Sinead delighted to make it three from three

Recently, Sinead O’Connor won her third The Echo Women's Mini Marathon in five years, winning all three races she entered in that time.

One was cancelled due to covid and the other she was pregnant so couldn’t run but just months after her son was born Sinead was back to her best to win again a few weeks ago.

Her time of 17:18 for the 5km was a one-second improvement on last year’s winning time of her Leevale colleague Lizzie Lee

“I’m thrilled to win as I had a second baby in December, so if you asked me a month ago would I have got to the start line I’d have said ‘no way’, so I’m really happy with that,” said O’Connor, who was Irish champion on the road over 10km in 2022.

This achievement saw her win the Echo Women In Sport monthly award for September.

“Lizzie was pushing it the whole way so I wasn’t going to take it out but I’d be confident of my kick. This is only my second race of the year.

"I got injured after the John Buckley Sports race so I didn’t race all summer. I only entered on Friday (before the race), but this is my favourite race and once again it was brilliantly organised.”

Sinead’s love of running started when she was in primary school in Ballincollig and to this day, now in her 30s, she is still in love with the sport.

“I started off in primary school and used to take part in the Cork City Sports and the Primary School Games every year.

“I was always the fastest in my class so I started off sprinting and I joined Togher AC for a few years. That juvenile section kind of disappeared, just lack of numbers, so I moved to Leevale AC.

“So I sprinted for a while, but I was never the most powerful, and the long distance was probably always in me, but I didn't really see it back then.

“I stopped for a few years in the middle of secondary school, but I took it up again in my 20s. So I kind of regret those years I took off because I feel I probably could have made more progress eventually.

“I then got hit with injuries when I started back so it was really only in my late 20s, early 30s, that I kind of started in my career. Now I'm heading towards my late 30s and I'm finally finding my form fully I feel.

“So yeah, I started off sprinting and now going to the absolute opposite end with the long distance and thinking about getting longer.

“I really like around the 3km on the track, I love that distance but now that’s even getting too short for me. So at the moment I'm really enjoying 5 to 10km, with the hopes to maybe move up a little bit longer in the next year or two, but 10km at the moment is kind of my sweet spot.”

Having stopped running as a teenager to go back in your 20s was a decision Sinead took after a security guard encouraged her to do so.

She used to do laps of a park when she was in college at Limerick as she wasn’t too familiar with the streets around the area so preferred to run around the park.

“I always love that feeling of going out for a run. That freedom, that kind of, you know, flow you get into when you go for a run.

“So I did spend a few years just jogging when I went to college and I used to jog around a park, laps and laps and laps because I didn't know the city very well. I used to jog around a park called Peace Park and the security guard there one day said to me, ‘would you ever go and join a club? I see you here all the time, you have a lovely stride. Would you not go and join a club?’

“So I think he kind of started the seed in my head, that ok maybe I could give long distance a go and when I moved back to Cork after college I joined up with Donie’s (Wallace) group at Leevale and I have never looked back since, other than the few years of injuries.

“It was four or five years of consistent injuries. I kept getting stress fractures. I was loading up too much too soon and going from a sprinter to long distances was a big job. But I sorted those out, got stronger and it came right.”

That transition is difficult for any runner and Sinead feels that it played a major part in her injuries and slowed down her progress to where she would like to be in running terms.

“It took way longer than I was expecting, but I suppose I could always see glimpses. You know you see glimpses at training. But it was just finding the consistency was the key and just getting that strength behind me and I think that's the thing you need to keep at.

“You need to build a base year after year and then you can start to see it pay off eventually. So yeah, it's nice that I can see it now and hopefully have a few good years left before I have to hang up my running shoes.”