Joe Ryan Receives Ian Ash Memorial Award

From Selection Committee Chair John Ryan:

"On behalf of the selection committee I would like to thank all who submitted nominations for the award this year. I would also like on behalf of the committee, and I am sure of our entire running community, to extend congratulations to Joe Ryan, the winner for 2018. Also, thank you Art Meaney for your words at the presentation of the award which I summarize below."

Joe Ryan is one of the most important and influential figures in Newfoundland running history. He has been a superb athlete, builder, administrator, historian, coach and mentor. In 1969 at age twenty, while running on the Memorial Cross Country Team, he won the Tely 10. Since then he has run forty-six Telys, twenty one of them under sixty minutes with a personal best of 51:33. During the 1970s, 80s and 90s Joe Ryan was one of our provinces best distance runners, winning the 1975 Marathon Championship (his marathon PB is 2:33:49) the Cross Country Championship and many other races at various distances. Long before it became a popular thing for Newfoundland runners to do, he ran both the Boston and New York City Marathons.

Joe played a major role in establishing the basis for the enormous popularity today of the historic Tely 10. He was chair of the Tely Committee from 1997 to 2007 and promoted the expansion and popularity of our road race calendar as Road Race Chairman for many years. As well he found time to be a track and field official and serve on the board of Run Canada.

Joe is the historian of our most famous and historic running event. In 2002 he published his, "History of the Tely 10," and is updating it with a second volume. He is also working on a history of the Newfoundland Marathon, possibly the oldest marathon in Canada. In recent years Joe Ryan has assumed the role of coach and mentor. He was the Joints in Motion co-ordinator for four years, training and leading runners to events in Dublin, Honolulu, Athens and many other overseas destinations. Many runners know him as a clinic coach for local events such as the Tely, Cape to Cabot and the Marathon.

Next year Joe Ryan will be seventy and it will be the 50th anniversary of his 1969 Tely win. His love of running and his desire to share his knowledge and experience remains undiminished after all the years. He is very much deserving of the Ian Ash Memorial Award.

Pictured L-R Bill Pomeroy, John Ryan, Joe Ryan & Art Meaney