I have just finished my first Dublin marathon with my sister Robyn. It was her first-ever marathon and my third, having done Zurich in 2014 and Barcelona earlier this year.
After a good night’s rest and breakfast we were feeling relaxed heading into the start.
With almost 20,000 people entered in the marathon, we expected the start area to be a bit hectic. We were pleasantly surprised. The bag drop was quick and well-organised and we were in our starting zone with plenty of time to warm up and take a last-minute trip to the portaloo – followed by a second last-minute trip to the portaloo.
At 9am, the alarm bell rang, signalling the start for the elite runners. We were in the second wave so our starting time was 10 minutes later.
The first 10km flew by. We were running a little above our planned pace but feeling good, so we stuck with it.
The support all along the route was unbelievable, with fantastic posters carrying motivational messages such as “the faster you run the sooner we can get drunk”.
And there was certainly no fear of going hungry. Typical Irish, handing out more than enough food for 20,000 people.
Jaffa cakes
There were boys and girls on South Circular Road with Haribos, a gentleman in Crumlin with Jaffa cakes and gardaí with sandwiches and bananas.
When we passed the 30km mark, Robyn said to me: “This is the furthest I’ve ever run.” I had optimistically told her the last 10km would “take care of itself” on the day, but to be honest it was very tough. Up until this point, we had been running at about 5 minutes per kilometre, but our pace started to slip at this stage.
At the last water station, we seemed to have completely lost control of our limbs and there was water flying everywhere except into our mouths!
From UCD onwards, the streets were lined with even more supporters.
The cheers of “well done, ladies” and “great running, girls” really makes a difference, especially in those last few kilometres. A man in front of us stopped running with just 800m to go, but a cheer from the crowd had him on his feet again. We crossed the finish line with a chip time of 3:30:37, aching, but thrilled with ourselves and delighted with our time.
