What’s that they say about the poacher and the gamekeeper! Or even putting your money where your mouth is! There has been a growing lobby for me to take the ‘interview’, so here it is – warts and all – as promised!

I don’t have to do a long self-intro, because I have never competed in the colours of Donore Harriers. I just blew in! Even after 10 years (almost!) I still consider myself a ‘blow-in’, next to the legends that are Willie Smith, Maurice Ahern, Jim Fanning, Willie Dunne, and others. I am, of course, honoured to be involved in a club that has such a proud record and tradition in the history of Irish athletics

Note that the important ‘specific’ questions in this interview were asked by club member Claire Mulligan

PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH? Maynooth 1955 (I’m a lilywhite, with the green and red of Mayo in my blood)

WHERE WERE YOU EDUCATED? CBS Kilcock, Liberties Post Primary (for one school year) & much later I did an Occupational Safety & Health course at South Thames College in London

WHAT WAS YOUR MAIN CAREER PATH? Trade Union Health & Safety Representative at Royal Mail London

IN WHAT YEAR DID YOU JOIN DONORE HARRIERS? I first arrived at Donore Harriers on the 4^th November 2010

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE DONORE HARRIERS? I got a text message from John Downes asking if I would like to help out at Donore Harriers. I was introduced to John through a mutual friend, Paul Simons of Mornington Chasers, at a Kilmainham pub on the eve of the 2010 Dublin Marathon. Paul is the uncle of Lottie Simons who runs for Skerries AC

WERE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY OTHER CLUB BEFORE JOING DONORE HARRIERS? Yes, North London AC in the winter of 1975/76. The reality that you had to run 50 miles a week to be an ordinary club runner, back then, was daunting, so I retreated! On top of that I was busy doing extra work to afford some foreign travel

I did some charity running in 1977 and 1978, before becoming a member of Queen’s Park Harriers between 1978 and 1985, where I did my best running. Finally, I was the founding member of Mornington Chasers Running Club (life member) in December 1986

DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER SPORTS? No. I was not very good at team sports

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ATHLETICS EVENT? Cross-country. Bill O’Connor, my captain at Queen’s Park Harriers, once told me “Naughton! no mud, no good”

WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT ROLE AT THE CLUB? Coach and reporter. I was chair of the Coaching & Development sub-committee between October 2011 and November 2015

WHO WERE YOUR SPORTING INSPIRATIONS/INFLUENCES? Athletes Eddy Leddy, Jim McNamara, Mick Molloy, Danny McDaid, John Treacy, Wilma Rudolph, and Kip Keino; cyclists Shay Elliott & Paddy Flanagan; and football centre-half Charlie Hurley – I thus became a Sunderland AFC fan! Drat!!!

SOCIAL QUESTIONS

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? There But For Fortune by (not the) Michael Schumacher, about the life and death of topical singer-songwriter Phil Ochs

WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED? Don McLean in Vicar Street 2018

WHAT ARE YOUR 3 FAVOURITE FILMS?

1. All Quiet on the Western Front (the original made in 1931)

2. The Miracle of Bern (the story of an 11 years-old German boy’s desire to go to the World Cup final in Bern in 1954)

3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

FAVOURITE COUNTRY VISITED? Mexico for its culture and colour. Eritrea was the most interesting, due to it being a harsh military dictatorship and a throw-back to the 1960s

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN INTERESTS AWAY FROM ATHLETICS/SPORT? Away from sport? It’s hard to get away from Donore Harriers, let alone sport! I have a general interest in topical folk music, psychology, travel and cooking when the mood takes me

IF DESERT ISLAND DISCS ASKED YOU TO PLAY 3 SONGS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE? These are the songs that I would love to introduce -

1. Manifesto by Victor Jara (Chile)

2. Sniper by Harry Chapin

3. Either Masters of War by Bob Dylan or From Clare To Here by Ralph McTell

ATHLETICS QUESTIONS

WHO WAS YOUR COACH? I was never coached. Bad mistake!

