Meet Emma Timmis
The girl who ran across Africa
The past year, since moving to Canterbury, has been exceptional. I’ve illustrated and self published my first children’s book, I’ve run around Hagley Park for 24 hours raising nearly $4000 for Youthline charity and I set a new course record for the 50km race at Hanmer Forest 100.
Pushing myself physically and mentally is not something new to me. My life had been based around adventure and tackling huge endurance feats for most of my adulthood. From running across Africa to rollerskating across the Netherlands, from cycling to Italy to go rock-climbing to hiking the Australian Alpine Walking Track, adventure is in my soul. Everything has not always been smooth sailing though.
In 2017, this lifestyle came to an end when I began to struggle with an undiagnosable leg injury. I had every test and scan imaginable done but no answer was found. I sought out every specialist I could to investigate the problem with no outcome. The lack of results lead me to battle with depression and anxiety. I didn’t know if there was a future in the life I had created for myself, I lost my sense of identity and the activities that once gave me comfort and peace now caused me pain.
Being on my feet all day was causing too much pain in my leg so my career as a rock-climbing instructor had to change. This was when I decided to return to a long lost passion of mine.
Sitting at a desk drawing would have far less impact on my leg so I began to create and sell my artwork. Since running across Africa I’ve been asked many times if I would write a book about it.
With my newly refreshed drawing skills I began planning out my adventure as a picture book for children.
I wrote my book as a way to turn this miserable circumstance into something positive. The moral of the story is about overcoming obstacles, resilience and believing in yourself. These are lessons that can be applied to achieving in sports but also applied to all aspects of life. I wanted to put my story into a children’s book as I feel that if these lessons are learned early they will strengthen throughout life.
In 2020, after various treatments and an operation on my leg, I managed to begin training again.
My leg is not 100% healed but it may never be. With plenty of strengthening and stretching exercises I’m capable of completing a decent amount of training.
Now, ten years after my first big adventure, I’m preparing for my biggest challenge yet. Keep following this column in the coming magazines for more information.
Written by
Emma Timmis
