on 14th April at Galway Community College The story goes that an old man walked into his local pub in a town not too far from where I was from in Cornafean. The publican has framed a free local newspaper poster of me on the front door. I had just made a breakthrough at the 1992 World Cross country championships in Boston and to mark the occasion, the paper gave readers this free poster in honour of my silver medal performance
By Catherina McKiernan
The old man asked the barman “is that a picture of that young McKiernan lassie from Cornafean that runs around the roads?”. On being assured that “it was”, he replied, “I wouldn’t mind but I know her family and they are decent people”.
I remember when I started running around the fields on the family farm, a neighbour man use to hide behind the ditch and watch me.
Its only twenty years ago but the sight of anyone, male or female “running the roads” back then was seen as something fairly out of the ordinary, particularly in rural Ireland.
Despite having a strong tradition at the time in athletics with the likes of John Treacy and Eamon Coghlan , running was not considered to be a sport of near national importance. Whats more, those who did run around in hot or cold weather wearing a t-shirt and shorts would have been considered by the mainstream in society to be “slightly mad”. If you didn’t play football or hurling or even rugby, then any other form or sporting or physical activity would been looked upon as a little bit out there.
And whatever about the idea of being an athlete or club runner out training, the idea of running just to keep fit was all but never heard of. Walking, yes but running or jogging, no.
How times have changed. Today many road races around the country which were once lucky to attract 100 or 200 people are now attracting ten times that in competitors. To add to the lair of club runners and semi serous athletes, we now have this new phenomenon of runners and joggers who have ditched the fad diets to get out and get fit instead. There is a running boom on in Ireland and it seems that this is some sort of a positive peaceful physical uprising against the doom and gloom of the economic crises. Its like a blanket reaction to the mental tyranny which is being imposed on Ireland thanks to the cutbacks and austerity. And if the running boom is to be one legacy of the recession then all is not lost.
Too many people die in this country from lack of exercise. Too many people misinterpret the whole process of getting fit with simply going on diets and nothing else. Practical primitive physical activity whether its walking, jogging or running on a fairly regular basis trumps any other effort to keep mind and body in shape. I will always stand over that. You can list one hundred other ways of being kind to the body but if there is little or no physical activity as listed above included then it is like a chocolate kettle, noble but useless.
And this message seems to be getting across to people who are now clogging up the footpaths, walking trails and roadsides running and jogging. Even decent people are at it now!
Chi running workshop is taking place on 14th April at Galway Community College
Please email me on [email protected] to book on any of the courses listed above.
Read some of the success stories from other chi-runners HERE
By Catherina McKiernan
The old man asked the barman “is that a picture of that young McKiernan lassie from Cornafean that runs around the roads?”. On being assured that “it was”, he replied, “I wouldn’t mind but I know her family and they are decent people”.
I remember when I started running around the fields on the family farm, a neighbour man use to hide behind the ditch and watch me.
Its only twenty years ago but the sight of anyone, male or female “running the roads” back then was seen as something fairly out of the ordinary, particularly in rural Ireland.
Despite having a strong tradition at the time in athletics with the likes of John Treacy and Eamon Coghlan , running was not considered to be a sport of near national importance. Whats more, those who did run around in hot or cold weather wearing a t-shirt and shorts would have been considered by the mainstream in society to be “slightly mad”. If you didn’t play football or hurling or even rugby, then any other form or sporting or physical activity would been looked upon as a little bit out there.
And whatever about the idea of being an athlete or club runner out training, the idea of running just to keep fit was all but never heard of. Walking, yes but running or jogging, no.
How times have changed. Today many road races around the country which were once lucky to attract 100 or 200 people are now attracting ten times that in competitors. To add to the lair of club runners and semi serous athletes, we now have this new phenomenon of runners and joggers who have ditched the fad diets to get out and get fit instead. There is a running boom on in Ireland and it seems that this is some sort of a positive peaceful physical uprising against the doom and gloom of the economic crises. Its like a blanket reaction to the mental tyranny which is being imposed on Ireland thanks to the cutbacks and austerity. And if the running boom is to be one legacy of the recession then all is not lost.
Too many people die in this country from lack of exercise. Too many people misinterpret the whole process of getting fit with simply going on diets and nothing else. Practical primitive physical activity whether its walking, jogging or running on a fairly regular basis trumps any other effort to keep mind and body in shape. I will always stand over that. You can list one hundred other ways of being kind to the body but if there is little or no physical activity as listed above included then it is like a chocolate kettle, noble but useless.
And this message seems to be getting across to people who are now clogging up the footpaths, walking trails and roadsides running and jogging. Even decent people are at it now!
Chi running workshop is taking place on 14th April at Galway Community College
Please email me on [email protected] to book on any of the courses listed above.
Read some of the success stories from other chi-runners HERE
