If years were miles, the Dublin City Marathon would have hit the wall about 1999 and would now be on its last legs, praying for the line. But the race appeared to be getting its second wind yesterday, as it passed the 25-year mark in fine shape.
A new men's record set by Lezan Kimutai from Kenya, the biggest field since 1982, and something approaching enthusiasm from spectators along the route all recalled the early days of the event.
The 26.2 mile distance remains just as daunting as it was then, however. The nearest many of the 10,500 runners got to a second wind yesterday was the cold westerly one that hit them head-on when they turned for home at Montrose with more than five miles still to go.
Short of actually running the marathon, watching it at the 21- mile mark is still the best way to appreciate the suffering involved, and there was no shortage of suffering on Stillorgan Road.
A general rule of watching marathons is that the runners get wider with their entry numbers.
The elite numbers, such as 1, 4 and 7, are as skinny as the athletes wearing them. Down the field, as the numbers begin to look like car registrations, the chests and stomachs usually expand to accommodate them. The marathon is a great leveller though, and, just as you could see the odd five-digit athlete up near the business end of the race in the closing stages, so a few of the elite numbers had fallen among the masses farther back.
Mind you, the real elite of the 2004 event were all wearing the same number - 25. These were the 34 people who had run every Dublin City Marathon since the first and their unusual ID guaran- teed them warm welcomes at the finishing line at Merrion Square.
The warmest were for Mary Hickey Nolan from Arklow - the only woman in the club of 34 - and Dubliner Paddy Craddock, who is almost three times as old as the event.
The splurge of interest in this year's anniversary, with many more late entries than normal, meant that a much lower proportion of the field was running for charity. But the Eamon Coughlan team made up for some of the deficit.
With more than 700 runners joining him, the former World 5,000 metres champion raised more than €1 million for the Crumlin children's hospital and the Grace Nolan Foundation. Coughlan finished in 3 hours 23 minutes.
