DUBLIN REPORT
Getting to an airport only 1/2 hour away and a 45 minute flight-priceless!
Great hotel in the centre of town and 5 minutes walk to Temple Bar and O'Connell Street. Pubs and exotic restaurants at every step, whereas I'm on water and carb food which ain't on the menus in cosmopolitan Dublin! Just as well, you need a mortgage for your entrees here.
A visit to the Guinness Storehouse and I break my pledge. You can't turn down the offer of a complimentary pint of the black stuff.
The expo is a bit poor and there are no freebies at all although the tee shirts are pretty good(1).
Sunday's breakfast run is well organised and a nice 3 miler through Fairview Park and a great venue called the West Wood Club and the tee shirts are pretty good(2).
Mondays race start is freezing cold and badly organised. Your bags are left uncoverd behind barriers in the street and there is nowhere to change, get a drink of anything and you have to get to the start 1/2 hour early.
The commentator is amusing but caught unawares when the Lord Mayor shouts "GO" instead of the usual gun.
Off we go and Wendy is at ! mile to grab my nice tee shirt(3) that kept me from exposure. Bang on at a nice pace particularly through Phoenix Park. See Christine(WRN) and Val(NRR) and wish them good luck.
Get into the suburbs and not many crowds out to cheer you on. Calculating my times the old fashioned way of mental arithmetic instead of a commercial satellite, I'm on for cracking 4:10 here! Banana from Wendy at 11 miles and I'm strutting like Huggy Bear. Grind out the middle bit and you can coast to the finish in front of an adoring public.
At 18 miles I spot a St Pirans waving and get a roar from the Polish waving it and there is Wendy with my GO bar. Except that these GO bars are in the shape of jelly babies. Some poor chap tending his garden and listening to Daniel O'Donnell sings U2 on his stereo must wonder why jelly babies are hitting his window!
"Not far to go now" they all shout as if we hadn't realised what big boards with 18, 19, 20 at roughly mile intervals were for.
At 21 I realised the 4:10 had left the station as my legs refused to run at the same speed as they had done. I ripped of my name off my vest as Mr Jekyll had now become Mr Hyde, and I wouldn't have to be nice to anyone shouting "C'mon Steve".
5 miles of bone jarring, muscle tightening road later I was greeted by "Well done Carn Runners" by the announcer and coming home in 4:15:47. Just negotiate your way out of the cages get your medal, goody bag and nice tee shirt(4).
Wendy has some photos of Cornish runners ie Mark and Danny from NRR plus a chap in a Carn vest who someone will have to identify for us.
Dublin is a nice place to visit though expensive. The marathon is badly organised but a nice flat route at a time of year that won't cause heat stroke. I would recommend it for all levels of runners as there is something to be gained by all.
Anybody want to buy a tee shirt?
Steve Marks
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