Michael Cornyn - A Life Devoted to Running

Michael Cornyn is one of the most accomplished athletes I have ever had the pleasure of speaking to. In this series, Run Republic sit down with Michael to talk about some of his favourite achievements and dissect some memorable moments from his career.

Born in Leitrim in 1961, he has raced across the country and around the world throughout his distinguished career, and continues to do so at an incredibly high standard at Masters level.

Just this week, he was elected as the Meath Athletics Chairperson for a fifth year, and is a member of the Irish Masters Committee. 

To give people an idea of how special an athlete Michael was and continues to be, the list below shows all of Michaels' PB's.

100m 11.5 seconds
200m 23 sec
400m 51 sec (50 IN RELAY)
800m 1 min 54 Sec
1500m 4 min 05 Sec (18yr old)
MILE 4 min 20sec track (in road relays 4min 10 seconds)
3,000m 8min 47sec
3,000 Steeplechase 10min 16sec
5,000 16min 15sec (19yrs)
10k road 32.20 minutes
Half marathon 1hr 14 minutes
Dublin Marathon 1983 - 3hours 17 minute

On top of these incredible figures, Michael continues to shine when he competes, telling me that 'At 57 years old, I ran 2.19 Indoor for 800m for 5th place in South Korea and that July in Aarhus, Denmark I ran 2.17 in the European 800m final for 8th place. If 2.17 is converted to a senior time it is around 1min 48 seconds.'

Michael has a treasure chest of stories which I hope to tell over the coming weeks across numerous articles on Run Republic, so stay tuned for more!