These vagabond shoes....

As Romania's Adriana Pirtea would probably tell you after carelessly squandering a handsome lead in Chicago last week, travelling away to run a marathon can sometimes end up leaving you wishing you'd never gotten on the plane, writes Emmet Malone.

For a growing number of more recreational Irish runners, though, the attraction of competing in the shadow of a major foreign city's landmarks makes it a chance they're willing to take.

Most of those who haul themselves off to a foreign capital or, perhaps, somewhere a little more obscure, have already covered the distance at least once here and want to introduce a new element to the challenge as they embark on the arduous training regime again. Others simply prefer the idea of a backdrop a little more exotic than Dublin's as they get through what might well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

From a business viewpoint, the market is growing, says Martin Joyce of Sports Travel International (sportstravelinternational.com), the main specialist operator here. While other companies, such as Caribbean Collection (caribbeancollection.ie), focus on one or two races - the Barbados and Reggae (Jamaica) marathons in the Cork firm's case - Joyce's company covers a whole range of destinations over the course of the year.

He works with several Irish charities on their fundraisers to major races abroad while also dealing directly with individuals who want to run foreign marathons without the hassle of first having to wrangle an entry and then sort out the logistics.

"People would come to us because it makes the whole thing a great deal more straightforward, particularly for the marathons that are heavily oversubscribed because we can offer guaranteed entry," he says. "But there are other factors too and the market is changing. People are going away to run more often but the destinations are changing, as are the lengths of the trips involved.

"Ten or 12 years ago our number one destination was Boston. In 1996, for the 100th marathon there we brought 700 runners from Ireland and there were more than 40,000 in the race. The next year we had 35. After all, who wants to do the 101st?

"The other factor is that people would have made a substantial holiday of it whereas now they are going in, registering, seeing a bit of the place, running and getting out. People are travelling more and are not looking to stay in one place for as long."

New York, which takes place the weekend after Dublin, remains very popular. The company brought 17 there in 1990 but will have 515 there in a couple of weeks' time with 400 or so runners plus family and friends.

The trip, which costs about €1,750 for a four-night package including flights, hotels, transfers, race entry and a celebration banquet after the race, sells out every year with registrations opening in April.

Many runners, though, will prefer to organise their own travel and when the race offers guaranteed entry, as most still do, then this can be fairly straightforward.

Third-level lecturer Don Ryan ran his first marathon in Paris a couple of years ago because "after a couple of false starts I'd put in a good winter's running and was looking for a spring race. Getting into London was complicated and so Paris just sort of suggested itself. To be honest, I enjoyed the travel end of it. It has a city break feel to it but really you've got to be conscious of the fact that you don't get to see too much of the city. You arrive, register and maybe wander around the Expo. You're fairly conscious the whole time that you're there for the race."

Still, the experience was positive enough for him to take on Amsterdam 18 months later. Ryan, who feels that the only real downside to running abroad is the lack of support around the course from friends or family, ran 2:58, almost half an hour better than on his debut in Paris, and found the setting for the race particularly impressive. "Well, the fact that the course was fast was a factor all right, but so was the fact that it started and finished in the Olympic stadium. There was a big crowd there for the end of the race and doing the last 200 metres in front of them was like being involved in the marathons you watched on TV as a kid, it was a really great buzz."

Not everyone has such a positive experience. Diarmuid Coogan, also from Dublin, recently ran Berlin with friends, all of whom were hoping to set personal bests on the famously fast course. "It didn't go well and I came away with the feeling that there's a lot to be said for doing your races in familiar surroundings," he says. Coogan ran Belfast in 2:59 last year and went to the German capital hoping to take four minutes or so off that time. Instead, he blew up two-thirds of the way around and limped home in just short of three and a half hours.

"The 3am start to catch a 6am flight the day before probably didn't help but there were other things," he says.

In fact, he had had some injury problems in the run-up to the race but having paid out in advance and committed to travelling with friends, cancelling wasn't entirely straightforward. "Then, with about six miles to go I was thinking that I'd drop out and conserve myself a little in order to run Dublin instead but it dawned on me that if I arrived home and told my wife that, I'd wind up in the divorce courts."

A solution to that particular problem is to run together as Neil Ardiff, a civil servant aiming to run every European capital "before I die", has found. "We get away, I run the marathon and my Mrs runs the half marathon," he says. "We've only done a handful so far but it's gone well and it's a nice way to see a city."

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For further information on the marathon and previously published material in the HealthSupplement, log onto www.ireland.com/focus/marathonfocus