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Heather Lee

World Record Athlete & Champion Fundraiser

Just a few months younger than her contemporaries and fellow powerhouses Queen Elizabeth and David Attenborough, Heather Lee is a truly unstoppable Australian.

At 96 years of age, Heather Lee from Sydney believes exercise and nutrition are the secrets to her long-time wellbeing and sporting success and her ability to live an active and independent life.

Ranked number 1 in the world in race walking in her age group, she believes the well-used phrase use it or lose it is now even more important for Aussies than ever before, as our nation is ageing, becoming more sedentary and feeling the mental pressures of everyday life.

In November '18 Heather won the 2019 NSW Senior Australian of the Year Award and she is going to Canberra on Australia Day to find out if she will be our national Senior Australian of the Year in 2019.

Heather's key messages:

"A good diet, a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, a rich social life and you have the basic recipe to nurture your body, mind and spirit."

Don't let age define you
Stay active and eat well
Live a life of purpose
Independence is vital
Stay in touch with your community
Support the Cancer Council

Connect with Heather on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/heather.lee.50951

Heather's Story

Having started walking therapeutically after her husband Len died - initially with her friends’ two Rottweilers and later joining a local walking club - Heather was in her late seventies when she began participating in and getting first and second places in her age group in a series of fun runs, among others the Mount Annan Challenge Walk, City2Surf, Mothers Day Classic and Sydney Running Festival. It rapidly became obvious that she was a naturally fast walker - although just how fast was difficult to gauge as there were never many competitors in the same age group.

Heather’s physiotherapist Craig suggested the Australian Masters Games, to be held in Adelaide in October 2011, just a few weeks before her 85th birthday.

She registered for all four “walks” at the Adelaide Masters, not realising “walks” means racewalking until the starter of her first race reminded her! Luckily her fellow competitors and a kind judge were very generous with their encouragement and advice; Heather returned from Adelaide with four gold medals (and no infringements)!

Back home in Sydney Heather discovered that her Adelaide times were very close to the women’s 85-89 Australian and world records and, feeling confident after her Adelaide success, she declared 2012 would be the year for her to try and claim some of those records for herself.

From Bankstown to Canberra

Her first record attempt was in Bankstown in February 2012, where Heather competed in the only listed racewalking event, the 5km, and finished in 42 minutes 05.30,seconds, a new Australian record. Later that year she travelled to the Australian Masters Track and Field Championships in Melbourne and broke three Australian records including her own 5km record (the 1500m in 11m36.90s, the 5km, now in 41m25.40s and the 10km in 84m06s.

Her first two world records, in the 3km and 5km events, as well as her second Australian record in the 10km followed at the Pan Pacific Games in the Gold Coast in November 2012. In 2013 she broke the Australian 10km record for a third time while competing at the Australian Masters Track and Field Championships in Canberra, now clocking a superb 80m54s.

The rest is history as they say and today Heather Lee holds an amazing eight Australian and five (indeed, two more than Usain Bolt) world records:

All four Australian Records and two world records in the W85 age group

1500m – 11m36.90s (Australian record, 2012)
3km – 23m 24.90s (world record, 2012)
5km – 40m 07.00s (world record 2012)
10km – 80m 54.00s (Australian record 2013)

All Australian Records and all world records in the W90 age group

1500m – 12m 09.10s ( Australian record, world’s fastest time, 2016)
3km – 24m 56.97s (world record, 2017)
5km – 41 04.87s (world record, 2018)
10km – 85m 28s (world record, 2018)

(While the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) does not recognise the 1500m as a world record event in Heather’s age group, her time of 12m 09.10s, set in Sydney in late 2016, is the world’s fastest.)

Source: Australian Masters Athletics Website:

http://www.australianmastersathletics.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Copy-of-AustWorldRecs-260518.pdf

Heather Lee has become a true elite sports woman, with talent and tenacity to boot, a keen sense of competition and the enthusiasm needed to keep training three to four times each week - hail rain or shine - week in, week out and year after year. Her world records are so competitive they will not be easily challenged. She is a well known, much respected master athlete whose age grade*, more often than not greater than 90%, has surpassed 100% on several occasions.

*Age grading uses tables of "age factors" and "age standards" to put all runners,

regardless of age and sex on a level playing field. In particular, they allow

runners' performances, no matter what their age, to be corrected to what they

would have been achieving in their prime years, and permit valid comparisons to

be made between people of different ages.

