When did you join Sportsworld?
October 2014
Where do you work?
I work in St Lukes Hospital as a Ward Clerk.
What is your favourite club session?
Either Hills and Sprints or the Sunday Long Run.
What is your favourite race distance?
10 Miles.
What is your favourite meal before a big race?
In my dreams it would be poached eggs, toast and coffee but in reality I have a dodgy stomach so I eat nothing before a big or small race !
My Favourite place to train
Phoenix Park – I never get tired of it.
What’s your favourite race?
I have a few favourite races. I enjoy the Dublin race series very much and I also love mountain running and the Run the Line race every November is an event I thoroughly enjoy.
What is your target for the next year?
Just to keep on running injury free.
What international events have you ran?
With the Club I have run the half marathon in both Krakow and Amsterdam, both really great weekends.
I have also run the Berlin Half Marathon and the Cambridge, Brighton and Hackney Half Marathons in the UK.
Where’s the most interesting place you’ve been? (Doesn’t have to be running related)
I worked in Romania in 1991 for three months in the months after the fall of Communism. I worked in a children’s orphanage for abandoned children. I am sure life in Romania has improved in the intervening years but in the early 1990’s it was a grim place and hunger, poverty, hardship was the norm for so many. It was a pretty difficult but worthwhile experience.
What do you like doing when you don’t run? (hobbies/past times)
I enjoy meeting friends for trips to the cinema, meals out, coffee and going to the theatre and will really miss the lunch time theatre formerly held in Bewleys in Grafton Street. It was a regular haunt ! I also like reading, gardening, knitting and cross country skiing.
How/When did you start your adventure with running?
I started running back in 1983 (a lot of those reading this may not have been born!). I lived in Ranelagh at the time and a local 4 mile run was held and I ran it along with some friends and really enjoyed it. The women’s mini marathon was in its infancy and was a huge player in getting women out running. A kind of liberation in its own way. I ran the mini marathon for years and the Guinness race series and a lot of other races in the 1980’s and 1990’s, all pre internet results! I ran the Dublin City Marathon in 1989 when just over three thousand participants took part with a fraction of less than 300 of those runners being women. As I ran up Grafton Street towards the finish line on St Stephen’s Green I heard someone shout “ here comes a woman” !
Tell us about your PB’s / What is your biggest achievement?
In my 20’s in the Women’s Mini Marathon June 1985 – 43 minutes – you will have to take my work for it as no internet results exist!
In my 50’s I ran a 10k in 44.49 Minutes (Lakes 10k September 2015)
5k race – Dublin Docklands Race June 2015 21.49
Half Marathon – Dublin Half Marathon September 2015 1.42.44
How often do you run / What is your typical weekly mileage?
In these Covid days I am running 3 times a week – usually about 20 miles but it can vary downwards!
What motivates you? Running or otherwise
Around running –I enjoy the running but the feeling after is even better. I often have to drag myself out the door but never regret it once I get out the door. I I have been running since the early 1980’s, and met Audrai in 1988 when we worked together. We used to run 6 miles on our lunch break. In the company where we worked, we were known as “the runners” and probably seen as a bit odd ! I also ran a lot on my own and always enjoyed the solitude and time out. At times of stress it has really helped and distracted me.
What would you say is the best thing about being in a Running Club?
The friendships and the discipline. Meeting so many like minded people who share a love of running has been a great experience. No race is complete without the shared coffee afterwards and the camaraderie of the crosscountry team makes even cross country enjyable! Knowing I have training Tue and Thur and the Sunday long run frees up the other days whereas when I wasn’t in the Club it was often hard to decide what days to run – today is raining so I will run tomorrow kind of thing and sometimes every day was raining. Now the decision is made for me.
What made you join a Running Club?
I had a bad bike accident in the summer of 2014 and broke my collar bone and elbow so was out of action for months, couldn’t cycle, run or drive. I promised myself that when I got back running that I would never take it for granted again (a Eureka moment). I had actually gone to Bushy Park that first evening because I heard that Rathfarnham AC trained there. The night I went up they had moved their training back to their winter session so there was no one around. On the way back to my car I met a guy in running gear and I asked him where was he training and he told me that Sportsworld met in Bushy Park and invited me to come into the clubhouse where the club were meeting. What a lucky meeting that was. Joining the Club has been one of my good life decisions.
Why is running important to you?
I like to keep fit and running helps me stay fit and healthy. I also love being outdoors and the feeling of freedom I get when I am running.
Is there anything you would like to see more of or less of at the Club?
I like the routine of the Tue and Thur sessions and the Long run on Sunday so it works well for me. I would like to see some of the long runs being run in new locations, either along the coast or the odd mountain route.
Who is the person in the club who inspires/drives to run better?
Emily and Myles – I can still hear their voices in my head when I am running on my own along the canals!
Their dedication and loyalty and encouragement to each club member is supremely impressive.
Do you do any cross training / other sports on a regular basis?
I cycle to work and cycle most everywhere I go where possible but I don’t think of it as cross training.
Tell us something that no one in the club knows about you!?
Despite doing swimming classes over the last 50 years, I still can only manage a breathless width of a pool.
I just can’t get the hang of it at all !
