Ciara Mageean, the Long Interview

Editor’s note: Stuart Weir interviewed Ciara Mageean after her fourth-place finish in the 1,500 meters at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where she ran a gutsy race. One year later, Ciara Mageean would win the 1,500 meters at the European Athletics Championships in Rome 2024. 

We are saddened, as is the sport, by the death of Ciara Mageean last weekend, one week after her wedding. Our thoughts and prayers are with her husband, family, and friends.

Ciara Mageean, November 2023

RunBlogRun, #1, Let’s start with Budapest World Champs: 3:56. PB, national record, and you finished fourth, I mean. How do you deal with that?

Ciara Mageean: I had kind of mixed emotions after that race. Immediately after, I was disappointed because I was so close to the podium, and I didn’t get it. And this is the closest I’ve ever been to a global medal. And I came into that championship with, like, a quiet confidence that I felt I could be up there and be competitive. And for me, that was the first time I’d ever truly stepped out on a global stage with that belief.

So to come so close and to just miss it was really bitterly disappointing. I did cry whenever I got off the track. And then, to be honest with you, with reflection, I was like, to know whenever we come into sport, and I often say this, like my mum, it’s said, it’s like a cliché. ‘All you can do’is your best’. I came off the track knowing there was nothing more I could have done; like everything else was out of my control. I needed somebody else to have a bit less of a good day.

RunBlogRun, #2: Were you happy with your race execution?

Ciara Mageean: I ran the best race that I could possibly run. I ran tactically perfect race on my part a PB a 3:56, which was a time that in the past I thought I maybe I never could have run and I was fourth in the world. So, that disappointment very, very quickly made way for pride and a great sense of achievement and also a little bit of excitement because I was, that’s right, that’s the World Champs I came there in; there’s an Olympic Games in ’24. So it’s probably the best place I’ve ever been, going into another major world championship.

So, it was very exciting. It was a roller coaster of emotions, for sure. I’m very proud of that championship and that performance. For me, it’s always great to go out and perform at your best on the day of a championship. I am’often asked ‘who do you take confidence from or who do you look to for’inspiration?’ And for me,it’ste often it’s the athletes. They might not be the ones who are meeting, but it’s the athletes who come out, and they peak at a championship, because that’s the reason I do athletics. I want to bring medals home to Ireland. You try to plan your season with your coach as best you can to peak for that championship for that time of year, and I think we did a great job. So yeah, I was very proud of that.

RunBlogRun, #3:  What is your assessment of the whole 2023 season?

Ciara Mageean: I think I’m, all in all, pretty proud of that season. I came away with a 3:55 PB, which, like, I did some testing recently in Liverpool and was on the treadmill and I was warming up, just chatting to Helen Clitheroe (my coach) – I had taken a bad hand, and we hadn’t really had a good, like, debrief meeting – and I was like, ‘ Hele, that’s 3:55. ’ That’s the time that I kind of always believed that I would be able to run a 3.56 and I was like, I just out-achieved my own expectations of myself, and I was like, I ran 3:55, and nobody can ever take that away from me. So I’m extremely proud, and I think we did a great job throughout the season. That’s another thing. Planning the season, having a good approach to training.

Like last year (2022), obviously, Steve Vernon left as coach and then Helen came on, so that was a big change last year, and I managed to get out and win two medals at the European and Commonwealth Games, so that was a fantastic season. So there was a little bit of pressure on my shoulders from myself to really be able to emulate, or even better, the season I had last year, and like that, you can look at it as pressure, or you can look at it as privilege. And I was, I’m, right, I’m really privileged to be in the place that I now know what I can do, and I want to try to do it, and I’m very proud that I did that because I think sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming to come in with that expectation on your shoulders.

So I’m proud to be able to go out. Some races had highs, and then I had lows. Like, I’m out of – I’m very bad at remembering my races. I think it was either Stockholm or Oslo – I had a poor race, and I felt really a bit dejected after that. I got flipped, but it was a third race on the trot. I came back.’I was like, ‘Look, I had a hard training session that week’. I was proud that I kept a level head, said, ‘That’sught, fine. Doesn’t matter; you know you’re in good shape. One does not measure the whole season,’ and then I picked myself up and went out and had some, some more pretty good races after that

So yeah, I’m pretty proud of that season to be able to have one of the most successful seasons I’ve ever had, to consistently race at Diamond League level, which is, I’m a thing; I’m up there among the best in the world every week. Yeah, it’s exciting, and I’m realizing I’m a bit older than some of the other athletes I’m racing against. I’m like, I’ve, right, I’ve served my time.

