1. What running shoes do you train in?
Asics Gel Nimbus
2. How many miles did you run last week?
39 including Dublin City Marathon.
3. What's your favourite racing distance?
10km
4. Where's you favourite place to train?
Tough Call. Either Dangan or the roads around Athenry.
5. What's your favourite race or event each year?
Not racing long enough to have a proper favourite, but Ballycotton is pretty special. The Galway May 5km series could easily become my favourite I think.
6. What annoys you most at races?
People complaining about petty things, who themselves couldn't, and wouldn't, organise a piss-up in a brewery.
7. What race, that you haven't yet run, would you most like to take part in?
Trierer Stadtlauf (half-marathon in Germany) or City to Surf (Sydney).
8. What was your best-ever running performance?
38:03 for 10km in Claregalway this year given that I thought I might have to pull up injured.
9. What was your worst-ever running performance?
Second to last in the National Senior Cross Country in Santry this year.
10. What's the strangest thing that you've ever seen on a training run?
Two 'farmers' tryring to load two wild horses into a horsebox, having blocked the entire road under a bridge to do so, and failing badly.
11. Favourite piece of running gear?
Has to be my Polar RS200SD (Heart Rate Monitor & Footpod).It tells me how far and fast I'm going. I woudn't have a clue otherwise.
12. Who would you most enjoy beating in a sprint for the line?
Peter Delmer, because you know that he would give it everything, and be pissed off for a few minutes after losing. I've a good bit of work to do to catch him yet, though.
13. What was the best bit of training advice you were ever given?
Do more training on Grass (from an Old teacher who ran 2:30 in the first Dublin Marathon).
14. In ten years time will you still be running?
Will I still be alive? If so, yes.
15. If for some reason you were told you could never run again, how do you think you'd react?
Calm and Dignified, as per usual ;-)
16. Have you ever been bitten by a dog while running?
No, Dogs are scared of me. I have had to outrun a few scangers, though.
17. Have you ever had to stop for an emergency ?Paula' during a race?
No, close call in Loughrea 2005. There is a toilet at the petrol Station near the finish line that will never be the same.
18. Favourite post-race food?
Tea and Sandwiches, it's the main reason I go to races.
19. Most embarrassing ever running-related moment?
See Q9. I thought it would be a good way to get some use from my spikes, which I had only used once before that. I should have heard the alarm bells...
a. When Peter Delmer informed me it was only Paul McNamara and myself who had entered.
b. When the Womens race had three Olympians (that I recognised).
c. When Paul Mac abandoned the Athenry AC chute to get a better start.
20. The greatest Irish Athlete of all time is/was?
Catherina McKiernan - closely followed by John McInerney, stylish Hurling full back from Kinvara, who (alegedly) turned to women and drink after being cruelly overlooked for the Galway senior panel. Galway Hurling's loss is Athenry AC's gain as he will join us next year, having completed the Dublin City Marathon this October!