Down Under, folks are looking ahead up yonder — to Sacramento worlds. In New Zealand, a local news site tells the story of Vanessa Story, now 36. The article says: “Some call her ‘Grandma’ and she calls herself ‘the good comedy show.’ … Story said some adults get quite a shock when they see her lining up for a race and then realise she can run. She was running 100 metres in 13.03 seconds at the start of the season.” Not a world-beater but ready for a world-class experience.

Here’s the text, in case the link bites the dust:

At 30, Vanessa Story reckons she had a mid-life crisis.

So she donned running shoes seriously for the first time since she was a teenager.

Now aged 36, the Feilding mother-of-three is training hard for the World Masters Athletics Championships in California in July.

Primarily a sprinter, Story will compete in the 100, 200 and 400 metres for 35-39-year-olds.

She is coached by Palmerston North Athletic and Harrier Club’s George McConachy. His philosophy is masters athletes need to overcome the thinking they are getting older.

“You just have to say [to yourself] `I’m getting better’.”

McConachy told The Tribune athletics requires a tremendous amount of work and if athletes do not train every day they get left behind.

The best masters athletes train like they have not aged.

And train Story does, five days at the Manawatu Community Athletics Track and one day at the gym.

She has been struggling with a torn hamstring and receiving treatment. But Story reckons once you have given birth your pain threshold is quite high.

At athletic club nights she competes against runners young enough to be her children.

Some call her “Grandma” and she calls herself “the good comedy show”.

Story describes McConachy as a “great coach”.

“He’s always there when you need him and he’s very encouraging.”

Story said some adults get quite a shock when they see her lining up for a race and then realise she can run.

She was running 100 metres in 13.03 seconds at the start of the season.

At the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney, Story won bronze in the 100m and 200m and was the only Kiwi in her age group.

At Palmerston North Girls’ High School, Story was coached by Mr Hilder and won a lot of athletics cups. When she left school she hung up her sprig shoes and began her family. Her children are now aged 15, 14 and 11.

“I wanted something more and I just decided I would go back to running.”

With the World Champs held in the middle of a New Zealand winter, Story knows she will have to keep training hard after our season ends.

She jokes she wishes she had a coach who would run alongside her with an umbrella.

In Sacramento, California, Story is expecting muggy weather with the temperature in the high 30s.

“Oh my gosh, you can’t really train anywhere in New Zealand for that.”

She is a sprinter, not a long distance specialist, as she gets “quite bored quickly”.

At club nights she also does high jump, discus and long jump.

Story admits she is not a hurdler; McConachy goes a jump further, describing her hurdling as “rubbish”.

But at the North Island Masters athletics championships, at Inglewood in November, Story broke the North Island 100m hurdles record for 35-39 women.

She also broke the 400m record, held since 1988 by Wendy Brown, a top New Zealand athlete.

Story missed the high jump record by one centimetre.

She is employed by MidCentral Health to assist dental therapists on their school visits.

Asked how she fits everything in, Story joked “sleep’s optional”.

She attributes good time management and organisational skills and being a bit selfish when it comes to training.

For the Worlds, her “main focus is to bring home some sort of medal, some sort of reward”.

A medal would also be a thank-you to McConachy for the work he puts into her training programmes.

Story was a finalist in the Masters Sportsperson of the Year section of last year’s Manawatu Sportsperson of the Year Awards.