Celebrating Jerry Kiernan’s lasting legacy and the sweet science he adored

It was by cosmic coincidence perhaps that a senior member of our Wicklow Lake Swimming Club this week presented me with a first edition hardback copy of Voices of Kerry.

Because there, among the treasure of self-penned conversations including Brendan Kennelly, Ogie Moran, Margaret Dwyer and Bryan McMahon, is that unmistakable voice of Jerry Kiernan.

Fear not the obvious. This has nothing whatsoever to do with Kiernan’s lasting reputation to have a cut at the perceived competitiveness of some sporting events (i.e. the Rugby World Cup) compared to athletics or soccer, although he does give it a fair lash in Voices of Kerry.

Published in 1994, a decade after Kiernan finished ninth in the Olympic marathon in Los Angeles, he describes rugby as “only quasi-international”, adding “there are only a handful of countries playing it seriously and only a handful of other countries half playing it seriously”.

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Anyway, let’s move on.

When the good people at the Jerry Kiernan Foundation approached me about chairing their second annual Science of Running Symposium, set for the UCD Village Auditorium next Saturday (September 16th), there was a reminder too that not all of Kiernan’s running was based around the science, and at times it probably wasn’t too smart either. Particularly given the era he started out in.

Bob Dylan once described destiny as knowing something about yourself that no one else does, and there are some echoes of that in the opening lines of Kiernan’s conversation with himself.

“I had two ambitions in life,” he says. “To run for Ireland in the Olympics, and to run a sub-four minute mile.”

He first thought that in 1964, as an 11-year-old, watching the Tokyo Olympics in his next-door neighbour Lizzie Sayers’ house in Colbert Street, Listowel. Fate played a part too: Ollie Lehane, a bank official staying in digs in Lizzie’s and later a successful racehorse owner, initiated him into the whole thing of staggered lanes and sprint distances.

There have been various myths and some truths over the years as to why Kiernan never warmed to Gaelic football (that small matter of the Kerry Sports Star of 1984 awarded to Pat Spillane, and not him, chief among them), only he doesn’t hold much of a grudge here.

Instead, the fact his father Pat was a Clare man from Kilkee, and not from Kerry, was the ultimate sounding call: “Living in Kerry it is always the desire of most fathers to see their sons play football… but my father left me make my own choices, and I have always acknowledged it.”

Although he did win a county championship minor medal for Feale Rangers in 1971, his running destiny soon came calling: “I became very disciplined, I was aware one had to lead a certain kind of life to achieve anything.”

That lifestyle soon paid dividends, Kiernan finishing second to Eamonn Coghlan in the All-Ireland Colleges 1,500m, before in 1975 in London, aged 22, he ran his first sub-four minute mile.

After he missed out on the 1980 Moscow Olympics in the 5,000m by one place, Kiernan soon turned his attention to the roads, with an increasing ferocity about his training. Later, when Kiernan goes into some detail about his training for the 1984 Olympic marathon in Los Angeles, he admits he probably didn’t listen to enough of the running science.

Cramping soon became an issue, in Dublin in 1982 and again in Los Angeles, and he didn’t always listen to the words, advice and maybe some of the science being preached by his coach Brendan O’Shea: “If I had listened to Brendan properly, really listened, I would have run better in Los Angeles. I think all my life I have trained too hard. Extremely hard. That is the way I am.”

When after Kiernan’s death, following a short illness in January of 2021, aged 67, his long-time friend, training partner and running ally Murt Coleman first toyed with the idea of setting up the Jerry Kiernan Foundation, the intention was two-fold: yes, raise some funds for the young athletes who might not otherwise be eligible for financial assistance, but also as a way to keep giving back some of what Kiernan still left behind, remembering him not just in words but in a meaningful way too.

Coleman also saw how a little financial support could go a long way. Kiernan’s old school, St Brigid’s in Foxrock, without any request, raised a small contribution towards Kiernan’s Olympic preparations in 1984. It afforded him the chance to travel to Los Angeles well in advance and complete the acclimatisation process.

It is fitting then that some of the panel members next Saturday are Kiernan’s contemporaries, Coghlan and John Treacy, plus the next generation of sprint-orientated athletes such as Derval O’Rourke and David Gillick.

Coghlan and Treacy would have realised the increasing importance of embracing the running science of the years. Coghlan spoke about that on these pages only recently, and how his shift in mindset from training hard to training smart ultimately primed him to win the World Championship 5,000m in Helsinki 40 years ago.

Treacy for sure never any had aversion whatsoever to hard training, going back to his schoolboy days in Waterford, when he would run a nine-mile loop home from St Anne’s in Cappoquin to the family Post Office in Villierstown. He won his first World Cross-Country title in 1978 aged only 21.

Only later, after failing to progress from his 10,000m heat at those same World Championships in Helsinki, Treacy returned to the US with his wife and young daughter and began to embrace parts of the running science.

It’s the same with O’Rourke and Gillick, who gradually moved away from the basics of sprinting up hills and various track drills to building a team of sport science experts around them.

There have been plenty of changes away from the training side of things too, which will be reflected at the symposium; the once dreaded Achilles tendon injury has been the subject of considerable scientific research by former Olympic race walker Dr Colin Griffin, and his findings are sure to benefit runners of all ability; Prof Kate Pumpa will also present the latest trends in running nutrition.

“All proceeds will go to the Jerry Kiernan Foundation in its work of helping our athletes preparing for international and Olympic [Paris] competition,” Coleman says, no doubt conscious Kiernan would have been listening intently too.

Registration for the event, in association with Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, is essential, virtual or otherwise, and can be done by visiting: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/science-of-running-symposium-tickets-695501211847