LUCY IS A WARRIOR & LEGEND
Inspiring Sligo runner, triathlete and horticulturalist Lucy Brennan talked to Gerry McLaughlin about her triumphs in the Warriors Run and many marathons – and the grief that she has suffered in her personal life
THIS IS THE STORY of a sensitive and sensible child of nature from south Sligo who grew into a remarkable woman of courage, character and real substance.
It is the story of Lucy Brennan from Bunninadden, one of Sligo’s greatest athletes and one of its most decorated, who has tasted sorrow beyond words, and trauma of the most terrible order, but who bravely refused to stay in the arms of grief.
Lucy is also Sligo’s most versatile athlete, with outstanding success in the triathlon, cross-country, the Warriors Run and most of all the marathon, in which she has become worldclass since she took up the sport in the late 1980s.
Her story is even more remarkable as she did not take up relatively competitive athletics until the mid-1980s when she was 26. Her subsequent achievements will probably never be equalled.
Lucy’s home is a treasure trove of various trophies and accolades as befits her status as an elite athlete, but there is no hype, no big soundbites or marketing pitches.
She is a very grounded person, a horticulturist by profession. She is in charge of all the parks and open spaces in Sligo, which, like her running, is a passion.
And she takes great solace in nature and all its forms and is a proud daughter of the soil, coming from a family of seven from a farm near Bunninadden, where her mother Eveleen gave her that deep love of plants and nature.
As a person, she seems to be quiet by nature, does not waste words, and has a precise eloquence, and you can almost hear her listening to the question before she answers in thoughtful, measured tones.
There is not the slightest scintilla of ego as she speaks in level tones of an athletics career that began around 1985 and would still be continuing but for Covid-19.
And listening to her, you get the sense that she is quietly but immensely driven to be the very best she can be, driven to succeed against any odds and totally committed to her sport.
She has taken part in 10 Dublin City Marathons. Lucy won gold and silver medals in the European Masters Cross Country in 2000.
She won two individual silver medals and team gold at the British Masters Home Countries Cross Country Championships in 2004 and 2016 – the latter is truly amazing giving the terrible tragedy and trauma she went through in the previous years.
Lucy also has five National Marathon silver medals in Dublin, Fields of Athenry victories from 2004 to 2006 and countless race wins. But one of her greatest achievements of all was in 2016 when the ran the Dublin City Marathon in 2:59:58, a brilliant time which assured her of the F55 prize.
In global terms it placed her a magnificent sixth in the world.
In other spheres she ran a personal best of 2:43.36 in the Dublin City Marathon of 2003.
Lucy won an incredible three Cork marathons in a row from 2008 to 2010, and was also successful in Belfast, Derry and Longford (five times).
She has also won the Warriors Run on six occasions and won the Grange 10k in a personal best time of 35:23, which is remarkable by any standards.
In addition, she ran scores of road races all over the land and won the female section of many of them.
But this is also the story of a woman who has suffered terrible tragedy in her personal life, and whose indomitable spirit refused to die.
Lucy was dealt a cruel hand when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2010 just after winning the Cork Marathon in June of that year.
THIS WAS AN extra terrible shock for a woman who was so fit and healthy. She had surgery in Galway and was given the all-clear in early 2011. But just two years later, she lost the love of her life, Dermot Cronin from Cork. Dermot died from pancreatic cancer in May 2013. Dermot had just been diagnosed the previous September and it was terminal. So, it was an incredibly brave decision for the couple to get married on February 1, 2013, as they knew it would not be for long.
They had just over three months together as a married couple and had been together for eight years.
Lucy could have been forgiven for giving up on life after that terrible double blow and railing against its cruel twists.
Instead, she decided not to lie down or give up and instead she slowly and painfully grew back into the life that so defined her, a life that became her greatest solace – the life of the great athlete and fearless competitor that she will always be.
Lucy came from a farming family of seven children. She was born near Tubbercurry in 1959. The Brennan family moved out to Bunninadden
when she was in her early teens. She went to school in the Marist Convent in Tubbercurry – the main sport there was basketball.
Lucy said: “There was more emphasis on boarders and town girls as they were closer to the school.”
