Nicola Duncan from Galway runs 5th fastest time for an Irish woman at the London Marathon

While most of the media was focused on Mo Farah last weekend and his performance at the London Marathon, there were of course plenty of Irish runners taking part. The star performance has to be that of Nicola Duncan aged 30 from Galway who ran an impressive 2:33:28. This was the 5th fastest time ever for a woman on the Irish all time list! Not only was she was first female club runner but she was over 6 minutes ahead of the next female club runner home. In comparison to the elite field, she actually finished ahead of the two fastest British women.

These were Nicola's impressive splits...
Split    Time    Diff    min/km    km/h
5K    17:45    17:45    03:33    16.91
10K    35:39    17:54    03:35    16.75
15K    53:40    18:01    03:37    16.66
20K    1:11:43    18:03    03:37    16.62
HALF    1:15:39    03:56    03:35    16.76
25K    1:29:45    14:06    03:37    16.60
30K    1:48:09    18:24    03:41    16.31
35K    2:06:42    18:33    03:43    16.16
40K    2:25:18    18:36    03:44    16.13
Finish    2:33:28    08:10    03:44    16.13

As a runner, Nicola Duncan seems to have come to the sport in her late 20's. Originally from Galway, Nicola has lived and worked as an actuary in Edinburgh for the last 8 years and now runs with the local Portobello Running Club. She obviously is a natural athlete as her transformation in the last few years has been remarkable.

2008.....Great Edinburgh Run 10k...40:58

2009.....Great Edinburgh Run 10k...39:58

2010.....Edinburgh Half-Marathon...83:27 and Edinburgh Marathon...2:58:46

2011.....Edinburgh Marathon...2:49:53

2012....In May of that year, Nicola ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 3:01:29 in a 'smurfette' t-shirt ;o) . She is interviewed later by a local paper and they write..."What training does she do ? "Not very much – I play tennis and only run once a week." But Duncan did admit to doing quite a bit of cross training – "I swim and do spin and body attack in the gym". And she did test her ability to complete the gruelling 26-plus miles with three separate outings over 16, 18 and 20 miles and "felt very comfortable".
Later in 2012, she ran half-marathons in 83:37 and 81:13 and the Munich Marathon in 2:53:13.

2013....Things really start to take off. At the end of the year, she runs a 10k  race in 33:48. Note that Fionnuala Britton ran the Great Ireland run recently in 33:54 albeit over a hilly Phoenix Park course. Over the half-marathon distance, Nicola ran four races in 76:29, 76:40, 76:50 and 77:59. In October of 2013, she ran 2:36:51 in the Amsterdam Marathon, inside the qualifying time of 2:38 for the European Championships.

And in 2014, the races results have been even more impressive although in truth, she is probably racing a bit too much ;o)

2nd Feb 2014...Watford Half-Marathon...74:46
16th Feb 2014...Barcelona Half-Marathon...72:15
2nd Mar 2014...Rosewell Lasswade 10 mile...56:58
9th Mar 2014...Inverness Half-Marathon...73:28
16th Mar 2014...Limassol Half-Marathon, Cyprus...74:09
.....and finally the London Marathon on the 13th of April 2014...2:33:34...5th fastest time ever by an Irish woman.

After looking at all of those times, I can't help wondering why she wasn't on the Irish team at the European Cross Country Championships last December? What a talent she is and she obviously has great endurance. Hopefully we'll see her making regular appearances in an Irish singlet in the near future.