Marathon Monday 2015 – A day to remember Report by Gerry Flaherty
Merrion Square was a hive of activity on the morning of October 26th, 2015 at the start of the 36th SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon. Among the 15,216 runners from 62 Countries were 18 Blackrock A.C. runners, the highest ever number from the club with many nervous runners aiming to do their first marathon. The morning started with a light drizzle but conditions were fairly good early on. As the race progressed the wind was to become a factor in making it a tough day for many runners. Runners lined up in each of the 3 waves and by 9.20am all the runners were on their journey.
In 2014, the Dublin Marathon was voted best International Event mainly as a result of the amazing crowd support. It was hard to see how the 2014 could be repeated but as the race progressed it was obvious this was to be special with an amazing atmosphere from the first 1km with the crowd getting bigger and louder with each passing mile with many cheers for Blackrock A.C. Early on Anne, Jordan and Michael all gave us a big lift and towards the end of the race, the support from Michael, Dervla, Leonie, Fiona, Ciara and many others helped us over the final few miles with their jellies and goodwill.
First home from the club was Barry Thornton finishing in a time of 2:55:29 and 221st overall. To put in perspective, this is an average 5km time of sub-21 minutes. Next home was John Casey in Pb time of 3:18:14, in only his second marathon. Michelle Langan has a another consistent run finishing is a pb time of 3:44:07 in her 4th marathon. Not far behind was first timer Sarah Kelly who finished strongly in 3:46:06 despite a fast start. Next home was Catherine Galvin who had a good run in 3:58:31 and as consistent as ever in getting under the 4 hour barrier. Michelle Tracey had another good run and just finished outside 4 hours in 4:02:36 but 18 minutes head of her 2014 marathon time. Despite both having an injury leading up to the big day, Emma MacDonald had a good run in 4:04:11 and Stephen Mulligan finished in 4:10:04. Mary Mason found the going tough and finished in a good time of 4:23:28 in her 4th marathon.
In the next group we had a number of first timers who all started with the 4-20 pacers. Niamh Bolger had a great run from the start and finished in 4:16:32 followed by Alison Clarke in 4:27:47, Michael Wood in 4:28:05 and Patricia Forde 4:30:44. Bryan Sheils came in shortly after in 4:33:02, his 4th marathon in 2015. Tara Cooke had a good run in 4:33:30 after a busy weekend working in the RDS in her 6th marathon. Jennifer Lee came home in 4:46:37 in her 28th marathon having run most of the race with her friend Angela and Linda Clarke came under 5 hours in a time of 4:58:40 for her first marathon.
A wonderful day of running by Blackrock A .C.
(Report by Gerry Flaherty)
