My Running Life: Rosanna Davison

When did you start running and why?
I started running in primary school. Every day, we had to run a 6km loop of the school. It was a warm-up for hockey, cricket or tennis. I was a big fan of athletics in school and got involved in hurdles, high jump and 200m and 800m running.

What has been your biggest achievement?
Definitely the Iron Man 70.3 in Galway last year. I was part of a relay team where I ran the half marathon, Kathryn Thomas did the cycling and [personal trainer] Siobhán Byrne did the swimming. We won the overall women's relay and got a trophy.

What's the one thing you would change about running?
The weather – but I'm lucky because I have a little gym at home with a treadmill in front of the TV. I forget I'm running.

What is your regular running route?
I run about three times a week. I'm a big fan of sprints so on the treadmill, I'd often do 30 minutes of high-intensity interval sprints, jogging for a minute and then sprinting as fast as I can for a minute. I love the endorphins that I get from sprinting. I live by a park and there's good running there too.

What's your regular training schedule?
I'm happy doing it first thing in the morning or at 9 or 10 in the evening. Quite often, I do a workout at 8pm and I've as much energy then as I do in the morning.

What are you training for?
On November 13th I'm doing the Mark Pollock Run in the Dark. It's 10km. I also want to keep up my fitness to participate in the Cycle Against Suicide next April.

What do you wear on your feet?
I have the Adidas runner at the moment. It's very light and flexible.

Have you any niggly injuries?
Yes. To try to increase my speed and time, I started to do more sprinting rather than running from the middle of my foot and I hurt my hip and lower back. I had to take some time off running about two years ago now. When I came back to it I did Pilates to help the back injury. Everything's been fine since I changed my running technique.

What's on your iPod when running?
I have a whole mixture of things from the charts, Rihanna, Adele to 80s music to the Beatles and the Eagles.

What's your most embarrassing moment?
Once I fell off a treadmill. I was wearing shorts and totally grazed my calf and thigh. That was pretty sore.

Have you ever been chased by an animal?
My granny has a place in Wexford. When I go running there, I'm always watching out for bulls.

What's your favourite running book?
I look at websites and read Runners' World magazine.

What's your favourite running tip?
Just go. The first five minutes are the hardest. Once you get through that, you get into your stride and get that high.

Rosanna Davison supports the Cycle Against Suicide 2014, which takes place from April 28th to May 11th. See cycleagainstsuicide.com