Registration at the RDS took some time to get to on the Sunday afternoon as there were already diversions in place for the setup of the finish area. Picked up number and goody bag, only later discovering that evening that number was in fact the wrong colour for the time zone I’d put on the entry form – later found out this seemed to happen to a some other postal entries as well.

Did a bit of carbo loading at Wagamamas and played “spot the runner” game .

Kind B&B lady let us help ourselves to breakfast at some silly non-existent hour in the morning. I’m a bit superstitious and always bring my own little box of cereal mixture for race day as I know it works.

Half hour walk to start – distinctly fewer portaloos than previous years, more runners than previous years, so distinctly longer queues. Perfect weather – no wind and overcast although the sun did appear later.

Deposited bag in baggage area, off to start area, rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann (Irish national anthem) and half a rendition of Molly Malone, a few cheers for someone who seemed to get engaged to his girlfriend just before the start and then we were off.

And then 4:23 minutes later it was over …. oh the in between bit.  Lots of running, sore legs and mind games. Won’t bore with mile to mile details (all a bit of a blur anyway) but it took me until about 8 miles to feel sort of comfortable. However, it was funny even by 20 miles I didn’t feel so much I’d run out of energy or heavy legs or anything, but just very tight sore calves (yes I know I need to stretch more….) and certainly by the end my calves were much sorer than in any previous marathon. Medal, usual quandry what size tshirt to take, and a nice cheese sandwich and apple in a bright red SPAR lunchbox. Then a shuffle/stagger to the Luas tram and back to the B&B.

Dublin marathon medal 2009

Then it was recovery time – shower, eat, post mortem, more eating/drinking etc etc.

Oh and then trying to fit an 18 pk of Tayto cheese and onion crisps (the original and best Irish crisps) into hand luggage without ending up with only crumbs! And no I haven’t eaten them all yet….

Tayto - Irish crisps

Dublin marathon website

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