Member Profile

Name: Deirdre O'Callaghan

Member of Eagle AC since: 2009

How long have you been running what made you take it up: 10 years. I returned to Cork after many years in Dublin and joined the "meet and train" group led by John Quigley as a way to get fit and make friends!  The friendships are still going strong and the "meet and train" girls and I have coffee together every Saturday morning!!

Favourite thing about running: Every run is an adventure. And none more so than the Eagle AC Cork to Kinsale run 2015 with John Desmond!!

Favourite race distance to run: 5 miles.

What is your main goal for this year: Complete the Ballycotton summer series, improving as I go!!

Your best race/most memorable racing moment to date: Lots of memorable moments – crossing the finish line of the Cork marathon in 2008 with the girls, is a standout. Best race is Churchtown South 5 mile 2015.

Tell us something most people might not know about you: I bake (and eat) sourdough bread. The sourdough starter or wild yeast, needs to be fed and watered daily. So it has to be entrusted to somebody reliable if I'm going on holidays!

Biggest heroes (sporting or non-sporting): Surgeons. Especially neurosurgeons. And the O'Donovan brothers.

One bit of advice you would give to someone thinking of taking up running: Train to your heart rate.

Other hobbies outside of running: Singing with my choir, gym, swimming and bread baking!

3 things you would take with you onto a desert island: A hammock, sunscreen and my kindle. I'd have to hope somebody would mind the yeast till I got back!