Our latest All Star likes to travel and run in exotic locations – meet Katherine!

When did you start running?
I did a bit of athletics in school, but 1500m was my limit! I didn’t start running properly until 2015.

Why did you start running?
I was in a mental health hospital for 2yrs and started running as a way to escape the chaos of the ward, and discovered it made me feel really good. Since then it’s been a motivation to keep physically healthy, and continues to be so important for my mental health. Sometimes it’s really hard to get out, but I’m a different person after I run.

Face of the race! Katherine was born to run!

What is a typical training week for you?
Typically this was the first year I’d actually managed to follow a marathon training plan! I try to get to the Dubs speedwork session on a Tuesday, and I’ll either have a race or a long run at the weekend. I go to the gym X2 per week, and the rest is mostly easy runs of 5-8miles. During lockdown I’ve just been trying to get out and do something every day.

What is your favourite Dub training session?
There’s nothing better than a run up Divis on a summers evening. When it’s sunny it’s beautiful and really freeing. As for proper sessions, I like the summer hill sessions because it doesn’t matter how fast you are in comparison to everyone else, you’re just trying to beat where you got to on the last rep.

What has been your favourite race(s) to take part in?
My all time favourite race is definitely Brighton Marathon. The atmosphere and crowd support are like nothing I’ve experienced before. Plus it’s a great route along side the sea, and I love the city itself. Closer to home I love races like Sea2Sky and Dambusters. A trail race in a nice location is far more appealing to me than a fast road race. Oh, also, the Midnight sun marathon in Tromsø, Norway was definitely an experience, even though it poured the whole race.

Midnight marathon – it might have rained, but anothr bucket list race ticked off for Katherine!

What are you running goals?
I really enjoyed the ultra I did recently so I’d love to get more into that sort of running with more technical terrain. Improve my PB’s especially the marathon, and do more marathons in different countries as I love to combine running with traveling.

Tell us something random about yourself that people might not know!
I grew up around horses, having represented Ireland in 3day eventing, and been part of the NI tetrathlon team when I was 14-15. Tetrathlon is the junior version of modern pentathlon (shooting, swimming, XC riding and running) I’m pretty handy with an air pistol but the running was my weakest phase and I hated it!