Kerry O’Flaherty

Kerry O’Flaherty (37) is an Irish Olympian 3,000-metre steeplechase athlete. From Newcastle, Co Down, she now lives in Loughinisland with her partner and coach, Richard Rodgers, and their dogs, goat and alpacas “We need goals. Otherwise I ask, ‘Why am I d

Iget up at 7am, but sometimes I wake up a bit earlier if I’m being tested. I’m in the Whereabouts system, which is part of the World AntiDoping Agency (WAD). Because of my level of sport, I’m in the testing pool for athletes being tested by their federation, by Sport Ireland. I’m an Olympian 3,000-metre steeplechase athlete. So some mornings, I’ve a wake-up call at 6am, with doping control knocking at my door to come and randomly test me. It’s usually urine and a blood test. We get tested at least once a quarter.

It’s part and parcel of my life. I’m very happy to be tested. There is an online system, and you have to fill it in every quarter and say where you are going to be every day. It can be quite challenging, especially if I’m away at a training camp. You have to give a one-hour slot for every single day. Mine is 6am until 7am. If you’re not there for your slot, that is a black mark against you. They also do random calls, so they could come to your home at 10pm. But if you’re not there for the random calls, you’re not penalised.

I live in Loughinisland, Co Down. It’s out in the country. I live with my partner and coach, Richard Rodgers. He has been my partner and my coach for over 10 years now. I also work part-time as a substitute teacher, so some days I might get a call to go into a school. I teach PE, but I could be asked to teach anything.

Richard works in the energy business in Northern Ireland. It’s a government job, and he commutes to Belfast. We have already discussed from the night before what the training plan should be. We come from the same running club, and we both love running. There are quite a lot of running couples — Sonia O’Sullivan and her husband, Nic [Bideau], who was also her coach. And Paula Radcliffe’s husband, Gary [Lough], coached her. It makes life easier if your partner understands running, because there is an awful lot of travelling. I think the life of an individual athlete compared to a team sport is more demanding. You’ve got to have somebody who understands the sport, and the amount of dedication that has to be put into it. I have a powdered supplement drink Revive Active — and then I have a bowl of porridge, topped with muesli, fruit, and a spoonful of nut butter. Then I have a strong black coffee. Coffee is a real endurance-runner thing,

We’ve got a bit of land and we’ve plenty of animals — two whippet dogs; they are like small greyhounds two goats and four alpacas. On a normal running day, the dogs come with me. Before I leave the house, I do a lot of activation exercises with resistance bands. It’s the old Jane Fonda routine. I’m getting my muscles ready to run, and it is to prevent injury.

I wear a smartphone watch, which is an all-singing, all-dancing one for elite athletes. I don’t need to connect it to any other device, and wherever I am in the world, my coach can access my training. It has the heart rate on the wrist. It tells me if I’m over-training or under-training, and it looks at my recovery status. It tracks my sleep, and will tell me if I’ve had a restless night. It will tell me if I need to get an extra hour’s nap. It’s so precise that it can even say, ‘You stopped the watch there. You must have gone for a pee in a bush’.

I like to listen to the sounds around me. I don’t mind running in the cold, but I don’t like training in heavy rain. On a normal morning run, I’ll do six to eight miles, and then, in the evening, I enjoy meeting up with my running club. I run a bit faster when I’m running with somebody else. You are more relaxed, and the times passes faster. I usually do two sessions a day.

Steeplechase is done on the track. It is 3,000 metres and we have to clear barriers. They are like solid hurdles, and you must clear them with both legs. When it comes into the season, I work with a hurdle coach, but in winter, I concentrate on road running and cross country. In the beginning, steeplechase was a men’s event, and eventually women were allowed to compete. I come from a middle-distance background. I had been doing mountain running and I’d gone to two world championships with that, and then I decided to give steeplechase a go.

I was a bit late coming to athletics. I did a 3,000-metre road race when I was 13, and I ended up beating a lot of the others. Someone from the local running club spotted me and suggested that I try a couple of sessions. Within my first year of running, I got my first Irish Schools International. It progressed from there.

I guess the determination and drive has always been there. I’ve had knock-backs with injuries, but it’s all about being able to bounce back. You need to have goals and targets. Otherwise, you ask yourself, ‘Why am I dragging myself out on this wet night?’ Everybody needs goals. That’s when sport is great. Running is a very friendly sport, especially with this Kia Race Series. When I travel all over Ireland, there’s always someone I know at a race.

Running has been a big part of my life for so long. I never switch off from it. If I’m not training, I’m watching athletics on TV with Richard. Or we might watch something else, but it’s almost always sport.

After a hard training session, I might sleep for 10 hours. That seems quite long, but when you think about it, you need that recovery.