I
had been training with my friend Marion since the beginning of July,
Andy had written us our training schedule for us to follow. The training
had gone well so when the big day final arrived we were ready. We had to
find our own breakfast in the morning as the hotel staff said it was to
early for them and being bank holiday they couldn’t help so my breakfast
for that day was two Yum Yum cakes from good old Marks & Spencer. Marion
found some Ready Brek.
So
with breakfast inside us we walk to the start line with Andy and Jerry
as they too were running. We had about an hour to wait so that means it
gives you time to think, ‘Why am I doing this, I could still be laying
in a nice warm bed and having a cooked breakfast?’
The hour soon passed we took our layers of clothes off, put them in the
bags provided and handed them over to the baggage people and made our
way to the start line. We then separated from Andy and Jerry, they went
nearer the front as they were going to be under 4 hours. Marion and I
stood on the start line just taking in all the people surrounding us,
some looking confident, some looking as nervous as us, as this was our
first marathon. We had covered 22 miles in training so we both knew we
should be fine, we had both had some little niggles, I had been having a
problem with my hamstring and Marion had been having a problem with her
neck but we had been having treatment and were feeling fine now.
The crowd was noisy so we didn’t hear a man shout ‘Go!’ (Andy told me
later that is how the race started) we just saw the crowd started moving
forward and we knew then that we were off, neither of us could believe
we were really there. I think for the first time we both were
speechless, just taking in the atmosphere and the crowds around us. We
have never been in such a big race before. We saw our support crew for
the first time at about 2 miles (Michelle, Bill, Jo and Christian). We
had our names written across our t-shirts and it was great hearing our
names being called out by people you didn’t even know, kids were high
fiving you, sometimes the miles went by so quick. There were water
stations every 3 miles and toilets, not that the men used them - oh how
I wished I was a man. We were going well until about 10 miles when I
could feel my hamstring hurting, which worried me, but it didn’t seem to
get any worse. All I kept thinking was please let me get to the finish -
Marion’s neck and shoulders started to hurt as well but we just kept
going. We saw our support crew again around 10 miles and it was great
to keep seeing them pop up. When we got to about 23 mile we were telling
ourselves just think it’s our 3 mile run on a Monday night - we couldn’t
believe we only had 3 miles to go and still feeling good. When we got to
25 miles we saw our support crew again we both found this emotional I
think because we were nearly there, but the best bit was hitting 26
miles. The last mile was just lines of people shouting our names, it was
brilliant and turning that last corner and seeing the finish line was
amazing we both had tears in our eyes but the first thing we said was
that we would do it again. Summary of the race the crowds are great
loads, of toilet and water stations and the course takes you through
Phoenix Park which is nice. There are not too many inclines and at the
end you get a great goodie bag with a medal and t-shirt. I can recommend
it and you can party in the evening in the Irish bars and join in with
the Irish dancing. I would like to say thank you to Andy for the
training plan it worked really well and to Marion for being my training
partner I couldn’t have done it without her.
Clare Horsley
Results were:
Jerry
Shield (272) 3:02:29
Andy Horsley (1058) 3:28:40 - PB
Clare Horsley (6814) 5:11:06
Marion Main (6815) 5:11:07
Clare
and Marion’s are raising money for ‘Jane’s Appeal’ – the
paediatric
cancer charity set up by the inspirational multi-marathon runner Jane
Tomlinson. If you would like to contribute visit Clare and Marion’s
website
http://www.justgiving.com/marionandclare
Latest
total is £1,386 raised, not bad for a target of £1,000 and they only
started a month or so before the marathon.