I’m ready because I look at some of the youngsters, and they’re winning medals already, and ldidn’toh, I didn’t have that easy path in the sport. An awful lot of low days and injuries. And so I think I’ve earned these victorious days and these seasons, and I think I’m really proud of that.

RunBlogRun, #4:  You mentioned the 2023 Diamond  League final – 11^th in 4:03.09 with Faith Kipyegon winning in 3:50. Just tell me something about that.

Ciara Mageean: I think I went into that final tired. It was far away, all the way in Eugene, and I was coming off the high of a fantastic World Champs (fourth), and then obviously running my 3:55 in Brussels (second behind Laura Muir in 3:55.87) was fantastic. And then I feel maybe I was OK; you’re good, you’re in good shape. I don’t think I was too tired. I think the race was just one race too many. The travel probably took a little bit more out of me than I expected.

I think that I’m a championship runner. I aim to peak at the championships. That’s, as I said, the whole reason I do it, and therefore I invest an awful lot of my energy in that. So I come out of it quite often, maybe a little tired, and in previous years, I’ve kind of observed that I might get like one or two good races after you’re saying you’re only as good as your last race. It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I’m not looking; I’m an older, more mature athlete now, and that’s ‘no, that’s not going to take away from the fantastic season I had ’. I just had to look at it and see it for what it was. I was tired. The travel was long, and I was probably ready for my break.

RunBlogRun, #5: Now, going back to 2022, 2nd in Europe, second in the Commonwealth. But also injured

Ciara Mageean: I was quite unlucky at the beginning of 2022; I picked up an injury in the indoor season. And so I tore my calf at the beginning of 2022 and missed the indoor season, and for that’s like, that’s always tough; you have to battle that little thing in your head. I’m like, ‘I’m missing out on time. Everybody else is fitter than me,’ but I knew that the spell of time that I had before the season would be enough to get ready. I managed to get COVID at one point during that and had to take, like, a bit of a week of much easier running. Basically, some days completely off, which is less than ideal, but I think I put an awful lot of that ability to cope with that down to the injuries that I’ve had before me, where I have coped with injury. I’m very much of the belief that it’s like, ‘all I can do is the best that I can do.  So I’m going to train as hard as I can, stay as fit and healthy as I can, and I’ll give it absolutely everything. And I hope that is enough on the day.

At the beginning of this year as well, I managed to tear a bit of a tendon on the outside of my foot. So I went to Flagstaff in a boot, and I only started running whenever we were on camp in Flagstaff. I had about a week and a half training and I fancied my chances at running a 3K at the indoors in Boston purely because I as I said t’ my coach, ‘I want to gi’e it a lash’. I know if it doesn’t go well, I’ll be disappointed, but I’m just going to go out and try, and I always laugh. I’m a bit of a fierce competitor. I should have gone out further back in the field, but I didn’t. I went out and tried to race Laura, who clearly was in really good shape, and I had a week and a half of training, so I DNF’d that race. But again, I was like, I knew that I could have a really good season, didn’t I? If it didn’t have the most perfect build-up, that’s been a major learning experience: you can have blips along the way, but if you keep a level head and keep your head down. You just work hard, do your best, and I do believe no athlete has a perfect pathway into any championship.

RunBlogRun, #6: You mentioned Laura Muir. I always see you 2 as rivals. Do you see her as a special rival?

Ciara Mageean: I’ve raced Laura for a lot of years now, and I feel very fortunate because I always watched Laura, and I feel like she was racing phenomenally on the world stage, and I could look at Laura there and think there’s not that much difference between us. She’s a Scot. I’m an Irish; she’s not. And she’s up there challenging the best. So as much as Laura is my she’s-it-or, she’s also part of that inspiration to get out there and race. That’s, I think, a beautiful thing. And so to be able to get out there and compete against her and, finally, on a couple of occasions, do better than her has been phenomenal, but equally, like, I sat at the Olympic Games, and I was screaming Laura on being one of my fiercest competitors. I was just so happy to see her medal, and I think that comes with that mutual respect for how tough this journey is. And I’d seen her up there competing and missing out on those global medals that I felt she deserved. So yeah, for me, seeing that, I feel very fortunate to be in that position because I think it would be a hell of a lot less enjoyable this journey I’m on if I hated the people I raced against. That’s not to say that I don’t want to beat Laura every time I toe the line against her; I certainly do. But I have no doubt she feels the same.

