February 11th 2014: Sprint

We may have met one of the fittest women in Dunedin this week. With a PB of 11.80 seconds across 100m Larissa Dyke is one of New Zealand's best female sprinters. Unlike other sports, Larissa doesn't get paid to compete or train, so during the day she works at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin as the markerting and communications manager. To fit her training in she takes an early mark each day and heads across town to train in the High Performance Sport gym at the stadium.

Her goal is a swarm of events in 2014: the Otago Champs in February, the NZ Champs in Wellington at the end of March, The Australian Champs the week after that, then Oceania's in Rarotonga in June. If that all goes well then she will head to an invitational event in Japan ahead of the 20th edition of the Commonweath Games to be held in Glasgow in July and August.

"I hope to run mid-11.00s this year," she smiles.

And she's tracking really well despite the fact she was given just a 50/50 chance of ever running again last August.

"I had a stress fracture in my femur – most likely caused by damage to my ankle," she explains.

Larissa had spurs on her tibia and had to have her whole talus bone reformed.

"It is a full reconstruction pretty much – quite a bit of bone taken out. There are not many places in the world to do the surgery, but Chris Birks here at Marinoto Hospital in Dunedin and my medical team were absolute superstars," she shares.

"I'm stoked to be running agan and, even better, pain free. It's very, very exciting for me."

I ask her if the Olympics is on her mind. She pauses and then tells me with a serious tone: "Yes. Defintiely."

"Carmelita Jeter was 32 when she raced her first Olympics at London. I'm 28 and just coming into my peak form, so if I can get the right stuff behind me and my technique right then I've got a shot. You've got to dream big right?"

We'll keep an eye on Larissa's progress and keep you posted.

Have you checked the forecast? Take tomorrow off and head North.

See you out there ...

–Derek

PS We're going to Northland for the week, so your next Box of Light report will feature the Poor Knights Islands, Matapouri and Mamaki.