Oct 27, 2008 [Jeremy Walsh] Fortunately, a respite to the bad weather greeted our marathon runners as they woke up today. In his first race over the distance, Brian McMahon was with the leading Irish group from the off. Going through halfway in just over 70 minutes, he finished with 2.27.26, and using the experience gained from this race, he’ll surely take time off that in marathons to come.
Ronan Hartnett (pictured) finished in 2.51.49, a good time at the best of times, but when you consider that this was off the back of a 2.48 in Amsterdam only 8 days ago, it was a truly impressive double.
Performance of the day goes to Conor Delaney. Having run 6 previous marathons, mostly between 3.15 and 3.20, Conor has been training with the club for a few years now, but his marathon training was usually curtailed by minor niggles. This year he had a good run at it, making a big breakthrough in running 62 minutes for 10 miles in the Phoenix Park and 84 minutes for the half marathon a few weeks later. Added to this, a few good long runs and some nice tempo runs, with a good taper and he was in good shape for the fabled sub 3. Fifteen minutes was going to be a big chunk to take off his previous best, but he had the confidence in his training to go for it. At 3 miles he looked in great shape, very focussed. He went through halfway about 3 minutes ahead of schedule, but was feeling good for it. A stitch tried to slow him down at 24 miles, but it was too late for that – he’d done the hard work. He stormed through our vantage point at 25 miles, well under target, ultimately finishing in 2.55.04, a massive PB and a massive performance, well deserved.
Ernie Ramsey, unfortunately had his training hampered somewhat by an Achilles injury, but nevertheless had a storming summer racking up some impressive PB’s. He too was aiming for sub 3, but got a poor start, finding himself behind walkers and a bollard for good measure! A pit stop en route added to the fun. Despite all this, he knocked a whopping 34 minutes off his PB, finishing in 3.01.40. It is maybe a sign of the upward curve that his performance graph is taking that he was a tad disappointed, but on another day he’ll smash it. Next time Ernie, next time.
Paul Carolan was next Clonliffe man home, running a PB of 3.15.49, another excellent run, considering he has had his focus turned to the Grand Prix moreso than the marathon over the last few months. A minute or so behind was Alan Worrall in 3.17.11, while Pat Devitt ran 3.42.34, 10 minutes faster than in Berlin 5 weeks ago. Colm Breen finished in 3.52.32, smashing the 4 hour barrier.
Well done to all, and apologies if I’ve missed anyone.