I felt the pressure with this pacing job right from the moment I agreed to come back into the pacing team. Eamon Hayes spotted me sharing the news with glee that Cork would host the national half marathon in 2026. I had stepped out of the pacing team in 2025. Eamon felt fresh team members needed to be given a chance to represent their city. Having benefitted from this opportunity myself I stood down but raced as a participant. Now Eamon asked was I interested in coming back into the fold. I was of course, I might have been in Palma until the Saturday night before the race but I wanted to be there for this one. Not only was this now going to be the national half marathon but it was going to be a tribute to Ellen Cassidy as well. I knew I had to strive to deliver the right balance as a pacer. I was gutted the second the news of a fatality hit me in 2025 and the tribute to Ellen was the least we could do. With the national half marathon on the same day I would have to meet the competitors where they were, help them squeeze every second out of their race and I would need to balance that with Ellens friends and family who were likely to be right next to me. I couldn’t help but remember how running helped after my father passed away. My mother worried about me disappearing for runs until my Uncle Denis asked one day ‘Does running solve all your problems?’ It did and still does.

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I ran in the 10th Anniversary Cork City Marathon 2016. I finished the Full Marathon in a time of 3:39:08 and placed 239th. It was hotter than hell that day hitting a high of 24.4 degrees Celsius that day. This was and remains the only marathon I had to walk a little in the final mile. It was either walk or collapse. Collapsing and failure were not options available to me.

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I must be one of the luckiest runners in Ireland. I got in through the ballot twice once for the Dublin Marathon 2026 and once for the Dublin City Half Marathon 2026. I have clearly used all my lotto fortune on marathons. It looks like I won’t win the cash machine, renovate my living room and quitely sit in the revelry of money won being a lot sweeter than money earned. Of course the eagle eye running regulars amongst you will know that the ballots I’m referring too are an offer of a place in a race which I then have to pay for, train for and then run to the finish line to collect the finisher shirt I paid for in the first place. Anyway parking that thought and returning to positivity the Dublin City Half Marathon was worth it. I’d do it again without hesitation.

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The buzz was immediately there when I got out of the car at 9.30 to find a coffee. Circa 1,100 racers were to finish that day and at half nine they were everywhere warming up or getting togged out for action. The excitement was infectious.

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I was re inforcing the robust science behind running but more than that I couldn’t help but think this would be like my first pacer job in the Cork Marathon. I felt my extended family may do this once tick it on the bucket list and then they’d be back on the paddle court, golfing, pursuing triathlon, yoga, farming or onto another adventure. I wanted them to squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of it. I desperately wanted them to feel the camaraderie of the Cork Marathon. It’s not just any city behind you it’s your city. If they only did one lap on this part of the track then I wanted it to be an ultimate victory lap. And by god did they. They all finished superbly. I am incredibly proud of them.

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Yes I have assumed you’ll cross the marathon finish line and then you will need to do it all again. In case someone hasn’t told you being a marathoner is for life even if you finish a marathon only once you’re still a marathoner and will remain so for eternity.

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I didn’t feel I had the power to change the complete wreckless disregard we now seem to live by but just as I thought I could do nothing about 5.6 km into this 10 mile road race a participant collapsed right in front of me.

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As I pondered if I made a huge mistake signing up again just before my birthday in 2023 I read this quote from T.K. Whitaker Irelands most esteemed civil servant

“Everyone needs to have one irresistible temptation, preferably not an immoral one.” T.K. Whitaker.

I had that irresistible temptation back in my life. The marathon fire might have died down to embers but in 2023 with everything I had going on I had found a way to reignite the fire and get back to marathon strong.

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Calculate your race pace

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I was expecting that many would be trying to break 50 mins and that many would be right on the cusp of that achievement. That being said it didn’t stop Jim and I joking around on Washington street during the first kilometer asked by one member of our pacing bus how often we ran Jim replied smiling ‘not that often’ I cajoled that ‘I never run and this was my first time running a 10k’. Our pacing bus crew were not easily fooled one of them knew how involved in parkrun I was and a few more had seen Jim finish on the live stream at the London Marathon.I was expecting that many would be trying to break 50 mins and that many would be right on the cusp of that achievement. That being said it didn’t stop Jim and I joking around on Washington street during the first kilometer asked by one member of our pacing bus how often we ran Jim replied smiling ‘not that often’ I cajoled that ‘I never run and this was my first time running a 10k’. Our pacing bus crew were not easily fooled one of them knew how involved in parkrun I was and a few more had seen Jim finish on the live stream at the London Marathon.

