Just weeks after a win in the Cork Marathon I was diagnosed with cancer
enjoy the marathon in that lovely city by the Lee.
She said: “Dermot ran as well, but he was an ex-runner when I met him and he was a jogger by then.
“We met in Sligo and he was a keen golfer and a keen sports person in every sense as he followed all sports.
“He previously played hurling, ran and golfed and did a number of different sports. His running club was Leevale AC.”
Lucy continued her hectic schedule in 2009 when she came fourth in the Dublin City Marathon and won the Cork and Longford marathons. She had run three marathons that year and repeated that feat in other years.
The World Masters was due to be held in Finland that same year. She regrets not entering it as the winning time was 3:11 – well within her range.
She also represented the Ireland Masters women cross-country team at the British Masters Home Countries competition.
She went on to win the Cork marathon for the third year in a row in June 2010. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August that year and was treated at Galway University Hospital. That was a terrible blow. Lucy said: “It kind of knocked me back in terms of progressing in my marathon career. I had been doing very well up to that diagnosis.
“I was called for a mammogram and then I was called back to Galway and I got my diagnosis in Galway in August 2010.
“It was a terrible shock as I had won the Cork Marathon in June and then a few weeks later I am diagnosed with breast cancer.”
WHEN ASKED how she managed to come to terms with this devastating blow, she said: “Yes, it was very traumatic, especially in the beginning. To get the news left me a bit shellshocked really.
“But there was another part of me that was always quite positive with it.”
“So, I got the treatment and I tried to keep on that track that I would be one of the lucky ones and that I would recover quite well.
“I had my surgery in Galway and the treatment does sap your energy. “I tried to go back running by the following spring, but it was hard and there was probably a bit of a lack of motivation there too.
“But I eventually got myself going and back to myself.”
Her driven, natural competitive instincts were a good help to her in this most testing of times.
When she was having her treatment in Galway, she “used to go off for a bit of a run – I used to go down to the playing fields to do it”.
And she was back in action by August of 2011, when she ran the Warriors Run in Strandhill and finished fourth.
Lucy also took part in the Coast to Coast run from Strandhill to Rosses Point. She did the Grange 10k, which motivated her to run the Dublin Ciy Marathon at the end of October.
She had only been back in serious training since July, so it was a truly brave decision to even attempt Dublin.
Not only that but she finished the marathon in a time of 2:58. Achieving a sub-three-hour time was a remarkable feat after being out of competitive running for so long.
She said: “But after the illness I never really got back to my best, no matter how hard I tried. My times lowered and no matter how hard I trained I just could not get back up there.”
But Lucy was barely out of the sadness of her own illness when she got further devastating news that her husband to be Dermot was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2012.
She said: “His diagnosis was terminal. He was extremely ill so it was just survival. He was in St Vincent’s Hospital for three months.”
The couple got married on February 1, 2013. She said: “It was great to have, and a great day we both enjoyed and friends also enjoyed. We always have that memory.”
Dermot sadly passed away on May 17, 2013. Lucy is thankful that she had a number of good people around her in those terribly dark days.
She said: “I was lucky I had some very good friends to keep me going and helped me to get through.”
But despite her darkest days and terrible loss, Lucy somehow found the strength to finish the Dublin City Marathon later that year. “Finishing that race was so emotional and I felt that Dermot had been with me every step of the way.” Running that race took immense bravery and incredible resilience. “I suppose I was lucky that I was able to do the race as I am that kind of person.
“Somebody once said to me that when you are struck down in life, you possibly have two choices. You can lie down under it and let it get the better of you or hopefully you can find the strength that you can get up and make the most of what you have got.
“It is very difficult, and I was not able to do it every day.
“A good friend of mine ran most of that marathon with me and I felt I was very much protected in the whole event.”
But this was not her last hurrah by a long chalk.
Lucy subsequently completed Dublin in 2016 and again in 2019, and has now run a remarkable 12 Dublin City Marathons.
She said: “I intended to do the 2020 marathon in Dublin, but this was postponed due to Covid.” And although she has been hugely successful as a Masters athlete in various spheres, like a true competitor she was “always more interested in the main podium”.
But that only came about after years of diligent training and many hours on the road.
And it is clear that Lucy was mainly her own coach and motivator as befits a very independent spirit. Lucy said: “For a short time while I was doing the training for the Olympic trials I was running twice a day. “I would go in the morning for six miles and in the evening, you would do interval speedwork and a longer run or maybe a hill session.
