Multisports: 'Couch potato' convert on road to self discovery

Multisport athlete Nicola McCloy has spent 2012 doing things that scare her.

Nicola McCloy decided that 2012 would be "the year of the epic".

The 41-year-old has lost 27kg as she prepares for her ultimate goal of walking the Auckland Half Marathon in October.

One of the steps on the way is competing in the 10.5km trail walk of the 3D Rotorua Festival next weekend. McCloy has been on a journey of self-discovery that's all about attitude.

"This year started kind of badly for me and I decided I needed to be more open to taking risks in life," said the Aucklander, who once weighed close to 140kg.

"I realised how often I'd say to myself, 'I'd like to do that but ...' and find excuses not to. So I decided I'd turn that into 'I'd like to do that so ...' and find ways to make things happen.

"I've bungy jumped, done a half-marathon, flown a plane, joined a triathlon team, surfed, done a 1km ocean swim race - and it's only May."

She has lost weight at a rapid rate but the focus has been on adopting a fresh take on life.

"The real change has been my decision to take risks and do stuff that scares me. Not being a wuss has made me much happier.

"Strangely, the key to losing the weight has been to not think about it. A friend's mother challenged me to walk the Auckland Half Marathon with her in October.

"When I realised what I'd got myself in for, I decided I'd better start training.

"With the extra exercise I started eating better and the weight loss just happened. If I'd decided to lose the weight and made that my focus, I'd probably be back on the sofa.

"Instead my focus is on training for the half-marathon so I swim four times a week, get my trainers on as often as I can and enter races to help keep me focused."

A big help has been getting out of the city and exploring the trails in the greater Auckland area.

"When I started training, I found walking on the road really uninspiring. I quickly realised if I was going to do long walks it needed to be somewhere interesting so took to the beach and the bush to train ... It's just so much nicer to be out of the urban environment."

She'll compete in the Rotorua 3D Festival with her good friend Angela Dall Hjorring, who's doing the 21km.

"If you'd told me this time last year that either of us would be doing this I'd have laughed myself sick, so I'm looking forward to us both having a celebratory toast on completion."

After doing the hard yards in training, McCloy is looking forward to the race environment. "The forest is amazing and doing the race with heaps of people from all over the country will be fantastic. It's my first trail race so I'm very much dipping my toe in the water.

"For the rest of 2012, there's the Xterra series, the Auckland Half Marathon and the Ocean Swim series starting with the Harbour Crossing in December. Not bad for a girl whose favourite pastime was lying on the sofa complaining."