Ireland's international athlete Anne Keenan-Buckley ran her way through second level

Portlaoise is where I was born and where I went to school. The first school I went to was the Sacred Heart primary, run by the Presentation nuns. Up until first class it was co-ed; after that the boys went and left us for the Christian Brothers so it was all girls from then on.

I come from a big family, 10 of us, five boys and five girls. I had an older sister ahead of me in school. My younger sister Noleen and I came up through primary school together. There was only 11 months between us so she would have been always in my class in primary. She had her friends and I had mine but we always got on well together.

On the same grounds was the Presentation Convent secondary school, Scoil Críost Rí, so we just had to go out one door and in the other. There was only the Christian Brothers boys school and the technical co-ed school in the town so most of my friends would have gone on with me, but Noleen didn't - she went to Brosna boarding school in Offaly. It was a bit of a change - she'd always been there with me. When I was doing homework there was someone there to fall back on. I had no interest in going to the boarding school and no one else in the family went - it was just something she wanted to do.

I got very involved in athletics in secondary school. I got my first schools international at the age of 14 so I would have been competing quite strongly in the athletics from the start of secondary. Myself and a few girls in school were in the same club outside the town, the Ballyfin athletics club. We met two days a week to train, but it was more part of our social scene than anything very serious at that age. When we were younger we wouldn't have been going that many places so it was just a club to be involved in and it was great to go for trips at the weekend to different venues for races. So that was the attitude I would have had - it was a social thing.

My eldest brother was involved in running at the time and sport was in the family, but there was a guy who ran with my eldest brother who got the juvenile part of the club going. His name was Jimmy Finn. He was really the main motivator and it was probably through him that any of our success was achieved. He really looked after our club and arranged for the competition and we got a very good club going, particularly the girls in my age group. We won the schools all-Ireland and a lot of the BLOE championships as a team. There was about six or seven of us that ran and Jimmy Finn was our main co-ordinator and our coach he definitely would have been a big influence on me.

I never really took athletics terribly seriously though, and then as we got older the fellas came on the scene. We probably would have achieved a good bit more, but I was the same as everybody else when we got up to fifth and sixth year. We went to all the discos and I was often out. The running was still there and at times I might have stayed at home if I had a race at the weekend, but then again I might not have. Many times I remember being out when I had an important race the next day. It was very much a hobby but I was fortunate to achieve a lot of success at that age at both regional and national levels.

I decided I wanted to work in the Civil Service and I was fortunate enough to get work straight from school, with the Revenue Commissioners. It was the type of job I always wanted to do. I didn't see the running as a career. I could have gone on scholarship to the States, but I'm very much a home bird. I love being at home and I love Ireland.

While I wouldn't have been totally mad about school, I didn't dislike it either.

• In conversation with Olivia Kelly