So says West Johnston distance runner Dakota Peachee, the reigning N. C. High School Athletic Association 4-A 3200-meter indoor champion. He is also the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference’s defending champion in numerous distance events, as well as the conference’s cross-country king.

But those feats pale in comparison to Peachee’s latest endeavor, a 10-day trip to Australia, where he participated with 20 other individuals from North Carolina in the Down Under International Games. Peachee continued to demonstrate why he is one of the state’s most highly recruited harriers, capturing two cross-country gold medals and earning the team’s MVP award.

Peachee, who is entering his senior year at West, described his overseas adventure as “definitely the trip of a lifetime.”

“It was a lot of fun,” Peachee said recently following a West Johnston cross country practice at West Johnston. “The people there were real friendly, and the air quality was amazing.”

Taking advantage of the air quality, and relatively flat courses, Peachee raced to victory in both the international event and a race held for the American squads, which had been invited over the past year.

“The first course was changed, because it was really long and pretty wet,” Peachee said. “They were afraid people would fall going up and coming down the hill.”

However, Peachee said he did not expend as much energy in winning that race as he did the American event.

“I ran hard,” Peachee said. “But not too hard. ... just enough to stay ahead.”

The second race had a special meaning to it - Peachee wanted to sweep his events after watching Adrienne Soo of Durham Academy claim both of the girls races.

Soo became one of Peachee’s best friends on the trip, in addition to Mark Sullivan and Zach Brantley. Peachee, Brantley and Sullivan are making plans to return to Hawaii for a week next summer after graduation.

The N.C. team visited Hawaii in addition to Australia, where they were feted at a luau. “I knew after Adrienne won her second race,” Peachee said, “that I definitely had to win mine, so North Carolina could win both races.”

Peachee described the course as similar to that at McAlpine Park in Charlotte, where the NCHSAA has held its state cross-country championships. “The second race I definitely ran a lot harder,” Peachee admitted. “The course was mostly flat. You had one hill, and it was flat the rest of the way, maybe a little down hill.

“Then you hit the hill one more time, came around and finished the race on a grass track.”

But this victory had a twist to it — Peachee and teammate Mark Sullivan missed a turn and ran off the course, but righted themselves, caught and overtook the leaders.

There was a cone that the runners had to go around and go back the other way.

But with no one there to direct runners, Peachee and others passed the cone and kept on going, “After a little while, we didn’t see any other cones, so we looked at each other and said, ‘What do we do?’ So we jumped off the wall and began to catch up.”

Peachee and the other runners who ran off the course were only a few seconds behind the lead runners who did take the turn, so they quickly caught back up, passed that pack and raced away.

Having overcome that obstacle, Peachee said a competitor who had been running virtually stride for stride, looked at Peachee with 1200 meters to go and said, “It’s just you and me, let’s go for it.” Peachee went for it and gradually pulled away for the win, with N.C. team coach Ben Hovis of Charlotte’s Providence Day School urging him on.

But the trip was not just about running.

Sponsored by the International Sports Specialists, Inc., the games also consisted of freestyle wrestling, track & field, volleyball, golf and swimming.

The goal of the ISSI is to provide athletes who excel in their sport the opportunity to experience the beauty, culture and grandeur of Australia within the framework of intense and spiritual competition. Among the activities Peachee and the team took part in were trips to museums, scuba diving, as well as a variety of tours.

“When we were in Hawaii, we saw the sun set over the ocean,” Peachee said. “In Australia, we saw it rise over the ocean. It was a lot of fun, and I loved the different cultures. “It was the best of both worlds.”