Sonia O’Sullivan was in the hot seat for The Ray D’Arcy Show’s Soundtrack to My Life segment. She took Ray through a childhood filled with church bells, milk churns and Paul Young.
During their conversation, Sonia spoke about finding her way to a style of running that suited her. She was bad at the long jump and struggled in sprints but found a natural fit in cross country and long distance.
She remembered that someone who had seen her run recommended she try cross-country. But she didn’t really know what it was.
"They said to me, ‘Jeez…you’d be great at cross-country’ and I kind of thought, ‘What’s cross-country? Do you have to run across the country?‘.
"And then that following September I ran my first cross-country race, went the wrong way, ran around the people instead of in the middle of the people…won the race, you know.
"So, that again was a bit of a taste of success. And once you taste it, then you want to do it more."
In primary school, the Cork woman said that there weren't many opportunities for girls to get involved in sports so her interest in running was a little delayed.
"It took a while. I ran a bit in primary school but not much - there weren't many sports choices for girls back then so the athletic club, which was always well established in Cove - there were always some good runners or good athletes who were well known in the town for what they did.
"They were famous, I suppose."
The athlete says that during her teenage years, running began to define her life and was especially helpful during exams.
"It became more important, definitely. I never let it go even when I was studying for my Leaving Cert.
"Running, to me, it became this hour - it was important for me - to get out and train. I used that as a kind of an energiser kind of thing as opposed to, 'I can't run because I'm studying' which a lot of people did."
"I still like to promote this, when kids are getting ready for exams, that it's good to get out there and have a bit of fresh air and have a break from being in school all day long."
You can listen to the interview on The Ray D'Arcy Show above or watch Sonia in studio below:
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