Half Marathon - Heather Turland's Build Up

26 May 1997

It's lunchtime and Heather Turland is busy cooking dinner for six. Nothing fancy. Just something quick and healthy like spag bol for the family. When you are an elite athlete who runs a gym, a home, four kids aged between nine and 15, and 150km a week, life can get frantic. So you have to cook dinner at lunch, slip in a training session during the kids' afternoon soccer practice and get up at 6am to put in the kilometres on the road. But Turland loves her manic life and prefers to keep busy, especially before a big race like The Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon, the race which transformed her from a 30-something fun-runner from Bowral in 1994 to an elite athlete.

Following that breakthrough victory in 1994, Turland went on to win two City to Surf races. The 37-year-old will take another giant stride onto the international stage in August after gaining selection in the marathon at the Athens world track and field titles. Yet despite her short, sharp rise from obscurity, Turland maintains what she calls a steady balance between family and running. "The family will always come first," she said. "It is still my top priority. My running is important to me but my family life doesn't revolve around it." Turland has fond memories of the day she overtook athletes she had only ever read about, like 1990 Commonwealth Games marathon silver medallist Tani Ruckle, to win the 1994 half marathon. She remembers the crowd calling out "Go Tani!" and looking at her and asking "Who's that?"

Her life changed dramatically after that victory. What had once been an escape from the kids and stay fit became a business. The "pretty ordinary" mum who discovered she could "run a bit" in her mid-30s was a sponsor's dream. Turland secured a major sponsorship deal with Puma and a contract to promote Power Bars. She's also hired a manager to handle the steady stream of speaking requests and engagements. "Things were getting a bit much," she said. "I was finding it very difficult to negotiate things. I find it hard to say no. I am not a business person. I got a manager so I can get on with training and not get stressed about the business side of things." Looking back, Turland still finds it hard to believe she won two City to Surfs and struggles to envisage winning a second half marathon on Sunday.

Turland gained selection in her first championship Australian team by finishing third in 2hr 34min 10s in her first marathon in Germany last October. Three days before the big race, she rang her coach Larry Wicks in tears, doubting she could run the distance. Wicks's reply was short and succinct: "I have no doubt you'll be sensational." As she sprinted to the finishing line in Frankfurt and realised she would run under the 2hr 35min world championship qualifying time, Turland remembered those words and revelled in yet another career breakthrough.

Turland is making no predictions about her half-marathon race this year other than to say she expects to run around 1hr 13min 40s. If that's good enough to win, so be it. She is confident of one thing. People will no longer be saying "Who's that?" as she sprints to the line. Now they, say "Go Heather!".

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