It was a scorcher and, as Marie O'Halloran reports, the real race was to the drinks station.
Puffed, panting, hot and sweating they may have been as they crossed the finish line. But smiles soon followed the gasps for most of the 40,023 women (scores of men in drag among them) who signed up for the Flora Women's Mini-Marathon in Dublin yesterday.
On a scorching day, a sea of colour pounded up Fitzwilliam Square several minutes after the wheelchair and visually impaired runners with their running partners took off on the 10km/6.2 mile route.
The runners were led from the start by Sonia O'Sullivan in her pink "Go Dublin" T-shirt.
Sonia finished her race on St Stephen's Green in 33.06 minutes as some of the runners and walkers were still crossing the start line of the race route.
The first person across the line was Patrice Dockrey (34) from Swords, Co Dublin, this year's only racing wheelchair entrant, in her fastest time yet of 27.31 minutes.
A regular winner of the event, the civil servant was "pretty chuffed" with her record performance, since she had just flown back the previous night from more racing in Switzerland.
Mary Anne Allen could not believe that there was only the one drinking station along the route.
"I came over from Boston and have run 10ks there and they have at least seven or eight drinking stations every time."
Originally from Craughwell, Co Galway, she has taken part in the mini-marathon about 10 times. "The marathon is better organised now and the entertainment along the way is great but you have to have more than one drink station."
Martina Cusack echoed her sentiments. "The heat out there was just unreal. They only had the one drink station and could have done with more."
But the organisers say the Stillorgan dual carriageway is the only safe place for so many runners to stop at one spot - and that was also why the race did not start until the cooler time of 3pm. Everybody was well warned in advance of the race, a spokeswoman added. Whatever about along the route, there was a mini-sea of green as 40,000 bottles of Tipperary water on benches along St Stephen's Green were handed out as the runners finished.
Ronwyn Rowan (26) from Glasnevin, Dublin, running for the first time in the marathon, reckons she was one of a couple of thousand people running for Breast Cancer Ireland. She raised about €300.
Virtually every charity in Ireland was represented at the race and most runners wore the T-shirt bearing their name.
Some runners, including Josie Power (54) from Swords, were running for individuals. A member of Fingalians Running Club, she has run the mini-marathon for 22 of its 23-year history and was raising money for 20-year-old Stephen Clurkey, who broke his back three years ago and is paralysed from the neck down. "He's going to the clinic in America where Superman went," she says of actor Christopher Reeve.
Two very happy runners who had their own awards ceremony as they presented each other with their medals were Margaret Harty from Cork and Eilis Fitzgerald from Dublin. "We're probably the only two people who aren't running for charity," said Margaret, who also ran two years ago. "It's a great fun day," she added.
The view was echoed by Maureen Flannery, who with her friends makes "a day and a night of it. We're off to the pub and then for a meal, and we have the men, our sherpas, to carry our bags."
For the men in drag, one of the key things is not to be embarrassed. "You can't afford to be," says Gerald (aka Geraldine) Boyle from Newy, who with three others dressed in pink wigs and Hawaiian plastic grass skirts. They raised Stg£1,000 for Newry hospice.