RunBlogRun, #7: Going right back to the beginning, almost when you were getting medals at the world under-18 and under-20s, then took some time to make a breakthrough at the senior level?

Ciara Mageean: I was very fortunate as an underage athlete. I came to the sport relatively late compared with some of my counterparts. I didn’t start until secondary school.  My PE teacher spotted that I was quite good and had a bit of experience at primary school through the Mary Peters Trust. I went to be on sports day with them because they spotted me from across a cross-country race, but I really started track in secondary school, and it was a real upward trajectory; under his guidance, Eamon Christie, I excelled as a junior athlete.

And it was interesting because, I suppose, in my innocence of youth, I thought that’s how it always would be. It was an upward trajectory: every time I went out, I would PB; every time I put a vest on for Ireland, I would medal; and then, at the end of my junior career, I suffered a pretty bad injury. I had a pain in my left ankle, and it was painful to run all the time. I couldn’t even jog for a bus without being in pain, and ultimately, during my time at university, it resulted in me having surgery on my ankle.

And that was probably a very tough time. It was probably one of the first challenges I experienced in the sport where I hadn’t been running for a while, or really not at the level I wanted to. That was the first time I missed out on running for Ireland. So like every year I had got an Irish vest.

People would have been like, ‘Oh, she was just a good junior. She’s not going to make it now.’ Senior now. A senior’s fear that I had. I’ll be just a good junior, a flash in the pan. And I kind of doubted that it kind of silenced those doubters, but I always said it had also silenced the doubts in my head about whether I could make it as a senior.

But yeah, that little blip after my junior career, then actually stamping my claim in 2016 with my first-ever senior medal (European bronze), that was a tough journey. Still, I’m really thankful for the amazing people who were around me.

RunBlogRun, #8:  Just tell me a bit about Helen, your coach. How does it work, and what does she give you? What’s your training like?

Steve Vernon probably brought Helen in because she shared a similar ethos to his. And so then, bringing that forward, she would be a smooth fit into the team, and it’s obviously gone very well. Last year, whenever the change came up – Steve left in May, which is probably pretty tough. Like, the team wasn’t aware of that plan. So going into a major championship year with two major championships for me, having your coach gone from May was a pretty big blow and took some adjusting. I can remember ringing Ricky just to tell him that Steve had to step back, and he’s going to take on the role with GB. Ricky Simms (my manager) was kind of like, OK, well, do you need me to find your new coach? Do you need a another team?   

So I was kind of like, well, Helen is coming on as head coach, and I was like, I want to give her a chance. I want to see how it goes, and Helen was really honest, saying, ‘Look, if it doesn’t work, if we get through this season, because obviously it was too much to change in May with, I mean, two major champs in the summer, just like we’ll get through this season. If you don’t feel I’m the right person, then I completely support you in going elsewhere, and I’ll help you. So when we had those honest conversations, and then we got to the end of the season, we were like, ‘I think it’s worked pretty well. It’s been an interesting transition, as it’s the first time I’ve ever been coached in athletics by a female coach, which has been quite nice, I think, as well.

RunBlogRun, #9: Talk a bit more about coaches and coaching.

Ciara Mageean: Interestingly, reflecting back, I’ve had different coaches and really different styles of coaching throughout my career, and I think each style of coaching has been really well matched to the person I was at that time and the type of coaching I needed. Eamon Christy was my first coach when I knew nothing about athletics, and he guided me through it and taught me a lot. It was kind of like This is what you do and I go and do it. And then I had Jerry, who was there at a time that I struggled with my identity as a runner because I was injured, and then really struggled with my confidence coming back, and Jerry not only nurtured me with athletics, but nurtured me much deeper as a person.

