THE SMILE ON Lizzie Lee’s face as the pre-media interview formalities begin says it all.
A quick introduction to the athlete — in a nutshell: “a working, running Cork mom of three,” as she describes herself in her Twitter bio — and update on her current status is read out, before the floodgates open with questions.
The 41-year-old will represent Ireland for the first time in three years this weekend at the European Cup 10,000m in Birmingham, having qualified to do so in her first competitive race in two-and-a-half years at an elite meet in Cork last month.
The last time the Rio 2016 Olympian donned the green singlet was in the marathon at the 2018 European Championships. Since then, plenty has happened away from running.
Lee gave birth to her third daughter, Jessica, a little under 18 months ago, and has juggled a hectic home life through the pandemic, parenting three kids under the age of seven alongside her husband, Paul, while both working full-time jobs from home.
Listening back to the impressive description, the height of the achievement of representing her country again sinks in.
“I actually had a tear in my eye, I’m not going to lie,” Lee smiles. “I’m pinching myself, I cannot believe it.”
Her days as an elite athlete are far from done despite what she may have thought, the “imposter syndrome” she once felt when she was associated with the e word no more.
Reflecting on the past year-and-a-half or so, she explains: “I had a baby and then when the baby was eight weeks old, Leo Varadkar closed down the country.
“There was nobody to help with the kids, I had a tiny baby and we had no babysitting. My husband was working from home, we had all the anxiety and everything from the whole year and then returning after a third baby, I found the post-partum recovery much more difficult than the second and the first.
“I also turned 40 during the pandemic, so to say there would never be another Irish singlet, I didn’t — I really thought that retirement had come. I had a conversation and I just said, ‘Yeah, it’s done now, but I’ll train away.’”
That she did, religiously up and at it for dawn runs to help her mood through lockdown more than anything else.
“It’s really only at the height of the pandemic that I realised how much I need running,” she notes at one stage. “I always realised I love running, but to know that I need it to be a happy person on a daily basis, that it’s just fundamental in my life.”
A project manager in a large technology company, the work/life/family balance has certainly been difficult, though organisation, planning and prioritising the kids — Lucy (6), Alison (almost 4) and baby Jess — is key.
The constant juggle has paid off, and top-level running is now front and centre again too, following that fateful day in Cork last month, in which she finished well inside the qualifying standard of 34:52.
“I was more nervous at the start line of that 10k than I was in Rio in the heat for the marathon,” she recalls, “because any woman who has been through having a baby, you really think your running is done, that your competitive side is done.
“Then lump the pandemic onto that for a year with no races, add in no physios, no babysitters, the whole lot, turn 40 and make it so long since your singlet that you begin to just say, ‘Nah, I’ll just stay here in my comfort zone and do my training and I won’t bother racing’.
“I got the time and I bawled my eyes out on the finish line. I am pinching myself, I was grinning from ear to ear. I think it’s the sweetest singlet so far, I really do, because I just didn’t think it was coming.”
The Leevale ace’s happiness and excitement for Saturday shines through with each and every word, her appreciation and gratitude for the support and backing of those around her to get her to where she now is.
The bottom line, however, is that she got herself there, proving many things along the way including the fact that age is just a number, and it’s certainly possible to combine motherhood with sport at the highest level.
It’s fascinating to listen to Lee discuss the latter, and delve deeper into returning to elite sport after childbirth.
In an in-depth article earlier this year, The42‘s Sinéad Farrell took a closer look at this, and it’s something Lee is eager to speak out about more and more as it gets “more and more focus”.
“I see Lynsey Sharp is on Instagram now, she’s 16 weeks pregnant and she’s doing her sessions,” she says. “It’s kind of become like that’s the norm. But certainly, if you go back to when I was pregnant with Lucy, there was nobody putting up pregnancy photos on Instagram.
