Hanny Allston Hanny Allston

You can walk into a room of

people and be the incredibly
happy-go-lucky, bubbly
Hanny, but you can walk

HOW
out of that room and be
struggling in your own mind
about where youre at.

HANNY
ALLSTON
FOUND FAST FACTS
NAME: Hanny Allston

HER FEET
DATE OF BIRTH: January 12, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH: Hobart, Tasmania
CLUB: N/A
COACH: Self coached with the support of
Richard Telford for running, Kristy Janszen
from Pioneer Training for strength, and
Anthony Scott for orienteering
SPONSORS: The North Face, Shotz Sports
Nutrition, Lake Crackenback Resort &
Spa, Icebreaker, Anytime Fitness
CURRENTLY LIVING: Canberra, ACT
WRITTEN BY MITCHEL BROWN Canberra. [But] feeling the flow come back gingerbread houses at Christmas time, we got MARITAL STATUS: Partnered to Graham Hammond
IMAGES COURTESY OF HANNY ALLSTON AND SUPERSPORTIMAGES.COM into your racing strategy its just made it out and tried to go and do picnics and play OCCUPATION: Running coach
awesome, and Im hungry for more of that. games out in the courtyardI really believe HEIGHT: 168cm
Optimum racing strategy is arguably of that those athletes, yes, they have to train WEIGHT: 57kg

H
igh up in the Snowy Mountains, her partner, Graham Hammond which best of 9min 14sec and remarkable stamina greater importance in orienteering than hard, but they also really had to have fun. SHOE SIZE: 10.5
within the tranquil grounds of Lake aims to provide runners of all abilities with with victory in the 82km Cradle Mountain most other running disciplines, but Allston But it is not Allstons work background HAIR COLOUR: Blonde
Crackenback Resort & Spa, former the same pathways afforded the sports elites. Ultra and, most recently, the 45km Six nonetheless discusses the subject with all that gives her advice on stress management FAVOURITE SHOE COLOUR: Bright
World Orienteering Champion Hanny I always found it really amazing, she Foot Track Marathon, arguably Australias her runners in some detail across the Lake the most weight, but rather her personal red like a fast sports car!
Allston seems to be in her element. It is, she says. Here are these people whose goals are most prestigious off-road event; and away Crackenback weekend. Also covered among experience. Her desire to offer psychological MOST LOVED PAIR OF RUNNERS:
Bare feet nothing better
admits, not a bad workplace. equally as important as my goals. It doesnt from running, she has enjoyed success at the broad range of topics are areas such as assistance to others grew out of her ongoing
FAVOURITE RACE: World Orienteering
In most respects Im living a dream, says matter if I run faster than them; we all have a national level both as a swimmer and a nutrition, self-massage, stretching, running battle with her own demons a battle that Championships; Bright 4 Peaks Alpine
Allston. I actually came from a guiding a right to achieve what we can achieve out mountain biker. form and race-day preparation, with Allston in 2010 culminated in physical and mental Climb, VIC; Triple Top Trail Race, TAS
background in Tassie, so when I was looking of ourselves. Yet the elite knowledge and the But for better or worse, Allstons drawing on vast her wealth of knowledge burnout and saw her walk away from running TOP THREE RUNNING EXPERIENCES/PERFORMANCES:
for my first job Id always wanted to be a elite support structures are there for the elite performance resume continues to be defined and experience to offer some valuable altogether. 1. Winning the Junior World Orienteering
bushwalking guide in the wilderness areas, and theyre not there for the recreational by her orienteering success. She is, after all, insights. Despite having studied pre-clinical The harrowing details of Allstons own Championships in Lithuania in 2006. It had
showcasing to people what I thought were the [runners]. So opening Find Your Feet up was Australias most successful orienteer ever, medical science back home in Tasmania, she ordeal notwithstanding, her seminar gives been such a focus and was an amazing
recognition of the hard work I had put in.
highlights of living on this planet, which is to fill that hole. which goes some way towards explaining admits to having no formal qualifications plenty for those runners present to take
2. Winning the Six Foot Track this year
getting out and just having fun and enjoying Allstons sympathetic view of the general the level of excitement she generated within in areas such as nutrition, physiotherapy away, including information on the warning with so little expectations on myself
what nature has to offer. So I always used to running population shows an uncommon the orienteering ranks last year by lining or sports science, though her presentations signs of stress and simple strategies to help 3. Any missioning with my partner, Graham, in the
say even back then that this is a pretty cool humility for someone in her uncommon up at the World Championships in Finland are methodical, well-researched and rooted reduce its impact. Perhaps the standout mountains. We did a run across the summit of Mt
office. position an athlete that has managed to her first appearance at that level in six heavily in scientific dogma. point, though, is the breakdown of one of the Wellington on Christmas Eve last year. Everyone
Lake Crackenback is in fact just one rise to the ranks of the elite at virtually every years. In the end, her 12th-place finish in But it is Allstons seminar on the effect seminars key concepts the highs and lows was out celebrating and we were just exploring
of many beautiful areas of the Australian sporting discipline she has turned her hand the qualifying round of the middle-distance of stress and anxiety on performance that of being an elite athlete and the idea that the roof of Hobart. Four hours of Waratahs,
hidden huts, secret trails and wildlife. No pressure,
wilderness that Allstons work takes her to. On the road, she has won the Melbourne event fell some way short of her previous resonates the most strongly. Here she high and low points in an athletic career are just Christmas, the mountain and us bliss.
to. She is here as one half of the head Marathon, Cadbury Marathon and the lofty standards, though she concedes there does possess a formal background, having not necessarily mutually exclusive, with the PERSONAL BESTS:
coaching duo (the other being ultrarunner New Zealand Marathon Championships, was still a long way to travel along the obtained a life-coaching qualification before former often serving as a mask for or escape 3000M: 9:14
extraordinaire Brendan Davies) at a trail- and at one stage was being targeted for comeback trail at that point. going on to work as an athlete welfare officer from the latter. 5000M: 16:04
running weekend hosted by the resort. national development programs in the hope I couldnt even remember how to with the Australian Institute of Sport in the Someone asked me about Ian Thorpe 10,000M: 34:04
Weekends such as these form a key she would go on to represent Australia orientate the map the first time I went out, lead-up to the London Olympics. recently and all this stuff thats come out in HALF MARATHON: 1:14:12
component of Find Your Feet the coaching at an international level; she has shown she says with a laugh, recalling her tentative I just tried to make that place fun, the media about his episodes of depression, MARATHON: 2:40:34
business Allston runs out of Canberra with impressive speed with a 3000m personal return to the sport at a low-key local event in she says of her time at the AIS. We made says Allston, explaining her own experience

