Getting back into business

Last Sunday the Great North run. Today Loughrea. It's a weird feeling coming back just as everyone else is winding down their running year. Last Sunday was a half marathon, and at times it seemed as if we were going very slowly. Today is just five miles so we should fly along.

I'm looking forward to it. Loughrea is lively, and the interest here in the race is huge. We got into town on Wednesday night and there was a big banner across the street and lots of people talking about the race. The organisers are expecting 800 runners today, which is big for an Irish road race. It should be spectacular. The streets around the town are a little narrow and it looks like those scenes you see the peloton passing through on the Tour de France. It's good to see an old road race like this being revived. Even my father, aunts, uncle and cousins are coming up to get a little of the atmosphere and to catch the race. We have Ciara with us in Loughrea. She's an accomplished traveller by now, she slept all the way across on the plane and slept on the drive down to Loughrea. Nothing bothers her. In Gateshead last week we had two family landmarks.

On the Saturday they had a junior Great North run, a three-mile fun event for kiddies. We have a baby jogger now, and when we spotted the gap they'd left for Steve Cram and his daughter at the start we had a sudden impulse and just lifted the buggy over the side and joined in. Myself, Nick and Ciara and 3,000 kids. We somehow managed to get out of the stadium without running anyone over and did the three miles around the roads, cornering well and making up ground on the straights. We even passed a few people along the way. Ciara enjoyed it . . . the bit she was awake for. There was a delay of about 10 minutes at the start and she was a little anxious, but when we got off for the run she just dozed off. She finished sound asleep and with a medal around her neck. Three months. One medal. Not bad. A world age best. Ciara got away without a drug test, but I had a random test at the house the other morning. Just went down to look for the papers and they were standing at the door with the beaker. Made me feel I was getting back into business.

Sunday in Gateshead was a different sort of day but I was pleased with it. I knew that with girls like Paula, Tegla and Joyce in the race that it was going to be tough, but deep down I was hoping to win it. I didn't, but the time was the best I've done over the distance and I learned a little. The early part of the race seemed really easy. But then after around five miles the racing started. We turned a corner after six miles and the pace suddenly seemed quite quick. Before I knew it three of them were away and I was running on my own.

At one point it was 10 metres, which I thought was no problem to make up, but before I knew it was 20, 30 and eventually 50 metres. I think I slowed over miles seven, eight and nine. I think I just spent a while trying to work out how that had happened. At the Great North they start the women off first, so when the leading group took off it was a strange feeling for a while, just running along in such a small group, timing myself for each mile just to see how I was doing. Then the race passed through South Shields and out onto the seafront and suddenly there were plenty of people about. That got me moving.

The Great North is a social event at heart, they had 40,000 people running in it, so it wasn't like coming straight back to the track. Even still, it has its own bylaws. We ran off at an easy pace, there was no sense of a race being on as we just ran off from the start. Still, we didn't talk to each other. It was odd to be running along at such a sociable pace and nobody saying a word. It was as if all talking was forbidden.

Apart from that I think it felt like business as usual. I was very relaxed going up there and felt the same all through the weekend. Then, just before the start, I was talking to Alan Storey and he thought I looked a bit worried. Just a little, I said. Alan knows me well by now. That's because you don't know what's going to happen, he said. And that was true, that was the worrying part of it. Lots of stuff I don't know about. Taking the leap back into competition. I was fine. I was told to go out twice for 20 minutes on Monday and a little bit longer on Tuesday, and dutifully that's what I did. I felt great. I had been half dreading all the aches and pains which might descend on me, and then there was the thought of Alan being able to crow that he'd told me so.

I think we were both surprised at how well the weekend went and how little it took out of me. As usual afterwards there was talk about the possibility of me opting for marathons in the future. That's the usual thing for me, somebody always brings it up thinking they were the first to ever think of it. I don't think there's any point in worrying about marathons for a few years yet. I go down to Australia in a couple of weeks and by the time I leave I'll have specific targets in mind on the path to the Olympics. I know I'll go to Falls Creek to train at altitude in the New Year, but everything else is open right now.

The first thing to do is to sit down with Alan and work out a plan of action. At the moment I haven't ruled anything in or out. In Australia they have club races going on before Christmas, and in January or February there'll be a couple of international races in Melbourne and Sydney. It looks like the Sydney one might be in the Olympic stadium. I'd be very keen to run in that. I think there'll be a lot of people heading down there this year for training to see what the flight is like and the recovery periods and the training, etc, so there should be some company and some competition around. Less than a year away now from the Olympics and I feel I'm in better shape right now than I have been at this time any other year. Normally I would be taking a break now and would soon be trying to get into the rhythm again. Right now, though, I feel very fresh and hungry for action.

I'm still thinking about getting the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres Olympic qualifying times under my belt before the end of January. I know there are some races in Australia before Christmas which might suit for that purpose. I'll get the dates sorted out with Alan and see if I have enough time to recover from the journey and get fit for those races. So far Alan and I have been surprised at how easy it's been really. I'm back in training with the people I was training with in the summer of 1998, so 11 months away from the Olympics I couldn't ask for it to be any better. My body feels good. I go out in the morning and run 10 miles and it's like nothing has changed physically. I come in the door and I might hear the sound of a baby crying, but other than that . . .

At first after Ciara was born I used to find it difficult to go out and just get into my routine, running around and either thinking about nothing or having all sorts of thoughts about racing. Now I go out the door and I find my head is back to normal. I forget about everything else, I don't worry about Ciara till I'm back in the door with my shoes off. Well, except for a few thoughts on what she'll be wearing for the day. Eleven months and counting till Sydney. Things couldn't be better.

Sonia O'Sullivan was talking to Tom Humphries