Melissa
Moon

Melissa Moon is a long distance runner who has won Two World Mountain Running Titles, 21 New Zealand Athletic Titles and was Two times winner of the race up the Empire State Building covering 86 floors, 1576 stairs in 12 minutes 39 seconds.

In 2007 she was part of the Blue Planet Run Relay team which completed a 95 day run around the world to raise awareness for the lack of safe drinking water. She wore through 5 pairs of shoes covering 25,000km across 16 countries including the 45 degree heat of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and battling swarms of horse flies in Siberia.

Awards

Melissa was named the New Zealand Sportswomen of the year, Athletics New Zealand Athlete of the year, New Zealand Universities Sportsperson of the year and has been inducted into the Wellington Sports Legends hall of fame.

In 2008 Melissa was named the JCI ˜outstanding young person of the world' award for her sport achievements and community involvement. Community has always played an important part in her life and over the years has volunteered at the Compassion Centre Soup Kitchen, delivered meals on wheels, worked with residents with neurological conditions at St John of God care facility and coached and guided a visually impaired runner to compete in the London Marathon.

Current work

Melissa shares a presentation on Life Principles that have become meaningful to her through 3 areas of life experiences. These include:

1. 20 year career in athletics and importance of having the body, mind and spirit working in harmony to achieve success

2. The Blue Planet Run and the challenges faced on this first and only ever 95 day run around the world, including overcoming burnout on completion of this gruelling event.

3. The many years volunteering at the Compassion Centre soup kitchen which provided a valuable insight into human behaviour and the many lessons learnt in managing vulnerable people using emotional intelligence, particularly the importance of empathy.