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT? I finished 2^nd in the Chiltern Cross Country League (England) after a series of 5 races, I think in the 1982/83 season

WHAT ARE YOUR BEST TIMES (PBs)?

24.29 – 5 miles at Blackheath 1984

36.06 – 10km at Battersea Park 1991

51.31 – 10 miles at Woking 1983

1.10.29 – Half-Marathon at Waltham Forest 1982

1.51.14 – 20 miles at Worthing 1984

2.30.04 – Marathon, London 1983 (hand-timed at 2.29.10-ish). Club elite starters were sub 2.35 back then and I had a best of 2.36.36. Thus, I started quite far back and had to manoeuvre my way thru the field in the early miles

DESCRIBE THE MOST DIFFICULT SESSION THAT YOU HAVE DONE? In my early days at Queens Park Harriers the group agreed to do a one-hour paarlauf relay (figure of 8, 2 per team) on the cinder track at the Willesden Recreation Grounds. The lads were lashing into it early one and I just hung on and hung on for about 35-40 minutes until my legs felt like they detached from the rest of my body … I couldn’t run for a week after that and I avoided stairs!

WHAT WAS A TYPICAL WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN? I wasn’t coached and I was not in a formal coached group. So, I was just a high-mileage runner. When I was training for a marathon, I’d do up to 140 miles in a week. It was madness! It was too much of the same type of running and I missed out by not doing regular quality sessions

DO YOU HAVE A FUNNY STORY RELATED TO ATHLETICS/THE CLUB? I went with the Donore Harriers juvenile team to the national cross-country at Sligo in November 2011. We checked into our hotel on the afternoon prior to the races. Maurice (Ahern) was in great form. I caught him singing a New Seekers hit to himself “All my ¶ life’s a circle, sunrise and ¶ sundown, moon rolls ¶ through the nighttime…” … “Ah”, I said, “so you’re a good singer” … then Maurice asked “I bet you can’t tell me who wrote that song?” … and I immediately answered “Harry Chapin”. A surprised Maurice then replied, “How did you know that?”. We discovered that we were both big Harry Chapin fans and had attended the same Chapin concert at the National Stadium back in 1977

WHAT ONE CHANGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AT DONORE HARRIERS? More recruitment! The club needs to have better links with local schools and needs to target the inner-city. There also needs to be recruitment from the point of getting more volunteers to help with coaching, competitions, and administration

WHO ARE YOUR TOP 3 IRISH SPORTSPERSONS OF ALL TIME (all sports)?

1. John Treacy

2. Sonia O’Sullivan

=3. Stephen Roche & Sean Kelly (cycling)

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

WHERE DID YOUR INTEREST IN ATHLETICS STEM FROM? I remember listening to the commentary of the Olympic marathon on Radio Eireann; and there used to be a regular sports report programme on Radio Eireann at 6.40pm on a Sunday evening. Names like Tom O’Riordan, Mick Molloy, Jim Hogan, Jim McNamara, Frank Murphy and Noel Carroll became familiar. As did clubs like Clonliffe, Donore Harriers and Leevale. My father got the Irish Independent every day and I always read the sports pages

TELL US ABOUT MORNINGTON CHASERS RUNNING CLUB? Well, I am immensely proud of the Mornington Chasers and proud to be the founding member. It was/is not just a running club, but a great social experience! The club is nicknamed ‘The Posties’ because most of the original members worked for the Royal Mail in Camden Town

A few of us were very proactive to establish the club. We found a base at the Working Men’s College (close to Mornington Crescent Underground Station), and in the first year we joined 3 leagues, held club championships, went on a trip to the Jersey half-marathon and put together a social programme

We formed a women’s team and a youth section in Year 2. We also established an inter-schools league with the support of sponsorship from the Mornington Building Society (MBS). It ran for 3 years until the Britannia BS took over and they refused to continue the sponsorship. One of the regular competitors in the league was Rachel Yankey (Camden School for Girls), who is the most-capped English footballer and a former captain of her national team

The ‘Chasers’ have been based at the Talacre Sports Centre in Kentish Town since 1999 and hosts a 6-race 10km series during the winter months in the Regents Park. The present membership is about 300. The club maintains its strong Irish links and had 15 members run in the 2019 Dublin Marathon

