John Travers has been foremost in Irish middle-distance, distance running for the past decade. He came to prominence in 2010 when he won the All-Ireland Schools senior-grade cross-country title representing the Inchicore Vocational School. In the same year he won the national junior XC title and set a championship record of 8.12.79 in the national junior 3.000m.
It is difficult to gather a full report on John’s outstanding achievements such has been his versatility of talents between 800m and the half-marathon. John won the Irish 1,500m championship in 2016, 2018 & 2019 and more recently claimed silver in the 5.000m (September 2020). He has also won several national indoor titles.
‘JT’ has represented Ireland at senior grade in major athletics events on 13 occasions, thus: – European Indoors 2013 (Goteborg), USA vs World Penn Relays 2014 (Philadelphia), European Championships 2014 (Zurich), European Indoors 2015 (Prague), European Team Champs 2015 (Iraklion, Greece), Edinburgh International XC Relays 2017, European Indoors 2017 (Belgrade), European Team Champs 2017 (Vaasa, Finland), European XC 2017 (Somorin, Slovakia), European XC 2018 (Tilburg), European Indoors 2019 (Glasgow), Euro Team Champs 2019 (Sandnes, Norway), and European XC 2019 (Lisbon). In 2010 he competed as a junior in the World Championships at Moncton, Canada where he finished 13th in the 5,000m; and in the World XC in Poland, where he was the 8th European. John also competed in the European U23s in Ostrava, Czech Republic in 2011, and the World University Games in South Korea in 2015. He has also represented Ireland at several other international events.
Affable John is popular among his peers and admired for his loyalty to Donore Harriers. He spearheaded the revival of the senior men’s team to contest for national titles in recent years. He was central to the club being 3rd in the national inter-clubs in 2014 and in winning the national road relay in 2015. His scintillating 3-mile leg, a course record 13.55, in the national road relay in 2019 turned a 21-seconds deficit into a 2-seconds lead and was key to the team gaining silver.
He also set course records in the Jingle Bells 5km, St. Patrick’s Festival 5km, Streets of Portlaoise 5km and elsewhere – and became the first Irishman to run a sub-4-minute mile indoors in the country at the AIT International meet in 2018.
STANDARD QUESTIONS
PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH? Dublin 1991
WHERE WERE/ARE YOU BEING EDUCATED? I attended Athlone Institute of Technology and studied Sports Management there.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR CAREER PATH? I started working full time as an SNA back in 2016 and currently work in Mercy College Sligo
IN WHAT YEAR DID YOU JOIN DONORE HARRIERS? I joined Donore Harriers late in 2006
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE DONORE HARRIERS? Without sounding cliché Donore Harriers chose me. I was doing the Gaisce award within school. I actually tried to join Liffey Valley AC as it was the only club my teacher knew of. However, they did not accept junior athletes and sent me up the road to Donore Harriers – thankfully!
WERE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY OTHER CLUB BEFORE JOINING DONORE HARRIERS? No, I had never done athletics before, I was a late comer to the sport
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER SPORT? At the time yes, I did a bit of everything. This included soccer, Gaelic, badminton, basketball, golf
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ATHLETICS EVENT? I can honestly say I do not have a favourite, not yet anyway. I am lucky I can do a bit of a range of events from 1500 up to half marathon.
WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT ROLE(S) AT THE CLUB? I am an athlete in the club, unfortunately with living in Sligo I cannot really give much to the club apart from racing. Myself and my partner Eimear however set up Innisfree Athletics club last year in Sligo, so I am actively coaching there.
WHO WERE/ARE YOUR SPORTING INSPIRATIONS/INFLUENCES? To be honest at the start I couldn’t have even said as I knew nothing about athletics, I hadn’t even heard of Eamonn Coghlan until I met him in Marley park at an underage cross country. It was my first Dublin championship win that day!
SOCIAL QUESTIONS
WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? I’m not much of a reader. I like to be active. The only book I have ever read was for my leaving cert. I do not have the patience for it. Sorry, I know I’m a bad example to younger people
WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED? Think it was an X Factor concert years ago that we got tickets given to us.
WHAT ARE YOUR 3 FAVOURITE FILMS?
