We love hearing about people who are fans of our juice! Recently we stumbled across Rachel Jacqueline – a freelance journalist who is passionate about living a healthy and inspired life. Rachel is a massive fitness junkie and a fan of ultra marathons! We caught up with Rachel to get her take on our juice and her lifestyle!
- Tell us a little bit about your sporting background and how you got into Ultras!
At University I used to play touch football (non-contact rugby) quite competitively. When I moved to Hong Kong 5 years ago I missed the intensity of competition, being outdoors and the sense of community. Eventually I discovered the abundance of trails and the regularity of competition here and became hooked.
After running in a few races over the first year, I decided to sign up for my first 100km ultra the following year, the Vibram HK 100. At that stage I’d never run more than 26km in my life. I raised money for my own charity project, RunRaeRun (which gets underprivileged HK teens into the outdoors for a 3 day adventure camp. That was three years ago.
Since then I’ve run six 100km ultras, three 100km multi-stage ultras, numerous 50km races, a 70km race and several shorter races. My best performace was placing 6th female in the Vibram HK 100 last year in 14:47 minutes.
I love the freedom I get when running on trails. Down some of the hills it feels like you’re flying. I love the intensity of hammering along rocky trails where a wrong step can see you roll your ankle – it’s actually quite mentally challenging. I’ve now completed in races in Australia, Nepal, Vietnam, the States, China and Europe- I love how it takes me around the world too. There’s also a huge emotional and spiritual side to the sport. Because it demands so much of you, you really have to be kind to your body and aware of everything that’s going on in every moment. It forces you to be present, requires you to be incredibly patience and every run always leaves me humbled and grateful.
- How do you incorporate cleansing into your training program and what benefits do you think it brings you as an athlete?
I started cleansing about two years ago. I found that during the cleansing process, once your body has worked its way through your stored energy, it switches to burning fat – an abundant source of energy!! This is exactly what happens when you go on long runs. While it’s important to be properly fuelled before a race (i.e not a good idea to cleanse the week before a race), I find a cleanse in the weeks leading up to a race not only cleans out your system (kind of like tuning a car), but also gets your body more efficient at burning fat – an essential skill that it needs for ultras.
In the week before an ultra when I’m trying to stock up on as much nutrients and carbohydrates as possible, I find the juices are a great way to supplement my diet.
- What’s your favourite Genie Juice(s) and why?
I love Garden Gnome as it tastes so scrumptious and I love the coconutty taste of Hawaii H20. But when I’m trying to cram in as much green as possible, nothing beats Sawadekah
Follow Rachel’s blog here: http://a-little-rae-of-sunshine.com/