Rivals Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan hugged and smiled for the cameras today after their first competitive race on Irish soil.
Although O'Sullivan beat her fellow athlete to first place by more than a minute she was full of praise for McKiernan.
"Catherina has been such a great inspiration for the women in Ireland," she told reporters after completing the Women's Mini Marathon.
The 10 kilometre race through Dublin was a historic race for the 33-year-old Irish stars, who were born just two days apart.
For more than a decade their career paths have run parallel but today was their first official competition in Ireland.
O'Sullivan said she was delighted to have run alongside McKiernan. "It was great running together," she said. "It was absolutely fantastic, really great. It was a race I really wanted to do."
She admitted afterwards that the city centre course had not proved too much of a challenge and said she could have run faster than her 33:21 winning time. "It was pretty easy, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," she said.
"I really wanted to win here today but it didn't matter about the time. After running in Manchester last weekend I didn't want to push it too hard. The crowd was fantastic and made me want to go faster - they were cheering all the way round."
McKiernan took second place after crossing the finish line at 34:31. She said: "It was tough but that's what it's all about. Sonia was great. She looked good from behind, she's very strong."
Last year's winner Pauline Curly crossed the line in third.
Some 39,000 runners took part in today's race, making it the second biggest turnout since the event began in 1983.