Meet Anne Gilshinan: the fastest over-55 woman in history at 800m, 1500m and the mile

The Cavan woman is 58 years old and has six masters’ world records – "I never think of slowing down.”

RECORD BREAKER: Anne Gilshinan of Slaney Olympic A.C., Co Wexford. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Athletics is sometimes too complex a sport for outsiders to fully appreciate – its insular nature, diversity of events and obsession with numbers meaning great achievements can often get lost in the statistical fog.

In masters’ athletics, with its deluge of age categories, it becomes even harder to separate the good from the bad, then pick out the genuinely all-time great. But Anne Gilshinan, a retired maths teacher from Munterconnaught, Cavan, belongs in the latter category.

Here are the numbers that define her astonishing, outlying ability: she’s 58 years old and can still run a mile in five minutes, a half-mile in 2:20. She has six masters’ world records – the fastest over-55 woman in history at 800m, 1500m and the mile, indoors and out.

And she’s also now a world champion.

It was in Tampere, Finland, last Friday that Gilshinan achieved that feat, winning gold at the World Masters Championships in the over-55 800m, outsprinting US and British rivals to hit the line in 2:21.16.

“It was surreal, unbelievable,” she says. “I’d been thinking for so long, ‘God, imagine I crossed that line first at the Worlds.’ It was a feeling I never thought I’d get.” 

Her husband, Keith, was trackside, the win providing them with a much-needed reason to smile after his mother passed away just two days before. 

“She’d have watched all my races,” says Anne. “And without Keith, I’d be lost.” 

Her late parents, Paddy and Kathleen, were also foremost in her mind. Gilshinan’s father passed away in 1999, her mother in 2019, and it was her dad who guided her career in the early years. 

Gilshinan grew up on a farm outside Virginia and, as it was for fellow Cavan woman Catherina McKiernan, she “ran everywhere” in her childhood. 

At the age of 15, she hopped into a local road race, which was where her talent was spotted by a member of St Brigid’s AC, where club stalwart Michael Heery proved a key mentor.

Until her early 20s she was coached by her dad, but while studying at UCD, where she struggled with homesickness, Gilshinan gradually fell away from the sport. It was 30 years before she came back to it – at least in a competitive sense.

She and her husband moved to Wexford in 1995, rearing two children, Danika (19) and Jake (17). She started back by running some road races and while at a track event where her daughter was competing, Danika encouraged her to give the open mile a try. Gilshinan surprised herself, finishing 10 seconds outside the Irish over-50s record.

“In my naivety, I thought that was nothing. I thought I’d go for that – imagine me as a national record holder.” 

She was 52 when she went to her first international and, over the last six years, Gilshinan has won European titles and minor medals at global level, but never gold – at least until last week.

What made it more impressive she had a poor preparation. In late February she won three gold medals at the European Masters in Portugal but three weeks after returning home she contracted Covid-19.

“It took a good six to eight weeks before I got back training properly. My breathing wasn’t good and I had a cough for weeks and weeks. I went for long runs but I’d have to stop every few kilometres because my breathing wasn’t right.” 

For many years, she’s been racing athletes half her age on the Irish scene. Given her level, it’s often the only way to find a competitive field.

“You’re standing on the start line and see these 20-something-year-olds and going, ‘what am I doing here?’ But then when I run and beat a lot of them, I’m like, ‘I can’t believe it.’” 

Gilshinan covers 50-70km each week in training, with hard sessions on Tuesdays and Saturdays which are followed with “a lot of stretching and core work.” 

Twice a week, she does strength and conditioning work on a speed board developed by her physical therapist, Anthony ‘Star’ Geoghegan, who she visits weekly for treatment – the pain she endures a necessary evil.

“I asked him if I could get one therapy session without pain when I come back and he said, ‘well don’t come then because that’s not going to happen,’” she laughs. “But because of that (treatment), I’m allowed to continue training.” 

She’s coached remotely by Rich Burns, an American who, like Gilshinan, once set an over-55 mile world record. She got to know him through her club, Slaney AC, while Burns was living in Ireland and from his current base in Amarillo, Texas, he shows Gilshinan the way to train sensibly.

“I’d be lost without him. He can tell what time I’d run even before I know it. We’re on to each other every single day. He’s a great friend and he knows me well, knows what I’m like.” 

And what is she like? That shows itself when I ask Gilshinan about why she competes as a masters’ athlete. Is it for the camaraderie, the health benefits or to sate her competitive appetite?

“All of them, but the competitiveness comes first, the desire to be the best against the best. It’s like being back as a senior: that competitiveness is there just as much as it was.” 

Her diet is simple and nutritious, her dislike of junk food serving her well, and when it comes to extras Gilshinan simply opts for a protein shake after every hard workout then supplements with magnesium, iron, fish oils and calcium – which she’d take “even if I wasn’t running”.

Her quest for titles is far from over. Tomorrow afternoon she will line up in the W55 1500m final in Tampere, taking on 18 others as she bids to win her second gold medal in a week. She looks the heavy favourite to do so. But no matter how it plays out, Gilshinan will keep on running – and racing – for as long as she possibly can.

“I hope I maintain my speed, which probably won’t happen,” she says. “I never think of slowing down.”