What keeps a World Champion and Olympic medallist coming back to a free 5K in the park on a Saturday morning?

This week, Catherine is joined by one of Ireland's greatest ever athletes, Sonia O'Sullivan, 5,000m World Champion, Olympic silver medallist and, these days, a passionate parkrunner with more than 200 events to her name.

But this isn't simply a conversation about medals and elite athletics.

Sonia shares how she discovered parkrun in its early days at Bushy Park, how it fitted around family life and training, and why she now seeks out parkruns on her travels around the world. She even arrived for this conversation fresh from a parkrun in Krakow.

Sonia and Catherine talk about longevity in running, learning not to train harder and faster all the time, the importance of building from the fitness you have today, parkrun tourism, family, dogs, post-parkrun coffee and the simple motivation of having somewhere to be on a Saturday morning.

And for anyone who has been thinking about trying parkrun but hasn't quite made it to that first start line, Sonia has a wonderfully simple message: once you decide to do it, you may walk away wondering why you didn't do it sooner.

From World Championship gold and Olympic silver to the enduring pleasure of running in a park with everyone else, this is a warm and uplifting conversation about what keeps us running long after the finish lines that once mattered most.

And Sonia's three words for parkrun?

“Saturday wake up.”

🎧 Listen now to Sonia O'Sullivan on The Parkrunners Podcast.

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