Inverness Harrier runner Jenny Bannerman retires from competitive racing after 28-year career that spawned nine national medals and five Scotland vests
Inverness Harriers runner Jenny Bannerman has confirmed her retirement from competitive racing.
It brings to an end a 28-year career that started in her school days, and led to Scotland vests and several national championship gold medals under the guidance of her dad and coach Charlie.
Bannerman has already gone through plenty of change over the last few years.
She took time out of the sport as she became a mum for the first time, giving birth to baby boy George, and on her return from maternity leave changed day-job to become a business development manager with Halifax.
Juggling the demands of full-time work with parenthood, alongside partner and fellow runner Stephen Mackay, with trying to travel the country to compete in races ended up proving too much, convincing Bannerman that now was the right time to take the step back.
“I was going here, there and everywhere, and I’ve done that for the last couple of years being a mum, and it’s just really hard work,” she explained.
“It was actually going down to the Scottish 5k Championships in May, and I was with George and Stephen at the park in the morning and I realised I didn’t really want to leave them to go down and race.
“From then on out I was wondering about it, and I thought it over for a couple of weeks. Dad and I had spoken about it for a while, and we decided that the time was right to take a step back.
“I have made so many friends through running, so I can still enjoy running with them and following their progress without having the pressure of competing, because I used to have fairly high expectations and put a lot of pressure on myself.
“I’ve been pretty emotional about it, because it has been my life for so long. That’s how I met Stephen too, but I’ve still been going out on runs.
“It’s not that I couldn’t do it, but it was really hard work to sustain a level that wasn’t what I was managing before. It might have been different if I was running faster than I had before – that might have been worth everything I was putting into it.”
Bannerman steps away from competitive racing with five Scotland vests to her name across 10k, 10 miles and the half marathon, a North District cross country champion in 2011, the current British Veteran 5k champion and nine medals at Scottish Championships – including three gold, individually in the 10k in 2021 and as part of a 5k team in 2019 and the road relay team earlier this year.
So many successes make it hard for her to pick out a single highlight, but she particularly appreciates the achievements that bookended her career.
“First of all, competing for Scotland was something I never thought I would do in my dreams,” Bannerman added.
“I had some pretty good PBs in the middle, and then at the end winning the Scottish 10k Championships before I fell pregnant with George was the icing on the cake.
“I don’t think I can do any more realistically than that. Topping and tailing it with competing for Scotland at the beginning, which was probably the biggest thing, but then I never thought I would win the Scottish Championships either.
“It’s been nice that I’ve able to come back and have George at some of the events that I’ve been at and won too. We won the Scottish Road Relays in March this year, and I didn’t think I would win a Scottish medal after having George.
“Even though I wasn’t running times that I had run before, it was nice to be a part of that team and win that medal.”
