If you feel crap after 10 miles you’re in trouble, crap after 20 miles your normal, and if you don’t feel crap after 26 miles you’re abnormal’ I remember reading this before the Marathon and thinking that it would be the perfect benchmark. How wrong could i have been?
In Fairness, the whole event itself was so well organized, it made each of our jobs of running the marathon so much easier as you got to concentrate on the atmosphere and the buzz on the morning of the run, rather than ‘where should I sign in?’ ‘What area of the start line should I be in?’ ‘Where do I leave my bag’ etc. There were colour-coded direction everywhere, these all corresponded to the map we were given at the RDS event which was great, it really was such a calming experience standing there at the start with thousands of people around you all with their own reasons for running. The organization was superb, I’m sure the organizers would say that that’s what you’d expect from 30 years of Dublin Marathons but you really have to take your hat off to all the volunteers involved from the Bag collectors to the traffic monitors to the FM 104 team ‘raising the roof’! as you jog by.
When it comes down to it, the Marathon itself wasn’t what I remember, it’s the emotional bits in the middle when you realize you’ve reached a landmark and you feel alright!
Heading down Furse rd, coming out of Phoenix Park and seeing all the supporters! People cheering on Mother and Fathers, Brothers, sisters, everyone! All 12,500 of use getting cheered uphill and downhill for as long as it takes. The 2 moments that will stick in my memory were running up down through Dolphin’ Barn and seeing a family with their dining table out on the footpath as an un-official water stop, the kids running alongside us, handing out orange-wedges and cheering the runners on. Money from their own pocket spent on supporting people in the run, you don’t get more uplifting than that. The 2nd memory is seeing the excitement on my sisters face when I met her after the finish, it makes the whole thing worthwhile when you can share your elation with your friends or family. Miles 12 to 15 were fairly sluggish as I waited for the High5 carbo-gels to kick in and the 2nd wind to back that up. When I got to Mile 20 that’s when the fun started as if, in some form of dehydrated-muscle rhythmic performance, my body began to cramp up. First right quadricep cramp, left quad cramp, right hamstring twinge, left hamstring twinge for about 2 miles! It wasn’t until I passed Grand Canal Quay and our offices that I knew where the finish line was and started to pick it up for the remaining 2 miles. Coming down Nassau St. felt like something out of ‘Chariots of Fire’, the legs picked up speed, the lungs opened up and there it was in all its balloon embellished glory the Adidas Dublin Marathon finish line. All over for another year in what I hope will be an annual event for me, more so for the buzz at the start with 12,000 more runners all looking in the same direction. Here’s hoping for a sub 3hr 30 time next year.