 400m elite men.
6.50pm: Clash of the Codes - 4 x 100m relay women/men.
6.55pm: 800m U14 hcp (10 to 14yrs) boys.
7.05pm: 800m C race men.
7.09pm: 800m B race men.
7.13pm: Allan Potts Memorial 800m elite men.
7.20pm: 2 x 100m relay B race women.
7.23pm: 2 x 100m relay A race women.
7.26pm: 2 x 100m relay men.
7.30pm: 800m U14 hcp (10 to 14yrs) girls.
7.40pm: Sylvia Potts Memorial 800m elite women.
*U14 hcp events (top 2 in age group 11 to 14yrs) based on placings in ribbon meeting held earlier in day.
*All 11 to 14yr can race the 800m in a straight final with all the ages handicap on the night in the one race.