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE RACE? AND WHY? I went to live and work in London when I was 18 and spent the first two years there trying to become an alcoholic. Then on a hot summer evening and without the price of a pint I wandered into Finsbury Park, where I watched a group of men (North London AC) training on the track. At the end of the session a young man named Kris asked if I would like to join in. He invited me to come back on the following Wednesday…

After a month Kris entered me to the Open Graded Mile on the Highgate track. There were 9 runners in the race, and I was a complete greenhorn in my t-shirt and football togs! I don’t know if it was courage or madness that got me to the start line! I was full of ambivalence, being both naïvely excited about my first race and filled of dread of the impending challenge! Standing on the line, I felt – and probably looked – stupid! I decided to copy the limbering up routine of my rivals, desperately trying not to look too much out of place! BANG!

We were off and running, and quickly took an order one behind the other. My ambition was to finish 8^th. What more could I hope for after just 4 training sessions? I got around the first lap OK, holding 8^th position. Everyone seemed to be cheering for “Tony”, who was running 9^th. I suppose they didn’t want a bona-fide athlete to get beat by a gawky gobshite in his civvies!

I began to die-a-death on lap 2. The field stretched out in front of me… seven were gone, forgotten! Suddenly, the morning after the night before discomfort of delirium tremens with the spinning ceiling seemed a doddle compared to this new form of self-torture. This was not only a race against Tony for the distinction of being second from last, but it was a conflict of heart, soul and body to either gain self-respect or be left to wallow and swallow (pints) in self-pity. The demons of barley wine and brown ale were still looming large in my sparse number of life choices

Onto lap 3, still only halfway! There remained a shadow breathing heavy on my shoulder, AKA Tony, and my suffering was getting worse; much worse! I had nowhere to hide! I was trapped! Holy shock-a-moley, what had I gotten myself into? It all looked so easy on TV! The common-sense part of my brain was telling me to “stop” – “STOP!!!” The problem was that I was actually too shy to quit the race – and I subconsciously knew that if I dropped out my self-esteem would be shattered, and I’d be back to the bar-stool and the jukebox. So, I forced myself to keep going… DING-A-LING!

The bell! That’s what they have in the Olympics! The bell! Foster, Viren, Puttemans, Coghlan! And now Naughton! It was like an electrical charge of adrenaline that took me around the bottom bend and onto the back strait. The Lido-side strait seemed longer on each lap and now it looked endless! At this stage, every heavy painful stride was an achievement. I was suffering; and it was a lonely suffering! I wanted to quit! My brain was clutching for straws of inspiration… “You can’t stop now” I told myself. The innocence of my rural Irish childhood flashed before me. It was time to become a man! In those do-or-die moments, I was living in the reality of my comic book heroes Alf Tupper and William Wilson (The Wizard), who always conquered adversity. So, I forced myself to keep going… “You can bloody do this!”. After all, Tupper and Wilson never quit a race!

As I rounded the top bend, I glanced towards the oasis that was the finish area. So near, and yet so far! I entered into the home strait where I could hear the scream of “Gait ‘im Tone-Nee”. Defiant, I kept saying to myself “dig, dig, dig, dig, dig…” And then SILENCE!

The end of the race was a blur. I vaguely remember my legs buckling as if I were standing on a soft waterbed! I carefully staggered to the nearby High Jump mat and collapsed in a heap. I don’t know how long I remained on the mat; maybe 2 or maybe 20 minutes. It was getting dark and eventually Kris (remember Kris! He’s the guy that had just tried to kill me!) found me in a barely conscious state. He called for someone to get me a sweet drink and then said: “you ran four minutes; fifty point six seconds and you weren’t last”. Oh, glory be!! I felt a great sense of elation – or maybe it was just a high from the sheer relief of it all! Even that I finished 8^th in a field of 9, I felt as a winner! I later found out that my main rival Tony ran 4.51.4

