Kevin Dooney: I’m in a better frame of mind to cope with mental health challenges

Kevin Dooney is one of Ireland’s leading distance runners and goes into the national cross country championships aiming for selection for the European Championships in Tilburg, Netherlands next month. He finished second last year and will be looking to lead his club, Raheny Shamrock, to a third successive team title. Dooney, 25, struck a chord with the running community since opening up on his mental health battles in the summer.

How are you feeling going into the national championships on Sunday?

I’m looking forward to it. There’s definitely a lot on the line between individual medals, team competition for Raheny (Shamrock) and a place at the European Championships.

So it’s kind of a nice trifecta going on to compete for and fight for all the way around. I’m really looking forward to it and it’s my first national championships since this time last year.

Have you changed your approach to running since you wrote about your challenges with mental health and have you new ways to cope with that?

I’ve been in a lucky enough position this winter where I haven’t had that many things go wrong for me. I haven’t had to test that side of my outlook yet.

Things going badly isn’t something I’ve prepared for and hopefully something I don’t have to deal with on Sunday.

But if it happens I think I’m in a better frame of mind to cope with it and have a more holistic view of things. Hopefully I’ll reflect a bit more and take more out of it other than ‘it was shite’ if it doesn’t go well.

What motivates you to keep going on the competitive stage and gives you the buzz to get back into the lion’s den?

It is what I love to do. The part of the sport I’ve loved the most is competing. It is just purely being competitive and getting the most out of myself out there.

That’s always been the biggest buzz I get from the sport. You do the sessions and the miles and they are the building blocks that gets you to racing.

That’s the entire reason you do it; to test yourself against other people and see where you stack up. The competitive nature is what I mainly crave and desire to get out of the sport. It is that pure racing element that I love about it.

Does the highs and lows of athletics and high performance sport play Russian roulette with mental health?

Yeah, I think high performance sport is a highly pressurised environment. It’s an isolating environment too in that you’re not normal.

High performance athletes aren’t normal people to a large part. There’s a level of drive and ability to inflict pain on your body that is probably lacking in the general population. High performance athletes deal with issues of isolation and loneliness. In individual sport they’ll be magnified. You’re out there on your own. Thankfully on Sunday there will be a team element to fall back on but for the most part it’s you who does well or does badly. There aren’t many people on the day that understand what you put into it and try to get out of it.

Jerry Kiernan is your coach and mentor since you transitioned from college Yale in America in 2016. What role does he play?

I’ve definitely enjoyed working with Jerry. There’s no real contract with Jerry.

You start showing up to his group for training and if you show up long enough he might give you a call after a few sessions and go from there.

It’s a lot less intense than America. With Jerry there is a more relaxed approach and we meet for a coffee or a drink occasionally. Every few weeks we will catch up. We speak on the phone a few nights a week and see each other at every session.

It’s a very easy going relationship. He doesn’t put a huge amount of pressure on me and it works well. He just tells you what to do. He doesn’t give you a set pace.

A lot of people would just balk at the idea of ‘do a good hard effort there.’ Being in the sport long enough I know what to do.

You’d nearly need a dictionary of Jerry Kiernan phrases just to understand being coached by him. But if you’re with him for long enough and you’ve been running long enough you get that. He offers a sense of wisdom.

What is the key thing he offers you?

He’s very focused on making sure that you are recovered. He’s making sure everything is geared towards the big races. He definitely has no problem disagreeing with you if you have a plan and he doesn’t like it. He’ll give it back to you. It’s nice to have that sounding board.

Post Sunday what are your goals?

The big box on Sunday is getting to the Europeans. That is where the head is at now.

At the Europeans, I definitely haven’t had great runs most times I’ve been there. I’ve definitely been learning each year but I don’t know how many times you can call it a learning curve.

I would like to go there this year and feel I’ve gotten it right.

After that I’d be fully focused on a half marathon in the spring and stepping up to the marathon at some point in the autumn.

If you had one wish for yourself and athletics what it would be?

Keep growing — for me and the sport. You see the good wave and buzz that’s been created with Irish athletics over the summer and then it dips again behind rugby and football.

The coverage isn’t there for the sport. The national cross country championships are on this weekend and you wouldn’t really know it. And there’s people out there competing to get on to European teams.

It’s hard to get the sport out there. It does itself no favours especially globally in the stories that it creates.

You had a bit of a buzz for the Dublin marathon there also. The sport does go on year round and it doesn’t just peak at the summer and one marathon in October.