The Dublin City Marathon.

The day's champ, Rónán, who ran the marathon in  3.15

I stood with 13,000 other demented souls on a cold October morning in Dublin and waited for Loudspeaker Man to call us off.  Marathon morning is full of anxiety - when to get up, what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat!  Hardly anyone does the same thing - in our hotel there were runners eating eggs, some eating cereal, some porridge, some drinking tons of water and others downing coffee.  Viv was up at 5am - couldn't sleep so he got up and ate his breakfast at an ungodly hour.  I spent the night tossing and turning - I didn't think I was anxious, but I clearly was!  At the start line, however, with the 13,000 others, I felt ready for the challenge.  Loudspeaker Man did the honours and away we went like hens released from a coup!  My plan was to start off nice and slowly, find a rhythm, and break the run into segments of three miles.  Rónán was tagging the 3.15 group and Viv was going to play it by ear - having only begun his training 12 weeks ago.  Conor, the marathon giant among us, was adding another to his relentless march towards 100.  I had trained without a watch, so I was not quite sure of what time to expect, but I hoped to be under four hours- slightly! 

After three miles I had established a comfortable pace, taking advice from wise owls like the great running fox and Conor, I took it nice and easy at the start.  I noticed that I was within about 800 metres of the 3.45 pace group (they were carrying a big purple balloon, so - hard to miss!) so I decided to keep this group within my site for a while.  Miles 6-9 were fine, with the first real hill coming at the nine mile mark.  All the training I had done on Seanadh Phéistín's hills came in handy here as I tore up this incline, passing a heap of runners and feeling great.  At this stage I was sure I could keep that purple balloon in my site and set a good time.  Miles 9-12 dragged a bit, but the purple balloon didn't get too far ahead yet!  I somehow felt the next three-mile segment, between 12-15 would be the toughest and, for me, it proved to be just that. The crowds along the way were great -handing out all kinds of jellies and treats and pushing us all on.  With their help and a bit of inner dog I got through this rough period and came out at mile 15 feeling a bit weary, but encouraged that I was beginning to improve again.  Miles 15-18 were significant for me, in that they contained another few inclines where I could push on up.  I reached mile 18 in good nick, with the purple balloon the same distance ahead of me as it had been since the start of the race.  Now I had a cunning plan!  The first part of the plan was to spend miles 18-21 very slowly reeling in the 3.45 pace group and their purple balloon!  I was aided by the marathon's toughest incline at mile 19, where once again I felt the benefit of Seanadh Phéistín.  I actually caught the purple balloon group at the midway point of mile 20 but decided to stay with them until we came to the 21 mark.  At that point came part two of my plan!  I was determined now to exert myself as much as I could between miles 21-24, knowing that I could open a gap on the purple balloon group in order to ensure that, even if I crawled the last two miles I would still make the line under 3.45 (an astonishing time for me!).  I opened a good gap for sure, and may have started to fade at around the 23 mile mark, but still kept a fair pace going.  The last mile of the marathon was especially difficult - having nearly emptied the tank earlier.  As we came by Trinity College the crowd were yelling 'just around the corner now'!  However, turning the corner didn't reveal the finish line so my heart sank for a few moments... and then.... THERE IT WAS AFTER TWENTY SIX MILES - THE FINISH!!!  I hobbled towards the end, spotted my lovely wife cheering in the crowd and saw that the clock said 3.44.  As it turns out, I ran an official time of 3.43.57 (taking chip time into account).  I was absolutely delighted - I never thought I would get near this time!  Rónán crossed the line in an astonishing 3 hours and 15 minutes, Conor chalked up his gazillionth marathon in 3.28 and Viv pushed his Banner snout over the line in 3.59. Later that night I drank my 19th and 20th pints of the year and the previous evening I celebrated my 36th birthday.