Introduction

It had been less than 36 hours since I crossed the finish line at the Dublin Marathon 2023 when I signed up for the Dublin Marathon 2024.

I had told my wife I wouldn’t run another marathon in 2024. I needed more time to devote to my career. I was studying for an SQL certification at the time. We were both convinced that our son Edward would need more of our time in 2024.

Despite all of that and how much we had changed in 2023 I had crossed the marathon finish line looked back, rubbed my hands on my head and realised I can still run that fast after a year that consisted of me finishing a certificate in Artficial Intelligence with first class honours, Edwards(first child) birth in May, buying a house(Sept 2023), Julie getting promoted, running the Dublin Marathon Race Series and finally capping it all off with the Dublin Marathon. For those of you wondering if I squeezed a decade of living into a single calendar year you have a point.

I felt I had to be there for the Dublin Marathon 2024 and that if I was I’d ready to run much faster. Somehow I seemed to have this vision of myself crossing the finish line in 2024 and achieving a personal best(PB). The fact it had been seven years since my PB made the rational part of me take more notice of this vision. The logical part of me knew what it would take to cut 15 mins off my 2023 marathon time. The hours it would take, the pain and suffering needed each week to get 0.5% better over a month and most importantly how was I going to integrate Edward into that regime. I was my sons best example and if I was training he needed to be around that as often as I could allow it. I frequently joke with my wife that the Dublin Marathon is calling. Every time we see someone wearing the hat or finisher top one of us will whisper to the other ‘it’s calling’. You might think this is a bit of fun but it directly led to us signing up for the Dublin Marathon 2018 so the calling to us has a really dangerous pull. The marathon distance is the only distance that scares the life out of me. It gets me out of bed on Sunday to do my long run. I know for me with a marathon if I miss a mile in training I will pay severely for it on race day. In the moment I signed up again sitting in my kitchen I believed I could race my fastest marathon yet in 2024. I have no idea where this belief came from my reality suggested anything but that road. I was supposed to be finished with Sport competitively and professionally. I’d left the Mardyke Arena UCC in 2022 so Sport was meant to be just a past time a means to health nothing more. As I pondered if I made a huge mistake signing up again just before my birthday in 2023 I read this quote from T.K. Whitaker Irelands most esteemed civil servant

“Everyone needs to have one irresistible temptation, preferably not an immoral one.” T.K. Whitaker.

I had that irresistible temptation back in my life. The marathon fire might have died down to embers but in 2023 with everything I had going on I had found a way to reignite the fire and get back to marathon strong. I hadn’t fudged the early race strategy by going too fast. I broke through the wall by timing my gel intake effectively. More than just reigniting an irresistible temptation finishing my eight marathon brought my confidence back with avengeance. In 2020 my confidence hit the floor and somehow the floor kept falling through to deeper and deeper levels of depression. Most of my problems were pandemic related but it didn’t make them feel any less real or temporary. 2021 saw Julie and I get back to our feet. In 2022 we got married, changed jobs and moved counties in six weeks. On a whim at the end of 2022 I entered the Dublin marathon draw for 2023 got accepted and finished it. Nothing immoral anywhere there. Insane but not immoral.

Now all I had to do was tell my wife about the Dublin Marathon 2024 entry. Julie had felt like a ‘Marathon widow’ as I went out for long run after long run in 2023. Managing a baby is never easy as a couple but I knew for Dublin Marathon 2024 to work I needed to integrate Edward into every bit of my 2024 training to support my wife and son. By my birthday my wife had come around. Our perspective had told us that in 2020 when our dreams of buying a house were met with a NO! We did not listen to the NO! We weren’t going to start listening to ourselves saying NO! in 2024. We were going after more in 24. No one in 2020 told me how it would work out. I didn’t have a grand plan that involved getting married, changing career and buying a house in Dublin (in the middle of a housing crisis) but when the opportunity started opening I had every reason under the sun to say NO! but I only need one reason to say yes. Opportunity my other other irrestible temptation had reappeared right in front of us. We had to go. Similar to how I saw myself hitting a PB in 2024 when in Dec 2021 my wife to be told me she was on panel for a huge job in the Ombudsmans office in Dublin I could already see this working out but I knew that to work out we would need to commit ourselves 100%. I told myself on my last day in the Mardyke no looking back you’re not going that way. Once we were aligned on the Dublin Marathon 2024. We were all in. The runs with Edward started immediately.

