It's important to look your best after you have run over 26 miles, so the young woman sitting on the traffic island in the middle of O'Connell Street was busy applying her make-up. Having completed the run through the streets of Dublin in under 3 1/2 hours, she didn't wish to be named, but was feeling no ill effects and was applying lipstick and powder before setting off to meet her friends. However, Mark, from Croydon, England, admitted to suffering a little as he headed towards his hotel. "This is the hardest bit," said the veteran of four marathons. "You psych yourself up to get to the finish and then you have to pick yourself up again to get home."
He was looking out for his friends who had watched the race and hoped for a few hours' rest at the hotel before returning to London last night to be ready for work this morning. He admitted to a few dodgy moments on the course. "That hill at 22 miles was very hard going," he said. Some 6,500 athletes of all shapes, sizes and degrees of fitness took part. More than 1,500 were Americans representing two organisations, Teams in Training, a fundraising division of the US Leukaemia Association, and Joints in Motion, which raises money for the US Arthritis Association. They brought many supporters with them and cries of "good job" rang out as the runners neared the finish.
"It helped me a lot to hear the supporters," one man who had finished, and who was noisily encouraging the other runners, remarked. In an innovation this year, every participant was able to get his or her exact time for the course. A "Champion Chip" was placed on the laces of each entrant's shoe and recorded the precise start and finish time. The 20th Dublin City Marathon was expected to generate over £5 million in revenue for Dublin city and county in accommodation, food and drink, shopping and travel by participants and supporters. First to finish was wheelchair athlete John Fullam in less than two hours. Colette O'Reilly, the first woman wheelchair athlete home, suffered a puncture after 15 miles but was able to rejoin the race after repairs.
The overall winner of the Noel Carroll Memorial Trophy was John Mutai, from Kenya, who was competing in his fourth Dublin City Marathon, having previously finished fourth, third and second. Gerry Healy, from Lucan, was second.
The sterling silver trophy was designed by Peter Donovan of Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, and was presented to the winner by Deirdre O'Callaghan, Noel Carroll's widow. The Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, said the trophy was a fitting tribute to Carroll, who died a year ago, as it combined his love of sport and of the city of Dublin. The first woman finisher was another Kenyan, Esther Kiplagat, who set the fastest time run by a woman in a marathon in Ireland. Second was Carol Galea, a previous winner, from Malta, and third came Joanna Grontchemial, from Poland.
While most of those in O'Connell Street supported the marathon, there was at least one dissenting voice. "I thought this nonsense had finished years ago. They look like a bunch of fairies," he said, referring to the silver space blankets in which the finishers had wrapped themselves. Some early-morning callers to The Irish Times complained about the traffic disruption which the early start of the race had caused, even though the AA had warned last week that traffic disruption would take place from as early as 5.30 a.m. yesterday.
The race ended officially at 5 p.m. although organisers admitted some stragglers might still have been on the course.