This much I know: Marian Heffernan, Athlete

I don’t think people can function without goals. I certainly couldn’t.

My idea of misery would be working as a traffic warden. That’s one job I’d hate.

I was a completely giddy and hyperactive child. I was very sporty and joined the local running club as it kept me busy two nights a week and only cost fifty pence.

I have three brothers, I’m the second youngest, who are all very much into sports. And my parents were athletic too — my father played soccer until he had to take his job, as a security guard, more seriously. My family have always been very supportive of my running career.

As a child, I had no structure or discipline. That only came with training. I met my husband Rob through running. We were in the same club. I joined when I was 16 and I was the only girl in the club. We went out on a few dates when I was 18 but didn’t get together properly until I was 22. We were a bit cagey about it at the start but eventually we had to tell the coaches in Togher AC that we were seeing each other.

We have a good, balanced life and try to involve our three kids as much as we can in everything we do — even if it just means they are kicking a ball at the side of track while we’re training.

My biggest fault is getting annoyed with uncertainty. I like making plans.

If I could be anyone else for a day, I’d love to be the Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. I’ve never even tried it as I’m terrified of heights. I went up a climbing wall in Dingle recently and, once I looked down, I clung on begging them to come and get me — and it was only ten metres high.

I only came back to running properly in 2007. It was a fairytale year and I took massive leaps up until the Olympics in August 2008. But then my world fell apart when the Irish 4x400m relay team didn’t make it to the games.

I decided to dedicate another Olympic cycle of four years to the sport and things started coming together for me when I met my new coach Stuart Hogg.

I qualified individually for the 2009 European Championships and also for the relay, finishing 9th overall.

I studied Applied Psychology for a year in 2008/2009 and then qualified as a sports injuries therapist in 2009/2010.

Whenever I think of Rob winning the gold medal (for racewalking) at the Olympics, I laugh. I think ‘it can’t have happened’. We never spoke about the medal in the run up to the games. I was on the drinks table that day and as he passed by I thought oh my god — he’s doing it, he’s doing it. I was four months pregnant and had to sprint to make it into the stadium just in time to see him come through the tunnel.

I’m working with Rob all the time now and that’s good and bad — you can’t lose grasp of the fact that you are still married, still husband and wife — we can’t let athletics consume us.

We eat very healthily, to the point that we don’t even think about it, it’s automatic. At family meals Rob may need extra carbohydrates or protein — when he’s training he has two dinners a day and salads and flap jacks.

Running has taken off massively in Ireland and especially in Cork. It’s good fun as you can see your progress rapidly and you can get addicted really quickly. I think the recession is one reason for its popularity — running became really popular in the ’80s also, during last recession. Maybe it is because people are out of work with nothing to do — and it’s free.

When I set my mind to something, I prefer to do that something 100% right.

Marian Heffernan and husband Rob recently launched the new Lloyds Pharmacy store in Kinsale, Co Cork. This is the 78th Irish store opening for the experts in skincare, pain management and children’s health. www.lloydspharmacy.ie.