36 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE APRIL - MAY 2014 37

Hanny Allston Hanny Allston

LOW
RES
that my rise from those really difficult
times to now has been even more powerful
because I can look at my performances and
be completely blunt and honest with myself
about why I didnt get what I wanted out of
that event, she explains.
I just think its really important that even when you But it was a lesson that ultimately took
some time to be learnt. In the years following
want that world title, or you want to achieve that goal Allstons World Championship success, her
in that race, that theres something else bigger and medical studies gave way to a return to a
career in guiding, which in turn gave way
more important than that. to stints of primary teaching both in New
Zealand and Melbourne. Still faced with
uncertainly over the direction of her future,
she buried herself deeper and deeper in her
of the phenomenon. And I said to them, As were driving and keeping you together, its running, yielding some of the best results of
an athlete, you almost become a very good like everything can melt. her career before the wheels finally fell off
actor at times, especially when youre faced Looking back seven years later, Allston in 2010. A subsequent six-week cycling tour started, and it was actually by helping others wow, you know this opportunity is there. are a few key differences. This is a Hanny
with having to have a public persona. You can now admit her fathers assertion that of Europe with her mother, during which that I really found my feet and found this An offer for a junior coaching role from Allston who has been to the dark side and
can walk into a room of people and be the sometimes people who run are running she describes herself as being happy as a calling. Orienteering Australia only added further back and is no longer afraid to ask for help
incredibly happy-go-lucky, bubbly Hanny, away from things in her case rang true. sandpiper, brought with it the realisation fuel to the fire once Allston saw her young or have the hard conversations; a Hanny
but you can walk out of that room and be Somewhere along the line, what had begun that running, the thing she had once held It was 2012 when Allston got bitten by charges given the opportunity to head Allston who, in a strange way, has now found
struggling in your own mind about where as a goal born out of initial success and a such passion for and had once been such a the bug again. Having moved on from the overseas and compete. Against this backdrop, an assuredness in the uncertainty of her
youre at and what youre doing and your own competitive desire had transformed into an driving force, was simply no longer enjoyable. AIS, she was by that stage fully entrenched she was also moving further and further away future, and accepted that she is just going
health. all-consuming means of escaping the harsh It would be two years before she would in Canberras cycling scene, both as an event from mountain biking and slowly beginning to be one of those gypsy kind of people that
realities that her life had thrown up. literally make her first tentative steps back to manager and a competitor experiencing to build up a running base throughout the isnt going to have one career path though
In 2006, Allston was on top of the [The gold medal] is something that Ill the world of running. increasing levels of success. Her rapid rise winter months in Canberra. a looming finishing date for her Masters of
orienteering world. In claiming both the always be proud of, she says. But when I got Yet it was amid the turmoil of 2010, just through the national mountain-biking ranks But it was yet another contact with High Performance Coaching and thoughts of
junior and the open world titles, she had that gold medal and stood on that podium, I months before everything fell apart for had been exciting, but as her improvement Orienteering Australia, this time in the form a follow-up doctorate give some glimpse of
become the first Australian to win a medal at just had this absolute realisation of, oh shit, Allston, that the seeds of Find Your Feet began to plateau, her enthusiasm for the sport of a letter from the head coach of the World the not-too-distant future.
the championships and the first athlete from Im still the same person who still has to go were sown. Upon returning to Hobart from began to wane. Championships team, that ultimately proved Most importantly, though, this is a Hanny
any country to win both the junior and open home, still has to work out what they want to Melbourne, she found herself training for There was a lot to develop, and I love that to be the biggest catalyst. For Allston, having Allston who wants to have fun and do things
title in the same year. do with their uni, still has to face the family the Point to Pinnacle half marathon, and the sense of improvement, she says. And then struggled in silence for so long, being asked for the right reasons; to enjoy sport at its
