ATHLETICS/Interview with Sonia O'Sullivan: Ian O'Riordantalks to Sonia O'Sullivan about what drives her when she could just put her feet up
Anyone who thinks Sonia O'Sullivan should be easing into the twilight of her career - maybe even retire - probably doesn't appreciate what made her great in the first place. Whenever she races these days most of us wonder why. O'Sullivan shakes her head and wonders why not. Some things never change.
She turns 37 next Tuesday. Her daughters, Ciara and Sophie, are advancing in school. She's plenty of other interests outside running now. If any athlete could afford to sit back and rest on her laurels, it's O'Sullivan, and yet she began November by running the New York marathon. Then last Sunday it was the Inis "Iron" Meáin, on the Aran Islands. And this Sunday it's the Great Ethiopian Run.
"I still enjoy running as much as ever," she says. "Obviously I know the super days are gone, and I can't be expecting to be out there competing against the best in the world. But I can still go out there and challenge myself, and enjoy what I'm doing, and still run decent times. And I'll keep doing that for as long as I can."
So yesterday she flew to Addis Ababa. It is her first visit to Ethiopia, the country which provided so many of her rivals over the years. Sunday's Great Ethiopian Run has quickly grown into one of the country's biggest sporting events, and O'Sullivan was keen to experience it.
"The race has been going on for five or six years now, but the organisers, Nova International, who do the Great Run series, kept saying it would be great if I came out sometime. They try to bring a few celebrity athletes out every year, just to experience it.
"And it is a place I've always wanted to visit, considering so many great runners come from there. Most of the athletes are actually based in Addis Ababa, but we'll take a few trips into the mountains, where they do a lot of training. I've been to Kenya before, and I think it will be interesting to compare the two.
"I was also asking someone out there what I should bring, and he just suggested an extra bag of clothes, things I don't need, and leave that out here, for a charity. I'm told there really is a lot of poverty out there. You can forget that, thinking about all the great athletes they have, but the poverty is still very high, and very visible as well."
Strictly speaking it's a 10km fun run, although O'Sullivan has been warned to expect a competitive edge: "The word is there are 25,000 in the race, and 24,000 think they're going to win. So it's absolute chaos at the start. And it's also at 8,000 feet. But sure, I'll run as hard as I can. I just think I'll do well to break 40 minutes."
Last Saturday, she was on Aran for the Inis "Iron" Meáin, and another whole new experience. That 10km fun run is partly organised by Galway native Dr Brian Moore, now a sports physician in London, and he suggested O'Sullivan might like to try it. It turned out to be quite an adventure, including losing her phone on the boat over while attending to Ciara's first seasickness.
"They call it the Iron Meáin, because it's so tough. It wasn't that bad, although you certainly don't go there to run a fast time, and I think it's a little longer than 10k. But there was only one man ahead of me, and it was a great experience, gas really, as the whole island got behind it.
"There was actually two different courses, the cúrsa crua, and cúrsa fíor crua, but there's no easy option. So I was a bit nervous. It was quite a nice day, and that helped. We even ran along the beach. It's all in aid of the local secondary school out there, and it was fantastic."
Earlier this month, when the name Sonia O'Sullivan appeared in 14th place in the results of the New York marathon, there were plenty of eyebrows raised within Irish athletics, especially since O'Sullivan was meant to be training for next month's European cross country in Italy.
"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing," she explains. "A few weeks before, when Nic (her partner) was in Chicago, there was lots of talk of Lance Armstrong running in New York, and getting other Nike-sponsored athletes to run with him. That was the initial reason for running.
"Suddenly everyone and their mother wanted to run with Lance, and it became a bit of a fiasco. There was even a camera following him for the whole race. So when I got there I decided it wasn't for me. But I still wanted to run. I didn't have a good experience there the last time I ran (in 2002), and being there again, I just got the buzz. I talked to Alan Storey (her coach) about it and he said it was fine as long as I didn't try to run any quicker than 2.40."
She finished in 2:42.05 - which literally was a fun run.
And in fact she'd decided well before that she wouldn't try for the European cross country: "I was training away, with that in mind, but I didn't feel I was improving the way I needed to. I was running plenty, but couldn't run quick sessions. Then I felt I was trying too hard, and getting frustrated, and just didn't think it was realistic to run out there.
"The other thing is if we'd a super-strong team, and I felt I could help, then I would have gone. But there wasn't much communication coming from Athletics Ireland, like 'let's go out there and try to win a medal'. And that was a shame.
"But I didn't want to kill myself trying to make it. I wanted to enjoy myself, and do things I always wanted to do.
"I'm headed back to Australia on December 12th, and once I get down there training with the likes of Benita Johnson and Craig Mottram again, well, if I feel it is worth setting myself a few goals again, and go try to win some races again, then we'll see.
"But I'd still love to run for Ireland again. If there's a good reason to run for Ireland I know you can definitely lift yourself, much higher than you are going in training. And I'm sure I could do that again, if I'd a good reason to do it."
