Thomas Barr: 'The shackles are off, I am loving the freedom'
Thomas Barr wasn't sure how he would feel as he sat down to watch last weekend's World Relays in Guangzhou. It wasn't long past a year since he had been part of a mixed 4x400 Irish quartet that earned bronze at the 2024 version in the Bahamas.
The 12 months since have passed by in a blur.
There was the gold medal the same four claimed at the European Championships in Rome, a last appearance at an Olympic Games and then, come January, official word that Waterford's finest was putting away the spikes.
So, yeah, there was a sense of the unknown as he tuned in to events in China and the Irish mixed, men's and women's teams went about a business that was once so familiar to him but one that now operates without him.
'I was wondering, 'how am I going to feel now as the races are going on' and there was no… Yeah, I would love to have been there, a hundred per cent, but at the same time I know the work it would have taken to be there.
'That's something that I probably wasn't willing to put in. I didn't really feel myself pining for it, which is probably a good thing, because I probably made the right decision. More power to them, the women's and the mixed in the 4 x 4 relays qualified.
'The men's were there and actually ran pretty well considering the fact that they're not really at a full strength quite yet. It's very early in the season, very early doors, and just having a men's team out there is fantastic.'
Barr made his name as a 400m hurdler. World champion at the University Games in 2015, there was a bronze at the Europeans three years later and, in between, that sensational national record of 47.97 and fourth-place finish at the Rio Olympics.
But the relays gave him a glorious swansong – and more medals - as Irish athletics slowly, but then surely, started to build a roster and a reputation for the events in recent years and made inroads at major championships.
'I love relays for the fact that when a relay qualifies for a championships an 800m runner moves down, a 200m runner moves up and a 400m hurdler can focus on the 400 so what happens is because there is a team to qualify for iron sharpens iron.
'Once people are running well other people are, 'well, I want my go, my bite of the cherry on the team'. So the tide rises and rises all boats. The level for everybody comes up, nobody can have a slack day and everyone is doing their very best to get on the team.
'Then, when teams are qualifying consistently like that you build on that momentum and it's just a psychological thing but it has a huge effect and to see the success, trying to maintain that, that's like our base level now really.'
If Barr has stopped running then he hasn't stopped moving.
The diary is still full six weeks in advance. Last Monday had him in St Laurence's National School in Sallins, Kildare in his ongoing role as one of Allianz's 'Dare To Believe' ambassadors and the energy levels are still off the charts.
Not everyone can keep hundreds of primary school kids engaged for over an hour but then this is a guy who is keen to indulge in a love for extreme sports that had to be contained during his long career on the track.
Barr is one of the celebrities being put through his paces by former special forces soldier Ray Goggins in the new RTÉ 'Unchartered' series and he has promised a mate that he will tog out for a tag rugby event in Limerick.
'Do you know what? It's funny. I was warned about the struggles and everything else that goes with it but I have always wanted to try new things and I am absolutely loving the freedom. The shackles are off.
'It's been nice to have the freedom that if I want to have a takeaway, if I don't want to eat healthily some day, if I want to go out and have a few pints I can do that. I can sort of enjoy those things, which I haven't been able to for a long time.'
He doesn't feel the need for the structure of athletics and training to stay in shape. The plan is that his hobbies and an inbuilt need to eat and live healthy will keep him on the right path there. And it's not like he has left the track behind completely.
His girlfriend Kelly McGrory, who also ran in Paris at last year's Games, is still at it. Injury cost her the chance to compete in Guangzhou and she is going full-time for the next couple of years to give the sport her absolute best shot.
Barr knows the deal. Athletics will come first. Every time. He's more than happy to facilitate in whatever way he can and, if it's nice to still have that connection himself with the sport, then he's still delighted that it's Kelly and not him heading out the door to training.
'I feel like I paid my penance, in a way,' he laughed.
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