It’s been twenty years, but this year the Airtricity Dublin Marathon, the 34th running of the event, looks likely to deliver an Irish victory in both the men’s and women’s events. With no invited International elite field, the road is paved for Irish success on the double for the first time since John Treacy and Cathy Shum both won back in 1993.
To celebrate the prospect of a first Irish Double Win in 20 years, Airtricity will present One Year’s Free Energy from Airtricity to an Irish Winner of either the men’s and women’s events. If Irish runners secure a Double Win for the first time since 1993, Airtricity will double the prize to Two Years’ Free Energy from Airtricity to both Irish event winners.
This Monday also sees two former Dublin Marathon winners, Jerry Kiernan and Dick Hooper, go head-to-head once again, this time as coaches to the two Irish elite runners expected to be the key challengers for the 2013 title.
Hooper coaches Clare man Sean Hehir, who was the second Irishman home in Dublin last year, and was the winner of the National Championship silver medal. Hehir has been training hard for Dublin, and a recent half marathon time of 65:11 in Cardiff suggests he may be the man to beat. A more unknown quantity is DSD’s Joe Sweeney, a protégé of Kiernan who still holds the record for the best Irish time of 2:13:45 run back in 1982. Sweeney is making his marathon debut on Monday, but has recorded impressive times up to 30k this season, and he is certainly one to watch.
Others expected to challenge are Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe Harriers, who has run the fastest marathon of the entire Irish field, and his 39 year old club mate Gary O’Hanlon.
The only elite International male runner in the field is Welsh National Champion Alun Evans, who has a PB of 2:20.
Maria McCambridge is favourite to win the women’s race and retain her National Marathon title. McCambridge, who is also coached by Hooper, has recovered well from the disappointment of the World Athletic Championships in Moscow in August, winning the Airtricity Half Marathon last month. Leevale AC woman Claire Gibbons McCarthy is expected to provide the main challenge to Maria, while Tullamore’s Pauline Curley, a former National Champion and Olympian, would hope to be in the final shake-up.
Dublin will have over 10,000 Irish participants this year, the biggest ever Irish field, while over 4,000 people will travel to Ireland to take part. 47 different nationalities will be represented at the starting line on Monday.
Jim Aughney, Airtricity Dublin Marathon Race Director said, “We may not be the biggest Marathon in Europe, but we are most certainly the one with the biggest International field. It has long been one of our goals to increase the Irish field, and it has been great to do this while not losing our appeal to International marathon runners.”
“2012 was a challenging year for us with no sponsor in place, and we greatly appreciate the support of our new title sponsor Airtricity, as well as that of Renault and our other associate sponsors, who have helped us, deliver what should be another great marathon experience for our runners.”
Stephen Wheeler, Airtricity Managing Director said, “As proud sponsor of the Airtricity Dublin Marathon, we’re looking forward with eager anticipation towards this year’s race. For me personally, I ran my first Dublin Marathon in 2011 and I’m looking forward to taking on the challenge of this year’s race course. A huge amount of time and effort goes in to training and participating in a race such as this, so I want to wish the very best of luck to everyone running on Monday including all my Airtricity teammates. I hope everyone achieves their own personal goals and I know that all the hard work and training for each of this year’s runners will have paid off once they cross that finish line.”
As an added motivation for the Irish elite field, this year’s winners will also receive a brand new Renault Fluence ZE electric car.
But of course, the Marathon is not just about the elite field, and with over 14,500 taking part this year, Renault has also provided a third car to be raffled among the entrants of the Airtricity Race Series and the marathon itself.
As anyone who has ever run Dublin will attest, the support along the route is fantastic. This year, as well as handing out over 40,000 bottles of Lucozade Sport on Monday, Lucozade Ireland will also have a “Wall of Support” at Mile 20 on Roebuck Road. Friends or family of runners can tweet their message to @lucozadeireland with #wallofsupport and the messages will appear as the runner passes the wall.
Friends and families of runners will also be able to monitor their progress this year via the Airtricity Dublin Marathon live tracker – which can be accessed via the website or Facebook page.
The 2013 Airtiricty Dublin Marathon gets underway from Fitzwilliam Street Upper at 8.55am (Wheelchair) and 9am (main field) on Monday 28th October and 26.2 miles later, the runners will eventually see the welcome sight of the finish line in Merrion Square North.
For full course details and information on road closures check out www.dublinmarathon.ie orwww.facebook.com/dublinmarathon