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What seems to matter is not ones failures but ones ability to bounce back from said failures.

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The outright mad was the guy who ran with bandages on the balls of his feet. He had no shoes just these thin white bandages on his feet. I’ve ran alongside a guy in the Barcelona half marathon who ticked along in flip flops but this was another level of insanity altogether. The surface in Dublin is mixed, charred, potholed and then rough in other places. Of course I think of me as mad too Julie was on the phone to a friend the day before telling her I was running the Dublin Marathon the next day. Perplexed her friend asked

“Is he mad? You had a son, bought a house and now he’s running a marathon in the same year. Julie replied This is his 8th marathon. Oh that’s fine so.”

Almost like prior experience makes the madness ok but really the guy wearing feet bandages for now discernible reason seemed to have really jumped a shark and rode an ostrich up the madness scale. What I was doing looked like an average Sunday.

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I got to the start line as the final wave was about to be race off to half marathon bliss. I crossed the start line as the annoucer pronounced

Inch by inch life is sinch, Yard by yard life is hard

I took a deep breath reminded myself that my job was to finish this race. My plan was take it easy and let my body untangle itself from the week. Inch by inch I had bought a house. Yard by yard I was going to finish this race.

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I needed to be humbled by the distance, circumstances of day and other such lessons that came out of today. I needed to be reminded that the distance won’t kill you the pace if you get it wrong however will crucify you. I was overdue for a reality check. In running you can’t learn unless it all goes wrong and you still see the bits you got right and use them to rebuild. My learning curve was simple I finished after I had royal messed up. It didn’t matter that I was late arriving. I should have just hung back in the pocket and slowly moved through the gears. I slowed hugely in the last few kilometers but I didn’t stop I kept on my toes. I can still finish but my preparation and organisation were lacking. I shouldn’t have arrived late. To me lateness is rudeness and I tend to be ten minutes early for everything. Racing is no exception.

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This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.This course was much better than I expected. I thought the early hills would kill my pace, Instead I was motoring along quite quickly and I had to force myself to slowdown. I didn’t do this very well because at 3km in I was still under 4:30 per km. If I do this on marathon day I’ll have to carry it for 39km and that won’t work. The early kilometers of a marathon are where you settle into your pace and conserve energy and if I started tiring after 8 km here then over 42 km I’ll crash and my legs will burn. I need to lengthen my marathon pace runs.

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The Corkagh 5 mile is mostly flat. It pulls, drags and at the end twists but unless the heat is at you (which it was for me) then I think careful race management will help you PB over 5 miles. I found the finish brutal you ascend a drag for over 400 meters, take a hairpin turn left then drop a little followed by twists like a river meandering before finally with a flat 300 meters to go arriving at the finish line. I was with a bunch and I heard plenty of grumbles about the twists and turns but as one lad “put it if you can talk you can kick at the end”. I liked that so I picked a mark just before the last right turn and threw the kitchen sink at it.

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Julie and I met the Race Director Eamon at registration on Friday and he told us that the Cork marathon was at record numbers. Eamon had wanted the 10k race in for years and this race was going to be the product of years of work. The Sanctuary Runners had started a campaign to get 10 People in your group of friends to run the 10k race. The relay spirit wasn’t dead it had spread like a wild prairie fire into the the 10k race. We were optimistic because we’d seen this before the Cork Marathon was in the last 10 minutes of the champions league final and everyone believed they were about to score the winner.

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The Wheelworx FASTLANE Half Marathon atmosphere was concentrated on the Dublin Marathon. Lining up on the canal in Clondalkin the chatter was all about the Dublin Marathon. The Dubs are very proud of the Dublin Marathon. I’d be proud too if I had the 4th largest marathon in Europe on my doorstep. I detected the exact same willingness we had at the Cork Marathon I could feel people wanted their Marathon back and they wanted to it to come back with a roar.

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