Going the distance

Winter has landed. Driving rain and gales would convince most people of the virtue of a Saturday morning lie-in, but it takes a lot more to break Catherina McKiernan's routine.

"There's never a day when I don't feel like running," she says, "not even in bad weather like today."

The final preparations for her third marathon are in place and McKiernan can afford a leisurely stint around the roads of her Dublin home. All the long, hard work has been done weeks previously, leaving her relaxed and confident about the 26 miles that lie ahead in Amsterdam. The race was carefully chosen for its fast course and experimental pace-making, creating hopes of world records for both McKiernan and the wealthy organisers.

"The sessions have been that little bit faster," she admits. "The tempo runs are the key to my training and there's been even more emphasis put on them. I also did a good bit of track work, definitely more than before London, and that should pay off as well."

Few doubt McKiernan's ability in pushing the marathon standard a step further. Just over a year ago she ran the fastest ever debut to win the Berlin Marathon in two hours, 23 minutes and 44 seconds, then in April confirmed that breakthrough with victory in London. Once again she has dedicated months to reach her running peak, following the carefully planned training schedules with absolute detail.

"People might think that training for a marathon is just long easy running, but it's not that at all. You have two or three hard sessions a week and they involve full concentration. It's never lonely for me, and on my longest runs of two and a half hours I never have to do a step on my own. I can always meet up with people for company, whether it's out in Malahide Castle or the Phoenix Park."

Moving to Dublin has given McKiernan some extra variety in her daily routine, having done most of her early training on the local golf course in the Cavan village of Cornafean. "I was still working at home up to 1995, training at lunchtime and in the evenings as well. I was so busy really that I never stopped to think that this was very tough. When I took leave and just trained all the time I got bored, so that made me decide on the change and come down here."

The marathon also required a different course of preparation and commitment, unlike any other event. The details are textbook specific, ranging from daily mileage to periods of training at altitude. "You have to be sensible when it comes to the marathon and go along with your own long-term plans. That means you can't just jump into races and not think about what happened before or afterwards," confirms McKiernan.

"You can experiment a little with the altitude. I didn't go before Berlin and I ran well there and the main reason I went before London was to avoid the bad weather at home over the winter. It definitely does work and it will be done in the future but there was no reason why I couldn't train well here this summer and the results from Trinity have shown that everything went well."

The tests at the Human Performance Laboratory in Trinity College proved years ago in fact that the marathon would be McKiernan's finest hour, although anybody that has watched the Cavan woman run could probably have confirmed the same.

"I always knew that I would be able to cover the distance. The only fear before Berlin was that I would suffer from blisters at some stage and I had some stomach trouble in London, but the way I look on it is that I run close to the distance every Sunday after a week of hard sessions. Then before the race I just do bits and pieces so I'm rested and fresh.

"The testing, though, is very important to see where you're at, what you've improved on and to plan what needs to be done and so on. I don't really get into the scientific stuff, but I do wear a heart-rate monitor on any of the harder runs to keep track of the efforts."

All the "scientific stuff" is left to Joe Doonan, the Leitrim school principal who has read his way through physiology manuals and coaching books to become the other half of McKiernan's success story. "People don't realise just how much he knows," says McKiernan. "He has a great brain and a great eye for what works and what doesn't. Anytime we decide on a big race like Amsterdam, everything is worked back from that date, such as all the sessions and preparation races."

The back roads around Cavan are not usually where one finds running experts of Doonan's calibre, yet without his input the journey to the marathon peak may not have been so steady. Holding off the marathon to run the track and cross country is perhaps the single most important factor in her accomplishments at the distance, a decision Doonan made from the earliest stage of his coaching relationship.

"I've been with him since the start. It's funny how the clergy always come into it but there was a priest that lived beside him who was down in the house once and heard that I was getting into the running. He knew about Joe's interest and what he was like, so he put me in contact with him. The first night I went over to visit he had so much to say that I could only take in so much. I was so nervous that I had to get my sister do all the talking for me.

"We gradually built up faith in each other. He would give me a programme say every week, then maybe come to a few races and before long it was totally up to him what I would and wouldn't do in training."

Marathon running is one of the few events left which is associated with the big-money earners in athletics. Between a record bonus, prize-money and appearance fees, there's something like £500,000 available in Amsterdam, yet McKiernan has greater ambitions in mind: "Money has nothing got to do with it. I've been hit with that in the past with BLE and the half-marathon and so on. There's always the odd few that come out saying I'm only in it for the money and things like that but anybody that knows me will tell you that's not true."

More recently her plans to pass on major championships have caused some to criticise her motives, forgetting both where McKiernan has been and where she's going.

"I have done all that," she is quick to remind people. "It's great at a certain stage in your career, but there comes a point when you have to think of yourself and what you want to achieve. It's great to represent your country, but at this stage I want to do a good job and represent them well and there's no point for me to run major championships on the track just to fill the space.

"I'm at the stage now where I'm not just going for an Irish vest. When I run a major championships I want to do well. It was alright when I was younger to gain the experience and all that but it's the big rewards I want now and that means sacrificing some championships to do really well in the ones that matter.

"Sydney is the only championship marathon that's planned. The conditions should be good and that's obviously the one where I want to do well. Next year the World Championships are in Seville and I don't know how anybody is going to run well in 35 degrees. I think I have a chance in Sydney, but it's tough enough without competing against the weather as well."

She will have the benefit of two Olympic experiences behind her, an uneasy debut over 3,000 metres in Barcelona and a disappointing 11th over 10,000 metres in Atlanta. The rest of her track exploits ended in a similar fate, failing to leave her mark despite numerous efforts. "I suppose there is some regret alright. Yet I was always after having a real hard cross country season and by the time the major events came on the track I'd be feeling a bit tired. . .

"I remember running just over 31 minutes for the 10,000 back in 1995, beating a great field and thinking I could run a minute faster. Maybe if that had been a championship race it would have been different."

There is, however, the memory of her four world cross country silver medals in succession between 1992 and 1995 to bring plenty of satisfaction from her early career. "The first silver medal in Boston was a big breakthrough and at the time all that early success was great. The European cross country victory was special as well, but I don't know if the world cross country is really the same now having the two races. Even at that, I think winning in Belfast would make up for all the silvers."

The first hint, perhaps, of a very appetising clash with Sonia O'Sullivan, who has already set her sights on defending at least one of the titles she won last year. It's too early for McKiernan to think about what that race might bring, least of all the interest of the athletic community at home and abroad.

"The only time I felt a bit of pressure was going into London but winning there did mean a lot to me, as it's a race I've been watching down through the years. I don't get involved with a whole lot more outside the sport because I'm very plain and simple in what I do. After hard training I'd have a rest of course, do a bit of cooking and I have a social life just like everybody else in that I go out and go to the pub and all that.

"The running itself is enough to motivate me and the times in the past when I was injured, then nobody would be able to talk to me. From an early age I was playing camogie and stuff, but if I took the notion that I wanted to run then I'd go off on the roads for five or six miles and there wouldn't be a bother on me."

She's running a little further these days - still not bothered by the distance, only the result.

There is live coverage of the Amsterdam Marathon on RTE 1 from 12.05 - 2.05 pm and on Eurosport from 11.45 am - 2.0 pm.