If it weren't for the Rotorua Marathon, Noeline Taurua might never have taken the job as Kia Magic head coach.
Taurua finished her tenure as head coach of the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic with a disappointing semifinal loss last weekend, after more than a decade in the top job.
She has helped to make the club the best-performing netball franchise in New Zealand, winning the ANZ Championship last year and finishing in the top four every year since the competition began in 2008.
However, she said it might never have happened if not for her partner entering the Rotorua Marathon.
"What happened was my mother got sick and my family were in Auckland," she said.
"Near that time, we came up to Rotorua because my partner was doing the marathon around the lake and we just loved the area," she said.
She said not long after, they decided to move to Rotorua from Wellington, to be closer to family.
"I actually fell into coaching," she said. "In fact, it was Mary Thompson [from Rotorua] who got me into it. When I moved up from Wellington she was the president of Bay of Plenty Netball and she took a risk on me."
The rest is history. Taurua coached and played for the Bay of Plenty provincial side for one season before joining the coaching staff at the Magic, which led to her taking over as head coach in 2003.
Taurua announced this year she would be pulling the plug at the end of the 2013 season, with one year left on her contract.
She said during her 11 years at the franchise she had exhausted a lot of her knowledge and felt, for the team to continue to get better, they needed something new.
"You are under a lot of pressure and the expectations are really high, and just to get a wage is not enough for me. About two months ago I put forward I would not be returning,"' she said.
With her tenure officially finishing next month, Taurua said she was now eyeing her next career move.
"My youngest said the other day, 'I hope mum finds a job soon'," she said with a laugh.
Taurua said she had three options in mind, and had even started working on a CV.
Taurua said she would consider coaching another franchise but the opportunities were "very limited" and she would also look at starting a high-performance recruitment business.
She said her third option would be to go overseas to train coaches.
"I have a lot of different skills I have learned around coaching and they are all centred around people."
She said the toughest part about leaving the Magic was saying goodbye to all the good people involved.
"It is really sad because I have been with them for a very long time and I feel very sad to leave.
"I have always felt like we were a bit of a family," she said.
"The biggest impact for me is that I'm going to miss the [Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic] girls and miss their next stage in life and just not being involved is going to be huge for me."
Taurua, a mother of five, lives in Mt Maunganui after ironically moving there from Rotorua less than a year ago to be closer to team trainings.
She said of all her players, she had enjoyed coaching stars Laura Langman and Casey Kopua the most. They had been with her throughout her career.
Taurua said her highlight in charge of the club was winning the 2012 ANZ Championship title.