After five years of sleep deprivation while raising four young children and 250 calves on a sprawling Southland farm, Liz Gill realised she couldn’t keep putting herself last.
On the brink of her forties, Gill was overweight, had recently quit smoking and was running on empty. While she and her husband, Greg – a farmer and volunteer fire chief in the nearby town of Browns – battled through years of illness with their two youngest children, Gill knew she needed to look after herself.
So she pulled on her gumboots and went for a walk.
She had no inkling that simple decision would eventually earn her a place on the start line of next year’s Ironman New Zealand.
Now 45, Gill has won the Tony Jackson Scholarship to contest the country’s ultimate long-distance triathlon in March – a gruelling 226km challenge of swimming, cycling, and running.
It’s the culmination of an eight-year journey that’s not only seen her lose 30kg and reclaim her health and fitness, but also inspired her and Greg to create their own eight-hour adventure race on their farm in the stunning Lora Gorge – an event that has raised about $80,000 for their community.
“Where I’ve come from to where I’m going to is massive,” Gill says.
And she’s done it not only for herself, but her four kids – now aged eight to 16. “I do a lot of the hard work before the kids are awake, but for them to see what we’re capable of is pretty cool,” she says.
An endless string of firsts
The breathtaking view from the top of the Gills’ 365ha beef farm in central Southland stretches from Bluff Hill to Stewart Island and around to the Takitimu Mountains. But its beauty comes at a cost. The property is 50km north of Invercargill, meaning every winter swim requires a decent drive to the city.
Every training session is a logistical puzzle, carefully choreographed around family, work and life on the farm.
If the kids are home, Gill runs laps of her gently sloping 700m-long driveway. On school days, she drops them at the bus stop and heads out on the surrounding, mostly gravel roads.
The unforgiving Southland winter has kept her cycling indoors on a bike trainer, lent to her by a friend. It’s meant that the kids can do their reading homework with her while she pedals.
The past week has brought a string of firsts. “I swam with a pull buoy for the first time, rode on aerobars for the first time, and finally found cycling shoes that were designed for my extra wide feet,” Gill says. “What a difference it makes riding without sore feet.”
The scholarship has helped her buy new running shoes, too. The rest of her gear has been borrowed or donated by family and friends.
Her dad, Graeme Appleby, has lent her his road bikes for her Ironman build-up. The 76-year-old volunteer firefighter and avid cyclist inspired his daughter to take up road cycling.
“I wanted to do a ride with him before he has to stop,” she says.
She plans to cycle the 253km Westpac Chopper Bike Ride from Queenstown to Invercargill with him – a charity event Appleby has completed 13 times. It holds extra significance for Gill – her brother was saved by the rescue helicopter after a surfing accident in Raglan.
“What I’ve learned through this journey is just getting out with Dad is more exciting than a ride,” she says. “He’s always been so fit and active, and the hardest thing for him was to see me overweight.”
Her mum, Jan, also spurred her into action. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy at 52. “You just don’t know what’s around the corner,” Gill says.
Gill’s new-found love for exercise began eight years ago, when Gill’s weight reached 120kg. She’d been able to quit smoking relatively easily: “I jumped on an e-cigarette for a week and then quit altogether – what seemed like the hardest thing in the world became the easiest.” But her focus had been largely on her family.
Their two youngest children, Austin and Sarah, have had silent reflux since they were born – between them, they endured seven surgeries.
Initially doctors couldn’t work out what was wrong with a sickly Austin, who was in terrible pain every time he lay down. Sarah could only sleep upright in a pushchair for two years.
“We had four or five years of sleep deprivation. One day I almost fell asleep while driving,” Gill says. “The GP got me into a private paediatrician on a Saturday, and diagnosed Austin with silent reflux. That started a five-year journey for both those kids.”
The children had surgery in Christchurch on the same day. “From there, we haven’t looked back,” says Gill.
Gill worries that their older two children, Emma and Zach, missed out during those difficult years. And she’s surprised she didn’t end up with postnatal depression.
“It’s a really lonely journey. There weren’t really support groups then. And I needed time for myself,” she says.
Now her kids are “pretty proud” of their mum.
“Austin was trying to explain to his friends about what Mum was doing – that I was going to run from home to Invercargill and bike from home to Queenstown,” she says. “It was quite cool and our kids are really excited to be coming up to Taupō to watch me.”
When farming becomes training
As a kid living in Hikuai on the Coromandel Peninsula, Gill played netball and swam – in the pool and the ocean, snorkelling and diving. “I was never a runner or a biker,” she says.
She’d studied hotel management in Rotorua out of school, and joined her parents in Southland when they bought a dairy farm. That’s where she met and married Greg, a sheep farmer.
“I love it down here; I wouldn’t move back. The community is amazing,” she says.
The Gills farm wagyu cattle, and it’s Liz’s job each spring to rear about 250 calves. “I love doing it, but it means August and September are pretty much out for Ironman training. My training is weightlifting bags of meal and milk powder,” she laughs.
“That will set up me, though, because I’ll be constantly up at 5am – so I’ll be ready to start my training in October through to February.”
She began her exercise regime by walking the farm hills in her gumboots, and graduated to walk-running – but in running shoes. “Running then became a marathon,” says Gill, who completed her first 42km distance in the six-hour Invercargill Endurance Challenge.
She also climbed on a mountain bike and started swimming again after three decades. Now down to 90kg, she took up a friend’s invitation to tackle the Spirited Women adventure race.
“It was such good fun. After my second race, I asked my husband, ‘Do you think we could do an adventure race on the farm?’, thinking really small scale,” Gill says.
The Gorge Adventure Race is now four years old, and ranges from a three-hour trek to an eight-hour mountain bike and trek. It includes the odd mystery activity, like a fire hose waterslide, and moonshine shots. Last year, 330 people competed.
The Gills have made the race into a fundraiser for local sports and community groups. The proceeds from next year’s racing will be donated to the local school and go towards buying defibrillators for the wider community.
It will be held just a week after Gill makes her Ironman debut in Taupō – a daunting double that reflects just how far she’s come. “It’s going to hurt, but we’ve got an awesome committee who help,” she says.
Through organising her own adventure race, Gill got involved with the Southland Triathlon and Multisport Club, where she is now the event coordinator. She will also be working at the World Triathlon series in Tauranga in November.
“There are really good people involved in triathlon. I’m surrounded by people who’ve done Ironman or have gone through a similar journey and they’re the ones who’ve put the idea in my head,” she says.
When Gill saw the Ironman NZ scholarship on social media and decided to put her story forward, she wasn’t expecting to hear anything back.
The annual scholarship honours the legacy of Ironman New Zealand Hall of Fame member Tony Jackson, a 28-time Ironman finisher who believed that “nothing is impossible … to the willing mind.”
It gives Gill entry to the New Zealand Ironman on March 6 and training support to get her to the startline.
She’s unsure where this journey will lead her next. “After years of sleep deprivation, I don’t think I could do a Godzone race,” she laughs. “But I can’t imagine wanting to stop triathlon. I’ve heard that once you’ve done an Ironman, you’re like, right, what do I do next? Maybe it will take me overseas.”
Does Gill imagine her children will follow in her footsteps? Not any time soon. “I think you need to go through life and appreciate what you can do before you attempt something like this,” she says. “But I’m hoping they’ll look at what I’ve done and see what’s possible with consistency and belief.
“With the support of my community and the base I’ve built, I feel ready to take on this challenge.”
