The big winner of yesterday's mini-marathon were the many charities, writes Rosita Boland.
THE START time yesterday for the 26th Flora Women's Mini-Marathon was 3pm, but this is not a marathon about who crosses the line first.
At 3pm a good number of the 40,516 entrants from all over the country were still mustering at St Stephen's Green, some distance from the official starting point at Fitzwilliam Square.
The fabulous afternoon sunshine had something to do with the relaxed attitude to the event that has become Ireland's biggest annual fundraiser for charity, expected to raise more than €10 million this year.
To the thousands of women who ran, power-walked and strolled along the 10km route, what mattered were the reasons that brought them here to fundraise for so many charities.
Some came in large, ebullient groups, such as the transition year class of 28 pupils and four teachers from St Louis secondary school in Monaghan, fuelling up on bananas and water outside a hotel and all running to raise funds for Monaghan Hospice.
Some came in sombre groups, such as Mandy Lacey and Ashling Burton (19), from Sallynoggin, Co Dublin, running for the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland.
They each wore T-shirts depicting a beautiful Tammy Lacey, who was respectively their 20-year-old daughter and best friend. "She died of cystic fibrosis on Christmas Day last year," her mother explained quietly.
"She ran the marathon six times. This would have been her seventh. She wouldn't let me give her an 18th birthday party; she wanted to have a big 21st instead. She had simple dreams and simple hopes, and she didn't get to realise them."
Leaning against the railings of a hotel was a group of 13 laughing friends from Ballinahown, Athlone, Co Westmeath, all wearing Aware T-shirts.
For the last six marathons the group has run to fundraise for a charity particularly relevant to them in that year.
This year it is Aware, who work to help tackle depression. In the group's immediate community 13 people have taken their own lives in the last five years. They include a brother and a nephew of those running for Aware yesterday, both of whom died in recent months.
"Why does nobody talk about what is happening in our society?" Bridget Smith asked rhetorically.
"Even if people just notice our Aware T-shirts today as we run that's something - to know there are people you can talk to when you get depressed."
There were a trio of sisters on Merrion Row wearing T-shirts for Boyne View, an Alzheimer's day-care and residential centre in Drogheda.
Sisters Triena Holcroft, Kay Doyle, Betty O'Connor and their sister-in-law Lily Byrne were part of a group of 52 who had come down from Drogheda.
Both their mothers, Teresa Holcroft and Lily Byrne, have Alzheimer's.
the "The nursing home where our mam is is such a fantastic place, but they don't have money for extras, so we help to raise it for them," explained Triena. "We're trying to do the garden for them this year."
The mini-marathon isn't about winning, but first home was the sole wheelchair entrant Patrice Dockery, who took a nasty tumble from her chair as she crossed the line at St Stephen's Green.
The applause when she got back into her chair five minutes later was louder than when she had first crossed the line.
The overall winner was Annette Kealy, in 35 minutes, 45 seconds, and who thus had another reason to celebrate her 40th birthday.
But yesterday collectively belonged to the thousands of ordinary, often not very fit women who were motivated to raise so much money for charities.