Life had been good to Anne Keenan-Buckley. In her unbounded youth, she left her mark on distance running around the country and, in taking on the world, climbed her way to the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
At the end of her running career there were enough medals on the mantelpiece to do anyone justice. So she settled down to the mid-life commitments of family and longer-term ambitions. Then she started to wonder: had she really given running her all?
Last Sunday she proved that she hadn't. Victory in the National cross country title aged 38, after a string of seven silver medals first struck in 1985, was most people's idea of a fairytale. Yet Keenan Buckley just saw it as finally reaching her potential.
On the flat but demanding course around Dublin's ALSAA complex, the field was quickly split by her unswerving pace. Only Rosemary Ryan could stay in the shadow, but, by slipping up a gear and emptying her reservoir of strength, Keenan Buckley pulled ahead in the decisive final metres to leave Ryan - 14 years her junior - in the dust of second place. "It was great to win the gold, sure, but I was more delighted about the way I won it," she says, hinting that emotion can be one of the most potent factors in any race. "It took a bit of bottle and determination, because I was 20 yards down on Rosemary towards the end and really had to dig deep. "There is a big difference between first and second all right. But, you know, I had always been satisfied with the silver medals that I'd won before. I mean, Catherina McKiernan finished ahead of me on two of those."
It was a little more than a year ago that Keenan Buckley figured she could write this second act to her running career, the first of which began as a schoolgirl and appeared to end when she settled down to family life in Portlaoise a decade ago. The World cross country championships were coming to Belfast in March and a place on the Irish team was something to shoot for.
"I realised that there wasn't a whole lot of time left for me to achieve much more in the sport. I suppose I've always believed that I had the talent, and knew deep down that if I just gave it the commitment then I could probably pull out a little more."
Over the winter, training was pushed up to between 60 and 70 miles a week. All uncompromising miles, strode out on the roads or powered out on the green hills of the local golf course. She also started taking more coaching advice from Robert Denmead, a Tullamore man, who introduced her to the modern approaches of heart rate monitors and physiological testing.
The second coming really emerged at the National cross country last February when she took silver number seven over a mud-clinging course in Ballybofey. In Belfast a few weeks later, she was top Irish finisher in the World short course race, a performance impressive enough to put her on the list for an elite athlete grant of £7,000.
"The money certainly helps, and makes it easier to travel abroad for the races you want, but to be honest, I'd be doing this anyway. In many ways I'm enjoying it now more than ever. I still get a great buzz out of competing.
"But you know, I'm not out to beat the younger girls. I never think that way about a race, or how much older I am than the rest of them. And it's never been a case of running to keep fit. I do run for the competition, because otherwise I'm lazy. I wouldn't even walk around the corner to go to the shops."
Inspiration, though, has never been a problem. Although just 13 when she had her first taste of big competition - winning the Laois senior county cross country title - there was also plenty of support from the family of 10 children - five boys and five girls - who all showed interest in sport to varying degrees.
The first national senior title came in 1987 over 3,000 metres, the event she ran at Seoul Olympics the following year. That seemed to be the pinnacle, and she has been drawn back to the track only once since, her trip to the World veteran championships in Gateshead, England, last summer where she won gold over 1,500 metres and silver over 5,000 metres.
There are other elements which account for her longevity. In the earlier years, she never trained exceptionally hard and would always get away with 30 to 40 miles of running a week. Then she would take three or four months off without running a step, and not even think about it. In truth, she'd never made the full commitment to training.
"But when you're in your twenties, you want to have time to do all those other things," she laughs. "I mean, it does upset your social life. Besides, I think it's very easy to go stale if you're always training hard at a young age."
Those early years were spent closer to Dublin, when she lived in Baltinglass and ran for Clonliffe Harriers. Married in 1986, she moved back to Portlaoise four years later with her husband, Donal, a Garda now stationed in Athy.
The two children - Ashling is almost 10 and Alan is five - soon followed.
Next month's World cross country championships in Portugal are lined up as the next big challenge. With Sonia O'Sullivan looking to get back one of her titles, there are hopes of a team medal. After that, she plans to make one last assault on the track and, more specifically, the 5,000 metre qualifying time for the Sydney Olympics.
