5th June 2008 - Pauline Curley

A MARRIED woman, wife of Adrian, mother of seven year old Emmett and a working chef, Pauline Curley is an extraordinary woman. Now 39 years of age, Pauline has long been one of the top runners in Ireland.

On April 13 this year, she ran the race of her life in the Rotterdam Marathon and was an agonising two minutes short of the qualifying time for the Beijing Olympics. A bronze medalist alongside two of Ireland's most famous athletes, Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan at the World Cross Country Championships in Turin in 1997, PAULINE CURLEY took time out recently to speak to Tribune Sports Editor, KEVIN CORRIGAN about her near miss in Rotterdam, her athletics career in general and how she balances running with her responsibility as a mother, husband and worker.

Pauline Curley - Mother, Worker And A Runner Extraordinaire Who Was Just Two Minutes Away From Beijing Olympics

SUNDAY, April 13 2008, a date that Pauline Curley will look back on with bitter sweet memories for the rest of her life.

A native of Newtown, Killeigh (Where she was born a member of the well known Gorman family), living at Annagharvey, Tullamore and a proud member of the Tullamore Harriers, Curley ran the race of her life in the Rotterdam marathon, knocking over three minutes off her previous personal best as she crossed the line in an official time of 2.39.05 - The 13th fastest time ran by an Irish woman in the marathon..
Running in only her fourth marathon, Curley had run 2 hours 42 minutes in her previous three outings in Dublin and her immediate reaction at the finish line in Rotterdam was one of delight at knocking over three minutes off her previous PB - 2.42.16 which was ran in her first 26.2 miler in 2005 when she was crowned the national womens' marathon champion. In Dublin in 2006 and 2007, she just couldn't better 2.42. On a disastrous and soul destroying October day in 2006, Curley still managed to run 2.42.48 while she ran 2.42.30 when regaining the national title in 2007.

Taking three minutes off her personal best was a fantastic achievement but within minutes thoughts of what might have been flooded into her head. Her time of 2.39.05 was just 2.05 minutes off the A qualifying standards for the Beijing Olympics later this year. In Rotterdam, her average mile pace was 6.04 minutes and if she had managed just a small bit quicker, 5.59 minutes per mile, Curley's place on the plane to Beijing next August was booked.

It was one near miss and something that will remain on this personable 39 year old's mind for a long time to come.
Pauline Curley's story is an extraordinary one. A late developer in athletic terms, she only really began to race at a very competitive high level in Ireland in her late 20s. Prior to that, her early running was confined to the Killeigh Sports where Pauline and her sisters, Ann and Veronica generally returned home with a 'bucketful' of medals and a bit in secondary school. She joined the Harriers around 18/19 years of age but it wasn't until much later that she really developed as an athlete.

Her main running event has been cross country. She has also represented Ireland on the road and track but it was on the soft cross country fields of Ireland and abroad where she really excelled - Culminating in her single greatest day when she lined out alongside Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan on the six girl team that captured bronze medals at the World Cross Country Championships in Turin in 1997, behind Ethiopia and Kenya. She is one of a very elite group of Irish people who have world cross country medals.

Success did not come quick to the young Pauline. In 1992, she was 59th in the national intermediate cross country championships. In 1993, she was 15th and in 1994 she won the intermediate cross country title. Her 10k time reduced from 42 minutes to 34.45 in an eight year span.

By 1997, however, Curley was in the shape and form of her life and arguably her biggest ever cross country performance came when she was third n the national senior cross country championships, behind Maureen Harrington and Una English. That earned her place on the Irish team for the worlds in Turin alongside Harrington, English, O'Sullivan, McKiernan and the US based Valerie Vaughan.

That bronze medal has been her single biggest athletics achievement but there have been plenty of other highlights on the way. Winner of the Dublin womens' mini marathon - ran over 10k - in 2002 and 2006, wins which earned her national publicity and headlines. Irish national marathon champion in 2005 and 2007, and pipped on the line on a 2006 day that she will never forget.

And then there was April 13 2008 in Rotterdam and a fantastic achievement and a near miss. A remarkably balanced and even run with near identical splits throughout a flat course that was conducive to fast times. Running at just over 6 minute mile pace, Curley needed to be under 6 minute mile pace to get on the plane to Beijing. Her five kilometre splits ranged from 18.38 to 19.18 minutes - The last five kilometres was the only one outside the 18 minutes (19.18) which is very steady running.

