With thanks to Viv for indulging us with this report. We’re a very demanding lot. Not content with 26.2 miles, we wanted a report too!
Dublin Marathon 2015 was my second marathon. After completing last year’s marathon and enjoying every minute of the training & the big day itself, there was no way that I wasn’t doing it all over again! I registered in May and was all set to go. All I had to do was convince a few more people that it was a great idea so that I’d have some company as my training partner from 2014 (Eileen) was having none of it!
Alan McKernan & Mick Foy kindly came on board to help us through our training – from half marathon to marathon – and they managed to talk quite a few into going the full distance. Their constant good humour and encouragement kept us all going over the 4 months of training.
Training started great – I was very positive and looking forward to getting stuck in. Everything was going according to plan until a 3 week holiday in Lanzarote. After a successful first week, where I covered all my mileage by running at 7 a.m. to try to beat the heat, I decided that I deserved a little break. By the time I came home I was a little behind on the mileage and feeling quite lazy and lacking motivation. I managed to pull it together but never really got caught up in the excitement as I did last time.
Thanks to our two mentors and a wonderful Fit4Life group who met every Saturday morning in the Phoenix Park, I slowly started to get back into the long runs. I found it a struggle but eventually managed to get to 17 miles. As the training wasn’t really going to plan I did consider not starting on the day. I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked to be. However, with the encouragement of all the gang and knowing that I was fit enough to finish the marathon – even if I had to crawl – I decided to turn up on the day and see what happened.
Feeling more than a little nervous of the task ahead, I made it to the start line. I had decided not to run with the Fit4Life gang as they were all going to be quite a lot faster than I was. I arranged beforehand to meet a friend of my sister’s – Jan Carroll – at the start line. Jan was doing her first marathon and I reckoned that we’d be running a similar pace. Jan kept me company through the first 14 miles, along with the incredible Dunboyne AC support!!
I started to really tire at the 14 mile mark and decided that a walk/jog effort from there was going to be the plan. I struggled from there to the 20 mile mark where my husband was waiting. He’d had a longer wait than expected! Seeing him & Ger Fagan at this point obviously had some effect on me as I started to feel much better and managed to run most of the last 6 miles. The rain came down quite heavily for the last 40 minutes or so but I was so close to home at this stage that nothing was going to get me down!
Crossing the finish line last year was a little of an anti-climax for me. This year it was amazing. I decided that I was going to enjoy every second of the last couple of hundred metres after what had been a huge struggle. My family were standing in the rain, close to the finish line, and I was never so happy to see them.
The support along the way always means so much to every participant. A massive thank you to all Dunboyne AC members and their families who turned up on the day. Without all of you I don’t know how I’d have kept going.
Despite a tough day, I had a great time. I’m definitely not hanging up my marathon boots just yet – next year I’m going to finish that course in under 5 hours.
