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Competitive runner and recent school-leaver Izzy Hegan shares what she has learned about balancing her personal development and enjoyment of sport against a focus on winning.

The exams are over and there鈥檚 nothing but summer until the results come out in late January. Then she鈥檚 off to uni, in Auckland, intent on a career in medicine.

In her final year, Izzy was Senior Champion for Athletics. She also won the 鈥楢ll Round Sports and Cultural Excellence鈥� trophy and they asked her to make a speech at prizegiving. So, she talked about what she鈥檇 learned at school.

Izzy played various sports at primary school, and when she moved to Wellington Girls College she added a couple more. But she鈥檇 always been best at running, and when her PE teacher suggested she do some training and wrote her a programme, Izzy followed it religiously. Next minute - to her surprise - Izzy finished in the top ten at the Cross Country Nationals. Middle distance running became her thing.

As she told the girls in the audience that night - when you鈥檙e playing well and winning, sport is fantastic. 鈥淚 felt strong and powerful when I raced and trained, and I had a lot of self-belief.鈥� But, suddenly, that wasn鈥檛 true anymore. 鈥淧eople I used to beat were now beating me. That feeling of having been really good and then not being as good: that was a terrible feeling to have.鈥� Sport, Izzy felt, had let her down. All she was getting in return for everything she had put in was a constant sense of disappointment. And then there was an injury. So, Izzy stopped playing any sport whatsoever.

Which was wonderful for a while, but then she started to miss it. Started asking Lucy, her sister, who is also a runner, what had happened at training. Missing the friends she鈥檇 made. But, most of all, Izzy told them, 鈥淚 missed the feeling of running - just running - and realised how much I wanted to be able to run, exercise, play sport.鈥�

Izzy went back to running and was successful again. But not before she had figured something out. By herself, she鈥檒l tell you: 鈥淢y coach was relentlessly positive, telling me I just needed to stick to the plan, but that didn鈥檛 help me.鈥� Izzy was aware that disappointment was the start of a negative spiral through loss of enjoyment to loss of confidence.

The only way to break it, she realised, was to put less value on winning.

鈥淚 came fifth in the 800 metre final at the Nationals recently and people said to me, 鈥極h you must be so disappointed鈥� but I wasn鈥檛 at all. I was absolutely shredded coming down that last straight. What matters is finishing knowing you couldn鈥檛 have gone any faster.鈥�

At the prizegiving, Izzy talked about what she learned at school. 鈥淪port is fun,鈥� she told them. 鈥淚t keeps you healthy and the friends you make will be some of the best you鈥檒l ever have. It鈥檚 good for mental health as well. The act of pushing yourself to perform under pressure is a vital life skill and the resilience you build from sporting disappointments carries over into every aspect of life.鈥�

Izzy has finished at school now. And she鈥檚 not yet sure where competitive running will fit into her new life. But that鈥檚 okay: perhaps it has nothing more to teach her. And besides, she can always run for fun.