Mary O'Connor housewife and mother of five children shares how she trained for her first marathon.
Last January, Mary O'Connor decided to set herself the challenge of running the Dublin City Marathon. For a mother of five even with the help of her husband, training for a marathon presents challenges for family life.
Having never been seriously involved in athletics before, she was initially embarrassed about the prospect of running in public. Despite this and family commitments, Mary O'Connor set about training for the event which takes place next week.
For the first six months she trained alone and then joined a friend who is also training for his first marathon.
One of her daughters admits she was surprised at first to hear that her mother was going to run the marathon but is now very proud of her. Her husband was not too surprised by the marathon plan as Mary O'Connor has a keen interest in sport.
The challenges of training for a marathon and looking after five children was especially problematic over the last few months. She could only train at night but could not leave the children. Luckily she has had the full support of her husband.
It's a 24 hour effort really.
There is also the support of her children who are optimistic that she will finish the marathon having trained so hard. Despite her determination Mary O'Connor says she felt like giving up on a number of occasions.
A highlight of her training was the first time she completed a 16 mile run. Despite all the hard work, Mary O'Connor has no plans to complete any more marathons after this first one.
I genuinely think I couldn't devote any more family time to it. I think it's a once-off.
This episode of 'Ireland's Eye' was broadcast on 22 October 1982.
'Ireland's Eye' was a Tuesday-to-Friday series with human-interest stories and features from locations throughout Ireland. First broadcast on 7 October 1980, the programme ran until August 1983.