She took up the running first around 1985, when she used to do an “odd mini marathon with a few friends, including the Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon”.
She said: “I was swimming one day, and I met up with some people who were members of the triathlon club in Sligo and they encouraged me to come along, so I started swimming, got a bike and did my first triathlon. “Susan Brookes and Timmy McCarthy introduced me to triathlon.” Lucy was certainly diving in at the deep end as the triathlon is one heck of a tough event.
She said: “You have to be very committed as you had to train twice a day with a swim and a bike or a swim and a run.
“So it was quite a time consuming thing – you were constantly thinking, I need to get my run, my cycle or my swim in.
“1990 was my first Half Iron Man, in Rosses Point. I had quite a respectable time in it and it went quite well for me and I was the first local female home at that time.
“And then we had a National Series and we travelled to Kilkee in Co. Clare, which was a prestigious annual event.
“I picked up a few silver medals in that over the years and I got my time down to 4:45, which was quite respectable, in the Rosses Point All-Ireland Half Iron Man.
“The club also competed in competitions in Dublin and Derry.
“The Olympic triathlon distance was 1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run. The Half Iron Man was double that.”
Lucy adapted very quickly to the rigours of the triathlon and when asked where her proclivity for the sport came from, she said: “Maybe it was something that was there, and I had not tapped into it or maybe it was just that I got the chance to do it.”
BY THE YEAR 2000, Lucy was selected for Ireland and took part in the European Masters Triathlon in Holland and got a silver medal, and the Irish team won a gold medal.
Lucy had a great base built up for her subsequent marathon career. She was doing a lot of road running and some cross-country and fortunately had no long- term injuries. Lucy also took part in the Warriors Run in Strandhill in 1994 and finished third overall in the ladies’ race. She had six wins (1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), a truly remarkable record for a race noted for its very challenging terrain and hill climbing. She said: “It is quite an endurance event and having the base of endurance from the triathlon helped me a lot.”
Lucy competed in her first Dublin City Marathon in 1996 at the age of 36. That was the start of a long and successful career in this most gruelling of events.
She said: “That was purely from triathlon training. I did not specifically train for that marathon and my time was 3:12.”
By then she was a member of the Sligo Athletic Club and she did a lot of her training with Damian McSharry and Tom Meehan. They did a lot of training in Union Wood for the long runs and they did a lot of training at the racecourse too.
She ran the Belfast City Marathon
in 2002 and finished third female. For the next two years she finished in second place. Lucy said: “I had a time of 2:43 for the Dublin City Marathon in 2003. I also ran Belfast, where I was second, and I won the Longford marathon. My Dublin time was a personal best. “Running is just so uplifting. Sometimes it is a bit of struggle to get out, but when you do get out, you come back so much lighter and so much better in yourself. “On the strength of that good time in Dublin, well-known local athlete and coach Ray Flynn approached me and asked me would I consider looking for the Olympic marathon qualifying time.
“He arranged a meeting with the late Jerry Kiernan. We went to Santry and met with Jerry. He did not put out a training plan in place, but he was guiding me along the route.
“He did a thing of day to day and week to week, and I remember he would ring every evening to check how my training went. I’ll never forget that.
“Unfortunately, it was not going to be as I picked up a stress fracture in February 2004. We were looking at London for the qualifying time and the Olympics were in Athens that year.
“That was a disaster, really, and it was very disappointing.”
Lucy lost a bit of buzz, but she continued to train and do a lot of local events all over the country.
2005 was a good year as Lucy achieved some personal bests running at shorter distances, which included the half-marathon.
She said: “I had a personal best of 77 minutes in the Derry Half Marathon, which was quite respectable, and a personal best in a 10k in Grange.”
LUCY HAD FIVE wins in the Longford Marathon, winning her first in 2002. Her home is weighed down with crystal bowls, medals, trophies and numerous awards – “good memories”, said Lucy.
Lucy holds the record for a unique three-in-a-row for the Cork City Marathon from 2008 to 2010, the city of her late beloved husband Dermot Cronin. Lucy met Dermot in 2005. He was a native of Cork city and that was an extra reason for Lucy to take part and
“Doing triathlon was quite time consuming – you were constantly thinking, I need to do my run, cycle or swim”