As I sipped a Lucozade and felt some life returning to my aching bones I looked towards the stars and thought to myself “I could get hooked on this”. It was a defining (less than) 5 minutes in my life … I had conquered myself and athletics had just conquered alcohol. I guess I crossed a fine line on that balmy September evening back in 1975

HOW DID YOU GET INTO COACHING? I did a little bitofcoaching with juveniles at Mornington Chasers and did a British Athletics coaching course, but it was not my forte. When I first came to Donore Harriers I was just helping John Downes by holding a stopwatch and calling out times. It all seemed chaotic and without any structure. If it were not for the enthusiasm of Maurice (Ahern) then I would have just walked away. I didn’t have a place, until some of the other coaches encouraged me to help out Brian Coombes (former club coach) with the younger-age distance athletes (8 to 12 years old)

I progressed in my coaching role along the way. I took the chance to have my ‘own’ squad of juvenile distance runners in the age group 12 to 16 in September 2012 as part of putting together a coaching structure at the club

Last year (August 2019 I established the Academy Squad with athletes who were 16 and older and had a focus on middle-distance and cross country

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE ACADEMY SQUAD? There was a growing disparity in the juvenile distance squad, with older stronger lads mixed with younger girls. The other problem was that the club did not have a coached squad for senior middle-distance athletes. Thus, the idea to form a new squad. It’s still in its infancy stage. The focus is on middle-distance and cross-country. Ciaran O’Flaherty is my coaching partner and we work well together. We want to help athletes reach their full potential and to enjoy their sport. We’d like to introduce athlete development supports, such as testing, workshops on nutrition, lifestyle, etc – and to have combined sessions with other groups/clubs from time to time. We also hope that the younger developing runners can benefit from training with more experienced senior and master athletes. Graham Hopkins and Thomas Delaney are now coaching the LTAD juvenile distance squad (ages 12 to 16), so we now have a proper coaching pathway for young middle-distance athletes

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SESSION TO COACH? Kenyan Hills. Its fast up and fast down on an average gradient. It’s a dynamic session, combining strength and speed

YOU HAVE SCOUTED SOME GREAT TALENT FOR THE CLUB AND RECRUITED VALUABLE NEW MEMEBRS; HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SPOTTING POTENTIAL TALENT? I did my scouting apprenticeship with the master Maurice Ahern. We go to school events and try to source out potentially good athletes who are not registered to other athletics clubs. But that’s only part of the process. The follow-up is contacting the schools and parents as part of good practice and child protection; and then we must arrange for the young person to come and do a short trial at the club

I’ve also done presentations at schools and keep a check on local parkrun results in search of new talent

LIST SOME OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS BY ATHLETES WITHIN YOUR GROUP THAT GAVE YOU THE GRETEST SENSE OF SATISFACTION? The first one that springs to mind is when Fathi Aden won the national under 14 cross-country at Dundalk in 2013. I had recruited Fathi from Synge Street school a few months earlier. We didn’t really know how good the young Somalian-born athlete was, so his win was something of a surprise

Here is a link to Fathi’s (AKA Aidan Fahey) win in 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE4g6LQW3Sc

The national junior track and field championships last year (2019) in another happy memory. Louis O’Loughlin won a dramatic 800m, and less than an hour later Jack Raftery came from 7^th with 150m to go to take the 400m title. Jack had just left my squad to join the sprints group, but I was delighted that his dedication and hard work were rewarded

Here is a link to Louis’ win in the National Junior 800m 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-0glwXFbw

Of course, Louis is any coaches dream. I wrote to the Principal of his school after he won the West Leinster Schools cross-country in January 2015 inviting him to trial at Donore Harriers. He’s a huge talent and has won something like 18 national titles. I particularly enjoyed his semi-final win in the European Youth Olympics (EYOF) at Gyor in Hungary. But my heartrate monitor was probably highest when he front-ran an 800m in the Dublin Open Graded at Tallaght Track. The race incorporated the Dublin senior 800m championship, which he won, aged just 15, and his time of 1.55.72 qualified him to compete in the EYOF

Louis and Fathi achieved a unique 1^st and 2^nd in the national under 15 cross-country at Dungarvan in December 2015. That was a special day! Here is a link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uIdHSUC8jY

