Limerick man's inspirational running story culminates in representing Ireland at World Championships

SOUTHILL native John Kinsella is currently preparing for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain at the end of the month. The event is being held in CanfrancPirineos, from September 25 to 28.

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John recently represented his country at the World Masters Mountain Championships in Italy and used this as an opportunity to further train for the upcoming World Championships at the end of September. 

"I headed over and I was feeling good, I didn't know what kind of shape I was in because I hadn't raced in a while and I had also fractured my ankle in that time.

I was supposed to be out for six weeks but I was back running after a week so it didn't hold me back for too long."

The recent three-day event in Meduno, Italy proved to be a gruelling task for all involved. With a race on across all of the three days, John decided to race on the Friday and the Sunday. 

Both races John competed in had an elevation gain of 800 metres. A tough ascent, mixed with the harsh conditions made for a a taxing few days. 

"I didn't get a great start, there were too many people in front of me that I couldn't overtake them on the single track because it was so narrow and steep, it made it very hard to push past people. I was disappointed overall because I came fourth in my category, I was hoping to do well."

John also competed with fellow runners Seán Quirke and Ciarán Steed in the team event, representing Ireland in the Masters 45 category. 

"We had success as a team which was a good consolation, as a team we finished behind the hosts Italy who were very strong, they would've had runners who would've been based near where the race was on so they had a good idea of their way around the course.

"We ended up coming second in the M45 category which was great."

"On Sunday, it as a better day because it was a longer distance and it was a lot easier to get into position. I went off with the leaders and I ended up staying in the top 10 until I got to the top of the mountain."

John was racing in the classic distance, which involved a running up and down the mountain, seven kilometres up and seven kilometres down with 800 metres of elevation on the way up. 

"I had a very good descent and there was only about 20 seconds separating second position to fifth where I was so I ended up coming top five overall and that was all age categories. That was top five overall and I came second in the Masters event.

"I came second to a very good runner from Italy, he was based not too far from where the race took place. He set a very high standard from early on and to be honest, I was chasing his tail and  couldn't manage to reel him in. I was hoping to call myself a world champion but I'll have to train harder and come back next year!"

Running wasn't always the lifelong ambition for John. Having only played soccer, running found him one day in his mid-thirties.

"I gave up soccer in my early thirties because of injuries. I was nearly 17 stone, I wasn't doing any sort of physical activity. My outlet was soccer and that was gone from me, the injuries put that to bed. I gave up on myself really and thought my sporting achievements were in the past."

"I just woke up one day when I was 35 and decided I needed to lose weight. I ended up losing six stone since then. The Great Limerick Run was the first race I ever took part in and I had never ran before that, even in the soccer I was a goalkeeper!

"I took off at a nice, steady pace and I really enjoyed it and I knew this was something I wanted to do and that was the start of it, I've been running since!"

"My life changed overnight really when I done that first run. Having grown up in Southill, a lot of the people I would have grown up with, they passed away when they were young and when I found running, it gave me a chance to get over a lot of that stuff. I dedicate my running to a lot of the people I would've grown up with."

"It made running more than just running at times, it made it a lot more personal for me and that's what I continue to do with the Back2Boston project and it's going really well."

Back2Boston is a project John founded with the aim to empower individuals from disadvantaged areas by providing them with the opportunity to run a marathon and ultimately guide runners to qualify and hopefully participate in a future Boston Marathon. All information on the project can be found online at www.back2boston.ie.

"I just find it hard to believe just how much my life has changed. I just remember being a kid jumping up on old burned out cars in Southill. I'll maybe sit back when it's all over and think 'how did I achieve all this?' and hopefully I'm not done yet.