But behind the scenes, things were issues. So I just think its really important sight of scores of other runners doing the once that sort of crusted off and it started to by her sports peak body what she needed to purest and most playful and help others to do
crumbling around her. In late 2005 her world that even when you want that world title, or same and, more importantly, not appearing plateau a little bit more, I was like, you know be tempted back into competition symbolised the same.
had been thrown into chaos when her father you want to achieve that goal in that race, to be particularly enjoying themselves what? This is really unnatural. the offer of the helping hand she had always At the end of the day, what were doing is
attempted suicide, which in turn saw her that theres something else bigger and more triggered a light-bulb moment for her. I Meanwhile, things were slowly beginning hoped for. sport, she muses. If you go back to being
medical exams get swept under the table and important than that. thought, maybe theres something in this. to pick up again at Find Your Feet. More and I think Id been waiting for that moment the little kid at school and youre asked your
helped fuel a growing sense of uncertainty What ultimately allowed the healing Maybe I can create an opportunity. more clients were coming through, including when someone said, Ill help you, you dont favourite subject, most of the time we all
over her future career path. Far from going process to begin for Allston with both Working with Hobarts The Running Edge one couple who were looking for assistance have to do it alone this time, she says. That said it was sport. It was fun. It was what we
any way towards easing her anxiety, Allstons her initial family issues and the host of store, Allston began approaching runners, with their preparations for the 250km Last was a really powerful moment. wanted to do. And I think as soon as what
dual world titles only served to further it, personal struggles that ultimately led to her even going as far as tapping them on the Desert ultramarathon in Antarctica, the final And so it is that the remarkable journey you did for fun becomes a chore or a task
with a band of Swedish journalists following breakdown in 2010 was to confront the shoulder on the mountain, to come and join stage of the gruelling 4 Deserts endurance of Hanny Allston has come full circle. or something that youre slotting in around
the newly-crowned double champion back problems head-on and discuss them with her training group. Utilising her knowledge race series. Having already completed the Almost 12 months on from her return to everything else, you can start to think that
to her then home in Tasmania to film her complete honesty. Although she believes in a of primary school games to make training as Attacama Crossing (Chile), Gobi March international orienteering, she is sitting well maybe the priorities arent quite right.
for two weeks in an attempt to capture the need to remain something of a closed book, enjoyable as possible, she had soon garnered (China) and Sahara Race (Jordan) with clear at the top of the National Orienteering But fortunately for those following her
essence of life as an Australian orienteer. an honest assessment of both performance what she describes as a growing following of some difficulty, the pair was in need of some League rankings, with a national title to her return with a keen interest, it seems that with
It was just a really, really topsy-turvy time and life more broadly is something she is adults who just love to have fun. additional help to make it through the final name and the 2014 World Championships all the pieces of the puzzle in place, there is
where [I had] good days, good moments, adamant about with her runners, and one A lot of people were saying to me at stage. in Italy and 2015 World Cup in her home still a fun side to being a fierce competitor.
good minutes, and then just the real dark she believes not only brought her back from the time, What are you doing back home I was fortunate enough to have this couple state of Tasmania (a rare opportunity for an Ive achieved what I really need or want to
sides as well, Allston recalls. I think I did the lowest point in her career, but has also now? And I was like, Im just trying to fly to Canberra from Melbourne to work Australian orienteer in such as Eurocentric achieve out of the sport, and anything more
suffer depression through that time, and I can allowed her to move further forward than find my feet. So Point to Pinnacle and that with me and to coach this couple to go all sport) firmly in her sights. Outwardly, it very is just going to be the icing on the cake for
really empathise with Ian Thorpes journey ever before. opportunity to see people plodding up a road the way to Antarctica, Allston recalls. And I much seems like the Hanny Allston of old. me. But it doesnt mean I dont want to win
because when you take away the goals that Being able to be that honest has meant looking miserable was where Find Your Feet remember getting the real jealousy bug. Like Away from competition, though, there again!

38 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE APRIL - MAY 2014 39