Why Ultras?

My story and why I love to run.

Running brings purpose and meaning to my life, I love it. It makes me want to jump out of bed every morning and be the best version of myself. It has helped to revive me physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. 

A little about me:

My name is Jacqui Bell and I am 22 years of age. To say I have lived a colourful life would be an understatement. The last 6 years have bought about various ups and down, you name it and I am sure to have given it a go.

Where did it all begin?

I am from a great family; they are my biggest influencers. They have always encouraged me to live a healthy and active lifestyle. My brother and I were bought up in an environment where sport, the Queensland outdoors and socializing were prominent aspects of our every day lives. Moving out of home, being caught up with the stresses of everyday life as an adult and having less contact with my family on a regular basis caused me to lose touch of this lifestyle.

I have always been driven, ambitious, motivated and determined to achieve whatever I set my mind to, however over the last few years, these values have not always been clear. My independent, stubborn and addictive personality has often been the reason.

I have experienced first hand what it is like to feel insecure, helpless and make emotionally charged mistakes. Even though everything may appear perfectly normal to the outside world, before taking on running more seriously I was battling many inner demons. Professionals call this depression.

What helped me change?

I have been working in the fitness industry for 6 years in a variety of roles which include managing gyms, group training and personal training. Aside from my experience in the fitness industry, I have also been lucky enough to live and travel overseas on various occasions.

To be able to travel, I worked tirelessly and saved every penny. It was always my desire to see, do and experience anything and everything this great big world had to offer. I loved being immersed in different cultures, experience new ways of doing and thinking about things and also challenging myself everyday. In part, I have been able to live this type of lifestyle. This sense of adventure has taken me to over 30 countries and different places throughout Australia as seen below;

·      Left home, Brisbane, at the age of 17 to finish my studies at the Sunshine Coast Tafe College.

·      Worked on Daydream Island in the Whitsundays as an Activity Attendant.

·      Worked in Europe for 5 months at 18 years of age working as an AU-PAIR in Rome.

·      Travelled around Thailand.

·      Solo backpacked the Philippines for 1 month.

·      Travelled to Bali.

·      Snowboarded in Japan.

·      Backpacked in Europe.

·      Lived and worked in Indonesia at Bali Fit Canggu.

Whilst travelling, I found it hard to stay fit and in routine so I turned to running, all I needed was some joggers and the outdoors. This is when my true passion began.

I used to run for fitness & leisure and I never thought of competing until 2015 when I entered my first trail running event (18km). I loved the competition and 2 months later I signed up for a 50km Ultra Marathon and this was when I realised I had caught the bug and entered every race I could get my hands on.

This is a snap shot of my story and how I landed here. I now want to complete my next big challenge.

What does 2017/2018 hold?

I won’t only be tackling some 20-50km trails run over the next few months, but I am going to be running 250km across the Sahara Desert (Namibia) in April 2018, whilst raising awareness for a predicament that I personally have battled quite severely over the last few years (depression).

To continue competing and take my running to the next level, I am stepping up every aspect of my training, nutrition and recovery. The key to success in this sport is consistency, a lot of hard work, a great support network/team and recovery. Every single session I train with the sole purpose of improving in some way to help myself preparation for my next upcoming event. I look forward to hopefully working with you in making this dream a reality.