Why Ciara Mageean is embracing the pain

With two major medals and an Irish record, Ciara Mageean has enjoyed the season of her life but it has not come without its challenges

Pain is something of a constant in the life of an athlete. There’s the physical agony which comes from pushing the human body to its limits in training and competition, but then there’s also the accompanying anguish of a race which hasn’t gone to plan, the lingering hurt inflicted by the dissenting voices of those on the outside or that nagging feeling of potential unfulfilled. 

Ciara Mageean has experienced all of the above and knows which variety she prefers. She has been at the heart of some of the most memorable moments of this summer, coming away with Commonwealth and European 1500m silver medals after going toe to toe with Laura Muir and then following that up by breaking Sonia O’Sullivan’s Irish record at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels. Coming second in the Diamond League final in Zurich wasn’t too bad, either.

“It hurts but you don’t feel the pain until the end,” she says, trying to put into words what it feels like to push yourself like never before in the heat of battle, enveloped by a pulsating, packed stadium. “When it hits you with 150m to go and you’re absolutely filled with lactic it’s tough. If the race isn’t going your way, either, then it’s absolutely crushing.

“But I’d rather have the pain of having gone absolutely eyeballs out, laying on the ground than the pain of being disappointed that the race didn’t go well. To put everything out there on the line to feel that sheer pain of pushing your body to the max… it’s painful, but it’s the most exhilarating thing that I’ll probably ever experience in my life.”

As Mageean reflects with AW on the summer just passed, she is to be found in an airport departure lounge, awaiting the flight which will take her back to her home town of Portaferry on the Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland. 

Based just outside Manchester since 2017, the 30-year-old doesn’t get home as often as she would like. I ask if she’s expecting a hero’s welcome and she admits her preference would be to slide quietly off the ferry and back to her parents’ house. 

She was a woman in demand, though. A string of TV and promotional appearances across Ireland came first and, by the time she did step off on to Portaferry harbour, there was a sizeable crowd to greet her. 

Such things come with the territory of success. As the outside…