“Jerry Kiernan was a mentor when I was doing that training. “I was a member of Sligo Athletic Club, but I mostly trained on my own and occasionally I would talk to Terry Hayes and find out what his schedule was.”
Lucy still runs most days, but the past year has been very hard on athletics.
“I have not had a chance to get back swimming or to get back on the bike and to heal up old injuries and to keep up my general fitness.
“It could be a while before there are road races although there are quite a lot of people running and jogging. “My objective now is to keep well, keep healthy and to keep fit. “I would always like to stay fit and running and exploring different areas,
“Finishing the 2013 Dublin Marathon was emotional. I felt that Dermot had been with me every step of the way”
and if events are allowed to come back then hopefully to take part.” There is no doubt that athletics, running and competing have enriched her life.
Lucy said: “It becomes part of your life and part of your lifestyle. And then on the days that you cannot do it, you miss it, you miss it hugely.” Lucy had made many friendships through running in various places. She said: “I have some dear friends and we all have something in common and we all have the same purpose, and it is good.”
In another sphere, Lucy has worked as a supervisor for Sligo Parks at Sligo County Council since 1995. It has allowed her to develop her love of nature and plants and her natural affinity with the outdoors. She said: “This involves parks, pitches, walking and running trails and bike trails, and it fits in with my own passion for running and horticulture. It is about planting in open spaces as well.”
Lucy was also a member of the Sligo Tidy Towns Committee and it dove-tailed very well with her day job. She said: “Tidy Towns and Sligo County Council need to work together for obvious reasons.
“I was a member of the Tidy Towns Committee for a while. In the national scene Sligo is doing OK and it takes a while to get recognition from the National Tidy Towns
Committee. But we are working on getting there, but we still have a huge amount to do.”
She added: “One of the Tidy Towns initiatives was to put plaques up on historic buildings around the town. “I started with the county council in 1995 and my job chimes with my love of the outdoors. It has lots of challenges, as in all walks of life.
“Sadly, we still get quite a bit of vandalism in the parks and the open spaces. But we have to keep as positive as we can.”
Lucy lives in Sligo and says that scenery wise, Sligo is a”jewel”. “I spend a lot of time down around Doorly Park and it is so beautiful. “You go down there in the evening and there is so much different light, and each morning there is a different sunrise.
“It really is beautiful and it is right in the middle of the town and so close to everything and very easy to access for visitors.
“We look after Doorly Park, and I would still go out to Union Road for a run or a walk and you can mix the terrain and the environment as it keeps you fresher and it keeps you more alive.”
AND SHE HAS a soft spot for Tubbercurry, the south Sligo town of her youth, and the area of the county where some of her family still reside. She said: “Yes, Tubbercurry is a nice town with a very good community and they have a number of festivals and a very famous Fair Day.” Lucy has certainly brought great credit to her surname, which is quiet common in south Sligo and she has the following advice for budding athletes: “I think that at a young age it is important that if you are enjoying running and then join a group or a club with a bit of guidance and it is not taken too seriously and that the events are enjoyable as that is very important for the young, and you can then advance from there.
“Too much too soon can cause athletes to get tired or fed up with it or get injured. Be prepared to take it slowly, gradually and to get there eventually. It is better to take it in stages.”
Lucy took up running at around age 26, which is relatively late in life, but she has run largely on her own terms as befits a most gracious but highly independent soul.
She said: “I was never a member of a club as a child growing up and I came to running relatively late in life. “I always do a lot of training on my own, which in one way makes you mentally strong so that when you come to the events you are not relying on anyone else to keep you going. “You are more tuned in to your own feelings and how you are feeling, and you can go it alone.” When it is suggested that she is a most independent person, she laughs: “Yes, I suppose so, but sometimes you have no choice. I train when it suits me – that’s 6am in the morning if that is what fits into my day.
“I can do that on my own and that is the beauty of individual sports in that you can fit them into your life.
“It is possibly difficult in that you have to motivate yourself that bit more because you don’t have the comfort of being on a team or being part of a team.
“As a result, you have to motivate yourself to go out there and do your training. That is a strength.”
“Doorly Park in Sligo really is beautiful and it is right in the middle of the town and so close to everything and very easy to access for visitors”
AND THAT IS some real wisdom from a strong, independent, extremely eloquent woman who has seen sunshine and a fair bit of shadow but is still the captain of her soul and lives her life in her own unique way.
Keep on running, Lucy.