Celebs give up personal trainers

SUPER athlete Sonia O’Sullivan usually shows the rest of the field a clean pair of heels.

It may help to explain why the runners she's donated for a charity auction are brand new.

"They're exactly the same as the ones she is training in for the Olympics. She thought we'd like a fresh pair," an organiser confided yesterday.

Celebrities of all sorts handed up their running shoes for the People in Need charity auction, taking place the night before the Flora Women's Mini-Marathon on June 7.

Limestone Lad's running shoes (all four of them), show the wear and tear of a successful racehorse's season.

Broadcaster Pat Kenny takes a size 11, the same as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. But the RTÉ man's pair look bigger. All to do with footwear design, apparently.

Bertie's message to the eventual new owners of his trusty trainers: "I hope you cover as many miles as I have tried to do over the past few years."

You can easily spot Dustin the Turkey's dainty footwear they're the ones with the feathers showing through.

As you'd expect from a rugby man's working footwear, Triple Crown ace Gordon D'Arcy's boots reflect an apt picture of that rugged game.

RTÉ travel show presenter Kathryn Thomas is preparing to run her first women's mini-marathon which will also raise funds for People in Need.

"I've just come back from a week in the Maldives, and you can't run there all you can do is drink pina coladas," she joked.

The trainers are on display at Blanchardstown Centre, Dublin, until June 2 and the Woman's World Show, RDS (June 4-6).