Turia Pitt - Unmasked Young Adult Edition

A young adult edition of Turia Pitts bestselling book Unmasked that is unflinchingly honest and completely inspirational.

Turia Pitt is living proof that, with the right mindset, we truly can achieve anything. This is her story. Told against the backdrop of a never-ending series of impressive physical feats, not least her incredible recovery after the fire this book unmasks the real Turia: funny, fierce, intelligent, flawed.

Featuring new and updated material about confidence, goal-setting, happiness and her latest challenge, motherhood, Unmasked shines a light on the grace, humour and inner-steel that gets Turia through each day.

When my publisher asked me to write this foreword as a letter to my younger self, I almost said No.

See, when I was a teenager, I distinctly remember HATING it when adults would try and impart their life lessons on me. Theyd warn me in a very serious, omnipotent tone about the perils and dangers of adult life.

Yawn.

But Ive gotta keep my publishers happy (theres a lesson for you compromise it works!). So Im going to share a few things I wish my younger self could have known although I sincerely doubt she would have listened!

Before we get to that, however, you might be wondering who I am and why Ive even written this book. Good question!

In 2011, I was an ex-model and mining engineer when I was caught in a grassfire while competing in a 100-kilometre ultramarathon in the Australian outback. I was choppered out of the remote desert barely alive and with full thickness burns to 65 per cent of my body. I lost seven fingers, had over 200 medical procedures and spent two gruelling years in recovery.

Surviving against overwhelming odds, Ive rebuilt my life and defied every expectation placed on me. Ive raised over a million dollars for the charity Interplast, Ive completed in two Ironman competitions (including the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii), Ive written two bestselling books and through sharing my story with the world, Ive inspired millions to live with more confidence and smash epic goals.

In this book, Im gonna do that. Im gonna share my story, plain and simple. I hope that my story connects with you on some level and you can take something away from it and apply it to your own life.

If I had some unsolicited advice for you though, dear reader, it would be to live life on your terms. Do what you want. Chase the dreams that matter to YOU. Lifes too short to try and please everybody and to worry about what people think.

And if I had some advice for my younger self? Heres a list of stuff Id love to tell obnoxious (at times) little Turia:

1. Mate, you dont know everything. And the sooner you realise that, and start LISTENING to other peoples advice, the faster youll grow up.

2. Get better with your money. Youll have a crushing credit card debt by the time youre 21 (I dont think she would have listened to this, see #1).

3. Learn that relying on other people and asking for help isnt a sign of weakness, but instead is a sign of strength.

4. Drop the invincible and tough act. Youre not a robot. And as much as I know you hate these kinds of words, get in touch with your feelings.

5. Be more grateful. Dont take your body and your brain for granted take notice of the incredible life youre living and everything you can do.

6. Dont get so caught up in over-achieving and over-delivering. Dont believe me? Remember your seventeenth birthday when all your friends came over for a surprise party but you ended the party early because you had to study?? Enough said.

7. Try to relax a little, darling. Stop, enjoy life.

8. Youll meet a man who will change your life and be your rock. But it wont be the one you think.

9. Theres going to be a time in the future when youll need every ounce of your inner strength. Things are going to be very shit for a few years. Worse than shit the shittest you could ever imagine. And its going to drag out and youre going to wonder what you ever did to deserve it. But then, like all storms, itll pass. Youll get better. Youll heal ever so slowly. And even though we cant change the past, we can change our future.

10. Listen to Mum more. She might be a crazy Tahitian woman, but she does know what shes on about (80 per cent of the time).

11. Those shorts you wear are a bit too short. Just saying

Heres my story. I hope you enjoy it.

Turia xx

My life will be forever divided into two parts: before the fire and after the fire.

As much as I refuse to be defined by a few seconds, I cant escape the fact that what happened to me one September afternoon in 2011 will give shape to the rest of my life story. Im determined it wont be the most important moment in my life, but it will always be a significant one.

The day started with so much promise. We had all risen early, and in the bus transporting competitors to the ultramarathon start line, I remember chatting animatedly, proudly showing off the Kimberley. It had been over six months since I had arrived in the region to start work as a mining engineer at the Argyle diamond mine. I struck up a conversation with three men at the back of the bus: fellow engineers, as it happened, from the nearby Newcrest mine. We spoke excitedly about the day ahead. As the bus rumbled through the early morning stillness of the outback, I remember seeing the sun peek over the horizon and set the countryside alight. If there is a more visually stunning part of Australia, I have yet to see it. The colours are so vivid, the landscape so varied. My boyfriend Michael and I had fallen effortlessly in love with the area, and in the short time wed lived there wed begun to build a life there and get to know the place. Id been doing some volunteering for the ambulance service, which is run out of Kununurra, and wed gone on lots of camping trips and walks on the weekends, swimming and fishing in waterholes and visiting the local towns.

I had registered for the race six months before. A lover of all things extreme, to me the thought of running 100 kilometres in a single day through the Australian desert was oddly appealing, and I was fairly sure I was fit enough: Id been doing runs between the mine and the mine camp, had won a half-marathon recently, and was certainly acclimatised to running in the heat of this part of Australia. And I wasnt bothered about how long the race took me I just wanted to push myself and finish.

As the date got closer, however, I changed my mind. The $1500 entry fee was too steep, I finally decided, when Michael and I were saving up for a holiday to Tahiti. So I pulled out.

As it happened, the organisers wanted some locals in the race, so they contacted me and offered to waive the fee. I agreed. It was one of those sliding-doors moments.

At the starters gun, I set off amid the forty or so other competitors. I knew the race was going to be about endurance rather than speed, but after about 10 kilometres I pulled away from the three guys I had been running alongside and set out at my own pace. As per my custom, I had my earphones in as I ran, my iPod rolling through the hip-hop tunes on my running playlist.