Full Name: Róisín McMahon
When did you join Sportsworld? June 2024
Where do you work? I’m a secondary school teacher in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School
What is your favourite club session? It has to be the Tuesday session in the winter along the Dodder as otherwise I would not be motivated to run intervals whatsoever!
What is your favourite race distance? I love half marathons as the longer distance means you have to really think about how you’re going to pace yourself and when to push hard. I really enjoy the training as it’s a good mix of speed sessions as well as longer slower runs.
What is your favourite meal before a big race? Almost always overnight oats with peanut butter, frozen berries and a banana about half an hour before the race starts.
My Favourite place to train: The canal is great for working on speed as you can get a good interval distance going on the flat. Bushy in the summer is lovely and being able to run on the grass is something my knees are very grateful for!
What’s your favourite race? Without a doubt the VHI mini marathon is my favourite race – the atmosphere is so supportive and being surrounded by so many women is so empowering. I always find I can push myself to the limit during the race because of the incredible vibes!
What is your target for the next year? I would really like to improve my 10K time as this is a distance where I seem have plateaued in terms of progress, so I’ll be booking a few road races for 2025. I have recently gotten really into parkrun, and I’d like to try as many different ones as I can to see which is best for a PB!
What international events have you ran? I have never run an international event, but it is something I would like to do at some stage. I lived in Seville for a year a few years ago and I’d love to do the half marathon there.
Where’s the most interesting place you have run? I visited Montenegro in June this year and went running around the Bay of Kotor which is just beautiful – particularly in the early morning with the mist clearing from the mountains either side of the bay.
Where’s the most interesting place you’ve been? (Doesn’t have to be running related). I travelled around the Western Balkans earlier this year and thought it was one of the most fascinating places both historically and geographically. Mostar in Bosnia was probably the highlight of the trip as it was so interesting to see the impact of the war in the 1990s still has on the place to this day.
What do you like doing when you don’t run? (hobbies/past times) I am running a lot at the moment! I love reading also and I try to read about 100 books a year. I love pub quizzes with pals as they are a great way of bringing different groups of friends together and Dublin has a wide range of quizzes for every night of the week.
How/When did you start your adventure with running? I never ran before the first lockdown in March 2020 but since then I have never stopped or looked back. I was living in Terenure at the time and I started off running around Bushy very slowly. I was never sporty growing up as I wasn’t into GAA so it was a surprise to discover that running was something that I enjoyed and was relatively good at!
Tell us about your PB’s / What is your biggest achievement?
5K: 18:29 (Rathfarnham 5K 2024)
5 Mile: 31:58 (Terenure 5 Mile 2023)
10K: 39:21 (Women’s Mini Marathon 2024)
10 Mile: 1:10 (Frank Duffy 10 Mile 2023)
Half Marathon: 1:26:51 (Longford 2024)
What is your biggest non-running related achievement? Probably becoming (mostly) fluent in French and Spanish during my undergraduate degree by working and studying in both countries.
How often do you run / What is your typical weekly mileage? My mileage is a little inconsistent at the minute as work is busy at this time of year, but I aim for between 40 – 50km a week.
What motivates you? Running or otherwise. I am a pretty disciplined person and that’s where my motivation comes from. I enjoy the challenge that running brings because you can choose to work on improving a particular time and then focus your training around that which I find helpful in terms of motivating me to tackle a particularly tricky sessions such as hill and sprints.
What would you say is the best thing about being in a Running Club? I really enjoy the social side of the club as before I joined, I was falling a little out of love with running as I was running quite a lot with no company. It’s nice being surrounded by like-minded people who push you to run faster without you even realising it. I recently competed in my first cross country event, and I loved working as part of a team with the other girls as well as the experience of racing outside of a road race.
What made you join a Running Club? I was doing a lot of road races, and I would see the support and the fun that people who were part of a club would have which inspired me to try out Sportsworld. I’ve never had pals who were into running so it’s great to do a race and see familiar faces along the route!
Why is running important to you? Work can be very demanding and as a teacher you’re giving a lot of yourself to help the students. Running is something that I do for myself, and it helps me to leave the school day behind and get out of my head which I think actually helps me to be a better teacher!
Is there anything you would like to see more of or less of at the Club? More stretching because I always forget to do it myself and then wonder why I’m so stiff…
Who is the person in the club who inspires/drives to run better? Emily and Myles are so encouraging, and I really push myself when I see them around the corner during a training session! There are so many amazing runners and the buzz of running with everyone during a session definitely drives to me to run better.
Do you do any cross training / other sports on a regular basis? I cycle to work every day which is a about 10K there and back although it is uphill on the way home and I usually switch the battery on my electric bike on when I’m about halfway home
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