Dublin Craic
Last November seven Allrunners entered the ballot for the Dublin marathon. Nikki Fowles and I got in, while Claire was so overcome with spousal FOMO that she took up a (very worthy) charity place. The remaining four agreed to come along for the craic, making do with a set of pom-poms (literally) and a bit of Park Run tourism. So we all booked our flights, and a lovely little Air BnB in the heart of Dublin.
This would be my third marathon, having run (and walked a bit) for a slightly disappointing 4:20 in Amsterdam before taking half an hour off that time in Manchester. Claire and I had a dream race that day, finishing hand in hand after a glorious sprint finish.
We had all trained well, completing the vast majority of our plans without much disruption. In previous races I have definitely been guilty of under preparing through blind optimism, but heading to Dublin, my confidence of a further improved finish time was not entirely unjustified.
Dublin itself offered an incredibly warm welcome as we arrived early enough on Friday to enjoy a few (0% for me) Guinness at a pub around the corner. I ate too much and slept too little, as is the norm in race week.
For our 9:05 wave 2 start time, we caught the 07:07 tram towards St Stephen’s Green, where we lent ourselves against some railings for half an hour of top notch people watching, before dropping all our warm clothes off at the very well organised bag drop.
The queues for the loos on the other side of bag drop were comparatively tiny, so there wasn’t much time for people watching all the proper athletic types going through their often extremely enthusiastic warm-up routines. We were soon being buoyed along towards the start line in a sea of 20,000 participants, with the 3:50 pacer balloons bobbing just ahead. A few fist bumps between ourselves and some fellow runners, and we were off…shuffling…towards the start line.
The first kilometre of the race was slow in the heavy traffic, but the pace soon picked up and it was smooth sailing through the well supported streets and parks as the initial miles ticked past.
Our own support team of Jo, Keith, Jamie and Jon were mobile having hired bikes, so we had the benefit of their impressively animated support at various pre-planned points. It was great to have these mini morale boosters to aim for, and gave me such a lift as I high fived all those I could reach (sorry to leave you hanging Jon!). It certainly raised my spirits seeing them at 11 miles. Which was just as well because there was a hill around the corner – the first of quite a few to come!
As I approached the halfway mark I still felt good, but knew there was a long, and progressively less comfortable way to go. So I decided to try something I’d read about in a few of the many running books that have now become my staple. I dedicated each of the next four 5km chunks to a family member. First Dad, then Mum, then Elodie and then Jasper. It turns out that 5km is quite a long way to think about one person, no matter how much you love them! The mental focus required to avoid selling one of them short was a great distraction from the matter at hand though.
In Amsterdam, if the wheels were coming off at around 20 miles, then by 23 I was dragging them behind me. But in Dublin I was ready. I felt the wheels wobble for sure, and my pace dipped as I slogged my way up the self-proclaimed “heartbreak hill”. But there are two things about training for a race. Firstly, you can’t take shortcuts or you’ll get found out, and secondly, if you have trained well, then race day will take care of itself. So I leant on my long runs, and hill reps, and Cretian holiday treadmill sessions. I lent on them mentally and physically in those last few miles. I knew that I wouldn’t stop running, and I knew that the finish line would eventually come.
Looking back at the finish line webcam now, my “sprint finish” was not one for the highlights reel. So it was probably for the best that someone positioned their marathon beanied head right in centre frame as they leant across to get a glimpse of Colin Farrell finishing just ahead of me. I did pick the pace up just enough to sneak in with a PB though.
Congratulations to Claire and Nikki, who ran brilliantly and also achieved their goals. This all teed up quite an evening back at our favourite pub, where the Guinness, and frankly also the dance moves, were flowing rather freely!
And finally a big shout out to the support crew. I have got so much out of running since joining the Allrunners three years ago, but by far the best thing about the club is the people.
