An athlete’s international debut often creates hazy memories. The sportsperson’s prime experience of top-class competition can conjure up a cocktail of emotions; nerves, excitement, fear and uncertainty are just a handful of the feelings that could easily fade recollections into a blur.

However, as Scottish athlete Hayley Haining re-visits her first experience of senior international athletics, an excited description of Hogmanay in 1991 indicates that her memories are both cherished and crystal clear.

A 19-year-old Haining embarked on her first senior athletics adventure having earned her first Great Britain vest as part of the team to compete in an international Ekiden Relay meet in Barcelona.

Glancing at the start list she saw a number of experienced names, many of whom had their own chunk of gold to show for their achievements in the sport. “I remember seeing names like Wanda Panfil [World marathon record holder at the time] and Yelena Romanova [Olympic Gold medallist a year later] and I was thinking ‘oh my goodness!’” She laughed.

However, Haining was not overawed by the experience of the opposition in her leg of the relay, though she admits that she was excited to be in a position to race against the best in the world, but her mind did not go blank. Sights and sounds remain embedded in her memory of her first experience of world-class athletics.

“Every time I went through a kilometre, what sounded like a canon or rifle would go off. I remember helicopters flying above us throughout the race. The whole thing for me, at 19 years of age, was incredible.”

Haining’s first major event was more successful than anyone expected, most of all herself. “It was very, very fast”, she remembers. In fact, she was the fastest on her leg of the relay and she crossed the line before any of her competitors.
 
“I was so shocked when I reached the finish line, I sat down on the kerb and my legs went from me – I think I was just so overwhelmed. I knew I had run so fast and I didn’t know where it had come from!”

The 37-year-old speaks passionately about a single memory in her multifarious athletics career. However, reviewing her athletics route from when she started competing as an early teenager to her current situation, it becomes obvious that Haining has been part of a somewhat turbulent journey. In fact, she has spent almost half of her career sidelined by injury.

Taking time out of her jam-packed working and training schedule to talk to In The Winning Zone, Haining reveals that due to constant injury problems, she thought at one stage that she might never race again.

Incredibly, she decided to try her hand at longer distance running and is now in training as a reserve for the Beijing Olympic marathon, as Paula Radcliffe is unsure of participation due to a stress fracture in her leg.

As a youngster, Haining remembers watching numerous World Athletics Championships and Olympics on the television, which was an inspiration. However, she was driven as an 11-year-old to go along to training with her sister at Nith Valley Athletics Club in Dumfries because of the fun factor.

Over 25 years later she is performing as well as she ever has and could potentially be involved in the greatest sporting event on the planet. The reason she goes running before most of us are awake in the morning, or during her lunch break, and once again in the evening is for one simple reason - she enjoys it.

Haining holds down a full-time job as a clinical pathologist at Glasgow Veterinary School, which often requires her to work extra hours over busy weekends.  However she still finds time to run over 100 miles per week. To save time for extra training, Haining has gone to the extreme of teaching herself her own physiotherapy, a constant requirement when trying to fend off injury.

Since she was a teenager, Haining has been plagued by significant pronation of the feet and weak muscles in her lower shins. It seems that whenever she was improving as an athlete, reaching targets and grasping her goals, injury would strike.

“I was running extremely well when I was 18 or 19 but just as I was getting faster and the intensity of my training increased, I broke down again.

“In 1991 [after her first senior Great Britain vest] I got a navicular stress fracture and I ended up being out for about 4 years. I got into an injury cycle and it wasn’t really clear what the problem was and how to deal with the situation.”

While concentrating on her studies to get her through Veterinary School in Glasgow, alongside dealing with injury, Haining decided to put athletics on the back burner for a number of years.

She re-emerged after completing her degree to compete as a cross-country runner, again partaking in the sport at the highest level. Haining collected a silver medal in the European Cross Country Championships in 1996 in a team event.

However, the dark cloud of injury caught up with Haining soon enough, and in 2000 she decided to pursue a PhD and take a rest from her injury ridden hobby, “I didn’t have enough time for the physio and everything”, she admits.

The sport, which had provided Haining with such enjoyment and so many adventures, was beginning to take its toll on her. She reached a low in her athletics career whilst out injured in her third significant spell away from the sport.

“At that point I didn’t think I would ever race again. I didn’t think I would have the energy to deal with al the injuries,” she recalls.

However, with the support of her partner, Willy, and various other figures in her life, Hayley was back.  Back setting targets, back in training and back enjoying herself.  She describes running as a ‘bug’ and her fervour for the sport as being infectious.

“I think running is entrenched in my lifestyle”, she laughs.  “It crept back and I joined my local club Kilbarchan again and that’s when I became infected with the bug again.”

As she got stronger and fitter through training, Haining was advised by her coach to try marathon running and to go down to the London Marathon and see how she enjoyed it.

Haining conquered the London Marathon in 2005. Finishing 12th, Haining shocked herself with a personal best run and a time which was worthy of qualification for the world championships and the Commonwealth Games a year later, in which she finished 9th.

“It was only a few years ago that I thought I’d never race again. Doing the London Marathon in 2005 was for me to see if I could get there to the start line and to see if I could finish the thing! If someone told me that when I was 36 I’d be running under 2 hours 30 minutes for a marathon I’d never have believed it was possible”

She speaks of it as an adventure, just as the rest of her sporting career has been, a journey with little expectation, participating at the highest level for the love of her sport.

Now, Haining is training to a high intensity for what could possibly be her biggest ever sporting experience. Unsurprisingly, she puts no pressure on herself and takes it in her stride.

“I really try and think that as long as I stay healthy then I’m in a win-win situation. I could get a change to run an Olympic marathon but if I don’t then I can rest for a few weeks and build up to race a big city marathon in the autumn.”

Haining is waiting for a phone call to hear whether or not she is required in Beijing but you can be sure she is not sitting by the phone. She loves her job and she just happens to have significant talent in her hobby of running.

If called up to Beijing, she will no doubt look at it as another adventure, much like the one she had 17 years ago in Barcelona.

If she does not go to Beijing she will simply embark on another journey, back competing at the highest level in marathon running.

Be it competing in the Olympics, a high-profile marathon, or training in the evening on her own, her philosophy will always remain the same: to get the best out of herself and enjoy it.

IC
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