On Sunday 10 April, thousands of walkers, runners and elite athletes will take part in the SPAR Great Ireland 10k Run in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. For the first time, the event will feature a 5km route for beginner runners, as well as the Athletics Ireland 10k championships and junior and mini events – making it the ideal event for all ages and abilities.

Irish Country Living caught up with race ambassadors Mary Catherine Murphy – who has lost 10 stone and completed a marathon since her first Great Ireland Run – and Caroline Crowley – who, despite losing both her parents in 2014, has risen from fun runner to European cross country bronze medallist.

For further information on the Great Ireland Run, training plans and more, visit www.greatirelandrun.org or follow on Facebook and Twitter @greatirelandrun

Mary Catherine Murphy

“Since taking part in my first Great Ireland Run, I have lost 10 stone – and run a marathon.”

When Mary Catherine Murphy first walked The Great Ireland Run in 2012, she was 20 stone, smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day and suffering from diabetes type two.

However, just four years later, she has ditched the cigarettes, shed 10 stone and fallen head over heels with running – even completing the Dublin Marathon last October.

Mary Catherine (44) is a social care worker and lives near Carnew with her husband Willie and dog Raz. Growing up, she had issues with weight, but after developing an ulcer from a cut in her leg, turned to food for comfort.

“I got up on the scales one day,” she recalls, “and the scales only went to 20 stone – and it flew over that mark.”

In 2012, however, Mary Catherine’s colleagues invited her to walk the Great Ireland 10k in the Phoenix Park.

While it took her one hour and 40 minutes, the achievement sparked something in her; so she decided to join a Zumba class in Tinahely, run by Hannah Nolan of Why Weight Ireland.

“It gave me the incentive to try something new and to go on my own,” she says.

As Mary Catherine’s weight fell and her fitness increased, she decided to try running. And as the distances grew, so did her confidence.

“The biggest step is just getting out the door,” she says.

“When I started running between pole to pole, I’d hear a car coming and I used to stop because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep going while the car was on the road and they’d say: ‘Oh she’s not a runner!’

“But then I used to go further and further, and then when I met a car, it just didn’t bother me. I just kept going. But you have to take it slowly. I’m competing with myself and nobody else.”

Mary Catherine joined her local running club in Ferns, and also received great encouragement from The Runners Support Page on Facebook, which all led her to completing the 2015 Dublin Marathon. Her mantra is “what the mind believes, the body achieves”.

“I’d never say I can’t do anything anymore because everything is achievable,” she says.

And as she prepares to return to the Great Ireland Run this April, she has the following advice for anybody who would like to take that first step: “When I started running first, I was always last in a race, and it did bother me, I have to say. But then, after a while, I said: Sure why is this bothering me? I’m going to finish it.’

“So I always say to myself it’s the finish line; not finish time.”

Caroline Crowley

“My parents were the wind behind my back at the European cross country championships.”

After crossing the finish line in one of her first “fun runs” three years ago, Caroline Crowley swore blind she’d never do it again.

Yet, in December, the 27-year-old solicitor found herself representing Ireland at the European cross country championships – and returning home a bronze medallist.

And she believes she owes her rise from reluctant runner to elite athlete to her late parents, Fidelma and Vincent, who sadly passed away within months of each other in 2014.

“They were the wind behind my back,” she says simply.

Caroline specialises in commercial property law with Beauchamps in Dublin, yet each lunch time she laces up her runners – mostly for an “easy” six-mile session, with a tempo training run thrown in every Tuesday, as well as strength and conditioning work.

But while she was always sporty, Caroline admits that, until recently, she never considered herself a “runner.”

“I always found it a bit daunting,” she says.

Encouraged by her father, who had been an avid runner, Caroline joined the Crusaders club, but was hampered by injuries. However, after the unexpected death of her mother in early 2014 from a brain haemorrhage, followed by the death of her father that November from a heart attack, running became a way of healing.

“It was a great release,” she says. “I think any sport really is, because whatever it does to your body, it allows you to forget even for a short time frame, or it allows you to process your thoughts I suppose, and it was really important for me because I was working throughout that time and I couldn’t really process anything.”

Looking back, she believes it was her parents who were guiding her training; though she never expected she’d be running as part of the Irish cross-country team in the European championships before Christmas.

“The only person that would have expected it would have been my dad,” she says.

“No one else in the world saw that improvement happening in the space of a year, but look, I had my parents there backing me the whole way.”

And Caroline is now looking forward to taking part in the Great Ireland Run.

“This will be my first year and I can’t wait,” she says. “It’s a highly competitive field and I just look forward to having a good race.”

For those who would like to train for their first 5k or 10k event, Caroline advises following the plans on The Great Ireland Run website or, better yet, joining a club or linking up with a friend to train.

“Starting off, it can be difficult to get used to,” she says, “and that’s why it’s great to be able to decide to do it with someone else, or to join a club because it helps you through it.

“The hardest race I ever did was one that I did before I joined the club. That was definitely the most difficult race of my life and I swore to myself I’d never run again. But it does get easier as time goes on.”