April 13, 2008, and Pauline Curley was on the start line not even thinking that the Olympic qualifying time was within her compass - Though later during a lengthy chat, she did confess that it was on the back of her mind.
She insists, however, that she never considered herself an Olympic standard athlete.

'It was very close, just two minutes away. I didn't realise I was going to be that close. I didn't think I was that type of an athlete to be going for that. I was thinking someone who would be full time and maybe better quality of an athlete to be going for an Olympic time. My time before that was 2.42 and it was a big jump to come down five minutes (To 2.37), it is a fair bit of time but getting a good course (makes a difference).'

Amazingly Curley's marathon came after a training programme that was greatly disrupted because of illness during the most important part of her schedule.

She puts a brave face on it but the regrets still surface from time to time - And yet there is an underlying theme of satisfaction that she got to the start line at all and ran the time she did.

'If training had been going as well as I would liked it to have been, there could have been a possibility. I was just glad to break the 2.42 barrier. I had been very sick, there was an awful lot of ups and downs leading up to it. I was out for the full month of January.'

She explained:
'I never really got started training for the marathon. Every time I got started, I seemed to be coming down with something. I got an awful flu in January. Then I was starting into the marathon training and I was hit with a diarrhoea bug for eight days.

'Things were really bad. I was saying am I going to do this marathon or will I be capable of doing it? Things then started to go fairly well and then two weeks before the marathon I got another diarrhoea bug. I was saying this is all going to blow up in my face but in fact it was nearly a blessing in disguise because I really rested for the last two weeks before the marathon. It seemed to work out okay after.'

The whole month of January was lost during a time when Curley needed to be building up the mileage and getting in some quality work.

' I did absolutely no training because I was so sick. I got an awful flu and then developed an awful cough afterwards. I was on two lots of anti-biotics so there was absolutely no running for the month of January, it was completely gone.

'In February I started to come back a little bit but the weakness was still there. I was on two lots of anti biotics and it takes a good while for those to go out of your system. In March, things started to pick up a bit and then I got hit with the diarrhoea bug before the 10 mile down in Ballycotton. That was my first real race. I got the diarrhoea bug before that and I ran that race and got it very hard. I got through it and got diarrhoea after that again. I took a few days off after that and then it was back training again. Things went well into April and then just two weeks before the marathon it struck again. I don't know what it was, maybe my immune system was down. I was just picking up everything that was going. With vomiting and diarrhoea, all you can do is drink fluids and liquids to flush it out of your system. There is nothing more than diarrhoea that will weaken your system.'

For most people, it takes a four month training programme to get to the start line in a marathon, though for an athlete like Curley who is training all year, less will be enough. Still, it was anything but ideal preparation.
'I only had nine to ten weeks to prepare for it. I got a good few of the long runs done and they were very very easy. My last long run was a month before it. I did do a half marathon up in Antrim and ran a decent enough time in that (77 minutes) so I was pleased with that. That was three week before and was the end of my long runs.'
It is a question that will prey on her mind for a long time - If your training had went according to plan, could you have broken 2.37?

'It is hard to know. I do ask myself that question, a thousand times. If I hadn't got sick, would I have made it? Nobody knows, I will never know that now.

'I could have went into the marathon very tired and drained. Two weeks before the marathon I got sick again and I took a few days off from training. I had to. I really rested up for the last two weeks and I was hungry for this race. I couldn't wait for the race, I had the training done to the best of my ability. I had rested up so well that I was hungry for this race. Who knows, maybe it worked out for the best for me. Athletes have an awful tendency to train too hard. They think that when we ease up, we are going to do bad but in actual fact, resting up is the best thing. Even I can see that now. Every marathon I have ran is a learning process for me.'

During the race, she knew she was going well.

'I had my splits worked out. The race was not in miles, it was in kilometres. I had my splits worked out, I had them written on my hand. Over 5k, 10k, I had a look and I knew I was a minute down which isn't too bad, a minute down on the time I thought I should have been going to. I was fairly spot on with them.'

