Cathal Dennehy: Allen finds calm in cross-country after whirlwind year of motherhood
Niamh Allen of Leevale AC, Cork, was speaking to media ahead of the 123.ie National Cross Country Championships which take place at the Templemore Sports Complex in Derry on Sunday November 23rd. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Amid the beautiful, but exhausting, chaos of motherhood, running has been her constant – a way for Niamh Allen to keep some normality when all was suddenly changed last year. It’s just under 15 months since the Leevale athlete gave birth to her daughter, Lily, and since then running has had to be demoted in her list of priorities – which isn’t to say it doesn’t matter. If anything, the past year has shown Allen its true value.
“My experience becoming a new mum, I found it overwhelming and not knowing where I was going, what I was doing,” she says. “And I found running was a bit of a safety net for me because it was going well. It's been an absolute crutch this whole time, throughout pregnancy and new motherhood.”
Allen describes the past year as a “whirlwind”, having given birth and then making a swift return to racing less than 12 weeks later, winning a surprise silver at the 123.ie National Cross Country Championships and going on to finish a remarkable 10th at the Europeans in Turkey. That wasn’t in her plans.
“I kind of just jumped into nationals because I thought I was in decent shape. I thought, ‘Why not give it a go?’ This year, I suppose there's that element of expectation on myself, which I'm trying to manage. I'm trying to say, ‘No, look, don't panic, just go in and compete and try and enjoy it.’”
Last year, Allen travelled to the nationals in Fermanagh with baby Lily, breastfeeding her two hours before the race and then handing her to her partner, Will, before she started her warm-up. This year, they will stay behind in Cork, with Allen travelling north alongside her Leevale clubmates today and looking forward to a peaceful night’s sleep at a hotel.
“I'm hoping that will help just trying to focus in on the race and think about just myself, making sure I'm warmed up and not thinking about breastfeeding or making sure the baby's OK,” she says. “I'm hoping that will play in my favour.”
Tomorrow’s nationals will take place at the Templemore Sports Complex in Derry and while Allen’s results last year make her a huge contender for the women’s race, where defending champion Ann-Marie McGlynn is among her rivals, she’s batting away any external pressure, trying to replicate her approach last year – running free.
“That’s something I want to protect,” she says. “I just want to just try and run and compete and try my best each race and not have that mental load of expectation. Last year was maybe a fluke, I don’t know. I’m nervous to say otherwise. I haven’t raced in a while so I don’t really know what shape I’m in. I’m hoping for the best. I’m confident in the training I’ve done.”
Allen currently runs about 100km a week, with two key sessions on Tuesdays and Saturdays alongside her mostly male training partners at Leevale. “They’re all humble, going to training, enjoying it, and really talented at the same time. I love training with them and the competitive nature always comes out.”
With a baby to take care of, and a job switch earlier this year – Allen now works four days a week in human resources for Nostra, a tech company – she cut herself some slack on the racing front in 2025, preferring to mostly tip away in training, building a strong, solid base.
“Starting a new job and going back to work after maternity leave is stressful enough; there's a lot to work out and rebalance,” she says. “I think I've learned that with motherhood, nothing is as structured as you'd like. I feel like I'm constantly chasing my tail or constantly working off what Lily's agenda is. I hope that through this training block, I'm probably in better shape than I was [while] training and competing. I'm hoping that I’ve built up a bit of a base and can show that now.”
The handful of times she has toed the line this year, it’s gone well. In June, she ran a half marathon PB of 70:05 in Cork, which offered proof of her potential at the marathon. But Allen hasn’t been in a rush to go that way, preferring to build her capacity at shorter distances under the guidance of coach Donie Walsh, an Olympic marathoner in 1972. She feels the time will be right late next year to move up, with Berlin or Valencia among the debut marathons she’s eyeing.
“I’d like to do a bit of speed while I still can,” she says. “Having the leg turnover and in that last few kilometres in the marathon, to have that speed reserve is beneficial. I follow whatever Donie says. He’s coach extraordinaire.”
While her results suggest immense potential at the marathon, Allen knows it’s so far only that – potential. “Until you’ve done a proper marathon, you don’t know how your body is going to react. You don’t know whether you’ll be able for the load.”
She followed the recent exploits of 19-year-old Limerick athlete Ava Crean, who only ran her first ever race in April but went on to clock 2:34:11 and win the national marathon title in Dublin last month. “It’s an incredible time,” says Allen. “She’s young and hopefully she can keep nurturing that, and who knows where the road will travel?”
Meanwhile, Allen showed her class on the track over the summer, clocking 8:51.08 for 3000m at the Cork City Sports before beating clubmate Anika Thompson – the European U-23 10,000m champion – to take the national senior 5000m title. “It was brilliant, it was really fun,” she says of that win. “I wasn’t expecting to do track; I’m glad I did.”
She kept things low key again in the autumn, running two road races in Cork, but never managed to squeeze in a cross country outing, which leaves her a little unsure of her readiness ahead of tomorrow. “I’m a bit like, ‘Oh God, what will this weekend be like?’ But I do train on a similar course every Saturday; it’s a muddy field. I feel like that’s good preparation.”
She hasn’t run a bad race yet this year, but is aware that things aren’t always rosy in this sport. It’s part of the reason she’s not heaping pressure on any outcome. “I’m trying to manage my emotions after the race and the scenario if it doesn’t go well, being conscious that I can’t have all the expectation on myself.”
Still, her prep for this weekend has been undeniably good – smoother than last year. Allen hopes the race will reflect that. “Last year, I hadn’t raced in nine-plus months, I’d a newborn baby and I was very sleep deprived so if I could do that [performance] then, hopefully I can do that this year when things are a little bit better.
“I came second last year, so it would be wrong for me not to say that I hope to convert this year. I’ll go in, give it my all, try enjoy it – as much as you can with cross. I’m fit, mentally ready to go. Hopefully it all lines up on the day.”
