Melissa Moon won two World Mountain running championships – in Arta Terme, Italy and Girdwood, Alaska, USA. She survived a car crash in Nigeria, raced up the stairs of the Empire State Building in New York faster than anyone, and has been a regular volunteer at Wellington’s soup kitchen for 25 years.
High octane, mentally demanding activity is standard for the zestful 56-year-old whose globe-trotting sports career has taken her to 68 countries. But what does she do to relax?
“Massage,” Moon responds, swiftly.
“When I was a competitive athlete, my first priority was to be mentally relaxed so my physical preparation could be maximised. If you’re stressed, you won’t get good chemicals like endorphins and serotonin flowing. I knew that every time I raced, there were four or five athletes as good as, or better than, me. How was I going to beat them? By being in a clear state of mind and knowing every inch of the race course.
“Massage promotes circulation of blood and lymph, aids digestion, and relieves chronic muscle tension. It helps with anxiety and panic symptoms like palpitations, a tight chest, and shallow breathing. A good athlete is a good researcher. Even before the internet, I knew where to find a good massage when travelling.”
Moon now administers massages. In 2011, she won a Prime Minister’s Scholarship that supports athletes, coaches, and officials in gaining educational or professional development while continuing in sport. She used the money to further research massage and runs her own private business with a point of difference.
”I go to my clients rather than them coming to me, explained Moon. “I provide massages to the elderly, those with dementia, and those with other physical and neurological conditions. If I can give them peace in that hour and help them have a better day, then it’s a good day.
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Karori Park, sometime in 1983, when Moon was 14, was a good day. She performed strongly in the Wellington Girls’ College cross-country, something that caught the attention of Alan Curwen, a coach with the Wellington Scottish Athletics Club.
Moon was recruited and caught the running bug, earning selection for the New Zealand Secondary Schools cross-country team. It was an early clue of her potential, but she was too distracted to fully commit to athletics. At 16, she left school and told her parents she was going to London for the university of life.
”I got my degree in nightclubs,” laughed Moon. “I was a practical learner. I had three brothers and had to fight for what I had. I was competitive and restless. There were no Barbie dolls. It was non-stop cricket, bullrush, running, and wrestling.
“I was abroad for several years. I did odd jobs like nanny work, had adventures, and made mistakes. I enjoyed the challenge of being creative and adapting on the fly.”
It’s worth noting Moon’s parents might have been more liberal than most. Melissa’s mother, Stephanie de Montalk, is a well-respected poet and writer. John Miller, Melissa’s father, is a veteran lawyer and lecturer who won the Wellingtonian of the Year award for his work helping ACC claimants who had been wrongfully denied their entitlements.
When Moon came home, ironically to start a high school teaching career and earn a university Masters degree, she caught what she describes as her second lucky break.
Clive Moon, her former husband and athletics aficionado, recognised Melissa’s potential when they were out running.
”I was so unfit, somehow keeping up, Moon laughed. He said, ‘Look, if you want to take this seriously, I will introduce you to my good friend. I’ll find you a coach.’ I wasn’t doing anything else, so I thought, ‘why not’?”
“I’ll never forget the first time I met John Davies. I had no idea it was going to be him. It was 1993. I was sitting with Clive at the West Plaza hotel, a posh joint on Wakefield Street. He [John] was tall and slim and had a presence that’s hard to describe. He seemed to bounce rather than walk. A truly great man.”
Davies was a 1964 Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500m who also mentored world-class athletes such as Dick Quax, Lorraine Moller, Anne Audain, and Toni Hodgkinson.
In 1995, Moon won her first national title. She eventually won 21 of them (across five disciplines), which is equal to New Zealand’s first female Olympic gold medalist, Yvette Williams, and 1997 World Athletics discus champion, Beatrice Faumuinā.
Moon more than held her own on the track with national triumphs in the 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m. However, it was in cross-country where she really thrived, winning the national title seven times.
“I love cross country because every track is genuinely different,” Moon said.
”Spa Thermal Park in Taupō was my favourite track; I won 10 North Island titles there too. That course threw everything at you. It was firm, so you needed good speed, but it also had steep hills of differing lengths and gradients that tested your strength. Add lots of twists and turns that tested agility, with some jumps to navigate, and it was a thriller.”
Moon accidentally stumbled into mountain running. While competing at the World Student Games in Sicily, she was urged to take a short trip to the Czech Republic to compete in the World Mountain Running Championships. At first, she was reluctant but gave in to pressure and finished third.
