Breaking the barrier

AFTER THE EVENT Mark Lenahan from Ballina is pictured with his medal from the Dublin City Marathon last week.

Breaking the barrier

Mark Lenahan finished his first ever marathon

Feature
Daniel Carey

THE Dublin City Marathon produces more than its fair share of stories every year. Fifteen siblings from Birr all completed the race. An eight-time marathon runner from Scotland wore a pumpkin because she ‘needed extra motivation’. The comedian Tommy Tiernan announced at the end that he required ‘physio, a priest, a Peruvian whore, heroin and half a ton of tea’.
In between the elite athletes and the novelty runners were thousands of people with their own personal goals, raising money for charity and/or aiming to finish the race in a certain time. Mark Lenahan had set himself a target of four hours, so he was delighted to cross the line in 3:55:56. Lenahan, who grew up just outside Killala and is a past pupil of St Muredach’s College in Ballina, was running his first ever marathon.
“The spectators were fantastic,” he told The Mayo News. “I took a former runner’s advice and put my name on my shirt, so lots of people called out my name and encouraged me along the way. My sister [Paula] and parents [Joe and Phil, who live in Ballina and own and manage Belleek Caravan & Camping Park] came to Dublin on the day and went to different parts of the course, so it was great to pass them each time. Turning right onto Merrion Square and seeing the finishing line less than 100 metres away was a moment of pure joy.”
Lenahan wrote a vivid account of the experience on his blog http://irlbrl.com/ and his pre-race efforts were also flagged online by his friend An Spailpín Fánach, whose thoughts on matters GAA sometimes feature in these pages.
“Spailpín wrote a hilarious post in which he described me, optimistically I think, as a cross between Arkle and a Cyberdyne Systems T-101 (Terminator),” Lenahan wrote on his blog. “I was thinking about that around mile 22 when it was starting to get very, very hard. Specifically I was thinking about the scene in Terminator 2 where he routes to a new power source. I was needing one myself!”
Mark, whose wife Andrea suffers from MS, also raised over €1,000 for MS Ireland during his preparations. Those wishing to do so can still donate online through http://www.mycharity.ie/event/marks_first_marathon or his website http://irlbrl.com/
“I have been running off and on for years, just as an occasional exercise, never more than five miles,” he added. “I started to train seriously for the marathon in June this year. For the first time ever I got up one morning at 7am to go for a run! I’m normally a late sleeper so I realised if I had the willpower to do that I could go all the way.”
Since he began training, the 36-year-old has lost about 10kg (one and a half stone) and generally felt ‘a lot healthier’. He spoke to other people with running experience, particularly his brother Kevin. He got ‘proper running shoes’, read material online and delved into The Competitive Runner’s Handbook. He followed advice that suggested he should ‘run a lot’ and ‘gradually increase the miles from week to week’, recommendations that worked well for him.
“I ran four times a week, and towards the end of my training schedule I was running about 40 miles or six hours a week,” he said. “My longest solo run before the marathon was 20 miles, which I ran in just under three hours. Shorter races are great for your confidence and motivation, so I took part in the full series of races held every year in the Phoenix Park: five-mile, 10-mile and half-marathon.”
From there, he was ready to go the full distance. Three days after the event, his legs were still a bit stiff, and he had found climbing or descending stairs ‘quite sore for the first couple of days’. But whatever pain he experienced hasn’t put him off doing it all again, and he would ‘love to do a marathon in a foreign country’. Watch this space – or cyberspace.