Tori West was ready to walk away from sport for good three years ago and start a new life.
Now she's a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, after hanging on courageously in a brutal final event of the women's heptathlon in Glasgow.
West had an eight-second buffer to play with in the 800m against English rival Ellen Barber, whose personal best before the race was about the same margin quicker than the Australian's.
West boldly charged clear at the front on the first lap and faded to finish 10th, but still set a new PB that was less than three seconds slower to Barber.
It was enough for her to climb onto the podium with 6104 points, behind Northern Ireland's gold medallist Kate O'Connor (6569) and England's Jade O'Dowda (6278), who took silver.
"That was the most stupid 800 I've ever run in my life," West said.
"You never run that fast and expect to come home strong.
"But I had this terrible nightmare that I was beaten by the English and at the start I had three of them box me in. I was like, 'Not today'."
West became Australia's first heptathlon medallist since Kylie Wheeler took silver in 2006.
Reflecting on her journey, the 30-year-old said the COVID pandemic almost killed off her athletics career.
"I was injured, I got locked out of my state for nine months and I actually walked away from the sport," West recalled.
"There was three years of inactivity ... I was done. I was like, 'Screw it, I can get a career, I've got a life, I've got a job'.
"But in 2023 I came across some money because I bought some cryptocurrency, and I did alright."
It gave West enough financial freedom to go on a European "adventure" that included several injury-free events and reignited the spark.
West moved to Geelong to work with coach Sam Leslie, got healthy and qualified for the Paris Olympics, where she finished 20th.
Glasgow is her crowning glory, but not the end.
"It's a story of patience and just trusting my path," West said.
"I've got to this point and I'm going to keep going."
Fellow Australian Mia Scerri (5996) finished seventh in the heptathlon.
Also on Thursday morning (AEST), national record holder Sarah Billings stormed into the women's 800m final.
Inspired by training partner Rose Davies' 10,000m gold medal win, Billings took the second of three automatic qualifying spots in her semi-final behind English star Georgia Hunter-Bell.
"I'm stoked with that. I'm just rapt to make a final," Billings said.
"I came here wanting to take it round by round and now that I'm into the final anything can happen.
"I'll just focus on a race plan that's going to help me best finish as high as possible."
Billings has lowered her personal best multiple times this year, and beat Jessica Hull's national record with a time of 1:57.01 at the Paris Diamond League in June.
"Each race I've gained something else from it," the 28-year-old said.
"I've run a few PBs and I've been doing some really good training on the side of that.
"I'm just going into the final with lots of confidence."
There was drama in the women's 1500m T54 when Australian veteran Eliza Ault-Connell was taken out in a crash on the first bend.
Scotland's Melanie Woods took gold and Australia's Mikaela Dingley was handed bronze after Canada's Nandini Sharma was disqualified.
But Ault-Connell launched a protest and officials confirmed to teams that the race will be re-run on Thursday local time.
