Zak Higgins is an aspiring senior athlete who has come through the juvenile ranks at Donore Harriers. He is one of several very good 400m runners at the club. In this interesting interview he talks about having to deal with long-term injuries, the good vibes amongst the sprints squad, and how team colleague Adam Halpin assisted his recovery at a National League meet. Please read on…
STANDARD QUESTIONS
PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH? Dublin 1997
WHERE ARE YOU BEING EDUCATED? TUD
WHAT IS YOUR PLANNED CAREER PATH? To be honest I change my mind every day. Don’t think I really know what I want to be yet
IN WHAT YEAR DID YOU JOIN DONORE HARRIERS? I think it was 2009 or 2010, I was in 6th class of primary school anyways
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE DONORE HARRIERS? I really wanted to be on my primary school athletics team, but that meant being in the top 4 or 5 fastest people in my class. So, I thought I’d better practice. My Dad told me about some running track down in Chapelizod, so I went down to visit one day and ended up joining in with John Geoghegan’s training group. To this day I still train with John’s group. And I must admit that I am still unsure on how to spell John’s family name.
WERE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY OTHER CLUB BEFORE JOINING DONORE HARRIERS?No other athletics club
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER SPORT?I was always heavily involved in GAA growing up and still play the odd junior hurling match during the off season. Running can get a bit boring/too serious sometimes so I like to play something else where I can just have fun and not care. When I was younger, I played it much more competitively. I also do Brazilian Jiu-Jitzu and other combat sports, just for the sake of doing something different
WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED ATHLETICS EVENT? I do 400s mostly and they’re probably my favourite to watch also, especially the indoor races. But I also enjoy when Dave (Campbell) or Maurice (Ahern) throw me into a random National League field event and I’ve to figure out what I’m doing. So, I guess I enjoy several events
WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT ROLE AT THE CLUB? Athlete
WHO WERE/ARE YOUR SPORTING INSPIRATIONS/INFLUENCES? Too many to name but probably David Gillick. It was simply great to see someone from the same place as me, doing the same event as me, up there competing with the best in the World. He’s also a really nice guy in person and always seems to have time for others
SOCIAL QUESTIONS
WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? George Orwell 1984
WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED?Can’t remember the last time I went to a gig, but I think it was the Red-Hot Chili Peppers in the 3 Arena. This question has made me realise I need to get out a bit more
WHAT ARE YOUR 3 FAVOUITE FILMS?
1. Forrest Gump
2. As Good as It Gets
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
FAVOURITE COUNTRY VISITED? Too many to choose from. But if I had to recommend one country to visit, I would say Bosnia, particularly down south in the likes of Mostar
WHAT ARE YOU INTERESTS AWAY FROM ATHLETICS/SPORT? Music, fixing/ making computers, doing online chess competitions, photography, jumping in the sea (with the Donore gang), eating, napping, climbing trees, etc
IF DESERT ISLAND DISCS ASKED YOU TO PLAY 3 SONGS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
1. Khalid – Another Sad Love Song (reminds me of warm weather training with Donore Harriers cos it was played every 10 minutes)
2. Can’t Stop – RHCP
3. Is This Love – Bob Marley (never a bad shout)
ATHLETICS QUESTIONS
WHO IS/ARE YOUR COACH(ES)?John and Emily Geoghegan, Paul Clarkin
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT? Not sure about this one, but it was good to win the National Senior 4 by 400m. Also, I won a national junior medal. That was a big one, because of how much I improved in that year. I just felt like training was paying off and I was going in the right direction.
WHAT ARE YOUR BEST TIMES? 49.53 for the 400m, which was ran in Santry in 2017
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COACHED SESSION? 300m, 250m ,200m during warm-weather training in Portugal last year
DESCRIBE THE MOST DIFFICULT SESSION THAT YOU HAVE DONE? The session was 3 x 3 x 300m. There was also a group doing a simultaneous 3 x 3 x 200m at a quicker pace and I tried to keep up with the guys doing 200s for the first 200m, which was a bad idea! Basically, I made the session much harder than it needed to be. I learned my lesson – less is more sometimes!!!