1. Happy Gilmore
2. The Longest yard
3. Undecided ha
FAVOURITE COUNTRY VISITED? I would have to say Belgium. I have been to a number of towns there and it’s such a lovely place
WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER INTERESTS AWAY FROM ATHLETICS/SPORT? I really like baking treats, a mixture of healthy and unhealthy
IF DISERT ISLAND DISCS ASKED YOU TO PLAY 3 SONGS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE? I would probably just put on a top 40 list on YouTube as I’m terrible with music.
ATHLETICS QUESTIONS
WHO IS YOUR COACH? Jerry Kiernan aka the man with the hair on RTE
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT? Probably making the final in the European Indoor Championships back a few years ago in the 1500m or the fact that I was the first Irishman to break 4-minute mile indoor on Irish soil, even though it isn’t as fast as others have run outside Ireland
WHAT ARE YOUR BEST TIMES/MARKS (PBs)? 800m – 1.50.9; 1,500m – 3.37.27; Mile – 3.55.44; 3km – 7.55.05; 5km – 13.28.96; 10 mile – 47.35; Half Marathon – 1.04.23
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COACHED SESSION? Probably 20 X 400m with 100m jog recovery
DESCRIBE THE MOST DIFFICULT SESSION THAT YOU HAVE DONE? I did 5 x 1200m on the track up at altitude a good few years ago. I did it that hard it nearly killed me – haha!
WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN? Now during the winter, I will average between 85 miles to 100 miles per week. This involves 4/5 days that I do a double run, 2 session days and a long run day. My typical long run during winter is 1hr 45mins to 2hrs
DO YOU HAVE A FUNNY STORY RELATED TO ATHLETICS/THE CLUB? Yes, I remember in 2010 when the club hosted the All-Ireland Cross Country. I ended up winning my first National cross-country title (junior) that day. Needless-to- say, there was a bit of a celebration in the club. Myself and one of the lads ended up climbing a ladder and taking down the Donore Harriers flag to run a lap of the track like a bunch of eejits. It was great fun!
WHO ARE YOUR TOP 3 IRISH SPORTSPERSONS OF ALL TIME?
In no particular order:
1. Mark Carroll
2. Padraig Harrington
3. Damien Duff
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
YOU WON THE NATIONAL JUNIOR XC TITLE IN 2010. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT DAY? I remember it was actually a class day weather wise. The course was lovely, being very solid and therefore very fast. I knew Shane Quinn would go out hard so I gave him a bit of rope and hoped he would come back, which thankfully he did. I passed him with about ¾ of a lap to go and I never looked back
CROSS-COUNTRY OR ROAD RACING? Definitely road racing over the cross. I do cross as its good for me, but I have always struggled at it.
A short clip of John finishing the 2014 St. Patrick’s Festival 5km – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzCKJ7qHahU
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? As I said before, probably making the final in the European Indoors and being the first sub-4 miler indoor on Irish soil or else the night that I ran the 3.55 mile in Morton games out of nowhere.
Here is a link to RTE’s coverage of John’s final in the Euro Indoors 2015 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b78hddgF7e0&t=328s
And here is John’s historic sub-4 indoor mile at the AIT Arena in March 2018 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aL8LdoYPqQ
YOU HAD A SUPER RUN IN THE MORTON MILE AT SANTRY IN 2014! WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THAT EVENING? The first thing I remember was it was the nicest night weather wise; I’d say we have ever had. It was so calm and quite mild. The one instruction I had from Jerry (coach) was to be last after the first 400 metres. He said I would still be too fast. Needless-to-say, he was right. I remember with 600m to go I was in no man’s land really at the back of the pack. I was hurting so bad and just said to myself to go for it as I had nothing to lose. I think from 600m out to 200m to go I ran 54 seconds … the last 100 metres was hell. I had no idea I was on for a good time until I took a glimpse at the clock with 200 metres to go. It was a big shock as we thought I would struggle to run 4 minutes as I wasn’t in great form training wise.
Here’s a link to the 2014 Morton Mile (JT is wearing No. 10) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H-LDGjFoxI
YOUR 13.28 RUN AT THE (IFAM) OORDEGEM MEETING IN BELGIUM IN MAY 2019 WAS ANOTHER FANTASTIC RUN. MANY IRISH ATHLETES SET PBs AT THAT MEET, INCLUDING OUR OWN LOUIS O’LOUGHLIN (1.50.02 800m). WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEETS IN IRELAND AND MEETS IN EUROPE? I think one of the main differences is the weather, in Belgium you are almost guaranteed good weather, its rarely windy come the evening time and all of their meets are late in the evening when its calm.
