Champion runner Sinead Diver is a mum on a mission
Find it hard to squeeze a little exercise time into your day? Spare a thought for champion marathoner Sinead Diver.
Ask Sinead Diver how she manages to juggle training for the Olympics with the demands of family and a full-time job and the Irish-born mum puts it down to two secret weapons.
“I make a lot of lists,” laughs the champion runner, who calls Albert Park home.
“I’ve also become good at just snatching those little windows of time that come up during the day. “That’s why running is great, you can always find half an hour to get out the door!”
The Olympic marathon runner is certainly getting lots of practice at “taking the moment”.
After entering the Australian running scene at age 33 as a way to improve her fitness after the birth of her eldest son, Sinead became only the second Australian woman in history to finish in the top 10 in an Olympic marathon, in Tokyo last year.
“My sister Grainne, who also lives in Melbourne, asked me to fill in for a corporate relay event around The Tan (running track) and one of the guys was surprised I did my lap so quickly and suggested I join a running group,” the mum-of-two recalls.
“I’d always been sporty as a kid growing up in Ireland, swimming and climbing cliffs and playing soccer and basketball.
“I love being outside, but I never imagined that I’d be running marathons.”
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Flying high for Australia
Since winning the 2012 Australian half marathon title, Sinead’s running accolades include setting the course record for the Melbourne Marathon in 2018, finishing 5th at the New York Marathon in 2019, and 5th at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
She is now Australia’s most successful marathoner at the international level since the legendary Steve Moneghetti retired from elite competition in 2000.
“My coach Nic Bideau has opened up a lot of opportunities for me, I’ve been training with him since 2019 and I love running with his squad at the Melbourne Track Club,” she says.
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A finely tuned balancing act
While a typical day used to involve the NAB software engineer rising at 4.30am, she now has more flexibility in work that enables her to train twice a day, running more than 180km a week, with her sights firmly on the 2024 Paris Games.
“Generally because I’m time poor, I run along the beach or around Albert Park. I don’t have any set magic formula, I just do the best with the time I have,” she says.
“I’m lucky that I have an incredibly supportive husband and workplace, and so while the kids are absolutely my priority, I’m also able to focus on my career at NAB, which is really important to me, and train at the highest level in sport.”
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Family by her side
Unlike Tokyo, where she was separated from her young family for six weeks due to lockdowns, Sinead’s husband Colin and sons Eddie, 12, and Dara, 9, were able to join her in Europe.
“They were in St Moritz for my altitude training and then in England, which was great because we were able to catch up with family from Ireland.
“I love that they are able to travel with me and my running,” she says with a smile.
“I know that as mums we all go through the same things in trying to juggle kids and work and we can all relate.
“I just try to say calm and flexible and understand that every day is different, and that while I like being super organised, sometimes you just have to go with what the day serves up.”
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Written by Liz McGrath.
Main image courtesy of Athletics Australia.
