Ciaran Hinds

The joy of just being involved in something, of being part of a big process, just as a human being, it's nice to be part of people who are in the same enterprise, heading for the same goal, rather than, 'Oh this is all about me and my role. The story's about me.'

I'd worked at a small town newspaper, and I was thinking of all the strange stories that I had seen float through the newsroom in my time there that were dismissed as kind of amusing curiosities. Somehow from that I got to this idea of an eccentric alcoholic who built a lighthouse in the woods.

The closer I get to retirement, the more I feel it will be a huge change, a shock, because athletics has been the core of my whole life. I know I'll miss the feeling of running fast, the adrenaline rush, and hearing the crowd cheering me on.