Running Matters - One:2:One with Michelle Kavanagh

(Above) Joanna Tyrrell, Michelle Kavanagh and Ger Langtry after the Dublin Marathon on October 27, 2014.

By Martin Lyons

This week I’m interviewing a familiar and friendly face among Mullingar Harriers folk. Michelle Kavanagh decided to get fit after a wake-up call in her family, and having to run across a car park to avoid a shower of rain, which left her breathless.

Then, she heard about a start-up running group in Mullingar from a friend who had read about it in this newspaper, so she decided why not!

Since the day she first turned up for training eight years ago, she has run hundreds of miles, completed four full marathons, and even won a medal at the Leinster 800m championships last year. Not bad for woman who describes herself as a “non competitive athlete”!

Perhaps the most uplifting moment of all for Michelle is that she stuck to her guns and achieved her goals of getting fitter and healthier.

As you can read in great detail below, she shed kilos within a few months, thanks to a weight-loss group, her new diet and her new hobby, running.

She has now started to conquer swimming, something she also started later in life, and has her eyes set on completing a triathlon before her next milestone birthday. Michelle’s story is one that many people, especially those in middle age, might relate to if they need inspiration to get started on a fitness journey but worry that it’s ‘too late to start’.

Read about Michelle and you’ll realise it’s never too late, and there’s a good chance running will also change your life for the better.

Name: Michelle Kavanagh

DOB: 23/03/1964

When did you start running and what motivated you take it up?

I started running in 2012. My mother had two strokes, the first in 2011 and the second in early 2012. At that time I was on medication for high blood pressure and was overweight. One morning in January 2012 I had to go to my daughter’s school. It was lashing rain, so I ran about from my car to the door of the school. When I got in I couldn’t even speak, I was so breathless.

That morning when I was getting back into the car I made up my mind I was going to loss weight and get fit, otherwise I knew what the alternative was going to be and I was adamant I wasn’t going to end up having a stroke. The following morning I headed to my local Weight Watchers group.

I started eating healthy and walking, mainly on the roads of Clonard. On one of my many walks I met a friend of mine and she asked if I would be interested in training for the marathon. I asked her if she meant October (of that year) as it was already June. She said yes and she had seen a piece in the Westmeath Examiner looking for people to join a marathon group in Mullingar called ‘Matties Marathoners’. So off we headed to Belvedere house on a Saturday morning and joined Matt Glennon and his group of trainee marathoners, and that was the beginning of something I had never even contemplated happening.

I was 48 years old and my family thought I’d lost the plot! Unfortunately I did not do the marathon that year. I injured myself in my first ever race, which was the Athlone Flatline half marathon in the September, so I ended up parking my plan to do the marathon that year.

By December I received a certificate in Weight Watchers for having lost over 50 pounds so I was delighted to end that year lighter and fitter than I had been in years.

In 2013 I was now determined I was going to do my first marathon and I wanted to do it before I was 50. I stayed with Mullingar Harriers and met and became part of a great group of people, especially three other woman, without whom I would have never stuck at all those training sessions.

Hail, rain and shine, we were at Belvedere, on the track at the club and on the canal every Sunday morning for our longs runs, along with a huge group of all ages and abilities. We had the best fun and laughs on some of those runs and not to mention all the coffee!

What is your favourite and least favourite type of training and your favourite race distance?

my least favourite has always been the Wednesday night speed sessions and I’m probably not alone in saying that, even though they’re great for your race fitness. I always enjoyed the long, slow runs on Sunday mornings and it was always great to catch up and chat about everything, with everyone! I don’t really have a favourite distance.

I’m not particularly competitive when it comes to running, so no matter what race distance I do, I’m a bag of nerves before the start and it really does take at lot of the fun out of running for me!

The feeling after a race is great, however – so it’s a catch 22!

What running achievements are you most proud of and why?

I’m most proud of the fact I decided to run a marathon and that I finished what I started. Since then I’ve completed another three Dublin Marathons. Also, in 2019 I got a silver medal in the Leinster Championships, in the Over 55 category, for the 800m, and that was a nice feeling too.

List your current PBs for the following distances.

Mile: N/A

5k: 25:59 – Athboy 9/08/2019

10k: 55:19 – Longwood 10k 21/10/2018

10-mile: 1:29:10 – Frank Duffy 10 Mile, August 2013

Half marathon: 2:07 – Mullingar Half 17/03/2018

Full marathon: 4:19 – Dublin, October 2013.

How have the current restrictions relating to Covid-19, affected your training or racing plans?

With regards to training, I can’t travel to Mullingar to join my friends in the club, i now do all my training locally here in Clonard and with whichever member of my family I can drag out the door! I feel lucky that I got to do a half marathon in Donadea in January, because I don’t believe I’ll be doing any other races this year – but you never know.

What advice or training tips would you give to anyone who is now looking to take up running, within their safely recommenced radius?

All I would suggest is just go out and enjoy your runs. Don’t worry that you can’t do the long ones. At this moment it’s just all about staying fit and healthy, mentally and physically.

What are your lifetime goals and/or PBs for the following distances (where applicable)?

I’m really not competitive so times aren’t a big thing for me, so I’m happy I can just run! I have been learning to swim for the last couple of years and finally, only earlier this year, when I was leaving the pool, did I think to myself that I am now actually a swimmer and now that I can finally swim, I plan to do a triathlon. The plan was this year, but I can wait another. So long as I get to do it before I’m 60!

What is your favourite post-race meal?

The best post-race meal I’ve had, and particularly enjoyed, was a bag of salty chips sitting on the footpath outside a chipper, on a sunny afternoon in Kerry! That was after the Dingle Half Marathon in September of 2018. Sometimes it’s the simpler things in life that are the best!

Michelle with her daughter Shauna Kavanagh after the Clonard four-mile run, August 2, 2017.