Crossmolina native completes 40th Dublin Marathon

MARATHON MAN Crossmolina native Michael Carolan is one of only 13 people to run in every Dublin Marathon since 1980. He is pictured in action during the 2010 Dublin Marathon. Pic: Barry Cregg/Sportsfile

Michael Carolan is one of only 13 people to have run in all 40 Dublin Marathons

Anton McNulty

WHEN Crossmolina-native Michael Carolan ran his first Dublin Marathon in its inaugural year he suffered so much afterwards he did not lace a pair of runners for months.
“The last six miles were not pretty … it did put me off running and afterwards I thought that was it,” he recalled. But it did not put him off completely and on Sunday he crossed the line to complete the Dublin Marathon and become one of only 13 people to have ran in all 40 Dublin Marathons.
“I didn’t do too bad. I’m happy with 3:37 but I was looking to do a little better,” the 64-year old told The Mayo News. “We started off near the top with the leaders and felt great being carried along with the leaders going by. I think I got a little carried away and went far too fast and was paying for it near the end.”
A member of the Brothers Pearse Athletic Club in Knocklyon in Dublin, Michael said he did not do any running when he was younger apart from playing football and only started to run to ‘blow out the cobwebs’ in the evening after going to college in Dublin.
“I worked with Bord na Móna in Bellacorick and we had a small farm as well so I was always physically active and I went from that to sitting at desks all day in college. I started running then in the evenings to blow out the cobwebs. At that time there were very few road races and club runners would race on the track in the summer and do cross-country in the winter. That was it, ordinary people running was not really encouraged.
“I was teaching in Dublin and would be home to Crossmolina in the summer and I’d run the car over the road and get out to run in some byroads where nobody recognised you. You would not want to be seen leaving the house running or people would think you were completely mad,” he laughed.

The early days
the first Dublin Marathon was founded by a group led by former Irish middle distance runner Noel Carroll who at the time was working with Dublin Corporation. Michael recalls Noel on the radio ‘convincing people’ they could run the marathon and aged 24, Michael signed up for his first marathon.
“There was only about 20 or 30 national marathon runners and yet Noel Carroll somehow convinced people to take part in the marathon. I was only running for two years before that and that was just to keep fit. There was 1,400 runners the first year and the last six miles were a real struggle. I finished in 3:30.
“It did put me off running and I didn’t put on runners again for a few months. But I didn’t put in enough training and I thought if I put in a proper training programme maybe I would get around in a better time. In the second year I was running 80 miles a week and lucky not to get injured and I ran the second marathon in 2:52,” he explained.

Target
The retired former Principal of Stillorgan College of Further Education said it was never his intention to run in every Dublin Marathon but as the years went by he admitted it did become a target.
“When I ran the first marathon I never thought I would run in every one. The marathon was always something which I targeted but when I did the 25th I started to see how long will I be able to keep at it. It is now something I would never want to miss and it is great to be able to say you ran your 40th Dublin Marathon.
“I have ran other marathons like the Boston, Paris and Milan marathons and I have to say Dublin is the most enjoyable because no matter where you are on the route there is someone cheering you on. I love running and being able to be fit and able to run and hope to be able to keep going for a few more years,” he concluded.