Growing up as a "typical Aussie", Brendan Davies favoured team sports such as cricket and football, where competing was secondary to socialising. Confronting his 30s - and an expanding waistline - he decided to give up his gregarious pastimes in favour of running. The decision changed the course of his life.
Since then, Davies, 37, has undergone a meteoric rise in ultrarunning, transforming from rookie to elite in a few years.
In 2012, he was awarded Australian Male Ultrarunner of the year and last year he won the nation's biggest trail running race, The North Face 100 Australia, snatching the record held by world-renowned ultrarunner Kilian Jornet.
Last month, Davies visited Hong Kong to compete in the MSIG Sai Kung 50-kilometre trail race, and finished third.
He used the race as a training run to prepare for a string of international races over the next three months in New Zealand, Japan and the US.
Apart from an intense eight-times-a-week training regime, an important ingredient in his running success is his career. Davies teaches children with mild intellectual disabilities and behavioural disorders in western Sydney.