Course

I’m told by people with much more marathon experience than me that the Dublin Marathon is a tough course. I have no other frame of reference. Whilst I’ve been abroad for half marathons in the Haag and Barcelona I’m slow to draw comparisons when I’m not running the full marathon distance but both were flat as a pancake and Dublin has it’s pulls and outright mountains. Maybe I’m biased because the Dublin Marathon is Irish, the fourth largest marathon in Europe, run with 100 less full time staff than the London Marathon and delivers a consistently brilliant Irish experience. The course and splits are below.

Support Signs

The notable signs that either shocked me or gave me a giggle read

Fuck the best your the rest

Not a sign I appreciated. There is a huge camarderie participating in the Dublin Marathon. This was my first year wearing the Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club singlet. At every cheering zone I could hear a cry of ‘Go on Raheny!’. Even when I haven’t worn the most popular club singlet in Ireland I have always found the Dublin supporters have a huge sense of pride in their marathon. I have always felt a great sense of goodwill and determination from the marathon supporters. The elites in the field I know are always quick to praise everyones marathon effort even if they are hours faster than someone. I find marathons very humbling at some point in the race I know I’ll be so exhausted I’ll want to give up. I know I can be seconds away from giving up. It can and has been one of my fellow marathoners who gave me some encouragement that just got me past that dark moment and then I was ok again and I kept going. I have returned the favour many times. The idea that I would forsake any of my fellow marathoners just isn’t in my DNA. I couldn’t figure this sign out. Maybe they’ll leave it at home next year.

Enjoy your swim run.

Held by a young lad with a wide smile on his face outside Inchicore I could tell he had put serious effort into that sign. It was colored well and timed perfectly with the light rain coming down on us. This gave me a huge lift. I frequently greet my work colleagues with ‘Did you enjoy the morning swim?’ after a shower of rain in the morning especially if I have run to work with Edward in the buggy on a rainy morning.

What are you running from?

Hilarious. Implying we’re up to no good or insane which for a few of us parents in the race was true. We were running from our sanity. I so happened to over hear a lady as I cued to use the loo say that this was her first marathon in ten years after having had children. Her eight year old had been up four times that night nervous about his mothers marathon. I thought marathons were all consuming when I ran seven of them before Edward was born. Edward quickly showed me otherwise making adding a marathon into his upbringing nothing short of insanity so yes I was running from my sanity. Thanks for asking the sign made me laugh.

I’m here to see Colin Farrell but you look great too

Any comparison too the rugid god that is Colin Farrell is appreciated. Especially at 20 miles in when I no doubt looked like a freshly salted donkey.

Why do all the cuties run away?

Gave me another giggle as I thought to myself I’m sure most of us cuties are married. At this point in the race I was about 3 km away from seeing my wife and son. I was running that way and I couldn’t wait to see them.

Pints 14 Miles away

Held by a guard probably keen to get us off the road so he could reopen it to traffic. Only in Ireland would such a sign be seen as keeping the peace and probably get that law man a promotion.

Pain in french means bread.

No explaination needed. It did remind me that I once ran with two French lads for about six miles in a previous Dublin Marathon one of them with perfect english was totally confused by the cheering crowds on the street at 9.00 in the morning. He informed me that in Paris no one was even up at that hour when the marathon started. A few miles later my two french friends were greeted at a cheering zone by ‘Allez Les Bleus’. They couldn’t believe the fanatic devotion to the marathon in Dublin.

Race

Before I begin a recount of my ultimate marathon victory I need to set out the conditions underlying my PB. First Edward woke at 3 am. Julie jumped straight into action to protect my PB and I was able to stay in bed but the reality was and has on been on each of my previous PBs that I have never slept well the night before a marathon. I put it down to nervous energy but I also think the circumstances have to go against me to hardend my resolve to run fast no matter the circumstances. The Monday prior to the marathon I caught tonsilitis from Edward. I recovered by race day but I think it’s important people know the perfect circumstances to run a marathon don’t exist and just in case you’re mentally cussing me out for admitting I was recovered by race day in 2017 my last marathon PB I was in the middle of a course of antibiotics on race day.

