Maria Bailey has opened up about her disappointing performance in Dún Laoghaire's 'The Bay 10k' run in 2015, admitting that her time of 53mins 56secs was not up to her own standards.
The Fine Gael TD pulled no punches in an interview with RTÉ Radio 1's Sean O'Rourke, responding to his remark that the aforementioned 10km time was "pretty good" with an abrupt "Not for me."
In truth however, a time of 53:56 (gross result) was no small feat, given she was racing just three weeks after sustaining a fall from a swing in a Dublin hotel and undergoing "intensive physio" in the build-up. Not only that but when we consider her time in previous years, her 2015 performance was quite impressive. The result was only 44 seconds slower than her time of 53:12 (gross result) in 2014 and far above her 2012 performance, when she ran a time of 58 minutes and 20 seconds.
That being said, it was over a minute longer than her best 'The Bay 10k' run of 52:21 in 2013.
Speaking about her performance, Bailey told O'Rourke:
I went through instensive physio and like any athlete, I wanted to dip my toe back into the water and see could I do it. I paid the price for it that night and I regretted doing it.
Meanwhile, Bailey recently dropped a claim against the Dean hotel for the aforementioned fall, where she had claimed she suffered injuries to her head, back and hip. While speaking about the media coverage around the case to O'Rourke, she said "As somebody who grew up on the sideline of a GAA pitch, I play fair. I don't play offside." A curious comment given that there are no offsides in GAA.
You can listen to her full interview below:
