Mayo AC’s John Byrne third in ultra race

Awesome Byrne third in ultra race


John Byrne of Mayo AC finished third at the Anglo Celtic Plate 100k ultra race in Perth, Scotland last Sunday after what must rank as the best race of his athletics career. The Straide man was poetry in motion and had a lot to celebrate after the event, which is not only a very competitive race between the Home Nations but also incorporates the Irish 100k championships.
Byrne came to the race having entered the ultra distance zone in 2010 with a 50k race in Galway in August and an excellent 60th place in the World Championships in Gibraltar in November. In between these two, he completed yet another Dublin marathon, but 100k is the equivalent of running two marathons back to back and finishing with a 10-mile run!
The Irish team manager was well-known adventurer and experienced ultra athlete Richard Donovan from Galway. Byrne and two experienced runners, Thomas Maguire (the current Irish record holder, in 7 hours 4 minutes) and John O’Regan, were joined by Keith Whyte (Ennis Track Club) and Daniel Doherty (Basingstoke and Hants AC), both attempting their first 100k.
The 2.38k circuit was perfect, and the Irish support crew were in place with a table full of gels, energy drinks, clipboards, watches, mobile phones, fig rolls, protein bars, and plenty of water. The sun burned away the early-morning fog. John Byrne reached the marathon mark in three hours and steadily passed the halfway 50k point in 3 hrs 33 mins. He had  been lapping the circuit at 10.15-10.30 pace throughout. As the noon bells tolled, they had been running for five hours.
Richard Donovan told us the race really began at 70k, as runners unravelled amid muscle pain and fatigue. John Byrne was sixth and second Irish placed runner but showing great consistency in lap times. The Gibraltar experience came into play. He got to fifth, then at about 80k caught Daniel Doherty, who had a brilliant debut. Then in the last few laps, with his familiar determined grimace, he pulled the leaders back. With just a couple of laps to go, he went into third place and ran a fantastic last lap in 9.42 to finish in 7.09.33 to finish third in the individual competition, behind Craig Stewart of Scotland (7.01.36) and Alan Smalls of England (7.04.54). Byrne had beaten his Gibraltar debut time by 54 minutes, and there were delighted hugs from his Mayo AC supporters especially his number one fan Sarah Syron, Catherine Conway and TJ McHugh had played a key role too and they also celebrated John’s performance underneath the team tent’s tricolour.
Daniel Doherty and joined by Keith Whyte finished sixth (7.19.29) and seventh (7.28.59) overall, and like Byrne, they also posted qualifying times for the World 100km Championships in September. “For a relative newcomer to ultrarunning, Byrne ran an incredible time,” said Richard Donovan.
John Byrne was crowned Irish 100k champion for 2011, and is now the second fastest Irishman in history over this distance. He led the team to a cumulative times of 21.58.01 – a new Irish team record, eclipsing the record set by the Irish team that finished fifth at the European 100km Championships in 2007. Team captain Thomas Maguire was fourth Irish finisher, and John O’Regan came in fifth with a personal best time. The Irish team were third in the Anglo Celtic Plate, and the performance also ensured second place behind Scotland (21.43.36) in a highly competitive team competition which saw Commonwealth champions England finish third. It was a day when John Byrne held it all together, a day for grit and talent, a day to make Mayo, Mayo AC and Ireland mighty proud.