ATHLETICS: On a day sent from marathon heaven, the races for the winning cheques in Dublin - and decent money it was too - were approached with surprising contrast.

The men opted for tactical caution, while the women went with fearless intent. At the finish, then, only some of the times were worth bragging about.

In both cases, though, Kenya did produce the winner. Nothing unexpected about that. Onesmus Kilonzo took the men's top prize with his sole decisive surge over the last two miles, although his time of two hours, 17 minutes and four seconds will hardly register on the world rankings. Paula Radcliffe, after all, can run the 26.2 miles nearly two minutes faster.

Ruth Kutol was a lot more elated about her winning time, a personal best of 2:27.22. That knocked more than five minutes off the course record and earned the 26-year-old a €5,000 bonus along with the €15,000 prize that goes to the adidas Dublin marathon champions. It also added to her wins in Madrid and Venice.

While a home victory was always unlikely, for Gary Crossan the sixth place finish in 2:20.27 seconds was the next best thing. The Dublin marathon this year doubled as the national championship and so gave Crossan the Irish marathon title for 2003 - and also for the second year running.

The 32-year-old Donegal athlete had run alone for practically the entire race, leaving Pauric McKinney to edge out veteran John Griffin for silver. They took 10th and 11th place respectively, clocking 2:24.18 and 2:24.20.

At age 35, Annette Kealy of Raheny might have thought her chance for a first national title had passed her by, yet she comfortably took the women's Irish title by taking seventh place overall in 2:43.00 in what was her marathon debut. Sligo's Lucy Brennan collected silver, and Vivienne Conneely the bronze.

For the third consecutive year, Kenny Herriott won the wheelchair title, this time in a course record 1:42.52. He was followed home by Dublin's David Griffin in 2:17.12.

But the big prize of the day went to Kutol, and there won't be any problems spending her €20,000 earnings. "This will allow me to help my six sisters and two brothers," said Kutol, who hails from the famed Eldoret region of Kenya. "They also like to run very much."

She set a cracking pace, leading out the women's charge like a time trial from the starting pistol. And it meant that the second and third finishers - the Russian Yelena Burykina and Zevile Ballciunaite of Lithuania - were also inside the old course record of 2:32.58, set last year by Russia's Lidia Vassilevskaia.

Just why the men's race failed to produce a quality time is puzzling. This year's course, a reverse of recent editions, was universally praised afterwards. Perhaps it was because there was no wind to throw caution to. But it was clear once the front runners passed the first mile on O'Connell Bridge in a pedestrian six minutes that Jerry Kiernan's course record of 2:13.45 - set in 1982 - would stand for at least another year.

Of course the leaders speeded up, but not a whole lot. Seven men had broken clear entering the Phoenix Park after four miles and they all ran along happily together until the real surges began just before mile 22. Sitting in that bunch were two former winners, 2001 champion Zacharia Mpolokeng of South Africa, and Scotland's Simon Pride, the champion from three years back. Most eyes, though, were on the Kenyan favourite David Kosgei, who has a best of 2:11.33 from the Paris marathon earlier this year.

Yet it was as if they'd all forgotten to start their watches. No one showed any interest in making a race of it, always running two or three abreast. And running smoothly, almost silently. In fact they were more flowing, only flowing very fast. The air so still they could hear every breath they took.

Also in the bunch was the designated pacemaker, Charles Kiplagat, also of Kenya. There are a lot of good reasons for dropping out of a marathon, but a slow pace is not one of them. So he kept going and took fourth.

Only after they'd swept down the Stillorgan road and turned into Nutley Lane at 22 miles did the race actually begin. Lezan Kimutai was the first Kenyan to test his opposition, quickly dropping the likes of Mpolokeng and Pride and taking only Kilonzo along for company.

Two miles later Kilonzo took one glance to his side and surged. Kimutai was beaten, and the slightly-built Kenyan knew the race was his. The last mile around Trinity College could be savoured - with his winning margin at the finish being 25 seconds.

Kimutai arrived home next in 2:17.29, with Kosgei taking third in 2:18.34.

"I was very happy with the course," revealed the winner, a 25-year-old member of the Kenyan armed forces. "So I decided to wait until the last 5 km before starting to move. And it is my first win in the marathon, my best before being second place in Beijing. So already I would like to come back to Dublin."

Long after the elite finishers were warmed in their tracksuits the steady trickle of non-competitive finishers began. The say the race brings in around €10 million for the city economy, and even if the bulk of that goes on bottled water and Vaseline, that's well worth closing some of the roads.

And well into the afternoon they were still out on those roads, the runners who never view the marathon as a race. More of a challenge, like a complete novice playing a round of golf. In fact, only about a dozen of the 8,000 starters had entered to win. For the rest it is mostly about survival. About getting to the finish and collecting the T-shirt.

And for good reason. If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon. Emil Zatopek said that.