Sorry, this is a bit late, but blah blah blah excuses excuses...

Had a wake-up call around 5:15 and went and got some breakfast. (I had brought my usual bag of oatmeal w/ craisins and cinnamon with me.) A few cups of a coffee and I was ready to go! My dad was nice enough to join me on the adventure the race start which was a whopping 2 blocks from the front of the hotel. There were about 13,000 people and it was all one big ol' mass start. I cranked the Dropkick Murpheys and took off!

Miles 1 - 3 were in downtown Dublin and it was really special to see many of the places that meant something to me, but that no would could possibly want to visit. Like that warehouse in which I bought sheets of plexi-glass for my research project, or that coffee shop I used to be quite fond of, ohhh! we used to get fish and chips there! Some really special memories were flooding my mind (the DART station! what the hell was that called... we took it to 40 Foot Beach that day and saw the Martello Tower from Ulysses...) and as I crossed the O'Connell Bridge it sudden dawned on me where I was and what I was doing and yes, ladies and gents, a few quick tears of soulwarming bliss were shed before I remembered I was a big tough man and not a little baby.

For a while the course wound through Northern Dublin, nothing too great, passed 78 Eccles Street, of Ulysses fame. Then we entered into Phoenix Park and spent about 6 miles there-in. A terrific park, now, a FANTASTIC PARK. It's one of the largest urban parks in the world and about 7 times larger the Central Park. There are many monuments, a few embassies, several Polo fields, about a dozen football pitches, a zoo, a couple pools and probably a couple pubs on it's grounds. It was the hilliest portion of the race but the views of fogswept Dublin in the distance were well worth the climbs. The course led us zigging and zagging through trees, down promenades and across a dewy field. (That sounds so much nicer than rank peat-bog... poetic license)

The second half of the race was both less visually spectacular but also a bit of a haze due to my rapidly deteriorating coherence. It was brutal. Fortunately the weather was gorgeous, in the low 50's, and it actually didn't rain. Dublin is a beautiful city despite the fact that its an ugly one. It's a city that has known centuries of oppression, poverty, disease, misery and hardships, yet the people and streets seem to radiate an obstinate willpower that might not warm the heart, but certainly braces it against the worst the world may throw at you. Such are the people that the last few miles of the race will be forever with me. A huge crowd was constantly offering chocolates, sweets, delicious "fruit gums" (i.e. gummy bears and other type snacks), bananas and water bottles.

This generosity made the difference and I was able to rocket through to the last mile when just as I turned the corner around Dame Street *WHAM* my entire left thigh seized up. This was no cramp, this was an amputation. I couldn't even move. I managed to the side of the road and tried to stretch out to no avail. Here I was, less than a mile from the finish, totally unable to move an inch. So I hobbled, and I stretched some more and I tried walking, and I stretched some more. I gathered my last wits and really tried to just throw myself step by step forward when a passing racer claps me on my on the shoulder yells a few words of encouragement and disappears into the fray. Suddenly I'm fully recharged and with a small dust outline of where I was a moment ago, I'm off and onto the finish line. I can't say it was the the easiest finish, but I crossed, and that's all there is to it.

Results-
3:25:03, AG - 362, Total Place - 1009 / 9398

Also, future reference, Marathon in Dublinese = Mairtin.