For Eamonn Coughlan, running held the key to a rich life. Ian O'Riordan discovers the track hero still has an evangelical passion for sport
Ask him where it all began and he'll talk about football and cigarettes. Before becoming a world-beater and arguably Ireland's greatest middle distance athlete, he was indifferent to the lore of running. Then fate intervened and his life was not just mapped by running, but defined by it.
Today there are few names more synonymous with Irish running thaEamonn Coghlan. His last serious race was just over 10 years ago when he famously ran a four-minute mile at the age of 41, capping a career that saw him crowned world 5,000m champion and twice miss an Olympic medal by a single stride. Yet running is still the pulse of his daily life, a part of him now that turns any conversation on the subject into an education.
"Running definitely brought a whole new philosophy into my life," he says. "Dealing with success, dealing with failure, and everything else that goes in between. And I do think about where I'd be if I hadn't taken up running, and done so well out it. I don't know what I'd be doing. I thank God for that introduction to athletics, and the people who brought me through it. It's given me a fantastic sense of balance in life."
Far from the first time in his career, Coghlan has brought a new target into his running. Through his fundraising work at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children he's planning to lead a team of 1,000 runners in next October's Dublin Marathon, each raising €1,000.
It's a challenge he works towards with a conviction he says running has clearly helped instil.
He easily recalls that moment when running started to signpost his life. Sport invaded the housing estates around Drimnagh and Crumlin in the mid-1960s and with friends and neighbours such as Brian Kerr and Kevin Moran, the young Coghlan embraced it.
"Every day there'd be something going on, football or rugby or even cricket. But like any 12 or 13-year-old at the time I'd be smoking the odd cigarette, going up to the snooker hall or wherever, and that did go on for a while.
"And we had this field there in Drimnagh, which Brian has since christened the Field of Dreams.
"It was mostly for the football, which Brian obviously loved, but we'd also run relays around it, and I'd be known as the speedy one. I enjoyed that from the very beginning."
Although his father Bill was always enthusiastic about athletics, it was a school friend at Drimnagh Castle, Jude Fagan, who drew Coghlan to the local Celtic athletic club. The first race he entered he won and the allure of football lost out to the love of running.
"At that stage, aged 14, I was winning medals in the running as an individual and with the team. And in the football we were winning nothing. So from that moment in time, there was something about the running I just loved. And it's there even to this day. Once I'm fit and I'm in the mood, I feel I can run forever.
"So I think something must have been built into my mind. And I suppose I did have the physical attributes to go with that. The lungs and, more importantly, the head. The Celtic club later broke up and I fell under the wing of Gerry Farnan at the Metro club. He became my first real mentor. Without him there's no way my running career would have continued the way it did. He advised me very carefully and gave me the belief in my own ability."
For a couple more years Coghlan would still follow the trends of young Dubliners: "The golden rule of the cigarettes was not on the day of the race. But it was just typical teenage stuff. Like going down on the 23 bus to the Phoenix Park for training. I might sneak in the odd one. And I'd blame the smell then on my father." But as his talent became more telling so too did his dedication.
And from Cooley Road in Drimnagh to Villanova University to the indoor and outdoor athletics stadiums around the world, Coghlan followed his gradual but ultimately glorious career path, built on that love of running.
These days he finds himself more observant of how running can affect the careers of those around him. His youngest son John has developed a healthy interest in middle distance running and Coghlan sees the self-esteem rising as result. He sees others turning away from the sport and what he believes they're missing out on hits him hard.
"I see so many kids out there in schools around the country that are fine, fine athletes. But they just won't train, either because they don't want to or don't get the opportunity.
"I'd often wish they could have the map they need, and build layer upon layer, and by the time they are 18 or 19 be in a position to make a career out of athletics, or whatever sport it is.
"So of course I was delighted when John got involved at the level he has, because I didn't want him staying at home playing computer games. I can see the benefits it brings, the friendships and the social outlet. But I understand the pressure on him, and I'd say quite a lot to him that he didn't have to run if he didn't want to. Just recently, he said he didn't want to hear that anymore, that he wanted to be a runner.
"The other thing I see are kids starting out in say football or rugby, and the first thing they do are sprints. Instead of learning the basics of running over a period of time, and slow running, which trains the heart and builds endurance, so that it can absorb the speed work, and the faster training. And I think that might be a contributing factor to some of the sudden deaths we've seen in athletes of a young age recently."
As a former teenage smoker, Coghlan is well aware of the distractions and temptations facing young people, and which are far more extensive than his day. And that, he says, makes the potential lessons to be gained from running even more precious.
"You could go into a school of 800 or 900 students, ask them to run a lap of the track, and most of them would be dying. I feel schools put far too much emphasis on rugby and GAA, and not nearly enough on the basics of fitness, which is running. If they learn to run properly, they have a great base for whatever sport they want to do.
"But most of them are getting one PE class a week, for something like 45 minutes. That's a disaster. I think PE should play a far greater role in the overall development of young people, and especially running. So I think we need to introduce a certain standard of cardiovascular fitness, say to run a mile. And run it properly. I mean if they're unfit physically, they're probably unfit mentally too."
As a father of four, Coghlan knows the demands on parents too. He points to the US model where high school teachers are paid extra for taking on extra-curricular activities, and he feels Irish teachers need to be provided with a similar incentive.
He does sense that Ireland has become generally a more fitness-conscious society, helped by the ongoing expansion of commercial fitness centres, but he feels the focus has to go back to the children, so that they know the importance of exercise, therefore automatically leading to a healthier adult mindset.
For the older generation still resisting the temptation to improve fitness, he has a simple suggestion - start running.
"Obviously they'll need a general medical first. And too many people in their 30s and 40s start out running on the wrong foot. They go and time themselves around the block or the park and try to run that faster two days later.
"Proper running is about going for as long as you can, as easy as you go. Once you build up that sort of foundation, faster running will come naturally. And work out a plan, say for four or five months. And follow that as consistently as you can. You might have a setback, say get injured. But running has taught me to deal with all of that, about patience, and working with a plan towards whatever you want to achieve in life."
Those who feel they have an excuse at hand beware. Fears of a knee or hip problem? "Look, I reckon I've run 150,000 miles throughout my career. And I've never had a joint problem"
And he's a reformed smoker too.
Further details on the Eamonn Coghlan team for the Dublin Marathon can be obtained from: 1890 507 508.