Hi everyone, I am Erin. Mum of 3, full-time health care professional and research master's student. What is your 2026 running goal? I’ve been working with walk/run intervals for a while now, gradually building my endurance toward something that still feels just out of reach — running a continuous 5 km without needing to walk. My first goal is to achieve the continuous 5 km - and then my second goal (Auckland Marathon Event) would be to achieve a 5 km PB in under 37 minutes (just running/no walking). My current PB sits around 38.5 minutes with intervals, so it feels potentially achievable? The 2025 Auckland Marathon was my first official 5 km event. Why do you run? Running is my time out, in a way. It’s not something I fully enjoy while I’m doing it — but I keep going back, so clearly enjoy it in other ways. I’m drawn to how hard it is. Not just physically, but in the way it strips things back and shows me myself more clearly. Running doesn’t let me hide. I find everything about it hard — the tiredness, the discomfort — but the hardest part, by far, is the quiet voice in my head that tells me I can’t do it. That I should stop. That walking would be easier. That I am just not made to be a runner. Running makes that voice transparent and visible. And in doing that, it gives me a chance to challenge it… to shift it… to keep going and to prove to myself that I can do hard things.