The day I squared up to Daniel Day Lewis at a Kildare sports event

The unexpected return of Daniel Day Lewis to the movie screen was probably less surprising than his appearance as a participant at a sports fixture in Kildare.

Two decades and more have passed since the cinematic legend and three time Academy Award winner took himself to Ballitore. He lives, some of the time at least, in Annamoe, Wicklow, less than an hour’s drive from the south Kildare village.

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His reason for the visit on that mid-summer evening was to take part in a charity road race. The race was staged as a fundraiser for the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind over a distance of six kilometres on a looping route around Ballitore.

Me too. At the time I was doing a lot of running, was a member of Naas Athletic Club and participated in county competitions - running badly and failing miserably.

Races like the Ballitore event generate funds for great causes like the IGDFTB. People turn up, pay the fee and run.

At the top end of any line up would be a handful of seriously talented athletes, capable of impressive times, who come to win. In some of these events there are not insignificant cash prizes for the winners.

Participants like myself - known in the sport as “mid pack runners” - came in the certain knowledge that we were making up the numbers.

But, you could be getting up to worse of an evening.

Daniel Day L couldn't have been more understated.

He arrived in a small Japanese car like a Toyota Yaris or a Nissan Micra. He was accompanied by a young woman who, if memory serves, was driving.

He was happy to chat to those who showed up and approached him and was gracious and polite.

There was a total absence of flamboyance. He had neither airs nor graces - if you didn’t know who he was you’d have thought he was some lad on the way home after a shift at a Lidl store.

He got togged out for the race and lined up with about 60 of us. He didn’t try to elbow his way to the front for the start (like the really good runners who expect to finish in the top three).

What struck me about him was his height, well over six feet tall and how fit he looked - he had the physique of a cross country runner.

Watching him during the race it was clear he was a very, very fit.

Perhaps he was preparing for a movie role and this may have been preparation for him; but it was clear he had done many kilometres and in faster times than you might have imagined.

Before the end I “blew up” - athletic terminology for having to stop mid-race. Feeling shivery and weak, I stopped, went home and took to the bed with, it turned out, a flu.

So, I’ll never know if I’d have finished ahead of him.

Limited though I was, I’d have fancied my chances. I have a few years on him and I’d been training hard.

But, hey, enough about me.

Maybe this takes up more space in the Dan's head than mine. 

Maybe he saw me drop out - and he’s the one who's been wondering ever since which of us would have crossed the line first.