Now a veteran and competing at his fourth Games Heffernan came closer than ever before when he finished fourth, smashing his Irish record and personal best by more than seven minutes.
“I’ve dreamed of a medal but I think I was inside the old Olympic record and I just couldn’t do any more,” he told TheScore.ie afterwards.
“It’s just disappointing. It’s disappointing I didn’t win a medal but when I look back at it, I’ll be very happy with the championships. To top it off with a medal would have been unbelievable.”
At the end of a gruelling 50 kilometres, his time of 3:37:54 was less than two minutes behind gold medal winner Sergey Kirdyapkin of Russia who set a new Olympic record of 3:35:39.
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Australia’s Jared Tallent finished second in 3:36:53 while Tianfeng Si of China took bronze with a time of 3:37:16.
Another of the Irish competitors, Brendan Boyce, walked a personal best to finish 29th while Leitrim’s Colin Griffin was disqualified with a little more than 10km to go in the race.
The result capped another excellent Olympic campaign for Heffernan, 34, who finished ninth with a season’s best time in the 20km event last week. He started the race slowly but although he dropped off the leading group before the first five kilometre split, he felt that he got his race tactics spot on to leave himself with enough energy to make up ground in the latter stages.
“I think other people were more panicky than me,” he told Will Downing. “My pace at the start was really good.
“Always you’ve a big group going off and the dynamics, if you look at any Olympics, it never stays together so I had to control my own race. I had to have reserves at 30km to be able to come through and challenge over the last 20km.
“The race is 31 miles so being off for 10, 15 miles might look worse than what it is but the end result is what matters.
I got to a point after 25km — I had to get to that point and I had a look at my time and I was looking at my heart rate. I had a lot in reserve and I was trying to fuel as much as possible and make sure that I was taking on enough carbohydrates and everything for the second half of the race.
That was always my plan. I wanted to be competitive over the last 15km when people would be dying. The crowd was unbelievable, I’ve never ever ever experienced anything like it. I’m disappointed I didn’t win a medal for Ireland, you know.
It worked. Between the 35km and 40km markers, Heffernan had the fastest split time of any athletes in the field as he dragged himself into the top 10 and up to eighth place with the final 10km to go.
“You’re getting information all the way through the race but you’re still concentrating lap by lap, and then I was concentrating 5km by 5km with the athlete in front so you’re breaking the race down all the time.
“Then when the race started getting tough you’re concentrating on each kilometre, making sure your splits are still there. And then when you realise you’re still getting faster, you’re just feeding off the positive of everything — feeding off the positivity of the crowd, feeding off the positivity when you think that you’re dying that you’re actually after getting quicker. You can’t look too far ahead because the race is too long.”
The raucous Irish support who lined the course on the Mall was a massive boost as well, he added.
“It was unbelievable. I’d like to thank everybody so much today. The support was unbelievable, I’ve never experienced anything like it. The race went so fast, I enjoyed the whole lot of it. I’d fierce energy from it, I’ve never felt anything like it before. It’s great, I’d love to have it every race.”
Along with two fourth-place finishes at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona, today’s near miss is the third time that Heffernan has seen a major championship medal slip just out of reach.
Although he’ll be 38 by the time the next Olympics rolls around in Rio, he’s not making any plans to hang up his walking shoes just yet.
I’m after making massive improvements again this year and I’m more mature mentally now as well for competing. I came here to win a medal. To go out and perform in the both events and come close is very encouraging.
I couldn’t even cycle that fast, nearly 14km/ hr…what an achievement. Ashamed to have missed the finish, got fed up with French commentators who were only interested by Diniz. Certain the Irish supporters helped shave a minute or two off his personal best. Brilliant stuff!!
This wonderful athlete gave a fantastic performance, we were hoarse shouting encouragement, he should get a medal for such a sterling achievement . Congrats to him, and all his supporters .
And I thought running a marathon was tough!!! Just looking at Rob compete today was unreal.. What a toll that sport must take on the body.. So so proud of that man today… 4th!! Fantastic!!
Rob a true champion in all sence bar the medal u should b so proud and the nation are proud of u-
U deserve as much of an accolade as Katie or John joe etc it’s such a tough sport 10k longer than the marathon tells everyone how much goes into it and to c so many competitors leave on wheelchairs and rob trying to rise the cheers on the last lap from the crowd
Congrats a true sportsman
Tremendous achievement, I recognise the monstrous amount of stamina and endurance this sport takes. However I question its inclusion in the Olympics over other, faster-growing, perhaps more exciting sports such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Disappointing for him that he didn’t get a medal for that heroic effort! But from the point of view of the Irish public, what a heroic performance! Another Irish athlete who needs major credit for commitment, determination and personality. Well done!
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Well done man top effort..just unlucky on the day .. Keep on training and IM sure I be on pouduim in rio
Fair bowls to ya Rob…you had the crowd in the palm of your hand and they lifted you. Well done on an amazing race..
Well done Rob Heffernan. The most impressive performance of any track and field athlete on Team Ireland. Superb performance, well done!!
Again proud of this athlete ,beats personal best by seven minutes huge.hope this will encourage the bunch of no shows to try a lot harder.
I couldn’t even cycle that fast, nearly 14km/ hr…what an achievement. Ashamed to have missed the finish, got fed up with French commentators who were only interested by Diniz. Certain the Irish supporters helped shave a minute or two off his personal best. Brilliant stuff!!
Amazing effort . Well done !
This wonderful athlete gave a fantastic performance, we were hoarse shouting encouragement, he should get a medal for such a sterling achievement . Congrats to him, and all his supporters .
.u be on pouduim
Quick translation .. ‘you will be on the podium’.
amazing Achievement from my cousin…so proud of him!!Cork is buzzing after such an amazing performance!!
And I thought running a marathon was tough!!! Just looking at Rob compete today was unreal.. What a toll that sport must take on the body.. So so proud of that man today… 4th!! Fantastic!!
Rob a true champion in all sence bar the medal u should b so proud and the nation are proud of u-
U deserve as much of an accolade as Katie or John joe etc it’s such a tough sport 10k longer than the marathon tells everyone how much goes into it and to c so many competitors leave on wheelchairs and rob trying to rise the cheers on the last lap from the crowd
Congrats a true sportsman
great comment Brendan.fantastic race!!thank you for the kind words
.PROUD of my cousin.
Donal, get a life
Tremendous achievement, I recognise the monstrous amount of stamina and endurance this sport takes. However I question its inclusion in the Olympics over other, faster-growing, perhaps more exciting sports such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
There’s nothing more exiting than the horse dancing.
Fair play to him though. Looks a very tough sport. Must be hard on the hips.
Disappointing for him that he didn’t get a medal for that heroic effort! But from the point of view of the Irish public, what a heroic performance! Another Irish athlete who needs major credit for commitment, determination and personality. Well done!
Jesus the walkers at the end of the race today reminded me of fellas at the end of a Junior B match.