Good track season top priority for Fionnuala
Q: How is your training going for the Spar Great Ireland Run and are you looking forward to the event?
A: As it gets closer and if the weather stays more like the last few days I’ll definitely start looking forward to it. At the moment I’m just taking each step at a time, literally, and not looking too far ahead. But I have run it before and I know it’s a great event, well organised and fun for everyone involved and I’ve no doubt it will be the same this year.
Q: Will this see you make a switch to the roads long-term?
A: “In recent years I’ve been running cross-country or indoors at this time of the year and it was difficult to fit in a race like the Great Ireland Run but this year with finishing my cross-country season early and not doing indoors it comes at a good time in the build-up to the summer track season.”
Q: Do you see yourself stepping up to the marathon?
A: “At some point yes, but at the moment my main aim is to have a good track season.”
Q: What are your plans for this season?
A: “After the Great Ireland Run I’ll be aiming for an early qualifier for the 10k for the Europeans in Zurich in August. Hopefully, all going to plan, I’ll then have a successful season on the track to make up for my uninspiring one last year. But as we all know ‘the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ and the best way to be reminded of this is to let people know your plans before you achieve your goals.”
Q: Upon reflection, what did you make of the last few months and the European cross-country championships?
A: “The European cross-country championships were, I suppose, good and bad. Good in that in any other sport if you had three top ten finishers in a European championship event with more than five or six countries you (the media) would probably be happy enough to dish out the praise. Bad in that we came home with no medals and personally, and realistically, I was never going to be happy without another gold medal.”
Q: Your love of running shines through. Was there a moment you realised that you just loved to run?
A: “I don’t know. I think a big eye-opener for me was realising that many athletes don’t love their sport. I know that might sound strange but I presumed we all run or play because we love it and because we were lucky enough to have the choice and the opportunity to do it. I now know that view was too black and white. It makes me appreciate my love for the sport and the fact I get to do it as a kind of ‘job’ even more.”
Q: What is your greatest fear?
A: “Being wrong.”
Q: Which living person do you most admire?
A: “Oh God. I presume I can’t say Him? I could start a debate on that one!? I think I’ll have to go with an admirable partnership instead though – my mam (Ellen) and dad (Eoin).”
Q: What is your most treasured possession?
A: “I’m not sure she would like to be considered my possession but whenever I’m asked the question ‘what’s the first thing you would grab from your burning house’, my first thought is always my ‘little’ sister Úna!”
Q: When and where were you happiest?
A: “In running I would probably have to say that day in Budapest (European cross) in December 2012. When you can go to bed at the end of a day and not think ‘if only, or what if’ then you know it’s been a very good day.”
Q: What are your favourite Heroes?
A: “The best heroes are the miniature kind. As the saying goes ‘good goods come in small parcels,’ so I’ll go with the eclairs – the tough exterior, soft-hearted ones!”
Q: Favourite movie?
A: “I rarely sit through a full one to be honest so I don’t think I’m qualified enough to answer this one! Definitely not Law Abiding Citizen despite the rave reviews by some unnamed personnel at a training camp in Font Romeu!”
Q: Favourite book?
A: “I like autobiographies, especially ones of sports people who aren’t runners. Comparing the lifestyles of professional sports people is interesting and it’s nice to know that even the most famous can be boringly normal as well as excitingly abnormal!”
Q: Best sporting moment?
A: “Probably the moment after I crossed the line in Budapest at the Euro Cross with the realisation that not only had I won but we all had! I must be old when my best memories are all from listening to the radio — listening in school to Sonia winning silver at the Olympics in 2000; listening to the radio when Man City wrangled the Premier League trophy from Man United’s grasp in the dying moments of the season with an Aguero goal in injury-time in 2012. Finally, watching (Saif) Shaheen (originally Stephen Cherono) and (Ezekiel) Kemboi go at it for national pride and a whole lot more in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2003 world championships.
Q: How would you describe your perfect day?
A: “Sublime, impeccable and faultless!”
- Fionnuala Britton is a race ambassador for the Spar Great Ireland Run 10K on Sunday April 6 and you can register to race alongside her on www.greatirelandrun.org. There are also Junior and Mini Events for the kids.
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