"I probably overtrained," she says. "I came into the sport and gave it onions and got to the top in New Zealand and Oceania pretty quickly, and tried to lift off from there."
That lift-off included heading overseas to compete in world cup mountain biking events. The intensity of her work rate started to have an impact. As Leary puts it, she "popped her clogs".
"I was having issues - when I would race hard I would lose my vision. So I had to have a bit of time out to figure out what the problem was. It turned out to be exercise-induced migraines, and that sat me on my backside for a little while."
Leary left competitive mountain biking not long after and picked up multisport. She did well in the discipline, racing with the Peak Adventure team in China and winning last year's Waihi Nugget.
She also ran her busy physiotherapy practice, building it up to such a level that she had to decide whether to expand and take it to the next stage. It was at this point that Leary hit the pause button.
"I [had] worked pretty hard," she says. "I wanted to do some travel and explore without sports equipment. So my partner and I headed up into the north of China, and then to Tibet and India. We went hiking in the Himalayas.
"It was in those three months that I decided that I missed the farm. I put a proposal to my dad and he was [into] it. So now I'm in Raetihi, and my days are a bit different to what they used to be."
The family farming business is a drystock sheep and beef concern, and Leary shares management duties with her brother. She is relishing being back on the land. "Right from a young age I had my dog and I was pretty capable," she says.
Leary says she occasionally has the odd pang about forgoing her competitive sport career, but that life on the farm more than makes up for it.
"I get a bit of FOMO - fear of missing out - when key events like the national championships are on, but the next morning I'm up and the sun's coming out and I'm out the back working my dogs, and I'm like - 'this is pretty good'.
"You can't have everything. It's not fair to expect your sport career to keep going alongside your work career. I'll do whatever makes me happy, and whatever I've got on at the time is my focus. At the moment it's getting back to grassroots and settling into primary industry. And there's a lot to learn."
Because of her work commitments, Leary hasn't done enough training to try to defend her title at this year's Nugget. But she still wants to be part of an event she loves, so she's decided to run the half-marathon course instead.
"I said to the old man at the prize giving [last year] that it was neat to be back in a community event. The course is stunning. It definitely puts Waihi on the map."
Waihi Nugget
When: Saturday, May 9.
Disciplines: Full multisport race, duathlon, and a range of running/walking distances.
For more information, click here.