YOU’VE DONE SOME OF THE BIG MEETINGS IN THE USA! WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE? They are just in a different league! I remember I did a 5-week stint doing the indoor season over there a few years back and they turn over races very quickly. One race will finish and then the next will start – it’s unbelievable! For example, the 800s. They had the next race ready to go within 20/30seconds of the other one finishing. The crowds are also class! Penn Relays probably had the best crowd I have witnessed at an athletics meet outside of an Olympics and World Championships. The buzz created was just brilliant.
DO YOU REGRET NOT GOING TO THE U.S.A OR U.K TO FURTHER YOUR ATHLETICS CAREER? No, I definitely do not regret it. It isn’t for everyone. Personally, I think if I went, I wouldn’t be running today as I wasn’t doing the training required to handle the training load in the States. I was too lazy when I was younger, partly because I came to the sport so late and was used to training 2 days for every sport.
YOU DIDN’T DEFEND YOUR NATIONAL 1,500m TITLE IN 2020, INSTEAD YOU OPTED FOR THE 5,000m. WILL YOUR FUTURE FOCUS BE TOWARDS LONGER DISTANCES? AND DO YOU PLAN ON TAKING UP THE MARATHON? My plan is definitely to go longer in the future. In saying that, I have one or two goals left over 1500/mile. So, I’m not finished! I will definitely step up to the marathon in the next 4 or 5 years
YOU RAN A STEEPLECHASE RACE IN 9.40.3 IN 2013! ARE YOU IN ANYWAY TEMPTED TO GIVE THE STEEPLECHASE ANOTHER GO? I have always said to Jerry (Kiernan) that I will be doing one at some stage. I remember that time it was the national league. I had just finished the 800m or 1500m when Eric who was supposed to do steeple had hurt himself. I offered myself up as I knew we needed the points. Schuh! I didn’t tell Jerry until after as it was better to ask forgiveness than seek approval at that time! It was great fun, as I just ran around with Ray Hynes who in Crusaders AC at that time.
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON ‘PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SHOES’ LIKE THE VAPORFLY; SHOULD THEY BE ALLOWED OR SHOULD THEY BE BANNED COMPLETELY? Personally, I think they shouldn’t be allowed, but at the same time technology is moving on in every way and if we don’t go with it we get left behind.
HOW HAS THE ROLE OF FAMILY LIFE AND FATHERHOOD IMPACTED YOUR RUNNING? It has done nothing but good for me. I need structure in my life for athletics to work. I do not think I could be a “full time” athlete, as it just doesn’t work for me. Now I have a very good balance in life. I get up at 6am along with the family so I can help with the breakfast, then I go for a run, head to work, come home, do my evening run and then get kids ready for bed. It’s a great routine!
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TRIP ASSOCIATED WITH ATHLETICS/THE CLUB? AND WHY? From the club point of view shortly after I joined the club, we took a training trip to Limerick for a weekend and it was such good craic. We also got a good bit of training done. It was one of the things that made me enjoy the thoughts of running more. Favourite trip from athletics point of view was when I went to the World Junior Championships in Canada back in 2010. It was the first time I was out of Europe and was a great experience
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ASPIRING YOUNG ATHLETES? I think the best thing I can say from my own experiences is there will be a lot of bad days as well as the good days. Some people find it hard to motivate themselves when it doesn’t go well but use this as fuel for the NEXT race. I have that in capitals as a bad race is never your last so look forward when things don’t go right. Also, things don’t just happen overnight. Young athletes always want to run fast in the now. Yes, this is great at the time, but an athletics career goes past your teens. Remember that you still need to be running well in your 20’s and 30’s. The question you need to figure out is do I want to be remembered as just a good junior or do you want to make a mark in the history of Irish athletics and try becoming one of the best senior athletes.
ANY GOOD PRANKS RECENTLY? There are always good pranks from me! My most recent was winding the Home Economic teachers in the school by making mouse noises to scare them…. If I had been closer, I’d say I’d have a black eye right now
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE FOOD? Probably homemade pizza or a good spaghetti.
YOU ARE A KEEN GOLFER! WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT HANDICAP? Technically I do not have one as I have not been a member of a club in a while. But when I was playing last, I had been playing off 10. Mind you, during my off period I shot a 79 in Rosses Point Golf Course which is a tough one. When I finish athletics, my long-term plan is to get down to playing off 2 or lower.
