Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s … Leo Rimmer?

Born into a family of runners, triathletes and Ironman competitors comes our very own answer to Usain Bolt. But far better looking. Leo Rimmer, GrabOne’s fabulous creative genius in charge of making our site look awesome, is about to take on the beast that is the 2012 Round the Bays running/walking/middle-aged mothers and their pushchairs race – and he’s in it to win. Seriously.

After registering for the annual event really just to keep GrabOne’s CEO quiet, this man is a machine. Having run a fair few races in his time, including the Auckland Half Marathon, Huntly Half Marathon and the Cathay Pacific Half Marathon twice – with a speedy personal best of one hour 26 minutes – Leo is aiming to finish the Round the Bays in a pretty spiffy 31 or 32 minutes. Given that the winner of last year’s Round the Bays managed it in just over 26 minutes, this is pretty good going.

Not everyone is built for running. I attempted to train for the Auckland Half Marathon one year, then ended up in physio for six months – and never even made it to the start line. Leo, on the other hand, was born to run. Given that it’s in his blood, he would have been disowned if he hadn’t been attracted to an endurance sport of some kind, but aside from that, he just likes the challenge – and the fact that he’s not a fatty any more. Quote. Unquote.

He’s not a group runner; he’d prefer to be a lone wolf. Treadmills bore him to tears; he’d far rather enjoy the scenery outside. He listens to music while he’s training (if there’s one song that makes him run faster it’s “Electric Eye” by Judas Priest), but not while he’s racing – the sound of his feet steadfastly hitting the ground is all the motivation Leo needs to beat the pack.

And when it comes to energy food, it’s very scientific. If he’s running over 15 kilometres, he’ll hoe through a can of Watties Chilli Beans for breakfast – it’s the perfect blend of carbs and protein, apparently. If he’s running anything in the 10-15 kilometre range he’ll nip around the corner from the office and grab a juicy piece of carrot cake from Elske. After every run he downs a glass of chilled chocolate milk to assist with muscle recovery.

He obviously didn’t watch Zombieland though. When asked about limbering up before a race, Leo replies, “Have you ever seen a lion limber up before taking down a gazelle?” Well no, I suppose I haven’t.

During any given lunchtime you’ll find this crazy cat, in his blue and orange Adidas singlet with matching shorts and the brightest most ridiculous looking shoes imaginable, doing a casual 10 kilometre run through the Auckland Domain. If he’s up for a challenge he’ll throw Newmarket’s steep Ayr Road into the mix, just to lift his heart rate a little. And on Sunday the 18th of March you’ll see Leo Rimmer take to the streets as he runs shoulder to shoulder with some of the quickest runners in Auckland. And he’ll be right up there.

And you never know: you might see a big blue guy who looks remarkably like Gimme running/walking/pushing his pushchair around the course too.