Peter Lynch doesn't expect his new Irish marathon record to last for long.
The 27-year-old from the Kilkenny City Harriers club set a new Irish men's mark on Sunday when he finished third in the Dusseldorf event in a time of 2:09.36, beating Hiko Tonosa's record mark by six seconds.
That was just his second competitive outing over 42km, and was a good eight minutes faster than he managed in Chicago last October.
"It's great," the former University of Tulsa, Oklahoma student told RTÉ Sport of his achievement. "I suppose it hasn’t really fully set in yet.
"I was trying not to think about the record. I was just trying to hold a good pace. But you could blow up at any point.
"I knew I was on for a good time and then with 2 or 3km to go I was looking at my watch and [thinking] 'okay, I have to close the last kilometres in this time and I can get it'.
"I was nervous going into this one because the first one had gone so badly. I had to stop and walk two or three times with cramps [in Chicago].
"On the home straight, I could see the time on the banner counting closer and closer to the record and I was just going as hard as I could hoping I could get it.
"It was a lot of emotion and then you’re dealing with the physical pain as well.
"It's nice now to get a really solid one on the board and have more confidence going into the next one."
Ireland's new marathon record holder Peter Lynch describes the closing stages of the race in Dusseldorf yesterday pic.twitter.com/qEQGUSeC9G
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) April 28, 2025
The previous Irish record was only six months old, Hiko Tonosa running 2:09.42 in the Dublin Marathon, while Fearghal Curtin (Youghal AC) was fourth in his debut over the distance in 2:11:35 in Dusseldorf. All of which leads Lynch to believe it could be a special period for Irish distance running.
"I'm not sure how long this record will hang around to be honest," he said.
"Distance running in Ireland is really improving and especially in marathon there are a lot of guys that could potentially break that record.
"Fearghal was ahead of me until about 32km. There has never been two Irish people running 2:11 in the same race, as far as I’m aware.
"Hiko was just slightly slower than his own national record [in Rotterdam two weeks ago]
"It’s nice to be part of maybe a new wave of marathon running in Ireland."
"Long-term, definitely the LA 2028 Olympics'
Yesterday's race was won in 2:08:32 by Alex Meier of the USA, a team-mate of Lynch at the Puma Elite team in North Carolina, which is led by former Irish Olympian Alistair Cragg and his American Olympian wife Amy.
Lynch will now confer with Alistair about running in September's World Championships in Tokyo, but definitely has his eyes set on making the Olympics in three years' time.
"It has been a really eye-opening experience, training with multiple Olympians and national record holders," he said.
"It has really helped me by running to a new level.
"We're definitely looking at that World Championships marathon in September.
"Then long-term, definitely the LA 2028 Olympics. It will probably take something like 2:06 to make it so this is a good stepping stone towards that and still have two or three years to get there."
