Weekend road race to be lap of honour

ATHLETICS: Like most true distance runners Catherina McKiernan didn't decide to retire; she was simply told - the final instruction coming from her own body. The will and ability to drive ceaselessly to her physical limits was gone.

So, after some 15 years at the top of her sport McKiernan announced yesterday she was ending her days as a competitive runner. Chances are Irish athletics will not see her like again.

She'll turn 35 at the end of next month, two days after Sonia O'Sullivan celebrates the same birthday. Mirroring the great Treacy-Coghlan era, the two athletes emerged simultaneously and together put Irish women's athletics on the world map.

But while O'Sullivan's presses on toward the twilight of her career, McKiernan feels she has done enough. The fact is she wasn't far short of doing it all.

When in March of 1992 she emerged from the snow flurries of Boston's Franklin Park, leading the World Cross-Country championships, it was clear Ireland had produced another great runner.

McKiernan was passed in the final strides that day by the American Lynn Jennings, but won the first of four successive silver medals. Few cross-country runner have been so consistent.

After conquering the cross-country circuit she moved to the roads, winning three major marathons in succession - Berlin, London and Amsterdam. Her track credentials aren't quite so memorable and yet McKiernan has long secured her place amongst the finest distance runners in the world.

The thought of another cross-country season, now looming into view, ultimately convinced McKiernan it was closing time.

"I just don't have the commitment to go out there and train twice a day," she said yesterday. "That's what you need to be doing if you are serious about competing at international level.

"And the last two years have been hard going. I know what it takes, between training twice a day, doing the hill sessions and the speed sessions and whatever. I've been through all that. So, in the end, it wasn't a hard decision. I mean, I didn't just wake up this morning and decide that was it. It did take a while, and it was on my mind all of last year."

Injury did play its part in her more recent career, but after marrying RTÉ presenter Damien O'Reilly, then giving birth to a daughter, Dervla, in March, 2002, she was determined to give world-class running one more shot.

And she did, winning the National Cross-Country title last February after a 10-year absence and posting 30th at the World Cross-Country in Brussels. She again won the Women's Mini Marathon in May and just over two weeks ago finished 12th in the Great North Run half-marathon in Newcastle.

"There were things I needed to do for myself, to know I could get back to a competitive level. But where do you go from there? I know what it takes to get to the next level and I just don't have the incentive anymore. I don't see the point in training so hard to finish 20th or 30th in the World Cross-Country, especially when you're coming from where I am.

"I'll always run for enjoyment, just to get my fix. But even for the Great North Run I only half trained for it. I ran around 75 minutes that day, but in the back of my mind I knew this was the end.

"Even in the marathon there was no way I was going to run any faster than the 2:22:23 (the Irish record). And I didn't see the point in training hard to run a 2:50 or three-hour marathon."

All that is left now is a final appearance in her native Cavan next Sunday - at the Annalee 10km road race. It will be a fitting farewell in a county where she still enjoys enormous popularity.

You get some idea of just how good McKiernan was when it comes to finding a career highlight. There are, she admitted, so many: "I'll always remember winning the Schools Cross-Country in Dungarvan in 1988. I remember I had spikes on that day, and I just threw them off and ran barefoot. I felt that everything was a step forward after that. And, of course, winning my first national senior title was special.

"I think too that at the World Cross-Country in Boston it was just the lack of experience that day which caught me. And of the four times I finished second, that was the one I really should have won.

"The marathons were special in their own way. It's amazing what you can do when you're younger. Berlin just came so easy. I feel now I could well have run 2:19 that day. I mean I just took it easy for so long, trying not to push myself. And it was only in the last 10k when I felt sure of myself that I started to cut loose."

She ended up running 2:23:44, at the time the fastest female debut in history. Victories followed in London in April 1998 and Amsterdam that November.

McKiernan Factfile

Ten World Cross-Country championships:
1989: 76th
1990: 40th
1991: 65th
1992: 2nd
1993: 2nd
1994: 2nd
1995: 2nd
1996: 13th
1997: 7th (team bronze medals)
2004: 30th

Two European Cross-Country championships:
1994: 1st
2004: 34th (team silver medals)

Five National Inter-county cross-country titles:
1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993

Two Olympic Games:
1992: 3,000 metres, elim. heat.
1996: 10,000 metres final, 11th

Four city marathons:
Berlin 1997: 1st (2:23:44).
London 1998: 1st (2:26:26).
Amsterdam 1998: 1st (2:22:23, Irish record)
Chicago 1999: 12th (2:35:51)