The People Running Dublin
This Sunday is Marathon Day as participants from Ireland and abroad do a runner through the city, including the Liberties, Inchicore and Kilmainham.
Patrick Ryan took a look at an annual fixture of our sporting calendar which has not only helped raise tens of millions for charity but also saved lives.
Whether we watch the live stream on YouTube from the comfort of the armchair, brave the elements to cheer on the competitors, or pound the pavement ourselves for 26 miles and 385 yards the capital’s marathon is part of all Irish lives, a unique sports event where taking part really is more important than winning.
20,000 participants will form memories which last a lifetime as they cover a course which includes several parts of Dublin 8 this Sunday, October 26th, but irrespective of the time taken to complete their run, in the immortal words of Hot Chocolate – and Eamon Dunphy – everyone’s a winner, baby.
The real victors this weekend will be the many charities which benefit from fundraising. Included among them is St James’s Hospital Foundation, an organisation which helped prepare by hosting the popular Liberties Fun Run in July and is proudly represented by Team SJHF, runners of all ages and abilities who down the years have contributed enormous sums to support patient care and medical research through their sponsors. Over €9 million is raised for good causes annually in the event, with SJHF joining 50 Irish and international charities partnered with the Irish Life Dublin City Marathon for 2025, including the Irish Cancer Society, the ISPCC, Cystistic Fibrosis Ireland and others too numerous to mention.
The feelgood factor peaked when actor Colin Farrell ran last year to support his friend Emma Fogarty and raise funds for DEBRA Ireland, pushing Emma in her wheelchair for the last 4km to represent the four decades of her life, bringing in over €775,000 for the charity and guaranteeing headlines around the world.
The marathon also proves a huge win for Ireland. A 2024 UCD Economic Impact Assessment found that the run is worth almost €24m to the economy, and for every €1.00 spent another €2.29 was created across the likes of hospitality and accommodation.
Though the 20,000 competitors will take between two and seven hours to complete the the course they’ll pass through the Liberties very shortly after the 8:40 am start on Sunday, beginning with an easy downhill stretch from Leeson Street and on through St Stephen’s Green, before the route sweeps uphill to Dublin 8, and past the historic St Patrick’s Cathedral, then downhill again over the Liffey as the field enter the Phoenix Park.
Participants then move on to Castleknock before descending through Chapelizod and back to us again in Inchicore, past Kilmainham Gaol and the Crumlin Road, continuing into Terenure, Milltown, Clonskeagh, and towards Stillorgan before the relief of the finishing line at Mount Street Upper near the Pepper Canister Church.
The marathon is one of the oldest athletic events on record and owes its origins to the use of professional messengers, often soldiers, who were even more efficient than horsemen at carrying urgent news over rough terrain in record time. The marathon is also full of stories.
The specific run dates back to the story of a Greek courier Pheidippides who according to lore legged it from Marathon to Athens in 490 BC to bring news of a crucial victory in battle against the invading Persians, announcing:“Rejoice, we are victorious” before promptly dropping dead.
This epic event was later turned into a poem by Robert Browning, and adopted by Baron Pierre de Coubertin the father of the modern Olympics ensuring it was included in the the first games of 1896, though the run was at that time 25 miles long.
Why 26 plus? It’s always a relief to blame perfidious Albion for our problems, and exhausted participants pounding the pavements for the the last 1.2 miles in well heeled D4 can also safely bash both the Brits and the brats in between their last swigs of Lucozade Sport as they endure another few minutes of agony on the rocky road through Dublin.
Many of us know that the 1908 Olympic Marathon course in London was extended to 26 miles to ensure the finish line was in front of the Royal Box, but the 385 yards? These were added on at a late request from Queen Alexandra when the start was also moved: to the East Lawn of Windsor Castle so her children could watch from their nursery while Matron served up lashings of Spotted Dick – or whatever princess and princess scoffed then.
The royal whim cost Italian Dorando Pietri gold and saw a statue errected to a son of Tipperary. Dorando led in the final straight but was so knackered by the extra distance that he nearly pulled a Pheidippides (and probably his achilles) repeatedly collapsing before being dragged up and shoved back on track by the excited crowds which had reached 75,000 strong. The exhausted Italian crossed the line first but lost out to the Johnny Hayes of New York’s Irish American Athletic Club, whose parents were from Nenagh in Tipperary, after a complaint by the USA team.
