I’m here to do my best, be my best, have a blast and bring as many people as I can along for the ride. I’m Chasing Extraordinary!

For as long as I can remember I’ve been into moving, training, nurturing, and loving my own body and mind. Since the age of 19, I’ve worked hard to encourage, inspire, and motivate others to do the same.

These days, I’m an adventure runner through and through, but I’ve certainly worn my share of different hats throughout the years!

My goals are simple – write, speak, run and share as much knowledge, experience, adventure, and love as I can.

I choose to live through these 3 filters …

LOVE.  FUN.  ADVENTURE.

I’m Nikki Love!

A brief history of me…

I started classical ballet at the age of 4 and I dreamed of becoming a prima-ballerina like my idol Margot Fonteyn, My bedroom was plastered with ballet books and posters, my wardrobe was full of leotards, ballet slippers, and tutus, and I jumped and twirled around my house all day long.

Alas, I never quite made it beyond my town’s ballet school and my dreams of living my life on a stage began to fade until a fitness instructor at my local gym suggested I put my runny, bouncy, jumpy, twirly skills to good use and became an aerobics instructor!

At last, I had a stage to play on! On top of that, I was actually being PAID to jump about, inspire, encourage, and help people! I thought this was it!

At this point in my life, I was already running regularly (but it was definitely more about fitting my butt into my aerobics gear - leotards and g-strings were all the rage in the ’80s). I’d run to my classes, run home, run in between – without realising it, I was building a pretty good endurance base.

I was most definitely blessed with an adventurous spirit. For my 21st birthday I bought myself an around-the-world ticket and took off for a year with a backpack as my home.

By mid 20’s I was back in Australia - where triathlon was all the rage - so I added swimming and cycling to my running and aerobics repertoire. Whilst I was as fit as a fiddle, I soon realised that I simply wasn’t that into racing. I did, however, figure out that I loved long-distance training. Discovering where my legs could take me always felt (and still does feel) like an amazing adventure.

And although I was ensconced in the corporate world (an office job), I was still keen for adventure, and I bought my first house in Melbourne (it was old, rundown, and had an outside toilet 😳), it was quite an adventure!

Learning the art of demolishing walls, rebuilding walls, painting, tiling, plastering, and gardening all came in rather handy when I sold everything I owned (including the house) and moved to the UK for the next of my adventures. Starting a house buying, renovating and flipping business, and starting a family.

Life got a bit busy and running became that background thing again, mostly to keep my soon-to-be mummy butt in shape, but I was curious – could I run a marathon? I was keen to find out.

Perhaps a little too keen.

After a very sickly 9-month pregnancy and no running, with the odd 5km run during the first 6 months (with a newborn baby and in the middle of a house renovation), I entered the Nottingham marathon. It was not one of my smartest decisions.

At the 19 mile mark I discovered that NO, I could not run a marathon.

I was empty. I stopped. I went home.

I had a little cry. But I also vowed to myself and to my beautiful six-month-old son, that this was not going to be how this story ended. With that, my long-distance running story truly began.

There were starts and stops, twists and turns, wins and fails in the years that followed, but I never stopped.

Six months later, April 2002, I completed the London Marathon and cemented my knowledge that I really could do anything that I put my mind too.

I’m happy to report that I am still a happy little adventure seeker, still writing my story of never giving up, and still always keen to discover how far and how wide in the world my feet can take me.