“You will see now if you follow the likes of Alysia Montaño, she’s just had diastasis recti surgery. And Aliphine Tuliamuk, who’s made the American Olympic team, she’s up to a hundred and something miles and Zoe is quite young. It’s becoming normal to talk about it.
“But certainly, when I had Lucy, it wasn’t something that really people talked about, and they didn’t talk about breastfeeding. It’s really important to talk about it because when you are pregnant, especially with your first child, you don’t think you’re ever going to come back. I cannot describe it, you just think that you’ll never run again.
“And then your whole being becomes absorbed to this small person, and you’re supposed to just be back to normal? You’ve grown a human being, your body is never going to be the same as it was, and you have to rebuild it. There’s no injury… like you cannot compare this to a surgery for an Achilles or anything like that. You rebuild everything. You can’t stand on one leg without falling over.
“I love talking about it, I’d talk about it all day long. It’s not taboo anymore. If you go back 10 years, there weren’t that many mothers competing at the likes of the Olympics. There was a big thing a few weeks ago about breastfeeding mothers being able to bring their kids to the Olympics, Olympic athletes.
“That would never have been a conversation a few years ago, and now it’s getting the focus and people are appreciating that your life doesn’t stop after a baby and that you can actually return to elite sport. It’s just you need to do it correctly, and with the right physios and with the right strength and conditioning.”
Lee certainly has each time, taking things step by step with everything falling nicely into place.
While she concedes the Tokyo Games were never on her radar, she’s asked if she’s relieved she’s not going given the risks amidst the Covid-19 crisis.
“No,” she says immediately, “because if you think back to Rio, didn’t we have Zika and I was very much planning on having a baby as soon as I could after Rio.
“In fact, I would have found Zika scarier than Covid at that time because very much wanted to have a child and I knew well that if I got Zika I was going to have to wait an extra year to have a baby. I had Alison ten months after the Olympics.”
“As an athlete you are so focused that really nothing is going to deter you from that goal,” she added, recalling hearing stories about the terrorist attack during the Munich Olympics of 1972 from her coach Donie Walsh, who competed there.
“You don’t go to the Olympics for the craic. The craic might happen but that’s not why you go. Honestly, as an athlete your head is down and nothing is going to dissuade you from being an Olympian or medalling or whatever scale you are going for. You will just drive on and go to the Olympics.”
The ongoing uncertainty and controversy is a worry for outsiders looking in, Lee agrees, in solidarity with the Tokyo-bound athletes.
“I do feel sorry for them because you just don’t need that level of stress when you are preparing for the Olympics. You will put your head down and pretend it’s not happening. But they have probably done that about five times at this point.
“Every single athlete has had some competition moved, cancelled or postponed this last year and it is just an extra stress. My Dad always says to me: everything takes energy. It’s just extra stuff they don’t need.
“It’s not been an easy situation, but nothing has been easy for anyone this last year.
“Resilience is the key here and the athletes who are now qualified and going, they are resilient. It’s not like it came out of left field, they prepared like they believed this was happening. That’s all they can do right now.”
All considered, she expects big things from Team Ireland.
“I have seen Paul O’Donovan hammering seven shades of things out of an erg all winter,” Lee concludes. “I’m not just talking athletics, I think we have some really exciting prospects in Tokyo.
“I hate when people talk about silverware in advance. The athletes are doing their absolute best and Tom Barr is going to give it absolutely everything he can. We have some really exciting prospects, not just in athletics. I can’t wait to see what our hockey women do.
“Then obviously my own heart, Ciara Mageean and people I roomed with in Rio and Ciara has stepped up. I think we will be seeing our athletes in Olympic finals. I know the question is about silverware but that will come. Olympic finals are definitely in prospect and we will be looking at the rowers for potentially some silverware.”
Lizzie Lee was speaking as ambassador for the Irish Life Health Family Mile Challenge.
Parents are encouraged to go the extra mile and be positive role models for their kids by signing up free of charge at irishlifehealth.ie to run the challenge on 26/27 June
