Hickey captures National Marathon silver medal

BROTHER Pearse Athletic Club’s Ciara Hickey captured a silver medal at the 2021 National Senior Marathon Championships.

This year’s contest was incorporated into Sunday’s Belfast City Marathon following the cancellation of the Dublin City Marathon.

Hickey has been competing eight years now and, after going the bulk of five years without running a marathon, decided now was the time to throw her hat back in the ring.

In June, the 41-year-old started to ramp up her preparations and entered two races, including the Antrim Coast Half Marathon, ahead of the National Championship.

“Over the last 12 months, I know I’m getting older, and I’ve had a bit of an attitude change,” Hickey told The Echo.

“If I’m going to go for it, the time is now. It means a lot to me [to claim silver]. At the start I felt really good, I thought I might be on for a chance of winning it.

“As the race went on and we hit different stages, it was tough.

“There were points where it would have been easy to curl up and stop altogether.

“When I started struggling, I started to ease off a little bit and walk, but people were running after me with water trying to push me on.

“It’s worth it if you can grit it out, you’ll always regret quitting and I had a clear head so I persevered to the end.”

With around 10 miles left in the race, Hickey found herself in a solid running group, but some grit in her shoe caused her feet to blister, making the final push very difficult.

At one stage she was on track to hit 2:38 and after pacing herself with short walks, she picked up the pace again.

The Brittas resident made up great ground, eventually crossing the line in 2:44.40 to claim the silver medal, just 58 seconds behind eventual winner Fionnuala Ross of Armagh AC.

Training with her coach Eamon Tierney, Hickey has her eyes on a Spring-time marathon and was using the National Marathon Championships as “a stepping stone”.

“I wouldn’t have expected this at this stage,” Hickey says.

“I persevered and it really shows the mental strength more than anything.

“I’m just thinking ‘oh you were so close’, and I was, it would have been a major scalp [to beat Fionnuala Ross], she was a heavy favourite coming in. Onwards and upwards.”