Since its humble beginnings in 1980, it was an achievable target for our best runners to win or at least get on to the podium in the Dublin Marathon . Then over the last decade or so all that slowly and then suddenly changed.
This Sunday’s Dublin Marathon doubles as the National Championship so it will provide extra motivation for Irish athletes to line up and be as competitive as they can.
In the 42 previous editions of the Dublin Marathon, there have been 12 Irish winners of both the men’s and women’s races. Times have changed, and Dublin is now highly regarded as an international big city marathon, so inevitably faster athletes have been invited to come and race.
Is there any great connection between these athletes and the general public watching? If anything, it can take away from the visibility and encouragement given to Irish athletes to be able to compete at their home event.
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The international autumn marathon season is in full swing and there seems to be no ceiling on the women’s world record.
Earlier this month, Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich took nearly two minutes off the world record in Chicago, raising plenty of eyebrows in the process, smashing the 2:11:53 set just over a year previous in Berlin by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa.
So the fastest time by a woman now stands at 2:09:56, running at sub-five minute miles, which not so long ago was seen as a benchmark for pretty good running by a male marathon runner.
In fact, Stephen Scullion is the only Irishman who has officially run faster, with his 2:09:25 from London in 2020, and Chepngetich’s time also equals that run by John Treacy when winning the silver medal at the LA Olympics 40 years ago.
There have been some big changes in shoe technology since 2016, which has resulted in the ability to train at a higher level for a number of years now. This also helps with better recovery. As a result, we have seen more and more athletes across all levels push the bar higher every year.
This has resulted in marathon qualifying times for Olympics and World Championships becoming more and more difficult to achieve for Irish athlete as they have struggled to keep up with the rising standards.
Fionnuala McCormack was our sole Olympic representative in the marathon this year in Paris, and yet she is running times that would leave her 5km behind the best in the world. Her best this year leaves her ranked 290th in the world, 35th in Europe. Remember too Catherina McKiernan still holds the Irish women’s record with her 2:22:23, set in Amsterdam way back in 1998.
That’s not necessarily being critical of current Irish marathon standards, but I think there should be some way to mesh these together and encourage Irish athletes to reach a competitive level each year in Dublin and balance the field.
We did see the result of this last year, when Scullion raised the excitement levels in the finishing straight when he finished in third place, and in the process ran his second fastest time ever 2:11.51.
Even though the winner last year, Kemal Husen from Ethiopia, ran a course record 2:06:52, Dublin would not generally be considered a very fast course.
The women’s race record dates back to 2010, when Tatyana Aryasova from Russia set a time of 2:26:13, long before any advancements in shoe technology (though she was later done for doping). So, with good conditions, there is every chance that the women’s record books may be rewritten this weekend.
The Dublin Marathon has moved with the times and grown to the status it now holds in the marathon calendar among elite athletes due to the generous prize money and record bonuses.
But I think the Dublin Marathon should note what the Melbourne Marathon has done in recent years, and build the fields that create achievable races for national athletes.
McCormack is never going to line up against a host of Ethiopian athletes that she knows nothing about, but what a sweet victory that would be, just like Treacy when he signed off on his career at the Dublin Marathon in 1993.
Is it really necessary to field a race of unknown athletes who literally just take the money and run? I believe the Dublin Marathon deserves to get better value and return for the prize money, and bonus money, that it dishes out every year.
There is a shortfall that needs to be bridged and we can’t continually rely on the same athletes to turn up each year when there must be so many more people running and competing.
We have seen Irish athletes step up on the track this year but the marathon runners are lagging behind and it makes you wonder if we will ever be able to turn that around again. And is the gap so great that athletes are discouraged to push beyond the comfort zone?
As a mass participation event, Dublin is more attractive than ever and now requires success in the ballot entry to claim one of the limited 22,500 places. It is also a huge platform for so many runners taking to the streets of Dublin to raise funds for their chosen charity, headlined this year by Colin Farrell, who has already raised over €600,000 for his chosen charity Debra.ie.
On any big marathon day there is a lot going on but the one thing that always stands out is the competition leading the way when the gun goes off. Dublin has been successful in so many ways continuing to support Irish marathon runners, but there is still so much more room for growth if we are to be competitive internationally.
There is a chance that Hiko Tonosa will be rise to the occasion and contest for a podium in the men’s race on Sunday, as Scullion did a year ago when finishing third overall, but he needs to line up believing this is absolutely possible.
Tonosa recently ran the half marathon in 62:46 in Larne, a time which, if he has prepared as well for the marathon, should equate to around 2:11:43. Based on 2023 that would put him in the mix to get a podium finish.
This is what the Dublin Marathon needs – more home interest at the front of the field. And that is something that can be achieved. A home victory is worth so much more to the Dublin Marathon than course records. Something to think about for 2025.
