The Dublin Marathon 2008: On the start line
On the morning of the marathon I woke up fairly early, around seven. After I made myself respectable, I started on my warm-ups. Not being a morning person, exercising at this time of day is not something I particular enjoy, but it’s a necessary evil. Once I’d finished that, I made my last-minute preparations for the marathon, filling every pocket I had with energy gels.
After Edinburgh, I’d decided to invest in an arm-wallet, which allowed me to carry extra energy gels. If Edinburgh was anything to go by, I’d be needing them! I left Dad in bed, still dozing away whilst I went down for breakfast.
My Dad and the rest of the support crew had decided to return to the hotel to have their breakfast after I had set off, which was a charming thought – as I would be pounding the streets of Dublin, they would be enjoying a “Full Irish” breakfast!
So we all congregated in the hotel lobby and set off on the 1.5 mile walk to the start line. The lengthy walk would, I hoped, serve as a warm-up, seen as I hadn’t decided to do a short pre-race run this time. It was a fresh, crisp morning and very cold. The sun was hiding behind clouds, so we go the light but not the warmth. It was very cold. I wasn’t looking forward to the point where I would have to take off my jumper and jogging bottoms because I knew there would be a lot of hanging around waiting to start.
When we got to the start line, (view a map of the route – external link) at the junction of Lower Fitzwilliam Street and Merrion Square East, I had to say goodbye to my support team and be funnelled through into one of the pens. So I got changed there and then, pinned my race number to my running shirt and clipped on my pace band. Then I entered the runners-only section on Merrion Square South to join all the other runners. Merrion Square South was full of runners, depositing their kit-bags, taking toilet breaks, getting changed and warming up.
I followed the instructions of the race marshals and walked all the way around the block, walking down Merrion Street. All the “green numbered” runners then had to turn again onto Lower Baggott Street (although some runners took a crafty and rather pointless shortcut down Fitzwilliam Lane and Baggotrain Place to cut the corner off). Finally all the runners took another left turn back onto Lower Fitzwilliam Street.
I gave my Dad a ring on my mobile to see if he was anywhere near me and found him and the support crew waiting just a few dozen yards away on the pavement. They’d made their way down from the start line to try and see if they could see me. I moved as far up the crowd as I could until it became too dense to carry on. The start line was only a hundred yards in front of me and there was a great carnival atmosphere. On one of the side streets a kettle-drum band was bashing out a rhythm to get everyone in the mood.
As I thought, I was standing around for a good fifteen minutes before everyone got under way. I tried to stay warm by doing some last-minute warm-ups, but there was no disguising just how cold it was. My support crew took plenty of photos, including some of me (which make for an interesting before and after comparison).
At about ten to nine, the announcer piped up and asked for quiet whilst the Irish national anthem was played. How was I feeling? Well, I had plenty of nervous energy as ever, but this was balanced out by my faith in the tremendous amounts of training I’d put in – more than ever before. So I was confident I’d be able to complete the race in my target time of under 5h30m.
Now one of the things I’m used to is seeing runners walk around in the pen wearing bin-liners (seriously) to keep themselves warm whilst waiting. What I’ve never seen before was clothes being thrown from the middle of the crowd onto the pavement. This was a rather bizarre sight, watching jumpers, jogging bottoms and other bits of clothing flying about minutes before the start. The spectators had to be careful not to be hit by airborne clothing!
Finally, at 08:55, the wheelchair competitors set off and the crowd moved forward. At 09:00, the rest of the field set off, including me. Everyone walked towards the start. I waved goodbye to my support crew and started jogging slowly. When I crossed the start line, I set my stopwatch going on my mobile, which I would be using to track my pace and make sure I wasn’t going too fast, especially in the early stages.
By the time I crossed the start line, I realised just how cold my hands were, because they were nearly numb!