For the opening 16.2 km (10 miles) I ran conservatively. I found myself moving too fast more than once. I needed to hold back or the energy I expended now would not be there when I needed it later. At the half way point on the Crumlin road I lost my pace briefly slipping to 5:15 per km for the first time. I needed to be between 4:50 and 5:00 per km to be close to a PB. I had to force myself back on target. After half way in a marathon I know the wall is coming and I might lose up to 5 minutes before I come through it so if I have a blip after half way I feel an extra sense of urgency to restore my marathon pace quickly. Here I got angry with myself. I had Jose Mourinhos quote booming on repeat in my head

“You should demand more from yourself. It should not be me demanding more from you. Nobody else. You. You should demand more from yourself.” Jose Mourinho

I was demanding more from myself. I had trained with Raheny Shamrocks AC all year and their cultural identity was almost identical to my Cork GAA club St.Finbarrs National Hurling and Football Club. They trained hard consistently with Sunday morning long runs from 8am reaching 32-35 km for 6 weeks. The marathon felt like another long run only with more energy because we had tapered. They worked together to get better we even got advice on clipping toenails to avoid any nasty cuts. They gave 100% on race day. I was lining up for the marathon with Lisa and John and no matter what these guys were going to give it everything. In the last mile they threw the kitchen sink at the remainder of the race no matter where they were in the field. The Shamrocks had invested time and effort voluntarily in me. Further my wife and son had supported me all year. I had learned to run with Edward in the buggy. We built endurance together on long Sunday runs early in the year before I linkedin with Raheny. Julie supported me through the pain post training, kept me fueled with delicious dinners and spent almost every Saturday of the year at parkrun. I didn’t need anyone to demand more from me. I had tonsillitis the Monday threw Wednesday the week of the marathon. I told myself I’ll be ready for a PB by Sunday did my usual Tuesday and Thursday run to creche then work with Edward. At half way on marathon day it was the same mental toughness I was telling myself forcefully ‘Get back on pace now!!!’. The photos below says it all but just in case you’re wondering no it is not okay for me to just give up. I owed myself better than that. I knew family, friends, clubmates, work colleagues were tracking me on the app watching the predicted finish letting them down wasn’t acceptable. If this was going to turn into a battle in this moment I had come prepared for an all out war. I wasn’t giving this marathon one second of my race pace without a ferocious fight. I got back on pace within a kilometer. Now it was time to turn up the pace.

I pushed my until at 39km I hit the wall hard. I could feel the energy sap out of my legs. My quads were spasming. I have overcome spasming before with my calves and my hamstring on marathon day. I find that mentally is the way to overcome this. I have to talk to whatever body part is giving out and tell it directly the race isn’t over stop giving out. Each time it has happened that body part stops shaking and gets back to work. I then kept pumping my arms until the gel I had taken a few minutes earlier made its way into my system. Just before I hit the wall I was delighted with life as you can see below. I knew I was closing in on PB. All I could think was ‘faster, faster’.

The finish line took on a new shape this year. The 800 meter sign came at the bottom of Warrington Place I was so used to reaching this sign and looking straight down at the Merrion Square finish line that when I turned left and didn’t see a finish line I thought the marathon was going to go on forever. Next was a right at 500 meters to go and I found myself facing straight at a church with the finish line behind it. I then had to arc left around the church and come onto the final 200 meters. The Chicane didn’t have the same feel as the previous finish line. I didn’t like it. At 800 meters to go I’m used to telling myself that’s two laps of the track and emptying the tank. Almost every marathon I’ve ever trained for gets me to the point mentally where I think 10km is a short run so 800 meters feels like nothing mentally. This finish was difficult even if you could floor it from 800 meters out the fast succession of turns will break your rhythm. On this day I only managed to sprint the final 200 meters. I didn’t like the finish but with practice I could get better at this part of the marathon. I finished and almost immediately my Garmin erupted in celebration Fastest Marathon Record!!!. I had done it. All I could think was Victory!

Later that night at the Beechcomer bar I met a few club mates for a post marathon celebration. A number of the more experienced Dublin Marathoners seemed convinced that on a flatter course I could reach a 3:10 finish. This will be a turning point for me because my marathon point of reference is Cork and that one is very tough. The experienced guys were adamant that the Dublin Marathon is also a tough course. I had thought that Dublin was easier.

Conclusion

I’m going to need to run on a fast marathon course…..in 2026.