Then I came over here to Steve Vernon, and Steve really gave me a real sense of belonging in athletics. I felt like, ‘yes, I finally belong here’. I came from an Irish sport called camogie (a bit like field hockey), and I actually always felt like, despite being good at athletics, I didn’t quite belong. I didn’t have a lot of friends in the sport. I didn’t belong to, like, a big club. I didn’t go to club training, and so then this team in Manchester really gave me a little tribe, a little Wolf Pack, and then whenever Helen has come on the scene, I’ve realized that actually she’s been very nurturing and has given me confidence in what I know. So we sit down to plan races, and we sit down to plan race tactics, for example, and in the past, I’ve often looked at coaches for advice, and coaches would nearly tell me what to do.

Helen’s like, ‘What do you think?’ I’m like. ‘What do you mean?’ She’s like, ‘You’re just as experienced as me.’ You know yourself better than me. What do you think is your best way to race this? Are you happy with this race plan, or do you feel confident in this training going forward? And I’m like, ‘I quite like that’. It’s giving me an awful lot of confidence in my knowledge, and I’m learning a lot through Helen. And so yeah, each coach has given me that, and I think for me and Helen it’s a real wee partnership, and obviously I raced against Helen throughout my career.

RunBlogRun, #10:  You and Helen have some history?

Ciara Mageean: Yes, in my first ever Commonwealth Games in India in 2010 I raced with Helen in India, and it feels like it’s come full circle, and then she was the woman who really helped me get my first ever Commonwealth Medal. So I think that’s a beautiful process and a perfect example of this sport and also what I want to be in this sport.

When I’m done racing, I want to try to help athletes realize their potential. And so yeah. Helen’s been a really nurturing presence towards that, and the training is very simple. But there are certainly aspects that I’m like, ‘that’s hard’. She trains you hard whenever she needs to. She probably challenges me on the track in ways I hadn’t been challenged before and shows me that I can get out there and cope with the pace of a 3.55 -1500 and hopefully more. So yeah, I’m super grateful to Helen. And that wasn’t an easy task for her to take on a group of athletes, a whole big bunch of athletes, but also an athlete who had ambitions of medalling at major champs, in May of a year in which she was going to race in the summer. Hats off to Helen for coping with that pressure.

RunBlogRun, #11:  What kind of mileage do you do?

Ciara Mageean: In the past, the highest mileage I ran was around 80 miles. But as I’ve gotten a little older, I’ve kind of realized that sometimes I’m just too sore for some of the runs, and I’ve realized that more miles aren’t necessarily better, so the current mileage, like last week, was 65 miles. I think I might get up to the high 70s miles in the week. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to those 80-mile highs.

But it’s probably made me realize that quality is much better than quantity, so I now like to top up my training with a bit of cross-training. I might be on a bike; we have a little system called the lever system, which is like a bungee cord you put around a treadmill, so it helps offset a bit of the load through the legs. So yeah, last week was a 65-mile week, and some weeks will be slightly more, some weeks will be slightly less depending on, for example, how long a training session is – like you could get out and you could have a session of hills which don’t give you as many miles as, say, a long six-mile tempo, so I try not to count the mileage. It’s probably more the quality of work, so.

RunBlogRun, #12: Two more questions. You studied physiotherapy. Do you think that gives you an advantage in understanding your body and so on?

Ciara Mageean: I definitely do. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of bodily awareness. I think it helps with things like learning new skills. So I’m working with a strength and conditioning coach, and I’m learning new lifts, and I think that gives me a better understanding of how the body moves, how the body should move. I have a good eye for that, and it also probably does help a little bit whenever I’m reflecting on rehab that I have to do and the processes.

I will say that sometimes it probably works against me because I have a bit more knowledge. Sometimes I wish I was more ignorant, so when something hurts, I’m like, That sounds like it’s XY or Z, and sometimes that would be a lot more, and it would be a lot nicer to just be able to switch that off and not know just how serious an injury is. For example, going into the Olympic Games knowing that you have a grade 2B tear in your calf, that I know the magnitude of that, and I’m like, ‘OK, great, right’. And also knowing, like, I could tear that further, OK, and what’s the result of tearing that further? So yeah, sometimes it serves to my advantage, and other times it doesn’t. But I’m quite good at switching it off.