WHAT IS A TYPICAL WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN? Tuesday – speed session, Wednesday – weights, Thursday – longer run with core afterwards, Friday – rest, Saturday – long sprints and weights. I have a flexibility routine that I also do after every training session. Also, I revert to doing push ups or pull ups at home as a way of avoiding study, so basically, I do these every day
DO YOU HAVE A FUNNY STORY RELATED TO ATHLETICS/THE CLUB? I have way way too many! Most of the ones that I do have are probably not suitable for the Donore Harriers Facebook page. One funny time was in National League in I think 2016 in Santry. I came over the line 2nd in the 400m and made it as far as the little corner just inside the gate at the finish line. I then fainted and was out cold on the side of the track for about an hour. Everyone thought I was just having a nap. Then Adam Halpin came over and woke me up and told me I had run a PB. Obviously, I felt better with that news
WHAT ONE CHANGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AT DONORE HARRIERS? I would love to see people getting more involved with the National League teams. I believe the men’s and women’s teams could both go very far if they always put out their best possible teams!!
WHO ARE YOU TOP 3 IRISH SPORTSPERSONS OF ALL TIMES (all sports)?
1. Katie Taylor
2. Derval O’Rourke
3. David Gillick
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
YOU SUFFERED A LONG-TERM INJURY. TELL US ABOUT THE INJURY AND THE REHABILITATION PROCESS? I’ve had a few long-term injuries; the main ones were the stress fracture and the LCL tear. I don’t mind doing the rehab. I always enjoy going to the gym, so rehab for me is always straightforward enough. It a matter of trusting the process. The hardest part about injuries for me has always been initially coming back to the sport and trying to figure out how your body works again, because a lot can change when you’re out for that long. It’s very hard to just come back and to be as good as you were. And it’s harder still when I see that athletes around me are progressing and I feel like I have to start all over again. But all’s well that ends well, and I’ve definitely learned how to avoid injuries, and I’ve realised it’s very rare that you get “unlucky” with injuries. Most injuries are just out of bad habit, and at the end of the day it’s my own responsibility to deal with that and to fix things
THERE IS A GREAT CAMARADERIE AMONG THE SPRINTS GROUP, HOW WAS THAT ACHIEVED? In my opinion the reason we’re all so close is because most of the time spent in training is spent doing literally nothing. Seriously, it is our recovery time… and it gives us the chance to talk. So, going to training for me never feels like training. It nearly feels like hanging out with your friends and going for some runs every now and again. In my opinion that’s the way it should be. Otherwise, the athletes wouldn’t enjoy it as much and would be less inclined to come to training sessions.
Also, going to the warm-weather training camps in Portugal twice and other running trip has brought us all a lot closer together
WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU NOTICED AT THE CLUB DURING THE TERM OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP? When I started in Donore it was mostly a middle/long distance club, but now we have an equal amount of top-level sprinters!!
DID YOU EVER CONTEMPLACE STEPPING UP TO THE 800m? Funnily enough, the reason I started 400m was to work on speed for the 800m. It just so happened that I stayed with the 400m. But I’ve always had it in the back of my head that I’d go back to the 800m, so maybe I will someday. Recently I’ve been experimenting with new events. In fact, just this week I made a javelin out of a stick and I’ve been practicing in the field near my house every day
DID YOU SISTER SARA JOIN THE CLUB AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU? AND IS SHE STILL INVOLVED AT DONORE HARRIERS?No, Sara joined a few years later, after I convinced her. She’s still involved in the club and just this year, she moved up to the group that I train with. She was struggling with a broken ankle and ligament damage from camogie for a lot of the pre-season, but she has since got back running. At the minute, the two of us are training together at home, trying to somewhat copy our weekly training plan in Donore Harriers
WHAT IS YOUR BIG ATHLETICS AMBITION? I don’t really make any long-term goals anymore to be honest. So many things can change along the way, so I prefer to just work on short-term goals. It keeps me more productive too. Most of the goals are just targets I have in my head that I want to hit in training or racing. If we get any kind of season this year, one goal I’d have is to just beat my PBs. It’s a long time since I ran a PB due to my injuries. I’ve never really felt like I reached my potential, so now I want to prove to myself that I’m able to come back and be faster.
