Adam Hickey convinced becoming a dad will make him a better runner

The Southend AC star’s wife, Katie, gave birth to their first child, Leo, two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Hickey has revealed he has heard plenty of comments suggesting his running career will start to slide as the pressures of fatherhood take their toll, but he is adamant that won’t be the case.

And his first race as a dad at the Great South Run last Sunday certainly backed up his assertions.

Hickey, who is gunning for a place in the Great Britain squad for the European Cross-Country Championships for the second year running this winter, made his racing debut over 10 miles in Portsmouth and despite suffering with a cold and the sleep deprivation that comes with looking after a new born, he was still able to put in an extremely encouraging performance.

He finished 13th overall in an international-class field in 48m 58s. Perhaps more importantly with a view to European Cross selection, he was the sixth Briton in a strong domestic line-up that included double European 5,000m and 10,000m medallist Andy Vernon who finished one place and five seconds ahead of Hickey.

“I was really pleased,” said Hickey, who went through 10km in a rapid 30m 06s. “I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be racing a few days beforehand because I had been suffering with a bad cold and was feeling pretty tired.

“I had a good three-mile session, taking time off from the session last year, a few days before and decided to give it a go and the aim really was to get under 50 minutes.

“It was a good field with pretty much most of the guys I will be racing against at the trials. So to run how I did on the road, surrounded by good runners has given me a real boost.”

And though it may be early days in the balancing act between fatherhood and training, Hickey was particularly pleased to be able to provide an instant riposte to those nay-sayers who have suggested it can’t be done.

“That’s why I was really pleased with how I ran,” said Hickey. “So many people think that’s it when you have a child, your running career is over.

“But if anything I believe it will inspire me to run harder because I will want to train and race even harder to make being away from Leo worth it.”

Hickey only has to look at the career of his own coach, Eamonn Martin, to realise having a family should be no impediment to being an international class runner.

Martin had young children of his own during his peak years of running that saw him compete at all the major track championships and win the London Marathon.

But that shared experience didn’t mean Martin would cut Hickey any slack in the hours after Leo’s birth!

“I was about five minutes from home on my Sunday run when Katie’s waters broke,” recalled Hickey. “And then Leo was born at 4.30am on the Monday morning. I must have been awake for about 36 hours when I got a message from Eamonn saying I had a hill session on Monday evening!

“I was that tired I had to get someone to drive me there.”

Leo missed his first chance to see daddy on the television on Sunday as the Great South Run was screened live on Channel Five – “he fell asleep” laughed Hickey – but the 27-year-old wants to make sure he gets another chance at the European Cross-Country Championships in December.

With the trials in Liverpool now just four weeks away, Hickey is fine-tuning his preparations for the event and will race for England at the world-class Burgos cross-country race in Spain in two weeks time.

And he will go there confident that his endurance is as good as it has ever been.

“I went through 10km at the Great South Run in 30m 06s which was one of my fastest times for that distance,” said Hickey. “And I felt fairly comfortable after that.

“If anything it proves my 10km personal best doesn’t do me justice.

“People have said I’m more of a 5km runner because of my speed and maybe that plays with you and stays in the back of your mind. But I’ve ran an alright time for 10 miles now and going through 10km in the time I did shows I can run faster over that distance.”