Keeping fit in The Land of the Free
The good thing about living in New York is you have a lot of crazy, really fit people so getting healthy food is easy. Sure, you get a lot of junk food too and burgers the size of washing baskets, but you can eat really healthily really cheaply if you want to. I have a salad bar 50 metres from my apartment that has 30 different sorts of salads. I can fill myself up with greens and veges for seven or eight bucks. America really pushed the burger chain but at the same time it has pushed clean eating, paleo, 100 per cent organic food etc.
(Not) born to run
I am not a natural runner. I run regularly but my running is just embarrassing. I’m like a wounded pterodactyl. I’m like an albatross on stilts. There are so many limbs and they’re all going in different directions and it just isn’t pretty. I had always wanted to do a marathon and New York is kind of the king of the marathons, so I figured I wouldn’t have many better chances in life.
Wanderlust
I’ve got a real thing for Latin America at the moment so I try to go to Mexico once or twice a year. I’m going there in January and then I’m going to backpack around Colombia with my brother. Apart from those two places, I want to visit Iran and Japan – I still haven’t been to Japan! Those are the big ones I want to do next.
Jack Tame after his New York Marathon which he completed in 3hr 40mins!
Marathon man
The marathon was wonderful. I was tired – I’d only got off a plane the day before – but I ran on adrenalin and during such an epic event it isn’t hard to get caught up in the moment. Millions of people come out to watch the marathon and it felt like half of them had signs. There were rock bands and a gospel choir, and running through the city felt kind of like renewing my vows with New York, as cheesy as that is. It was a huge boost to have friends scattered along the course supporting me and I even had enough energy to head to the pub with them for a few beers after the race.
What moves me
I’m not a very spiritual person to say the least but the couple of weeks I had down in Antarctica would be the closest I’ve come to having a really moving experience from anywhere I’ve travelled. One afternoon I had to interview Sir David Attenborough. We had a bottle of red wine, we were sitting in Scott Base, and I just thought, ‘life gets no better than this’.
Head space
For most of the year, the deadline for the 6pm news in New Zealand is 2am in New York and if I have to do a live cross, sometimes I don’t get home until 3am. I couldn’t live the life I do if I didn’t exercise. It’s for my head as much as anything, because I do get stressed and sometimes the stories I cover can be pretty upsetting. Structuring time to go out and clear my head is something I know I have to do in order to do my job well.
Words: Danielle Lagos
Photos: Instagram & supplied