And Abdel Laadjel! I recruited Abdel from the West Leinster schools XC when he placed 4^th, so his All-Ireland schools Intermediate grade victory just prior to the Covid-19 lockdown was special. He’s a super young athlete and this victory was reward for his talent and hard work in training

I was delighted when Suzanne Masterson, whom I recruited from the East Leinster Schools, won a well-deserved silver in the national Under 19 girls’ steeplechase in 2017. And Emma Stacey, one of the girls recruited from the Dublin camogie group, had me leaping with joy when she won silver in the Dublin Under 15 Juvenile Indoors 800m in 2018. It was the manner of her race that impressed. She qualified from her semi and had to wait several hours for the final. She held 4^th position in the early stages, and I feared that she had gone too quick too early. But she held form, gained to 3^rd and then to 2^nd against all expectation. One to watch!

Finally, I am a big supporter of the national track and field league, especially that it pulls athletes from all the coached groups within the club. So, it’s great when developing athletes like Gavin Curtin, Ruby Kelly and Sean Kinsella are gaining experience and scoring valuable points for the team

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE RUNNING RELATED BOOK OR QUOTE?“It’s gotta be the going, not the getting’ there that’s good” is the last line in the song ‘Greyhound’ by Harry Chapin. In my opinion, running should be focused on the journey and not just the destination that is championships and medals

Training can be intense, particularly for young athletes, so it’s important to protect their psychological well-being. I like to plan sessions that are varied, inter-active and interesting. I think that young runners develop better with less pressure and a good variation in their training routine. It helps to build both the psychological and physical athlete without overload. It’s also important that they have social time in training and enjoy a good camaraderie within the group

WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE RACE REPORT YOU HAVE WRITTEN, AND WHY?The first thing I want to say is that I believe the regular athletics reports to be a key to creating a ‘connected’ club. And it’s great to highlight all the achievements of club members! The reports would not be so comprehensive without the contribution of club captain Florence Curley, who always seems to be in the know of who does what and where. Big shout out also to Leonie (Newman), Iain (Morrison) and Marloes (Jackson) and others for their regular contributions

In terms of quantity the biggest report was that of weekend 16.02.2020 when we mentioned no less than 160 competition actions by club members from 12 different events (counting Parkruns as one)

However, my most memorable race report is that of the 2015 Inter-Clubs cross-country championships at Kilbroney Park in Co. Down. I took a short video clip as the race passed each of the 6 laps. Thus, in the report I was able to track the team score as the race developed. The Donore Harriers men’s team came 3^rd, despite not having John Travers available.Here is the link -https://www.donoreharriers.com/2015/03/national-senior-cross-country-championships-weekend-round/

 

WHAT IS THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE SOMEBODY ON RACE DAY? Run your own race, don’t get pulled too fast too early by being over competitive targeting other athletes

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF A SUCCESSFUL ATHLETE? A mindset to train regularly and to be patient. Improvement must be gradual. I believe that athletics requires a big psychological focus, so it’s essential to have a lot of self-discipline, good time management, and positive emotional energies. Yes, physical talent is important, but athletes must learn how to mentally prepare for training and races  

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPORTING REGRETS?Yes, I should have DNFed in the Cork Marathon on Easter Monday 1984. I was hoping to run 2.24/25 and began heavy training from the previous September. It was a disaster! Cork was the hottest place in Europe that day. My feet blistered badly, and I got sunburn and stomach cramps. Moreover, I had overcooked my training and was feeling deadbeat after 7 or 8 miles. I had raced 1.51.14 for 20 miles 6 weeks earlier after a 90 miles week and continued to put in 120 plus miles per week. I ran 2.43.17 in Cork that day. It was a “bad experience” after so much sacrifice. I was physically and emotionally shattered after that

Other than that, there are no regrets. Athletics has been a gift to my life. It gave me a self-profile. And there has been so many great people, great friendships, great memories along the way! I particularly love the universal element of the sport. It’s a sport for everybody. I always think that society could learn from athletics in terms of civic respect and integration