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Heather Matthews’ Commonwealth Games silver medal and MBE for Services to Sport are not on public display at her Tindalls Bay home, where artworks take pride of place. It seems that few people who attend her art classes in Whangaparaoa realise that Heather, now aged 65, was once a 3000 metre and cross country running champion – coached by sporting great Arthur Lydiard. After a sporting career that took Heather all around the world, she changed course to pursue her passion for art, taking the bold move of studying full time at art college as a mature student. She spoke to Terry Moore about the power of a good coach in helping you to follow your dreams.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, women were only allowed to race in 100m and 200m events – it was considered their bodies could not cope with running any greater distance than that. I started athletics training at the age of 16, in Papatoetoe, where I grew up, because I was picked out by a friend’s father who wanted to get an athletics team together. I suppose I became good at it, but even though I was school champion and did well in Auckland events, I was never a great sprinter because that’s not how my body is made. I have far more endurance than raw speed. As soon as they introduced the 400m for women, I gave that a go, but was still only fourth in Auckland. It wasn’t until 1969 when they bumped it up to 1500m, which was called a mile in those days, that I won a New Zealand title. I went on to represent my country overseas for the first time in Tokyo at the Pacific Conference Games, and that was a real baptism of fire. You go away to an event like that thinking you are pretty hot and realise quickly that you are a very small fish in a big pond. I came back a bit disillusioned but because I’m very determined, I kept going and eventually won several cross-country titles and some on the track, specialising in 3000m. I represented New Zealand in cross-country from 1971–81 in several world championship events and this involved a lot of travel. Before I started running I had never been further north than Kaio or further south than Rotorua, because we had relatives in those places. Running took me to many amazing parts of the world and I met a lot of interesting and influential people too. When you go overseas with a sports team they become like a family and when you get home you miss them. Sometimes we could be away for a month at a time and of course there were always romances among the group and lots of fun. I have made lifelong friends with many of those people.
I got married in 1968 to Richie Thomson, a New Zealand Olympic cyclist whom I met when he was riding by the track that I was training on. He coached me for a few years, but it can be difficult having a husband as a coach. I was running well at that time, but decided it was better for my marriage that I find myself a different coach. At that point Arthur Lydiard lived in Papatoetoe and although he didn’t normally coach women, he agreed to take me on. I was about 28 then and it was the first time a coach had ever told me that I had what it took to do very well. Of course I loved running, but I was not overly confident, so I found Arthur a great motivator. I was selected for the Commonwealth Games in 1978, which were in Edmonton, Canada. Winning a silver medal there in the 3000m was a proud moment and a career highlight. Unfortunately I had developed some very bad Achilles tendon problems and so when I got back to New Zealand I decided to have an operation to try and fix them. It was successful, but I was still plagued by various injuries so I didn’t race again for a couple of years.
In the 1980s I moved to Kerikeri with my then partner, now husband, Jeff, and we set up the running group, the Kerikeri Striders, as a way of getting to know people in the area. Arthur came and gave a talk and right away we had 80 people sign up. That was how I started coaching – helping other women with jogging and getting fit, and encouraging them to enter road races. I started taking part in the road races myself and one day, when I was beaten by a younger runner, I rang Arthur and said I wanted to try out for a NZ women’s team going to the Japan Road Relay. I had six weeks to train, but I made the team and that was how I came out of ‘retirement’, specialising in road racing. A highlight of that time was winning the Rotorua Marathon. Eventually I gave up running for good, at the age of 47.
We moved to the Hibiscus Coast four years ago to turn our little bach in Tindalls Bay into a home and now I coach a couple of local kids in cross country running. I find coaching very satisfying. I always remember that someone encouraged and helped me when I was a young runner and without that assistance I would never have got where I did. Thanks to that support, I have been to cocktails with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on the yacht Brittania and had dinner in Monte Carlo where Prince Albert was a guest, so I have a lot of wonderful memories to be thankful for.
When I left school I had a preliminary diploma of fine art, but it was during the Beatnik era and my dad would not let me go to Elam to study as he considered it just too far out in left field. Despite that, I’ve always worked in art-related areas, including architectural draughting and a stint with a former Auckland mayor, Colin Kay, as window dresser for his House of Flackson store. That led to more work freelancing as a window dresser, as this was flexible enough to be fitted around running. I also worked in interior design and then started my own interior design business in Remuera. When my dad passed away and left me a bit of money, I considered going to do a degree in fine arts and ended up, at the age of around 58, taking on a full time fine arts degree at Whitecliffe College of Art & Design in Auckland. Because I had a big portfolio of work and several years experience in related fields, I only had to do three years of a four-year course to get my degree and graduated when I was 61. Those three years studying art were very enjoyable, particularly because of the chance to mix with the other students, most of whom were much younger than me. I don’t have any children, but because I ran, often with younger sportspeople, I am very comfortable getting to know young people.
Although art and sport are often considered poles apart, both are creative in their own way. After I’d finished project managing the build of our home in Tindalls Bay, I decided I would like to teach adults painting and drawing, so I rented space in Whangaparaoa Hall and advertised and now the classes are going very well. I just love colour and really enjoy the teaching – I get so much pleasure from seeing the improvement in people’s artworks and in their confidence as artists. Like the coaching, teaching art is not a big earner, it’s just a way of helping others in the community. I was so proud of my students’ work that went on display at Whangaparaoa Library recently. The standard was high and we got a lot of great feedback. Right now I’m working on a sculpture that will be in the Hospice Art Show – a Joshua Tree made of a beautiful piece of lemon wood found on the beach. Before art school I was into realism, but I decided to move into more abstract forms and still do a lot of that type of work as well as sculpture.
Although my sporting days are behind me, I walk every day and play interclub tennis. For me, keeping fit is a bit like cleaning your teeth every morning – it’s something you just do – and I will no doubt do it until I can’t do it any more. I can’t run any more, because of a number of niggling injuries, but walking does the job for me now.
