Endurance Racing Helps Will Hayward Beat Stress

By day, New Zealander Will Hayward is dean of social sciences at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Outside its corridors, Hayward is running obsessed, a passion he developed in his mid-30s. Kate Whitehead interviews him for a story published by the South China Morning Post.

Among the tall, lean running machine’s most notable extreme adventures are twice completing the non-stop, 298-kilometre Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC) – in 2018 and 2021 – and being the “last man standing” in the Big Dog Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, in the US state of Tennessee, in 2019.

Now 55, Hayward is one of the oldest people to complete HK4TUC.

Hayward has discovered the positive mental health benefits of running and says he is now less stressed than he was when he started his career almost 30 years ago.

“This whole running adventure and the associated benefits with that has allowed me to stabilise my mood and allowed me to relieve anxiety in ways that have been helpful,” he says.

Original article by Kate Whitehead, South China Morning Post, March 12, 2023.