Dublin Marathon 2008 - Race Report by Rebecca Haung

Well it is all over now and I am pleased to say that I am now a Marathon finisher! I completed the Dublin Marathon on Monday 27th October 2008 in 4 hours, 33 minutes and 55 seconds. I had hoped to complete it in under 4.5 hours but I figure that time is close enough so I am happy with it.
 
We had a great day for it - beautiful clear blue skies - but it was very cold with a high of only 8 degrees celcius. As you can imagine there were a lot of cold people in shorts and t-shirts standing at the start line early in the morning! The atmosphere was brilliant though with everyone encouraging eachother and even quite a few people dressed up! At 9am the gun went off and we were off!
 
For the first 14 miles (22.4kms) I was feeling quite good and was enjoying the crowds of people that had shown up to cheer us on and comradery amongst the runners. However, slowly I began to find it harder and my pace began to slow. At around 21 miles (33.6kms) I "hit the wall" and had to stop to walk for the first time. Starting to run again after walking, even walking for only a very short time, was pretty tough but I managed to do a run/walk combination for the next couple of miles until I got a new burst of energy around 23 miles (36.8kms) and ran the rest of the marathon, finishing with a smile!
 
Many thanks to all the people who supported both the Santa Flight with donations, and me with words of support and encouragement. It was a very tight contest with many of you making very good guesses at my time but big congratulations to Denis Hogan from my work who guessed 4 hours and 34 minutes and therefore won the champagne and tequila.
 
If anyone is interested, you can see the route I ran as well as my pace, elevation and heart-rate by clicking here