With Ireland set to send a bumper squad to the European Athletics Championships next week, Limerick's Sarah Lavin is hoping for her best result yet following her fastest ever season opener in Doha.
A tumble over the line didn't deter her in that race last month, she quickly got back to doing what she loves.
"It was good to get back out. I raced four or five days later.
"I was lucky to come away with no injuries and fairly unscathed."
The race Lavin ran five days later was in Savona, Italy, where even with a clipped hurdle she managed another sub-13 clocking.
The national record holder knows that more will be required of her if she wants to make the podium in Rome.
"I reckon you'll have to be in the 50s (12.50) to be honest," admitted Lavin.
With such a short build up to the first championship and Lavin typically running over 20 races in a season, she explained that racing regularly gives more opportunity to fine-tune her technique.
"With hurdles being so technical, the more I gained confidence from racing.
"I love racing and putting those technical things into action under pressure.
"With the Europeans being so early it's a tricky one because no-one is getting the number of races they would like, the outdoor season was really only a month long."
Reflecting on her three-race season so far, Lavin is yet to have a clean run with ideal conditions.
A hurdle clipped in each of her first two races and a clean run in cold temperatures in the third leaves room for improvement heading into the European Championships.
The Limerick woman does acknowledge the enormity of her first run out of the season.
"To run 12.73 in May is lightning quick.
"To throw out an Olympic standard on your opener is fairly impressive and it enabled us to be able to train and pick our competitions."
Lavin has an accomplished championship record, finishing fifth in the world indoors earlier this year, but it is a tough ask to have everything go your way.
"You need those moments where everything goes right and you have absolute precision.
"It's a really high standard in certain events and really stacked.
"The Diamond League last week, the 100m hurdles was won by a European [Ditaji Kambundji]. The 100m hurdles is incredibly competitive in Europe."
Lavin is currently ranked fifth in Europe, and historically out-performs her rank, but one thing she may have over her competitors is experience.
The now 30-year-old celebrated her birthday two days ago, and credits her maturity as the reason she was able to run her fastest ever season opener this year.
"I wouldn't typically tend to open up with PBs, so indoors to run two PBs on the same day, I think it comes with age.
"As you grow older and you get more mature...I think also with life you learn what real pressures are off the track.
"It helps you to handle just sport," she added.
Lavin stated that it's medals, not age, that's on her mind in the run up to the double-header championship year.
"I think I'm running faster than I ever have before.
"There’s a lot of women that are 36 that are Olympic champions and Olympic medallists now.
"I've been in a good few finals now at this point and obviously I'm looking to convert the fives and sixes and sevens to the other end of the top three."
Another Irish athlete that has a similar career trajectory to Lavin is 1500m national record holder, Ciara Mageean.
Both Lavin and Mageean shone as Under-20 athletes, winning medals at the European Junior Championships in 2013 and 2011 respectively.
Mageean missed the 2013 season entirely, while Lavin missed the majority of the 2016 season.
Following those disappointments, both women steadily built their careers, persevered through the challenges of life and sport and are now on their way to global success this summer in their 30s.
Lavin and Mageean may both experience longevity in their careers due in part to the hiccups along the way.
"It's very different if you’ve maybe come through a career and had huge success from 19 to 20, 10 years straight," Lavin continued.
"But I guess I had success when I was 19 and then didn’t really get it back until three years ago."
The year Mageean turned 30 she won two international medals, Lavin will be hoping her 30th year is equally as successful.
She has been waiting to add a senior global medal to her locker, despite making four finals in the last two years.
"No athlete should come on here and tell you that they shouldn't want a medal.
"We want to medal for ourselves, for our coaches, for our families, for all of the Irish contingent that have been absolutely incredible."
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