At last.....
At last on two fronts, firstly I finished the Dublin City Marathon and secondly I'm finally updating my blog.
There have been two reasons why I have been so slow to post a report of the marathon, namely I wanted to take a full 2 week break from all running activity and give myself time to decide what I wanted to do next and obviously enjoy the rest and the option of not to run and also my PC was broken so I was unable to post anyway.
So sorry for the delay, and if anyone is still interested, here's my little story ( I'll try keep it short)
I woke up at 5.45am and the nerves hit me instantly. It was the morning we planned for for so long and it was finally here. I was going to attempt to run a marathon.. It was Monday the 30th of October 2006.
After keeping down as much of my porridge and banana as my nerves would allow, I quickly got changed into my running kit for the day. I had it all set out from Saturday and had checked it a million times, I wasn't taking any risks. Sarah arrived and had her breakfast too and soon we were on the way, the silence in the car was almost eerie as we both sat contemplating what was before us on our way to Sarah's apartment where we were heading from with her parents.
We set off and made our way to the starting line. We were very early but the crowds were already huge, I couldn't believe it. I'd never been at the start of a marathon before and the amount of activity and atmosphere was great. We emptied our bladders said goodbye to Sarah's parents and took our position among the crowds of other runners, we were exactly in line with Grafton Street so we were a bit back from the start line.
Eventually the gun went... The marathon had started... but we weren't moving. It seemed no one was, eventually after a few minutes the crowd started bobbing in front of us and we were able to take tiny baby steps forward. Some 7 minutes after the gun had gone off, we crossed under the balloons that marked the start line and I was officially running a Marathon, I could hardly believe it. I'm not sure I ever smiled so wide in my life. We set of gently and I was very conscious about getting caught up in the atmosphere and the energy of the other runners. I kept telling Sarah to relax as she was being a little eager and was desperate to get off into the race. As we headed up Nassau Street we passed by Sarah's Mum and Dad and her best friend. They were all beaming with pride to see Sarah actually about to run a marathon, it made me feel great as I knew how important it was to Sarah that they were all there.
The next few miles went by in a bit of a blur as we just enjoyed the feeling of being part of this huge event, everywhere around us there was something going on or a different costume to see. It was amazing, by the time we reached mile 3 we had lost 4 minutes, I presume this was from being overly cautious at the start of the race, but we weren't too concerned, if we only lost 4 minutes for the whole race we would still come in at 4.30. Alas it wasn't to be.
Even though we emptied our bladders before the race we both desperately needed to go again before mile 3. We had heard that the first few portaloos are always the busiest and that proved to be the case, but fortunately I knew a little place we could go before there. As the race goes down the North Circular Road, it passes Dalymount Park the home of Bohemian Football Club, I have been a huge fan of "Bohs" since I was a kid and have spent a lot of my life in Dalymount so we decided to cut off out of the race, run into the ground and use the loos, good plan.. No queue, but still some time lost... It didn't matter I was loving this and our running was comfortable and we had no problems at all. We were both just taking everything in.
I was hoping to meet a friend of mine at around mile 10 with some Lucozade but she had told me during the week that she may not be there, as it was Halloween weekend, she was heading to a fancy dress party outside of Dublin and didn't know if she'd be home in time to see me. Having received a text message from her at 4.30am that morning, wishing me luck, I had a feeling she would be a little worse for wear that morning and wouldn't be at mile 10 for 10.30am. So as we headed up to mile 10 I kept an eye out for her but really didn't expect to see her. As I was just passing the corner of where I planned to meet her, I heard my name being called. I looked around but couldn't see anyone, and all of a sudden my friend (another Sarah) jumped out from the crowd with two bottles of Lucozade, I gave her a quick kiss, thanked her and grabbed the bottles. I was delighted. I couldn't believe she had made it out, she looked like death but the difference seeing a friendly face made to my spirits was unbelievable. I was on cloud nine for the next mile and then we met Sarah's friends, who were all there cheering us on. I was feeling no ill effects and with all the effort everyone was making I couldn't understand why I hadn't done this years ago.
Unfortunately Sarah wasn't feeling the same, and she really struggled for the next 4 miles or so. The small climb on the Crumlin and Drimnagh Road coupled with the strong wind blowing into her face had really got the better of her. I offered as much support as I could but it didn't seem to be doing any good. Sarah stopped to tie her laces on the Cromwelsfort Road, she started running again only to stop again 2 minutes later to retie them. I knew she was letting her thoughts get the better of her and I was getting frustrated. I said to her that as always she had two choices. She could stop running and head back or she could put the negative thoughts out of her mind and keep running, with that I headed off. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, but I know how stubborn Sarah is and was in no doubt she would soon be following me. I turned around and there she was, a bit behind but back running again, I stopped and waited for her and we were back running together again, from that point on, we were in it together.
