ATHLETICS: A Hollywood encounter - in Wicklow - prompts thoughts on the downside of Irish elite competition

IS THERE no end to our heroic pursuit of personal fitness? In the past week alone we’ve seen 40,000 women flog themselves on the hot streets of Dublin, another 10,000 submit themselves to a marathon effort on the streets of Cork, while 2,500 of us went swimming, cycling and running around Athy in a frenzied show of endurance.

So much for walking the dog for 20 minutes after dinner. There is a fever of mass sporting masochism sweeping the free world, and it’s not faster, higher, stronger anymore, but simply further. Neither age nor weight is an obstacle, nor is fame and fortune. Go running in Marley Park these days and you’re as likely to pass Adam Clayton from U2 as you are Betty Crocker from next door. Seriously.

On Thursday morning I was cycling in the Wicklow Mountains, enjoying the peace and solitude and beautiful sunshine, nothing on my mind except the thought of being lucky to be alive. Coming through the spectacular valley between Luggala and Djoice, and starting the descent into Roundwood, another cyclist appeared on the road ahead, tearing up the steep incline with a hardy look of frightening determination – a sort of cross between Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New Yorkand Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood.

He passed me in a blur, but a couple of minutes later I was thinking the resemblance had been a little too uncanny. Indeed, it was Daniel Day-Lewis. By cosmic coincidence, we later passed each other again along the foot of Scarr Mountain and the road up to Glenmacnass Waterfall. This time I flagged him down to say hello, and we ended up sharing the few miles back through Laragh and into Annamoe, where he lives.

I told him I was a big fan of his work, which I expect Daniel gets all the time, but also that I’d heard he was a big fan of running. Truth is, I’d tried to track him down before to write something about this after he’d showed up for several road races around Wicklow in the colours of Parnell Athletic Club.

“I’m afraid you’re a little late for that now, Ian,” he said. “I’ve been hardly able to do any running at all these past couple of years because of a back injury. It’s a great pity, but I have to limit myself now to about one day a week in Glendalough, just for the sheer pleasure if it.”

Day-Lewis was so eager to get his injury sorted that he travelled to the famous running doctor in Limerick, Ger Hartmann. Ger told him if he’d been a world-class athlete he’d probably be able to get him back running for a year or two, but that he’d be totally crocked after that. Instead, he recommended Daniel invest in a good bike and get himself into the Wicklow Mountains on a regular basis – which is exactly what he’s been doing.

He said he misses the running though, particularly the competitive element. Hardly surprising to anyone who has followed his acting career. He ran mostly 10kms and a few half-marathons, although never attempted the full marathon.

“I wouldn’t do it just to say I’d covered the distance,” he said with a smile – hinting that he would surely have succumbed to the same rigorous preparations that inflicted upon himself for his Oscar-winning roles.

So cycling is now his thing, and he certainly looked the part on his bike – an all-black carbon frame and lightweight wheels with white spokes. He also looked superbly fit – which anyone would if they cycled regularly around the Wicklow Mountains. He told me the day before he’d gone over the Wicklow Gap, which once featured in the Tour de France.

“Luggala is a good climb too, but not quite long enough,” he added. “It’s hard to get into that climbing rhythm.”

I told him he needed to go to the Alps to experience that.

“I’d love to,” he said.

Clearly he has a natural competitive spirit that would do justice to any leading athlete. After all, this is the man who in preparing for The Boxerwas in the ring twice a day, for three years – and was told by his trainer Barry McGuigan that he was good enough to turn professional. I told him he could probably be a fairly competitive cyclist too if he hopped into a couple of races, or maybe he'd even be tempted to join the triathlon craze.

“I don’t think I can afford to get involved in competitions anymore. I end up pushing myself way too hard, and can’t walk properly for a week afterwards. I don’t have the time for it either, with young kids at home now.

“Plus I’m 52 now,” he added, with no reservation.

But like any true cycling enthusiast, all he really wanted to talk about was bikes. He asked how I found my Cannondale, and said he was increasingly tempted to splash out on one of those custom-built titanium frames you can only get from those small companies in America, such as Seven Cycles.

“The only problem with that is that I wouldn’t be able to blame my bike anymore when I’m struggling up the hills.”

He was hugely decent and enjoyable company, and as we went our separate ways I couldn’t help thinking that Daniel Day-Lewis’ conversion to cycling was a loss to Irish athletics. That may be stretching it a little bit, but it’s a problem the sport is facing, despite the surge in mass participation events such as the marathon.

While it’s not unusual these days to have several thousand runners signing up for a local road race, numbers in the elite end of the sport, those who participate in a truly competitive sense, are dropping off at an alarming rate. It’s something Athletics Ireland needs to tackle as matter of urgency, but of course they’re too busy fighting among themselves.

Bryan Keane is a good example of this. He finished second in Athy last Saturday, his first triathlon in Ireland, and is one of the most exciting prospects in the sport ahead of the London Olympics in 2012. But Bryan still considers himself as a runner first, and 10 years ago helped the Irish junior team win bronze medals at the European Cross Country championships – finishing an excellent 14th position.

The problem was that he soon got fed up with running, particularly as the elite end of the sport seemed so insular. So he too turned to cycling and enjoyed a couple of years on the Seán Kelly-sponsored Irish team, riding the Rás several times. Then, last year, while working in Australia, he discovered the triathlon, and his enthusiasm for that sport has given him a fresh lease of competitive spirit at the age of 28.

“I just think with elite running everyone was kind of into it for themselves,” he explained. “With the triathlon there is a little more camaraderie and a lot more fun. It becomes your social life as well, whereas with running you’d show up for races, and afterwards everyone would go their separate way.”

It seems, as Daniel Plainview said in There Will Be Blood, some Irish athletes have the mentality that they "don't like others to succeed".

That kind of attitude has to change, for a start, before more elite runners take to their bikes on the Wicklow Mountains.