At the finish line, she was just 2.05 minutes short of the time, a very short time over the space of 26.2 miles.
'Very close. The more I think about it, I say damn it, why didn't I push it a bit harder but the marathon is a very unpredictable event. You could be feeling great at eighteen miles and push it on for a mile and you could be walking, you could be dead. I could have went into that race in absolutely tip top form, maybe doing 75 minute half marathon time and that. And yet come out and only run 2.40. That is the way it goes.'

Unlike Dublin, elite men and women run together in Rotterdam and this suited the Killeigh woman down to the ground.

'It was a mixed race. I love running in groups. I had great company throughout the race. In Dublin, it was very much on your own. In Dublin, fifteen elite women went off first. I won't say there was no atmosphere but there was no one on the streets. In Rotterdam, the whole 26 miles was thronged with people. You had groups of maybe 20 or 25 men and women. Everyone went off together, they just brought the elite athletes up to the top at the start. I was just ten seconds away from the real real elite. Then there as the next section of elite and then us. We all started together. It was great. I would be in this bunch and get carried along for a few miles and then aim for the next bunch. I just continued on with the next group and the next group and the next group, that was the way I focussed on it which was brilliant.'

The atmosphere in Rotterdam was magical.

'Oh my God, unbelievable. They say London and Berlin is absolutely electric but I was astonished by the crowds. I had never seen it before. It was my first time at an away marathon and I had never seen the atmosphere and the crowds. Young kids were out and they wanted you to slap their hand going by and that. It was every where. Coming into the finish, it was amazing.'

The closing date for achieving Olympic qualification is June 16. Having gone so close, there is a big temptation to attempt another marathon - There are qualifying marathons in San Diego and Edinburgh - and try and make the qualifying time but in her heart of hearts, she knows it just isn't feasible.

'I would love to if my body was able to but I am being realistic here. I never heard of anyone doing another marathon within six weeks. Maybe the really top elite athletes who have time to train and time to recover. I don't think it is possible. I would love if the deadline hadn't been until November to have a go on another one on a great course. I don't think it is humanly possible. For me anyway, it's not. It's an awful pity Berlin wasn't coming up. That isn't until the end of September. Who knows if that was coming up but I don't think I would have been able to in the shape I am in now.'

Since the marathon, her body has began to rehabilitate and she is ready for action again.

'I'm not too bad. I think I am starting to recover a bit. They say it takes a day and a half for every mile to recover. My legs are a bit heavy still. I took a good bit of time off after it (Two weeks). I enjoyed the break. I felt I didn't get stale or anything. There is a tendency to go back into training straight away and you get stale and over train. I took a good bit of time out. I am back slow jogging, just to get the legs back moving. It will be hard to get back into speed jogging, it will be a big shock to my system. There is a lot of miles there in the legs.'

While now a vastly experienced runner, advice is always beneficial - In the build up to Rotterdam, she got advice from her regular coach and former marathon runner, Mick Hayden and her former coach, Robert Denmead.
'With the marathon, I got great advice from Robert Denmead. My husband (Adrian) as well and Mick Hayden, they gave me great advice and I am grateful for that. Mick Hayden coaches me. I set up my own schedules but he is there for me. He is a bit of company actually. In the lead up to the marathon, about ten weeks before, I asked Robert for a bit of help and he gave me a bit of help. Robert coached me before and I got great advice from him. He is one of the top coaches in Ireland.'

Despite her vast experience, every marathon is a learning curve.

'I found that every marathon was a learning process. The first marathon I was very ignorant going into it. I hadn't a clue what way to run the race but I seemed to get it ok. 2.42.16 was my first marathon. It was a good time on a Dublin course.'

The Marathon Girl
Pauline Curley made her name as a cross country runner and her distance of choice was 10k. Stepping up to marathon was a big decision, though she revealed that fate led her into her first Dublin marathon in 2005.
'I had done my first ten miles in the Phoenix Park and done a couple of half marathons. There were a few saying give Dublin marathon a go. This was at the beginning of October and I said I don't have much time to prepare for a marathon. I did two long runs before the marathon. That was on the 3rd and 12th of October, just a couple of weeks before and just to get the feel of a couple of long runs. Two 20 miles. You are supposed to start your taper then and here I was only getting into it. Like that I was being ignorant, I hadn't a clue. There was so many people, particularly men in Dublin, saying I should give Dublin a go. I was saying no, I wouldn't be able for that distance or I wouldn't have the speed or that. I kind of got the bug.

