Anyone who has been around a while in the State of New Jersey and is interested in the sport of track and field knows the name Kevin Byrne. Senior was an accomplished athlete at Bergen and then Paramus Catholic in mid 70's. Junior, as he is known when he's not around, is an accomplished athlete himself. Going into high school he had age-group bests of 23.8, 52.5 and 4:43. His high school PRs are 1:52.81 and 4:17.00 and he has a Holmdel PR of 16:09 from his win at the 2010 Monmouth County Championships. (He hasn't run a 200 or 400 since 2008).
Kevin is headed off to Notre Dame in the fall on a track scholarship and he took some time from his (to this point) low-key indoor seasonto answer some questions for NJR.
1. When did you become interested in running?
I first became interested in running in 6th grade. My dad had gone to a party with my mom on a Saturday night and had met the track coach at my grammar school. He came home and said that the coach wanted me to come out to the meet the next morning. I asked him if it would conflict with my soccer game the next afternoon and my dad said that the meet would be over by then. I agreed and ended up winning the 1200 and the 400 and also ran the 2nd leg on the senior boys 4x1. After that, I was racing every week.
2. Were you ever tempted to take a pass on running and compete in other sports?
Absolutley. I played soccer, baseball, basketball and lacrosse. I wanted to continue playing soccer throughout high school, but after the championship meet where I had the 4:43, 52.5, 23.8 triple, I knew that running was going to be the sport for me.
3. Your interest certainly had to be influenced by your Dad’s career but did you love it when you first started?
Track, yes. Cross country, not so much. I loved the whole atmosphere of going to the track on Sunday mornings and it was something that I was good at. I started cross country in 7th grade and went to the first race and finished a distant second to Mark Lee (CBA, Villanova) at Ocean County Park. I thought, “Why would anybody want to race a mile and a half in a big group of people. It sucks.” I didn’t go back until the next fall.
4. You ran age-group track. How much actual training did you do or was it just a matter of running the meets when they came up?
In 6th and 7th grade I did no training, I just jumped in the races every Sunday morning. But in 8th grade for track I would run 2 miles on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with 4 strides every day and then race on Sunday. I really just raced myself into shape.
5. What is it like living with a New Jersey legend?
I don’t know which one of my sisters you’re referring to, but Mary Kate, Eileen and Bridget all have the potential to be very good.
6. What is your favorite workout?
In track I like doing 5x800 with a 200 recovery. I’ve done it numerous times since sophomore year and it’s a great indicator of where I’m at. For cross country I like doing mile and a half repeats at Holmdel. It’s not really repeats, it’s more of a progression run. Basically you start at the starting line and you go up the front hill and through the woods until you come out by that little wooden bridge where you would make the left to stay on the course. At that point you make a right and cut across the road and continue on the course through the backwoods and up through the finish line back to the starting line where you split your watch and go up again. The goal always is to do 5 of them getting 30 seconds faster on each loop. It’s a nice strength workout and is a good indicator of my conditioning.
7. Which workout do you really hate doing?
I really hate doing the 2,4,6,4 x 2 that we always do before the bigger meets. You’re supposed to keep a total time of the intervals, which will add up to a 1600 time. The second set is supposed to be the same if not faster than the first. You have to average the two sets together and that should be pretty close to what you can run for a 1600. It’s supposed to be a confidence boosting workout but I can never seem to do it right. I always go out too fast for the first set and then die for the second set.
8. Which distance is your favorite?
Obvious answer: 800. There’s just so much going on in such a short amount of time you really have to pay attention. It took me until my junior year to really figure out how to race it, and even now I’m not so sure all the time.
9. You’ve had some injury issues throughout your high school career. Have you learned how to avoid them (I mean besides simply avoiding XC altogether)?
You just have to be careful. Over the last three years, I’ve kind of figured out what’s normal and what’s not. If I have something that’s out of whack I go to Dr. Criscuolo in Wall. He performs Active Release Techniques (ART) on my legs and really has kept me healthy for the most part. Half the RBC team gets ART done, as well as my coach.
10. Is XC in your future at Notre Dame or just wasting time at Fighting Irish football games?
I will be running cross country at Notre Dame, but I don’t expect to be scoring at the Big East Championships or anything. I think it will be used more as a strength builder than anything else. I can’t wait for those football games though. 2011 home games are South Florida, Michigan State, Air Force, USC, Navy and Boston College. It’s going to be awesome.
11. What person has been the greatest influence in your life?
Definitely my dad. He’s always backed me in whatever I wanted to do. Even choosing Notre Dame over Georgetown. He wants me to be happy with whatever I do.
12. What goals do you have for the remainder of your high school career? (geez, it seems like the other day that you were a freshman).
I want to stay healthy, keep running fast and help my team win some relays come the end of indoor and during outdoor.
13. Do you have any advice for a younger track athlete who might have a parent that was a big time performer back in the day?
Be the best runner YOU can be and don't worry about what happened a century ago.