Results and review of the 2008 Dublin City Marathon...
It was a long time since I last ran the Dublin City Marathon and I can see now what makes it so special. It's just the sheer number of people running it, something like 10,000. It was great to see so many Cork runners up there as well. It was almost like a local race;o) So some points...

Weather....The weather conditions for this Marathon were more or less ideal. The day was bright and sunny although a little cold. Perfect for running as it meant that overheating was never going to be an issue. It really wasn't until the race was over that I realised how cold it really was.

(Two Cork runners in the background....Fergus Wall and Liam Cotter near the 25 mile mark. Both went on to record PB's and break the 3 hour barrier)

Organisation.....Very impressive. Obviously the organisers have the experience of dealing with these large crowds year after year. The water stations were very well done with lots of those small 250ml water bottles and plenty of Lucozade Sport as well. No silly cups. You got a bottle into your hand and you could keep running and sip away from it. Out around 15 miles they were giving out some sort of gel. Can't remember the name but it tasted vile!! I thought at the time that anything that tastes that bad must be good for you ;o)

Route...I thought it was a hilly enough course. I was kind of suprised with all of the hills....nothing serious but I thought it was going to be flatter somehow. Best part of the course was without doubt the Phoenix Park, really nice place for a race.

Results......If anyone wants to check their times with splits, they can look for them HERE.

Photos......(Updated Mon 02/11/08)
1) 80 Photos are the 25 mile mark HERE.
2) 411 Photos somewhere in the 2nd half of the race HERE.
3) 437 Photos somewhere near the start HERE.
4) 22 Photos HERE.
5) 41 Photos HERE.
6) 17 Photos HERE.
7) 19 Photos HERE.
8) 29 Photos HERE.
9) 19 Photos near Mile 7 HERE.
10) 29 Photos HERE.
11) 399 Photos of runners further back the field HERE.
12) 189 Photos HERE.
13) 452 Photos HERE.
14) 325 Photos taken by John Quigley of Eagle AC mainly of Cork runners. Click HERE.
15) 146 Photos on the Athenry AC website HERE.
16) 1 Photo showing the mass field attempting a sharp left on Holles Street HERE.
17) 1 Photo showing a runner on his last legs but giving it everything to get to the finish. Click HERE.
18) 55 Photos showing someones personal account of the big day. A few other runners in there as well. Click HERE.
19) 17 Photos HERE.
20) 33 Photos HERE.
21) 28 Photos HERE.

22) 253 Photos have been put up on on the net by Paudie Birmingham. Some are of the start but most of them are of finishers (3:22 & under) near the finish. Click HERE.

23) The first 45 finishers HERE.

24) Another 51 photos HERE.

If anyone comes accross any more galleries, let me know and I'll update this list.

Video Clips.......
A short clip taken by someone running IN the marathon! It shows a section in the Phoenix Park...



A clip towards the end of the race...


Comments.......???
"John, Well done on breaking the magic 3 hr barrier. I agree with most of what you said about the organisation of the marathon but I would consider that they should introduce a better corralling system at the start - A sub-4hr and greater than 4 hr corral makes for a bumpy start which leads to pretty irregular splits for the first 4 miles to the phoenix park. It was my 3rd marathon (first Dublin) and I knocked 15:30 off my Cork 2008 PB time to come in at 3:20:08. So the Blarney half and cork to cobh races paid off for me. I agree with you on the hills. I thought Cork was a bit hilly (the drag out the model farm road) but the constant up and down in Dublin until mile 18 meant that the climb at 19 - 20 was disproportionately hard on the legs. This left miles 21 - 26 as being a battle with the little fella in your head telling you to stop for a leak or a walk because you deserved it! I felt that the gap between the 25 mile mark and the '1 mile to go' markers were a bit hard as well....Richard"
"I think they need to look at the start. Having such a large volume of runners go from a wide road on Fitzwilliam Sq. to an alleyway (Holles St.) isn't ideal. It increases the likelihood of accidents and delays, was held up there for a good minute myself by the crowds. Other than that though it was a highly enjoyable day, perfect conditions and great support from spectators, much better than last year. Well done on the sub 3hrs!........Ronan"
"In an e-mail to me, someone mentioned that there was a bottleneck due to the number of walkers not starting at the back. They wrote............"Those of us wearing the green race numbers were not distinguised from the walkers, now I have nothing against walkers they should be given all the credit due, but it did cause a huge bottle neck at the corner of Holles St. Hospital, which stopped us in our tracks (I mean litterally a complete standstill then slow walk) that added at least 3mins to our first mile split."..........John Desmond"
"Hi there, if you're anything like me you've probably thrawled through every website possible looking for race photos of Dublin Marathon (maybe as proof to myself that I've actually done it). Well, I have found a great site www.racepix365.com You can put in your bib number and hopefully get a result. The site is free and set up by a runner who asks anyone with race photos to upload them onto the site for all to enjoy. Happy hunting.
PS, those gels were High5, one word, GANK!!! ..............Anonymous"

"Hi! You've got a link into my Flickr photo set from Mile 7! I'm CatticusD... Just to let you know, I've added a few more photos to the set, added the tags for the racepix365.com site, and tagged with bib numbers as best I could. Congratulations to all those who completed the course! I have nothing but respect for you. My own friend finished in 3 hours 31, a whole 29 minutes faster than she expected, which meant I missed her at the finish line :( Aw well...........Cat"

"Hey, You'd probably think the plug to my racepix365 site above was by me... but I swear it wasn't! Thanks to anonymous for mentioning it. It's summed up quite nicely there. Hopefully over the next few months there'll be many more races around Ireland on it. Congrats to all who took part in Dublin and happy training.......Darren "