The Queen presented Dorando with a nice silver cup instead, Arthur Conan Doyle set up a fund to buy him a bakery and Irving Berling wrote a song in his honour.
Johnny? He got the gold, coached future US Olympic teams, and ended up with a statue in Tipp. Sure who listens to Irving Berlin anyway…
The event continued to be an important part of the Olympics and after WWII marathons were also regular stand alone races among elite distance runners, particularly in Japan, but its Everyman popularity began in the USA in the 1960s, thanks to a refugee with a love for Central Park and a past far from the perks of royalty.
Running from the Nazis and later the Soviets in his native Romania Fischel Lebowitz changed his name to Fred Lebow in his adopted home of New York City and organised the first course around the Big Apple’s famous park which attracted just over 100 runners. By 1975 Lebow drew a modest 500 participants but within five years was attracting far bigger fields, which along with the success of the Boston Marathon inspired Berlin – the city, not Irving this time – to launch its inaugural event in 1980, followed by London in 1981 which drew 20,000 applicants, a third of whom were successful.
By then Dublin had already gotten into her stride. Noel Carroll, the driving force behind the race here and with the support of the Business Houses Athletic Association (BHAA) 2,100 people took part in the first Dublin Marathon in 1980. Two thirds finished the run, won by Dick Hooper in a time of 2 hours 16 minutes 14 seconds, while Carey May was the first lady home from a field of 40 females, recording a word class time of 2 hours 42 minutes 11 seconds.
Boosted by the jogging craze in 1982 a record 11,076 men and women signed up. Jerry Kiernan won with the fastest time to date of 2 hours 13 mins 45 seconds, but participation gradually declined and in 1987 under 4,000 were at the start line. The publicity around the Millennium Marathon helped bring nearly 9,000 onto the streets to run, although the following year the field dropped again to just one third of that.
Sponsorship proved an issue and over the years which followed the race failed to ignite the imagination of the general public. Facing a future fate akin to that of our pal Pheidippides in 1996 Dublin reached out to marathon runners in the USA and other big markets inviting them to take on the challenge here and targeted major charities to use the event to fundraise.
Within two years the number of runners had reached almost 8,000. In 2000, running her first marathon Olympic silver medalist Sonia O’Sullivan won the women’s race, inspiring many others to follow in her footsteps. Participation continued to grow and on Sunday about 40 percent of the competitors will be female, the highest for any marathon outside the USA. Many will run for great charities of particular interest to mothers, daughters and sisters such as Women’s Aid, Breast Cancer Ireland, and Féileacáin (Stillbirth & Neonatal Death Association) to name just three.
Clearly fundraising, for both the charities and the organisers, remains key along with recruitment. The launch of the innovative Marathon Race Series in 2002, with a 5 mile, 10 mile and half marathon have also helped hugely with attracting runners.
“2001 saw a new chapter in the live of the marathon being opened as the Dublin Marathon joins an elite band of marathons by being part of the adidas marathon series for 2001,” explains the official website irishlifedublinmarathon.ie, adding that this commitment confirmed Dublin as one of the major events of its kind.
Good sponsors means the organisers can offer tempting prize money to elite competitors from abroad, provide quality commemorative merchandise to all competitors and keep entry fees affordable.
”Dublin may not be the biggest but it has gained a reputation as being the best value Marathon in Europe,” declares irishlifedublinmarath
For most participants the months training for Sunday and the run itself will be the highlight of their sporting life, made more special by the money raised for their good cause.
People run the race but Dubliners make the day. Over to William Trueick, a member of Team SJHF in 2024.
“I am really proud to have contributed to this fantastic fundraising effort for St James’s Hospital Foundation by partaking in the Dublin Marathon this weekend,” the solicitor mused, summing up the experience of many participants as he looked back at the event on Linkedin.
“The marathon is Dublin City at its absolute best. Volunteerism, community spirit and people from all over the city coming together with a common goal. It was a truly special day.”
