Heartbreak and camaraderie at Dublin Marathon: ‘How they keep it up for 26 miles I just don’t know’

A young woman walks unsteadily towards an older man close to the finish line of the Dublin Marathon and they embrace. She starts to cry on his shoulder, gently at first and then in great, gulping sobs.

He just hugs her and keeps hugging her until the tears subside and they walk in the direction of St Stephen’s Green, the silver finishers medal hanging loosely around her neck.

The runner, Aine Crimmin, is brighter when The Irish Times approaches and she explains that she had her heart set on finishing in under three hours. She has come agonisingly close, breaking the tape as the clock read 3:02.

“I’m shattered. It was hard in the rain,” Crimmin says. “The shoes were heavy and my legs were cramping up towards the end.”

Sarah Moss: As a bike-riding vegetarian feminist I can see why people might disagree with everything I think

---

How to make the most of the Leaving Cert run-in: Study tips, social media and taking breaks

---

Nicky English: Cork are finding a flow that makes them All-Ireland contenders - if they get that far

---

In pictures: Bruce Springsteen rocks Croke Park on a sunny Sunday evening

---

Despite her disappointment, it is the fastest of the three marathons she has done so far and her father Michael is bursting with pride as they pick their way through the early finishers, inadvertently epitomising the spirit of the Irish Life Dublin Marathon where support is everything and the endeavour matters as much – if not more – than the end result.

Shane O’Reilly from Blackrock, Co Dublin, is full of smiles as he sits chatting with his wife and two young children in a nearby cafe. He has just finished his fourth – and fastest marathon – coming in at 2:56 and breaking his goal by four minutes.

“I find it easier to run in the rain, it is a weird thing but I just kind of zone out. It’s a brilliant event, it is really well organised and everyone has their own sort of race and that’s what makes it so special. And a big part of it is the camaraderie, there’s these random people you’re hugging at the end,” O’Reilly says.

While driving rain greets the runners at the finish line, the race starts shortly before 9am in watery sunshine.

Alan Ecock is standing on the North Circular Road waiting for his brother Mark to pass. “He’s done about 10 or 12 marathons already. For him, it’s about fitness. He gets out in all weathers. I’d like to have the commitment myself, but it puts a lot of strain on your body at the same time. How they can keep it up for 26 miles I just don’t know,” Ecock says as the elite athletes practically sprint past just before 9am.

For the first couple of minutes there is only a trickle of runners but it quickly turns into a torrent and the sounds of trainers slapping against tar echoes the sounds of a horse race.

A woman standing on Aughrim Street looks worried and when she is asked if she is particularly anxious about a friend or family member’s performance she shakes her head.

“I’m not here to look at the marathon at all. I just want to cross the road. I thought I’d got here early enough,” she says as she looks sadly at the runners passing her, intensity and determination etched across all their faces. “I’ll wait till there’s a gap,” she says before suddenly taking off and weaving between the runners in a fashion that would not please the organisers.

She is not the only one displeased by the event.

A motorist approaches a nearby junction only to be told by the gardaí manning the barricades that the road will closed for the next hour or two.

“But this is the way Google Maps told me to go,” the driver says to which the garda responds: “I don’t work for Google.”

The man turns his car as the guard mutters under his breath, but within earshot of The Irish Times, “If I did, I wouldn’t be standing in the bleeding rain now would I?”

[ Dublin Marathon in pictures: Sunshine and showers as Kemal Husan breaks course record ]

Shortly after 11.30am a marathon runner can be seen hobbling around College Green.

He says he would prefer not be identified because he is coming to terms with the disappointment of having had to pull out after 14 miles. “I was near the Crumlin Children’s Hospital when my knee gave out,” he says. “I was thinking I might have to walk or limp the rest of the way but then a bus passed and I hopped on. I’m really disappointed because I was feeling good,” the veteran of more than two dozen Dublin city marathons says.

When offered the City Bike being used by The Irish Times to lean on as he makes his way back to Merrion Square to pick up his stuff, he shakes his head. “I’ll be grand, I’ll get there eventually and I’ll be back next year.”

Ethiopia’s Kemal Husen might well be back next year too having stormed to victory in a new course record. The 20-year-old cut more than one minute off his personal best, crossing the line in a time of 2:06:52s.

[ Kemal Husan smashes Dublin Marathon record as Ireland’s Stephen Scullion finishes third ]

Husen finished nearly four minutes clear of Uganda’s Geofrey Kusuro with Irish record holder Stephen Scullion sprinting to the line to claim third.

Sorome Negash of Ethiopia was the winner of the women’s race in 2:26.22s, just off the course record, while Ann-Marie McGlynn from Letterkenny AC took the women’s national title in 2:34.13s. In the wheelchair race the winner was Patrick Monahan taking his seventh Dublin Marathon title.