'10k was distance I raced. I had done a couple of national half marathons and leading up to the marathon I had done the Adidas race series in the Phoenix Park. 5, 10 and half marathon. Still at that stage, I wasn't even dreaming of the marathon. Not until I did the half marathon and a few said would you not do the half marathon.'
For years, the distance in the marathon was off putting.

'I swore I would never do marathons. Maybe it was the distance, 26.2 miles. If I had heard that five years ago, I would have said you are nuts. Imagine going out and running 26.2 miles. It is mad and I would love to get my hands on that fellow who invented it. Like 26.2 miles, why couldn't he have left it at 26 miles. The .2 miles is the hardest part. I have the bug for it now and I don't think I am going to get better at any other distance. The marathon probably is my distance now.'

Her first marathon went well as she captured the national title. The second marathon, however, provided a different story as she met the 'mythical' wall and was pipped on the line by Jill Shannon from the north for the national title in a race that told her much about the discipline of long distance running.

She takes up the story:

'The second time I was a bit more anxious. I took off at thirteen miles and started to drop my miles. The lights started to go out then at twenty two miles. I really hit the wall at 22 miles. I got fierce diarrhoea at seventeen miles and I kept going. I continued on, I don't know how I did it. Any gels or anything I was taking was going right through me. My body was being depleted of everything. I honestly don't know how I got through it.
'I was just pipped on the line by Jill Shannon. Literally, they had announced me the winner but I was totally gone. I was in a wheelchair then for hours. I had no power in my legs, just totally, totally washed out. The two of us were together at thirteen miles and I thought the pace was grand and easy and I started to up and up the pace. I was gone well away from her within two or three miles. Mick Hayden could not believe it when he saw me coming around the corner with 400 metres to go and here she was chasing me. I was gone totally. I don't know how I even made the line.'

It was her first meeting with the 'wall'.

'They say if you get over the 18 and 22 miles you have jumped the wall. I think the wall can hit you at any time, even twenty four miles. It is an awful awful sensation. When your body goes. . . Your mind wants to go but your body just will not let you. There is nothing left. It is hard to describe it. It is called hitting the wall and that is it. When I was so close to the finish line, I just gritted my teeth and said I am going to get to the finish line. It would have been a devil to pull out with just four miles to go but when your body shuts down, there is nothing you can do..'

All the unfortunate woman could do was think of the 'shame' of diarrhoea running down her leg and she forgot the very real pain she was in.

'The crowds were getting bigger. I was very ashamed coming up to the line because I had diarrhoea all down my leg. I think that was really in my mind. Oh God, what are those people thinking. They are looking at me now. The very minute I crossed over the line I put a huge big blanket around me and had a wheelchair waiting for me. I looked down and my foot was torn to bits. There was blood pumping out of it through my runner. I couldn't get my runner off and my sock was stuck. A bit of advice to anyone is socks and proper foot gear in a marathon. Make sure you are used to wearing the ones you ear training. Don't get into a new pair of socks or a new pair of runners the day of the marathon. Wear old socks or blister free socks and wear them during your long runs. Just gear that you are comfortable with. They were the same socks I wore the very first marathon. I never felt that pain during the run. The first aid came and tried to cut the sock off because it was gone in through the skin and the skin was tearing away.

'I swore after that marathon, never never again would I run a marathon. I would never put my body through that again. I think when you get the marathon bug, you have it. You want to do another one and you want to do better, better, better.'

She has no doubt that she was to blame for her 2006 marathon hell.

'I got a bit anxious and eager. I said oh God I feel great here. I had been doing 6.10 minute miles and I dropped down to six minute miles. It just takes one mile to blow it all up in your face. I thought I was absolutely flying it. Your man had announced it on the intercom that I was going for 2.38, that I was running a fabulous marathon. I never heard this going on. He was saying on the intercom that Pauline Curley is running the race of her life and going for a 2.38 marathon - In Dublin that would be a brilliant time. Funny enough I still came in at 2.42 which is a good time considering what I had got through.'

