Irish men's marathon record holder Peter Lynch has said that Olympic qualification is now firmly on his mind after his sensational run in London on Sunday.
In only his fourth-ever marathon, the 28-year-old crossed the line in a new Irish best of 2:06:08 – good enough for ninth position and the top European honour on a landmark day that saw Sabastian Sawe become the first person in history to officially record a sub-two-hour race.
Kilkenny man Lynch, a member of the Puma Elite Running Team in North Carolina under head coach and 2008 Irish Olympian Alistair Cragg, took the record from Fearghal Curtin who ran 2:07:54 in South Korea last October.
"I haven't decided yet with what marathon will be next, but it'll be some marathon in the autumn time and then kind of looking ahead for 2027," Lynch told RTÉ Sport, whilst confirming that the 2026 Europeans in Birmingham in August are unlikely to make his calendar.
"That's when the Olympic qualifying window will open, so we'll be hoping to get that qualifying time for the Olympics at some point.
"It'll be probably some road races in the US this summer and then a big marathon, potentially like New York or Chicago in the autumn."
A lot of friends and family made their way to London for Lynch’s run, and he spoke of all the details that all came together to allow him to set that new personal best.
"There were pacers going at 2:06:30 pace, so the plan was to just stick with them until like 20 miles and then see if potentially you could pick it up in the last 10k and I'd say it pretty much went like that," said Lynch, who was paced by 2024 Olympic triathlon winner Alex Yee.
"I was able to hang with the group and then was able to kind of finish strong and pick it up a bit in the last 10k.
"A year ago, I wouldn't have said that I would be running 2:06 in 12 months’ time, but training has been going really well the last year and I had a really good half marathon six weeks ago in New York (59.52), so that gave me lots of confidence.
"But I think with the marathon, you never really know. Your training and everything can be good, but on the day there's just a lot of variables that can go wrong. I think for it all to come together on the day is really nice.
"The weather conditions were pretty ideal, the temperature was pretty good and there was a favourable kind of wind direction that was on your back for the last 10k when you'd want it rather than a headwind, so that was good.
"Then just like the energy around the place was pretty, pretty crazy. Like there were definitely periods where my ears were just ringing from like how loud it was."
"There were definitely periods where my ears were just ringing from like how loud it was."
Lynch said it was an extra special day to be running given Sawe’s history-making heroics.
There has been much analysis of the Kenyan’s run since, including the part played by his Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 shoes.
For Lynch however, the journey to that sub two-hour marathon owed much to ever-improving equipment, as well as advances in coaching and nutrition.
"I'm sponsored by Puma so the kind of super shoe that we have is called the Fast-R3. I've been wearing it for like a year now. I think super shoes, they've been around since the last kind of 10 years at this point.
"Year on year, they seem to kind of get more responsive and a bit lighter and stuff like that. I think it's definitely part of why people are running faster.
"I think they're a pretty big part, especially for training. I think you can train harder now than you could have, say, 10 years ago before these shoes. You can do a lot of big work-outs and it doesn't kind of beat up your legs as much.
"I do think there's also a lot of other factors. I think coaching has progressed, and especially like nutrition, like in the race we take in much more carbs than people would have done 10 years ago.
"I think there's lots of factors why people are getting faster and faster."
