Hayley Green - Auckland, New Zealand
I have never felt more grateful for my ability to swim. I feel strong, powerful, in control. It helps me process my day. I find that after most swims I am more connected with my body and muscles. I am me.
“My first morning swim at Walden Pond, the kettle pond in Eastern Massachusetts where Henry David Thoreau wrote the book “Walden,” is a moment I will remember forever.
“One of the hospitals I was working at was only two miles away, so I decided to go swimming before work one morning in late July. I had my togs on under my work dress and carried a towel, soap and underwear down to the beach, using the stone steps as my ‘gear locker’ before wading into the sparkling water.
“You wade in and suddenly you are waist-deep. It’s never as cold as you expect, and it is so clear – you regularly see the fish who call the pond their home
“The swim across the pond is a corridor of 700 or 800 yards with tall green pine trees on each side, which are so pretty to look at. Most of the swimmers in the pond wear bright swimming caps, or have some bright coloured flotation device attached – so there are little dots of pink and orange spread out around the place. Occasionally you come across a kayak or a paddle boarder.
“The light at that time of morning is unforgettable. Droplets of golden water cascade off your arm as you take a stroke. When I later swam there with a friend, she was shimmering in gold every time I turned my head to take a breath. I’ll never forget the first time I made it across the pond and looking back to the other side and not being able to see the beach I’d swum from, due to the light dancing off the water. I was so close to a major city (Boston), yet completely alone in tranquillity. Every time I have swum at Walden I have never felt more grateful for my ability to swim.”
Cross training
Hayley, an elite runner for New Zealand, has always found swimming was a contributor to her running success and her overall health and wellness. It was an important part of her training throughout her high school years in New Zealand and five years at Stony Brook University (Long Island, New York). It became essential in her post-collegiate years as she balanced her career and running training. For some runners, the action of putting time into one’s training in the pool was often seen as a ‘punishment’ for being injured. Not for Hayley. Hayley found that swimming played an important part in her physical and mental preparation to her running objectives. To this day she credits her swimming as a significant factor in her running successes and happiness.
The early years
Born in the France in the late 1980’s Hayley first swim recollections were at family and friends’ pools, swimming with arm floats as support, before taking school swimming lessons using the Eton College pool (she highlights young William and Harry were occasionally in attendance) and then moving to club lessons at Windsor Leisure Centre and joining the Windsor Swimming Club.
Hayley’s family migrated to New Zealand when she was 10 years old, where she joined the local swim squad and club. Although she classifies herself as “not the fastest swimmer”, she thoroughly loved the training side of the sport. Especially the variety of the training, the ‘long slogs’ as well as ‘tough anaerobic’ sets. Friendship and being part of the team generated many fond memories for Hayley. Swimming was a big part of her family’s life in Wellington with a younger sister finding consistent success in the pool while Hayley found success in the sport of ‘running’ and continued to swim to support her fitness and save her young legs from potential injuries.
Hayley has many early swimming memories:
Being DQ’ed for swimming too fast as at ‘some random’ swimming gala in England
Galas in England are called ‘Carnivals’ in New Zealand
Sleeping in school dormitories at her club swim camps
Feeling like a champion purely for surviving the session in the outdoor pools in the New Zealand summer
The great feeling of swimming a PB (personal best)
Her tooth falling out during training, luckily to be found by a friend
The fun in the changing rooms after early morning training and wondering what mum would bring for breakfast (to be eaten in the car on the way to school)
Finally figuring out how to coordinate breaststroke as a young’un
Getting to make up a ‘set for the squad on your birthday’ – Hayley recalls that hers always involved lots of tumble turning fun
Learning butterfly by lying horizontal and ‘nodding’ her head to develop the kick. And then practicing for hours in the leisure pool between lessons
Having no idea what ‘sculling’ was when she first heard the reference at a squad session
Freestyle in England meant swim any stroke you wanted. Front crawl is what the rest of the world called freestyle!
Hayley’s favourite places to swim
In Boston
MIT Alumni Wang pool and the MIT Z-centre pool (Cambridge)
Walden Pond – Hayley highlights that you will find yourself surrounded by a community of swimmers and in July and August it is surprisingly warm in the water
In Australia
The Valley Pool (Brisbane. Australia) is a terrific place to get your swimming fix.
The Bold and Beautiful group in Manly (Sydney. Australia).
Hayley returned to New Zealand for a short period in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was forcing border closures across the world. She will be searching for her new swimming pool once she settles into her routine as a Genetic Counsellor in Auckland. She also has a goal of participating in open water swim events having experienced a few over the years, as well as aquathon type events such as the 3 points challenge along Curl Curl beach in Sydney which she completed in December 2019.
Editor: Being Auckland based, Hayley is sure to find the beach series Harcourts Cooper & Co beach series and the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series
Do you have any favourite swims or ‘sets’ that you prefer?
It is rare for my swims to not include:
Medley Kick-Drill-Swim 75’s
Pull 200’s – I often include breath control also within the 200’s. Either 25s or 50s with a pattern of 3.5.7.9
800 straight swim – predominately freestyle with an occasional backstroke lap thrown in
Why swim now Hayley, and what have you learnt from your swimming?
“Non-impact exercise keeps me fit and helps my recovery from tough running days. I also highly value the meditative quality of swimming. I mentally process things differently in the pool. It also adds variety into my week!
“I am not swimming to try and achieve a certain swimming time or goal, so it is very mentally relaxing. I rarely use the ‘pace clock’ beyond calculating rest.
“Swimming makes me feel strong, powerful, in control. It helps me process my day. I find that after most swims I am more connected with my body and muscles. I am me.”
What would you share with others about your swimming experiences Hayley?
“For runners: Being able to shift my mindset to allow swimming to be part of my training was often better for me and my running. It has contributed hugely to my running success. I am incredibly grateful for my college running coach, Andy Ronan, and post-collegiate coach, Ryan Cararra for making swimming part of my regular week of training and not just something that was prescribed during a period of injury.
“For everyone: It was rare for me to win swimming races, or even to make finals. Because of this swimming taught me humility and the ability to focus on my personal accomplishments and not worry about what everyone else around me was doing – I genuinely loved the sport and that is why I did it. I think that was an important lesson to learn early on, particularly when my running achievements appeared more obvious to an onlooker. I love having swimming as part of my week and not worrying about time, pace, distance – something that can be hard to switch off during runs for me.”
And finally
“In my primary school and early high school years, swimming was everything. The days revolved around swimming training and for the most part I loved it – getting fit for races and the friends I made. As I reflect, I put a lot of my running success and mindset down to those years of swim training. I have regularly displayed good instincts when it comes to judging pace in my running (you can’t see the clock as frequently in swimming as you can in running!) and also measuring effort to output. My college running coach would always comment on this, and I have always put this down to the instincts learned in swimming.”
Photography credit (running photo): Justin Britton