Dublin Marathon - 27 October 2008
Report by Brian Conerity
It was finally here! After months of training and anticipation here I was standing amongst 11,700 of my closest friends in my running clothes and a plastic emergency poncho. The morning of the race was sunny, but cold with temperatures around 6C (the reason for the poncho). There was a light wind that helped make it feel a little colder.
After the usual announcements, the race kicked off just about right on time at 9:00AM. This race uses chip timing so I wasn’t too worried about the minute or so it took to actually get to the start line. The race kicks off near the very scenic Trinity College, winds around a bit, and then heads up O’Connell street. This is a good part of the race as it’s easy to focus on the sites and not worry about running. The course continues north a bit longer and then heads west towards Phoenix Park. The run though Phoenix park was a little boring as it was mostly just a wooded area.
I can’t go into each road we were on for most of the course. It winds around the western and southern parts of the city, so it is mostly rural areas with not much to see. Throughout much of the run there were people lining the streets cheering us on. Many offered candy or some other treat to help provide the necessary fuel to keep going. There were also plenty of water tables, which gave out water in 250ml bottles. This was very helpful as I can take a quick drink of water and then hold onto the bottle for a bit without it being a burden. They also handed out sports drinks, but I didn’t take any as I didn’t consume sports drinks during my training. Around mile 15, they handed out gels. This was about the normal time I would take a gel, so I consumed one with some water. The also handed out gels round mile 20.
As we ran through the entire southern part of the city, we then started heading back into town along the N11 around mile 21. I have to comment at this point on the “flatness” of this course. While there aren’t many steep uphill climbs along the way there were a lot of steady uphill portions. I actually seem to remember a lot more uphill and not much downhill. It could just being my mind playing games with me, but I never really got the feeling of a nice downhill to kick out the stride. According to the profile map, the last five miles of the course are supposed to be downhill and flat. It might have been, but I wasn’t feeling it at this point.
About mile 24 I guess I hit the wall and really struggled keeping moving for the rest of the race. The downhill I needed wasn’t there, it was still very cold, and the wind seemed to constantly be in my face (making it colder). I did keep moving, but had to alternate a bit between a fast walk and slow jog. The course was now heading back into recognizable Dublin city areas. We went through the Ballsbridge area on the SE side of town and then started to curl back in towards the finish. We came back up along the roads we started on, curled around by Trinity College again and was then on the home stretch. The crowds on the street were very helpful at this point and I managed to keep the running up through this section and onto the finish line.
I managed to finish in 4:06:47 chip time. This was over my plan for a sub 4-hour finish, but I was still happy I completed my first marathon. After the race I went through the usual corrals to give back the timing chip, collect my finisher medal, pick up my final goodie bag, and finisher shirt. I then picked up my bag that they stored at the beginning that had a good set of dry warm clothes in it. I didn’t really change, but was able to trade out some clothes for dry ones. I then started to make my way back to the hotel for a warm shower and make a start towards replenishing the roughly 3000 calories I burnt up on the run.
Overall, while I would have loved to have made my sub 4-hour goal, I think this marathon was a really incredible experience. The race was very well organized and it was clear the city fully supported it by the number of people who lined the roads and shouted their encouragement. This is my first marathon, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. As long as I can heal up okay and get back to running, I am hoping that I can look forward to a second some time in 2009!
