Hannah Cuthill knows the exact moment she realised something needed to change. The defence and family law barrister was in New Caledonia on a girls’ trip celebrating her 40th birthday and they’d had an incredible afternoon swimming with turtles. But when it came time to climb back on the boat, Hannah didn’t have the strength.
“The skipper couldn’t do it alone – two people had to pull me up,” Hannah shares from her home in rural north Waikato.
“It was horrendously embarrassing.”
The mum of three was 120kg. But more than the number, it was the quiet, creeping loss of function that shocked her.
“I was physically failing,” reflects Hannah, 42.
“I was tired all the time, but I’d convinced myself that was just midlife.”
But there were more serious signs. Her 10-minute walk to court left her breathless, she was experiencing arm pain and dizziness, her vision blurred and her blood pressure was sky-high.Hannah had considered bariatric surgery but hadn’t committed.
“You don’t get much change from $30,000, so it felt incredibly selfish to spend that amount of money on just fixing how you look,” she explains.
“I could have done a kitchen renovation for that!”
When life started to come first
Hannah hadn’t always felt this way about her body. She was an “average” size growing up in the South Island and even enjoyed cross country at school. But her priorities and focus changed after having her three children – Eamon, 14, Caoimhe, 12, and Saoirse, seven – and a demanding career in criminal and family law resulted in a steady diet of stress, responsibility and putting herself last.
“You don’t realise that if you don’t adjust your own oxygen mask first, everything else falls apart – starting with you,” she says.
“At some point, you have to be brave and put yourself first.”
The turning point
When it hit Hannah that her weight was actually adding to her stress, she knew she had to act. She underwent a mini gastric bypass in November 2023.
“It’s not cheating and it’s not magic,” she says.
“It’s a tool. And if you don’t change your brain, it won’t work. I knew if I was committing to spending that money, I needed to take it seriously.”
And she did. After surgery, patients are encouraged to walk almost immediately. On returning home, Hannah made the letterbox her goal. That developed into evening strolls with her husband George, 42, who has been by her side for 23 years.
From there, she built up her fitness, step by step. In January 2024, Hannah started her running journey.
Finding freedom on the road
“Living rurally, running was easy to fit in,” she explains.
“It was literally out my front door with zero equipment, for as long or as slow as I wanted, no audience or judgement.”
Five months after surgery, Hannah signed up for a 5km race to give her something to aim for – and just kept signing up for events after that.
“I needed something to motivate me and hold me accountable,” she says.
“So then I came up with doing 12 races in 12 months.”
Then on Valentine’s Day this year, she took another leap – her first ultramarathon. She completed the gruelling 52km Tarawera Ultra in 7.5 hours, spending 30km of it chatting to strangers who race-running partners.
Confidence in motion
Hannah shares, “Even that was an achievement for me because I wouldn’t have been brave enough to meet someone and talk like that before. I’ve really opened up my confidence socially.”
Depending on her schedule, Hannah runs about 50 to 60km a week, fitting it in at 5am before her kids wake up. Then in the evenings, she squeezes in a home yoga session or weights workout around driving children to their various sports.
“As mums and people pleasers, we’re always good at scheduling in other people’s activities and needs,” she reflects.
“I had to learn to do the same thing for myself. It was radical to turn it around and put me first, saying yes to myself and no to most other people.”
Looking back, moving forward
Hannah emphasises that she had a good life before surgery – “I wasn’t a total loser!” – but that life afterwards has been rewarding in so many ways.
“I can now be in my own company for hours – and it turns out I like myself!” she laughs.
“Also, now if something negative happens in my day, my brain can process it and let it go. “I deal with a lot of negativity and second-hand trauma every day from my clients. I think I used to internalise
all of the hurts of the world, whereas now I process them through running.”
Now 56kg, Hannah already has her next running goal lined up – the 70km Taupō Ultra in October, along with a handful of smaller events in the meantime, including plans to run with her youngest girl.
“She ran the Hunua Hillbilly kids’ race and won the gold medal – she’s already asking when the next race is!”
