The Dublin Marathon 2008: From the beginning
My attempt at the 2008 Dublin Marathon began in Leeds-Bradford Airport on Sunday 26th October. My “support crew” (which consisted of my dad, Alan and David) had all arranged to fly over to Ireland, rather than taking a ferry. It proved to be a extremely fast way of getting there, as we were in the air for less than an hour between take-off and landing.
It was fairly low-hassle as well, as we had all checked-in online beforehand, so all we had to do at the airport was show our boarding passes and passports and wait at the departure gate. The most stressful part of the process was the stringent security, which meant I was restricted in what kind of energy drinks and powders I could take (and, I would find out, bring back). Oh well – I managed to cram my rucksack with all the essentials I needed.
On arrival at Dublin, the most tiring thing I did was the long walk from the arrival gate to the exit – a walk which never seemed to end! Fortunately we managed to find our way to a taxi rank outside, where a jovial Irishman took us to our hotel.
The original choice of hotel had problems with it’s water supply to our floor, so they moved us to their higher-rated sister hotel. Unfortunately for me it was also an extra mile away from the start line of the marathon, but at least that would help me warm up on the day!
Now our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, so me and my dad left our luggage with Alan and David and left for the marathon Expo. A fairly lengthy bus ride later, we arrived at the Royal Dublin Society main hall. The first priority was to collect my race number and timing chip. So we both went up onto the balcony and collected my race pack. The chip was attached to the back of the race number, instead of being tied to your laces, like in Edinburgh and Leeds. Then I had to walk over a special mat to “activate” my chip and saw my name flash up on a screen, which I still find a great novelty.
We spent about another hour walking round the rest of the expo. I was quite impressed by the scale and organisation, it was about twice as large as at Edinburgh. There were a lot of exhibitors and I came out with a whole heap of free samples and leaflets. At the Adidas stand I had my gait analysed, which told me that I had a neutral gait. This surprised me because previously I had been told I was a serious over-pronator. So I was left a little bit confused on that issue.
After me and dad returned from that, it was time to look for somewhere to eat. I was in the mood for something Irish and hearty and of course full of complex carbs like potatoes. Eventually, after wandering round a chilly Dublin for a while, we found a pub called O’Shea’s. It was busy, but we found two tables for the four of us. I had seafood chowder to start, but I didn’t realise chowder contained smoked fish, which I don’t really like. Then for the main I had braised lamb shanks, with mashed potato – though not a lot of it.
After that, we walked half-way across town to try out a bar with a reputation for serving top-quality ales. My support crew did their best to test this claim. It was a shame I couldn’t join in with the drinking, but if there is one thing which was going to adversely affect my performance, it was alcohol. So I was left drinking orange juice all night.
Eventually I decided to leave the beer-drinking to the experts and left to return to the hotel and get an early night before the big race.