Catherine Garraway who weighed 165kg and now, after losing almost 40kg, has entered the 12km event of the Auckland Marathon, which she aims on running. / Jason Oxenham
An Auckland mum is set to line up in the Auckland marathon, almost 20kg lighter than the 145kg she weighed at last year's event - and 40kg lighter than when her weight loss journey began.
Catherine Garraway has been charting her progress online - and her goal is to run the full Auckland Marathon 12km Traverse event next Sunday.
"If I don't I don't, but I will still be further ahead than where I was before," she said.
The 35-year-old's journey kicked off in 2016 when she started going for lunchtime walks with her colleagues from ASB as part of a three-week wellness challenge. Garraway weighed 165kg.
"I was just like 'wow', all I did was walking. That was the only change I made. I thought, if I can lose 5kg just doing that, if I do a little bit more maybe I can lose some more weight," Garraway said.
"That was kind of the start of it for me."
Feeling inspired, she joined the gym and turned her focus to becoming more active and eating healthily. She also won free entry into the 2016 Auckland Marathon and Garraway walked the 12km Traverse event with her husband, a big step for the mum of two who had never participated in a running event.
Catherine Garraway weighed 165kg before she started her weight loss journey in 2016. Picture/Supplied
This year, she has entered the same event, and is aiming to run the entire 12km from Smales Farm, Northcote, to Victoria Park.
"Last year, when I walked most of it, I was like: 'I really want to be able to run this'," said Garraway.
When Garraway first started training earlier this year, she could only last a few minutes on the treadmill.
After months of training, including waking up at 4.30am most days to go to the gym, she ran the entire 7km event at the Onehunga Half Marathon in September.
Garraway has documented her weight loss on Instagram, posting a photo a day for the past 100 days.
"For me it's incremental. I think people go, 'I'm going to go out and run 10km' and then they can't do it and they get disheartened. The way I approached it was if I can get to 10 minutes running without stopping that's an achievement. And then once I got to there I thought, okay, I'll push myself now let's do 15," she said.
Catherine Garraway's goal is to run the entire 12km Traverse event of the Auckland Marathon. Photo/Jason Oxenham
To stay motivated, Garraway has signed up to compete as a charity runner for St John. She also wanted to support the organisation as she spent many years as a St John cadet.
"If people donate money to support me, I feel like I have to do it," she said.
ASB Auckland Marathon race director Bic Williams said Garraway was an example of the amazing people who take part.
"Some, like Catherine, are doing a great job of raising money and awareness for our charities. Others are pushing themselves further than they ever thought possible and of course there are plenty of experienced runners looking for personal bests and even fewer are perhaps chasing spots on the podium."
Determined to keep fit after the event, Garraway has already started thinking about her next challenge, which has included pondering if she could run a half marathon.
"One of the things for me was if I [get fit and healthy] I want to make sure I don't go back to where I was before," she said.
