Dublin Marathon 2022

There are two events each year that occur in my life at the end of October. The Dublin City Marathon, which takes place on the October Bank Holiday weekend, and my birthday. Every year since 2013 I have enjoyed the two things with equal enthusiasm; well, maybe the marathon slightly more. The only exceptions were the virtual runs in 2020 and 2021. It is a race that has all the buzz and excitement of a world major, with only a slightly smaller field size, this year reaching 25,000 runners. My previous best time in Dublin came in 2019, when I ran 3:06:20 just a few weeks after running an almost identical time in the Chester Marathon. In 2022, I didn't really have any expectations, but I was certainly going to run hard and go for a time. I had ran the Berlin Marathon just 5 weeks previous where I struggled with a tight back preventing me from finishing strong. I hoped my back would allow for me to run a sub three-hour time in Dublin, but it had caused issues in my training and it was anything but guaranteed. I had quite a bit of sports massage therapy, loads of yoga sessions and I continued with the daily core workouts in the weeks between the two races. Hopefully, the back would behave on race day. I hadn't booked a room in Dublin and I had to go to the airport immediately after the race.. My wife, Roisin, my daughter, Catraoine and I drove down to the city, leaving the house along with a couple of friends just before 5am. I brought my breakfast of coffee, toast with peanut butter as well as some overnight oats I prepared the night before. I met some friends, who had picked up my race bib at the expo on Saturday, at their hotel before the three of us walked the kilometre to the bag drop at 7:30am. We dropped our bags and headed for our Wave 1 corral where our start was scheduled for 8:45am. I got some brief dynamic warmups in, found the portaloo for a last minute visit, and I was early enough to get up to the front of the wave, just behind the wheelchair athletes and the elites. The three-hour pacers were nearby just in front of me. I hadn't originally planned on running with the pacers, but given my back issues, I thought it might be a good idea to stay just behind them, at least for a little while and see how it felt. It was like a stampede when the gun sounded. The number of runners who flew past me at the start was crazy. I didn't want to get caught up.in a mad sprint so I settled into my pace early. The streets never really allowed for any space to be created and it was tight for quite a few of the first 12 miles. It wasn't until mile 12 that there was any chance to really open the stride. During training, this was the point where my back had been giving be the most bother.

As the miles ticked over, I got further and further behind the three hour pacers, but I didn't panic and I was resigned to my fate, whatever that was going to be. I took a Brufen at mile 11 as my back started to show signs of getting tight. I hit the halfway point at 1:29:58, which was not too bad and if I could keep it steady I still had a shot at three hours. I was hoping to prevent the pain from overwhelming me like it did in Berlin. so I took the second Brufen at mile 16. This seemed to do the trick and I never really felt the distress that I did in training. As a matter of fact, at about mile 17, I started to feel pretty good and actually had a few really strong miles. The support on the streets of Dublin, as always, was incredible. The music, the cheering and the overall noice was amazing. Getting the shout outs from Roisin, Catraoine and the many other spectators from Fermanagh helped keep my momentum going. I stuck with my nutrition guidelines that had been working for me well this year. I took my first gel with caffeine at mile 14, the second, without caffeine at mile 18, the third, again with caffeine at mile 22 and the last one, also with caffeine at mile 24. I took water at every single water stop, where they were hading out small bottles, which made drinking very easy. There were a couple of miles during this last 10k stretch that took some energy out of me as I hit a few hilly sections, including mile 22. However, my overall pace was staying at or near the 6:50/mile mark, which meant I was in a good place. I knew I wasn't running close enough to the measured line, however, as my watch was going off around 300m before each of the road signs marking each mile. But if I could keep the pace steady, I had a shot at sub three.

I got quite a few shouts in the last mile from running friends who were down to support their club mates. The Rock Runners had a bus load of supporters down and I received a lot of love from them with less than 800m to go. I got personal shouts from five additional friends in the last 400m, each of these made a huge difference as they gave me a boost of energy when my legs just don't feel like turning over anymore. I crossed the line at 3:01:08. There was not a thing wrong with that time. I was delighted to go from not being sure I would be able to complete the distance, to finishing just over three hours. I counted that as a massive success.. The special thing about Dublin is that there are always dozens of friends who run it every year and the post race celebrations are always top notch. This year, unfortunately, it was straight to the airport for me and I missed out on all the craic. There were so many great results from friends and teammates and, once again, I had the time of my life on this course. It is a special feeling to run well in this race and for me personally, it was a five minute course PB. I can't wait until next year!