And despite a much more trouble free run in Dublin in 2007 and regaining her national title, she only bettered her 2006 run by a mere eighteen seconds. Curley pointed out that Dublin has a reputation as a tough course while she did not like the elite women setting off first which meant she spent a lot of time on the road on her own.
'Maybe last year if I had been in a group of men and women mixed I might have broken the 2.42. Last year we were gone half an hour before the elite men. The elite men caught us at twenty two miles. There were only fifteen elite women.

'Dublin has a reputation as a tough course. There is a pull up there through the Phoenix Park. There is another one at thirteen and nineteen miles. It is not recognised for Olymmpic times. If I had (Ran sub 2.37), I would have been slashing my wrist. They are trying to make it like London and all these other marathons where the elite women go off on their own. I don't know if it is going to work. It is very lonely. For me it was like a long run and the weather was fairly bad, it was fairly windy and showery. One long lonely run. They talk about the loneliness of the long distance runner and Dublin is that for me.'

Prior to her three twenty milers before the 2005 marathon, her longest distance was 11 to 12 miles on a Sunday morning. Now Pauline can see herself concentrating on the marathon.

'It was a big step up in distance but I like the longer distance. I think as you get older as well, the speed is gone out of the legs. I'm only gone back to 11/12 miles on a Sunday morning now because the track season is coming in.'
Her marathon training consists of a long run on a Sunday morning, building up to over 20 miles, a jog on a Monday in the Harriers; steady running for an hour on a Tuesday; an easy session on a Wednesday; fartlek running (Sessions involving changes of pace from jogging, to half pace, three quarter pace and sprinting) on a Thursday; An hour on a Friday with one day of rest.

'It is not about speed work where you are doing 200s or 400s or that. It is trying to get your body used to being out on feet. My long run is two to two and a half hours. Before the marathon it is not speed it is all distance. It is time out on your feet. I feel kind of lazy when I am not doing speed work. I'd use a few races to sharpen me up.'
Her experience from January has taught her that some times you can do too much and you have to know when to stop. She believes she over extended herself after last October's Dublin marathon as she went straight into trials for the European cross country team and that this was the reason she got so sick in January - Though she excelled at the European trials.

'If you have a cold or a 'flu coming on, there is no point in pushing your body. I stop if I feel tired or am coming up to a big race. I don't watch what I eat. I eat anything. I think when you are training, you can eat. You can start getting run down and sick. Maybe that is what happened me after Christmas. After the Dublin marathon, I was into the European cross country straight away and maybe that is where all my sickness came. I never gave myself a chance to recover after Dublin, it was just bang, bang, bang. It was race, race, race. And I think my body said, look it here, we have enough and we can't go any further. That is how I think I got so sick. Recovery and rest is so important. I will know this year if I do another marathon to take a bit of time out after it. I didn't get chance this year because of the European trials in the Curragh.'

Despite the proximity to the Dublin marathon, Pauline secured her place in Spain with her highest ever placing in the European trials, fourth. She ran in Spain but felt she didn't do herself justice.

'Even at the European Cross Country, I could feel myself going down. I was getting tired. My body was drained because I had one race after another. There was no let up so the let up was in January when I got really sick. I was in bed, I could not get out of it. I was in a bad way. Ok a few girls in work had it as well so there was obviously something going but I thought I was going to die. I missed the Leinster championships in Tinryland and the girls did very well. I was raging but there wasn't a thing I could do. I couldn't run it. You have to listen to your body as well.'

In previous years, people with the B qualifying standard went to the Olympics but not this year.

'It would be great to have went to the Olympics. I am well inside the B qualifying standard but they are not sending people with B standard.

'It was just my luck that they didn't send people with the B standard this year. It would really have been the icing on the cake of my athletic career. It really would. To stand on the line at the Olympics. I kind of had a good feeling, like would I make this team? Then when I heard they weren't sending B, I was a bit disappointed. I was well inside the (B) time. There was a good few impressed with the time and I was saying, maybe they will change their mind, but they have a contract signed so no, I won't be going to Bejing. I will be looking it on telly.'

From Recreational Runner To Serious Competitor
One of six girls and three boys who were born to Bill and Brid Gorman at Newtown, Killeigh, Pauline's path to top class running was not conventional. Her mother, Brid - A Gorry from Geashill - was a very good runner in her youth and is '