“It was humbling. I’d never worked harder or felt as much pain at the end of a race than I did then,” says Moon.
”Instead of shying away from that, I was intrigued and determined for more. Running taught me a lot about my head because it’s so hard. I know I have to rely on my mind to get me through tough times, and it’s amazing what your mind can do when you have it in the right gear.”
In 2001, after five weeks of preparation and lead-up races in Susa and Kitzbuhel, Moon, aged 32, won the World Mountain Running title in Arta Terme. This spa town in the Carnic Alps, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy, sits at about 442m in elevation and is known for its thermal springs and proximity to the Slovenian border.
The race was an 8.5km slog starting in the town centre, traversing local roads, then heading onto trails through mountainous terrain, with a vertical ascent of 590m. The uphill section lasted 15-20 minutes. The tricky descent of five or six minutes involved a rollercoaster of 13 ups and downs to the finish.
“The sense of relief when I won was indescribable,” says Moon.
”A huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I felt euphoria knowing I had finally achieved the ultimate result in my chosen area of athletics. I buzzed on that feeling for months after.
”Defending my world title in Alaska in 2003 was satisfying for different reasons. It was handling the expectations as a defending champion. I also clearly held John Davies’ last words to me only hours before he passed away: he said, Melissa in Alaska, expect the unexpected. It snowed an hour before the race, so I had to find a new pair of shoes.”
By now, Moon was unstoppable. In 2007, she joined the Blue Planet Run, a 95-day relay around the world to raise awareness of the global lack of safe drinking water. As part of the team, she covered about 25,000 kilometres across 16 countries, wearing through five pairs of shoes as she ran through extremes from 45-degree heat in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to battling swarms of horse flies in Siberia.
In 2010, she won the Vertical World Circuit, a global series of races up many of the world’s tallest buildings. That includes victory at the Empire State Building in New York, where she conquered 86 floors and 1,576 stairs in 12 minutes and 39 seconds to beat 10-time winner Australian Suzy Walsham and four-time Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington.
Life for Moon has always been about more than just shiny trophies and ivory towers. A stark reminder of that occurred in Nigeria in 2006.
“Fifty thousand US dollars; unheard of in mountain running,” says Moon. “The Obudu Ranch International, held in Cross River State, about five hours from the capita,l Lagos, was then the world’s richest race.
“Three of us athletes and the President of the World Mountain Running Association travelled in a state-of-the-art Mercedes Jeep. Our driver was erratic, blasting loud music as he zigzagged across the dusty, maze-like, broken road like a madman. Suddenly, we rolled three times. I remember the first roll, then the blur, then everything happened in slow motion. When I saw the President, he had blood dripping from his head. I thought he was dead. Luckily, we all survived. The posh jeep saved us. I still raced. Why? Of course, I didn’t win.”
For the past 25 years, Moon has won plenty of friends as a volunteer at Wellington Soup Kitchen (Te Pūaroha). Founded by French nun Suzanne Aubert in 1901, it’s been operating in Te Aro ever since, supporting vulnerable, marginalised, and isolated people in the community by providing free, nutritious meals and a welcoming space.
“Running is a release, good for physical fitness and mental health,” says Moon, who has been honoured with being made an Member of the NZ Order of Merit, MNZM.
“Life is about helping others.
“The Soup Kitchen is a huge part of my life, a chance to give back. Many I have met there have had trauma in their lives, physical or mental abuse, an unavoidable accident, or are overcoming addiction or mental health issues. They are life’s true survivors.
“One of the most rewarding things I have done was to reconnect Tupurupuru (Blue) with his family after he was abruptly taken at the age of seven and put into state care.
“For over 10 years, I walked alongside Blue after finding him homeless, sleeping in bushes opposite the Basin Reserve. He was in a bad way. I introduced him to the Soup Kitchen, got him into a council flat, and tried to rebuild his self-worth. He was desperate to reconnect with his family. He thought he had six brothers and sisters. We discovered he was one of 11 siblings. After 44 years, he finally returned home to his whānau in Morrinsville.”
Legendary New Zealand sports commentator Keith Quinn (MNZM), also synonymous with Wellington, believes Moon is one of New Zealand’s toughest runners and a great Wellingtonian.
“Like Melissa, I miss John Davies every day. I commentated with him at the Olympics. He left an indelible mark on people, as has Melissa.
“From the time she was running up and down the stairs of the Majestic Tower, to conquer the world’s tallest buildings, to her work in the Soup Kitchen, which is not far from where I live, Melissa is adored in this city for her generosity of spirit.”
