Curragh's Michelle Cox on balancing world records with business

It is never easy balancing work and pleasure. For some it is a two-way balance. However, Newbridge AC athlete Michelle Cox has a little more on her plate these days. As part of the recent over 45 masters World record beating team, Michelle is a regular on the athletics scene. She is a mother of three children, a coach in Newbridge AC and has only last year set up her new venture Elite Nutrition.

As a child Cox was always active. Growing up in a farm in Dundalk, was a key ingredient to being active. Her her father John Cox (a former champion jockey) was a farmer and a racehorse trainer and there was always plenty for the Cox children to do. 

It was while at secondary school that she first competed in athletics. She joined St Peters AC and competed for the club at county events. 

At 16, competitive athletes had to take a bit of a back seat as she got her amateur jockey licence and rode as both an apprentice and amateur for several years. 

She continued to jog as most jockeys would. She did however manage to squeeze in the occasional race for the club.

After completing a Business Degree at Dublin Business School and worked for a few years, she made another change in her life. 

About 15 years ago, then aged 27 she came to live in the Curragh, where she took up a job with Horse Racing Ireland. Living with her uncle Richard Brabizon, it was he who encouraged her to join Newbridge AC. 

It was while running for Newbridge AC that she once again started to compete. While initially her race times started to improve, Cox found that they eventually stagnated. 

It was then in 2015 that she contacted Ian Wilson, and he became her coach, giving her training programmes and for Michelle the key part was training in a group – most of whom were Wilson’s athletes. Her performances started to improve. 

One key catalyst for her improvement under Wilson, was more structured training. She had until then been more or less the master of her own programmes and was to a certain extent existing as an athlete, without really knowing much behind the science of running programmes. 

The key catalyst for her was doing two or three hard sessions a week. Prior to this point she had done just one. Her times improved gradually and at 42 years of age, they are surprisingly continuing to improve. Her range of events are surprisingly large with a PB of 2.19 for 800m, 4.48 for 1,500m, 10.06 for 3k and 17.32 for 5,000m right up to 36.45 for 10km. 

It is the 800m that she has turned her most recent focus to and it has become her preferred event. Her aim for 2025 is to get her times down in the 800m and overall, for distances up to 5km. 

“2.18 for 800m would be great, maybe even 2.17” she said. 

This will be the first year that she has maintained a focus on track, and she is interested to see how it will work out.

Her most recent successes include her inclusion on two world record breaking relay quartets over the 4x800m distance. This along with her World and European Masters medals rank as her personal achievements in athletics. In 2023 Michelle, won gold as a member of the over 40 Cross-Country team. 

Then in 2024 she secured a bronze medal for the over 40 3,000m indoors at the European Masters Championships on Torun, Poland. A few days later she was second overall in the over 40 8km cross-country as well as being a member of the Irish gold medal winning cross-country team.

Earlier this month, Michelle along with teammates Ciara Hickey (Brothers Pearse AC), Rachel Murphy (Plant Based AC), Denise Toner (Clones AC) lowered the World Record to a respectable 9:24.56 – fractionally under the previous time of 9:25.49 held by USA since March 2016. 

Speaking about the World Record and her World and European accomplishments Michelle indicated; “If you put your mind to something anything is possible. As you get older there are more opportunities as you get into more age groups. For me I have got faster and stronger and that is a key motivator to keep going”. Being part of teams at this level “makes the competition more enjoyable, we work together, and we celebrate together”, she added. 

“A lot of people stop competing as they think they are too old to run. Last night a great example of the fact that you are never too old to run” she said. She was alluding to the Irish over 80 men who also achieved a new World 4x800m Indoor record. 

“Irish Masters are in a great place and people do not really realise how good Irish masters’ athletes really are” Cox added.

Everyone has their favourite competitions, and Michelle Cox is very clear about hers.

“The higher-level competitions mean the most to me. I am a high achiever and want to achieve more. I like to really challenge myself and these races offer this challenge”.

It was her sport that got her into nutrition, and it was paying attention to nutrition that she ultimately credits her improved performance. 

Michelle gave birth to twins 13 years ago and it was while at home after their birth that she started to really enjoy her running and pay more attention to her nutrition. Over the years she has seen the benefits of her nutrition focus on her performance.

 “The focus has ensured I stay fit, healthy, strong and most importantly injury free”. 

She formalized her nutrition training in 2023 when she achieved formal accreditation as a sports nutrition coach. This was as much for her own knowledge as well as for helping others. She then did a further course on sports nutrition. 

“I thought I knew a lot until I studied it and realized I had so much more to learn” she indicated. Her main take away from her studies has been the importance of the quality of the food and awareness of what you are putting into your body. “Read the ingredients” she said. She is also now more conscience of artificial sweeteners and preservative and E’s.

Nutrition is complex. It is the right balance of the amount, quality and timing that contributes to performance. As the founder and director of Elite Nutrition, Michelle Cox advises runners to get an annual blood check, to lay down the markers. 

“Everyone responds differently to different foods. Nutrition is personal” she advices. Her main piece of advice is for each meal to have a balance of protein, carbs, fats and fibers on your plate. There is a lot of talk amongst elite athletes about the value of beetroot juice.

 “It is fantastic” said Michelle as she waves her own tumbler of beetroot juice in front of me. 

“Beetroot juice is fantastic for nitrates” she stated. “Nitrates help improve the blood flow to the muscles. It’s great for heart health too. It was its benefit for the heart that first led to leading sports scientists looking at how it could benefit athletes”.

Continuing with her advice for athletes she recommends liver which acts as coffers for vitamin A and D. Absorption of iron is important and liver has all of the components for iron and absorption. She also recommends the usual green leafy vegetables, making sure to combine iron rich food with vitamin C rich food. 

It’s also important to start the day with a good breakfast as it helps balance your blood sugars for the remainder of the day. So many people, many of whom do sport, skip breakfast.

Michelle founded Elite nutrition in January 2024. (elitenutritionmc@gmail.com). Since then she has worked with over 100 clients. 

These are primarily athletes over 18 to master’s and of all ability levels from beginner to elite level. Her aim is to help them to improve their running performance, nutrition and overall health and wellbeing. She has received excellent feedback and testimonials and referrals. 91% of those clients have improved their running performance based on nutrition alone. 

She has also started to give nutrition talks in schools and aims to increase the reach for nutrition information through further talks and seminars. Her package includes an initial 90-minute consultation with further 30 minute consultations. Her most popular programmes are the three-month ones, that focus also on weight loss.

“Accountability is what most people like” she said.

For now the mother of three will continue to advocate a healthy diet for anyone who wants to stay fit and healthy and improve their running performance. 

We look forward to seeing what more 2025 can unveil for this busy multi-tasking Newbridge athlete.