>100% = World record level

> 90% = World class

> 80% = National class

> 70% = Regional class

> 0% = An Athlete

Directly quoted from: Masters Athletics Website

http://www.mastersathletics.net/index.php?id=2595

Recognition and Awards

Such achievements seldom go unrecognised and since those first gold medals in 2011 Heather has won numerous awards: from NSW Masters Athletics, Athletics New South Wales, Hawkesbury City Council and the local Richmond Ex Servicemen’s Club. Of all her awards tough, her favourite by a mile is the 2012 Australian Masters Athletics Walks Award, which was presented to her on the same day she broke the Australian record in the W80 10km for the third time, at the 2013 Australian Masters Track and Field Championships in Canberra.

More recently she has received the following awards:

New South Wales Masters Athletics Most Outstanding Individual Performance 2017
New South Wales Masters Athletics Walker of the Year 2017
Athletics NSW 2017/2018 Walks Award
Hawkesbury City Council Senior Sportsperson of the year 2018

And she was selected as baton bearer in the Queen’s Baton Relay for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Source: NSW Masters Athletics Website

http://www.nswmastersathletics.org.au/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_main&NewsID=36241&OrgID=125

Source: Hawkesbury City Council Website

https://www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/news/all-news/2018/may/2018-hawkesbury-sports-awards-winners-announced

Source: Gold Coast XXI Commonwealth Games website

https://gc2018.com/batonbearer

Inspiring Others

However, it’s not only Heather’s efforts on the circular track that make her a stand out. Like so many elite athletes she sees her sporting success and ability to be a role model as an opportunity to inspire others and support her charity of choice, the NSW Cancer Council. She has been a member of the local Hawkesbury Cancer Support Group for many years, was the 2018 Cancer Council March Charge Ambassador and has taken part in the Hawkesbury Relay for Life every year since its inception in 2004. She is frequently invited to speak to special interest groups about her life and sporting achievements and was one of the 2016 NSW Seniors Festival’s ambassadors.

Relay for Life

This September marks the 15th edition of the Hawkesbury Relay for Life and Heather has participated every single year. In the first few Relays she was part of a team of 16 and helped raise more than $70,000 for the NSW Cancer Council. These days she participates as an individual fundraiser but she has no intention to give it up any time soon.

Remarkably, Heather is one of only a handful people who walk the full 24 hours of the Relay. She is there from the start to the very end, walking all day and throughout the sometimes freezing Richmond night, covering up to 85 kilometres and stopping only for meals and toilet breaks. In last year’s Relay she walked more than 95,000 steps!

The March Charge

Just like the Relay for Life, the Cancer Council’s fundraiser the March Charge involves walking and is therefore a natural fit for Heather. After having signed up for The March Charge in 2017 and reaching her kilometre goal with five days to spare, the Cancer Council NSW asked her to be their March Charge Ambassador for the 2018 instalment and so inspire others. Again, Heather completed her kilometre goal well before the end of the month, accumulating 344 kilometres on March 31st.

Not surprisingly, the NSW Cancer Council featured Heather on the fundraiser pages of their 2017 annual report.

Source: the March Charge website

https://www.themarchcharge.com.au/ambassador-heather-lee

Source: Cancer Council NSW website

https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/annualreport2017/our-stories/heather-lee/

Volunteer work

In November 2017 Heather began working as a volunteer at Hawkesbury Uniting Retirement Village in Richmond. Many of the people living in this aged care facility have few or no friends or family in the area and benefit from the work of a team of volunteers. Spending time with residents; reminiscing, having conversations about past and present events can make a huge difference and definitely alleviates some of the social isolation.

Order of Australia Medal

Heather’s sporting and fundraising efforts culminated in a Medal of the Order of Australia, General Division in 2014, awarded for “service to athletics through masters race walking, and to the community.”

Source: Australia day 2014 honours lists

https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/ad/Media%20Notes%20-%20OAM%20(F-L)%20(final).pdf

https://www.gg.gov.au/australia-day-2014-honours-lists

Source: 2016 NSW Seniors Festival website

http://www.campaignbrief.com/2016/02/the-2016-nsw-seniors-festival.html

Source: Hawkesbury Gazette website

https://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au/story/5285740/richmonds-heather-lee-to-walk-250km-in-honour-of-late-husband/

Looking ahead

What’s next? Heather’s plans for the near future include:

participating in the 15th Hawkesbury Relay For Life. Having recorded over 96,000 steps in the 2017 Relay, she is considering challenging herself to do 100,000 steps in the Relay this September.
doing weekly interval training sessions to try and further sharpen her current world record times before her 95th birthday.
continuing her work with the Cancer Support Group as well as the weekly volunteering at Hawkesbury Uniting’s Aged Care Facility.