I was tiring a little bit by about mile 15, but I knew I was seeing my sister and her kids at mile 18 and that kept me going. As we made our way up to mile 18 Sarah needed the loo again so I left her at the water stations and headed on up to the mile 18 marker where my sister was, as I headed up the hill I could see her in the distance, I was raising my arms but she couldn't see me. (She was probably too busy trying to keep an eye on 4 kids) As I reached her she eventually saw me and started screaming like crazy, all the kids were jumping up and down waving, it was a great feeling. I stopped and gave them all a big hug and a kiss and had a quick chat while waiting for Sarah, unfortunately there was a bit of a queue at the portaloos and it was a good 5 minutes before Sarah had rejoined us and we were on our way again with the sound of my sister and her children's screams of Go Philip, Go Sarah ringing in my ears.
We we were soon at mile 21 and met our friend from work, some more energy drink and a few quick words and we were on our way. Sarah pointed out as we just passed mile 21 that we had just run further than we had ever run before. I felt great, but my legs were starting to ache.
As we had planned to see Sarah's parents at mile 24 we decided we wanted to be fresh, so we took a few walk breaks and decided to stretch a bit at mile 23 so as not to be walking when we got to them. The stretching paid off and the leg pain eased up a bit.
Going past the RDS where only the day before we had been to pick up our race pack, I looked at Sarah, I could see the emotion in her face. This is what she was running the marathon for. She wanted to make her Mum and Dad proud and I could see her scanning the crowd, as we got closer to the corner where the race turns on to Shelbourne Road, we spotted her Dad, I couldn't believe the look on his face. It was absolutely beaming. I have never seen anyone look so happy and so proud. His little girl had made it 24 miles and there was no way she wasn't going to finish it now. We stopped for a couple of minutes, to thank them have a drink and we were on our way again. Sarah was on cloud nine. I doubt she felt any pain for the next little bit. My high was yet to come.
As we approached mile 25 I saw my nephew walking along the footpath towards us, I called out to him and he started running alongside us. I knew I was nearly about to see my family. I kept asking them where they were but as he's only 12 and unfamiliar with the names of Dublin Streets he wasn't able to give me a definite answer, still chatting to him took my mind off it. As we neared the corner onto Westland Row, my nephew said they're just up here. I then saw my brother in law at the corner and he started shouting "here they are, here they are" as I rounded the corner my whole family was there, all 14 of them. I raised my arms above my head as I ran by lapping up the cheers and screams, looking at the posters my nephews and nieces had made and trying to take it all in. As I ran by I got very very emotional, I burst into tears and literally couldn't breath. I had to take control, there was still a mile to go, not that I remember it. The next mile was a complete blur, I literally don't remember any of the run from Westland Row up until the 26 mile marker, when all of Sarah's friends appeared from nowhere and cheered us on.
As we turned the corner and saw the finish line, Sarah grabbed my hand, we had started this journey together and we were going to finish together. I got a quick glimpse of my sister and my Dad as he shouted. "You've done it, You've done it". We crossed the line hand in hand and simply broke down... Every emotion in us came flooding out. Every single sacrifice we had made to that point had been worth it and we struggled to compose ourselves.
We collected our medals and T-Shirts, got our photo's taken and made our way to meet our families. After taking all the congratulations, hugs and kisses we made our way to the pub for a well deserved drink.
When we got home later that day we checked the Marathon website, the chip time was already in. 4 hours 50 minutes and 43 seconds. I have to say I was disappointed with the time. We had hoped to do it in under 4 hours 30 minutes and we were well outside. It wasn't until I woke up the next morning... Looked at my medal and relived that final mile, that I thought, F**K IT. The feeling of seeing all my family at mile 25 with my arms in the air as if I had won it was the best feeling in my entire life. I doubt I'll ever get that feeling again, so what if it took me 4 hours 50 minutes and 43 seconds to feel it at least I felt it... Some people will never have that feeling, and I'm one of the lucky ones.
We've put it down to experience at this stage, and we learned a lot. We'll be better next time, and the next time is on the 27th of May 2007 in Edinburgh, we signed up yesterday.
So there's plenty more to come.
Before I go I just want to say thanks to everyone who came out to support us on the day, you have no idea how much it helped us and the feeling you gave me I'll never be able to repay.
So thanks Mam, Dad, Colin, Pauline, Trisha, Sarah, Alan, Philip, Ben, Amy, Lauren, Dara, Callum, Ellenor, Sibhe, Sarah's Mam and Dad (Dave & Liz) Heidi, Kay, Fiona, Audrey, Hillary, Tamara and Meave. Oh and every single person who came out of their house to cheer on thousands of runners and all the kids that gave us high fives. You are all as much part of the marathon as I was. Thank you.
