Ryan completes ultramarathon in dad’s memory

Ryan took part in the Titanic Quarter Ultramarathon on Sunday, beating a 50,000 metre track from Ballywalter to the Titanic building.

The 28-year-old said: “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years.

“One of the friends who did the Four Peak challenge last year told me about it. Saying as I was supposed to do the Four Peak challenge but missed out I was dying to take part.

“I haven’t even done a marathon before.”

He added: “For my training it’s been a cross between running and the rowing machine I have in the house. I’ve been training twice a day every day of the week.

“I was single when I signed up, but since then I’ve managed to pick up a woman. She’ll not know what’s hit her now that I’ve done it and I’m not away training every hour of the day. It’s fair to say Jude has been very patient.

“I was getting up at five in the morning to train then going out again when I got home from work. It was hard work but very enjoyable.

“I made a New Year’s revolution to get myself into peak physical condition. As it stands I’m the fittest I’ve ever been. On Sunday night I broke the fitness regime and celebrated with beer and pizza. I took Monday off work, but I’m not feeling anywhere near as bad as I thought I would.”

Ryan, who works for Moneymatters in Belfast, finished 20th out of the 40 competitors.

He said: “I thought my time was five hours 11 minutes, but the official time has come in as five hours 10 minutes.

“It might not matter to your normal person, but I think we’ve established normal people don’t run these races.

“I can be pig ignorant and that helped with this race. I’d put four or five months training in before this and there was no way I was going to give up even if I’d to walk part of it.”

“As I came down the airport run I knew the finish line was close and I started to speed up.

“I can’t wait to tell Mike Stewart (a good friend of Ryan’s) that I beat his marathon time.”

Ryan has two brothers - Craig and Ross - and one sister - Anna.

He thanked his friends and family for their support as well as Fiona Byrne Massage Therapy for getting him to the start line.

Regarding another ultramarathon he said: “It could be one of those addictive things.”