ANN-MARIE McGlynn and Hugh Armstrong start as favourites to claim the respective national senior titles at Sunday’s Irish Life Dublin Marathon.
McGlynn will be defending her crown from last year, while Armstrong hopes to cap an outstanding year with his first Irish marathon gold.
Like a good wine, McGlynn, now 44, continues to improve with age and comes into the race on the back of a runner-up spot in the Belfast Half Marathon in September.
Her victory last year had followed a couple of near-misses in the race when she had to settle for the runner-up spot after being in contention for most of the journey. It would be easy to see her better the 2:34:13 she ran last year.
It is difficult to see anyone stopping the Letterkenny AC athlete, although Kerry woman and national cross country two-time champion Shona Heaslip could pose problems if she has got over the muscle spasms that forced her to abandon the Armagh 10-miler earlier this month.
The men’s domestic race looks a lot more competitive, although Hugh Armstrong looks like the best option. The 30-year-old Ballina man attempts to complete a nap hand of victories in the 2024 Irish Life Dublin Race Series after winning the 5K, 10K, 10 miles and half-marathon events.
Armstrong’s personal best goes back to the Seville Marathon in 2020 when he ran 2:12:26. After that he struggled with injury, missing all of 2021.
A 63:59 half marathon in Gent and 2:14:04 marathon in Wrexham were the pick of his 2022 season and his 2023 outings were confined to a third in the national cross country and a 20th place at the European Cross Country in Brussels.
Other contenders for the men’s national championship include Ethiopia-born Hiko Tonosa, whose best 2:15:01 is from 2023, Ryan Creech, with a 2:12:28 earlier this year in Seville, and defending champion Stephen Scullion.
The latter, third overall last year in 2:11:51, is listed among the entries but whether the Belfast man competes or not is a question that will only be answered on the day. In Scullion’s absence, northern hopes rest with Newcastle’s Eoghan Totten.
In the wake of much discussion over the recent women’s world record, race director Jim Aughney assures that everything has been done to try to make Sunday’s event a clean one.
This comes following Ukraine’s Nataliya Lehonkova, the winner of the 2015 and 2017 Dublin Marathon women’s races, and the 2022 men’s victor Taoufik Allam of Morocco both being provisionally suspended after testing positive for EPO. Efforts are being made to have Allam repay the £10,000 Dublin prize money but that is unlikely to happen.
Among the personalities taking part is actor Colin Farrell, currently starring in The Penguin, a series on SKY television. Farrell will run the race with his friend Emma Fogarty to raise funds for epidermolysis bullosa (EB) charity Debra.ie. EB is a painful, debilitating and incurable condition that affects the body’s largest organ – the skin. Emma is Ireland’s longest surviving sufferer of the condition.
Up to 22,500 entrants are expected to take part this Sunday on a course featuring new start and finish areas but more or less following the same route as last year.
GOAL Charity senior development officer Alan Vard is looking for volunteers to organise events at new locations this Christmas.
Currently GOAL’s courageous workers are responding to crises in Gazza, Sudan, and Haiti, providing food, blankets, and other essentials to those who have lost everything.
In Northern Syria, GOAL is providing water to over 250,000 people daily and volunteers are working around the clock to save and transform lives in 11 other countries, across Africa, Central America and the Middle East.
The GOAL charity was founded almost 42 years ago on a cold Christmas morning in 1982 when 250 joggers and runners of all ages gathered near the Papal Cross in The Phoenix Park to run a mile for charity.
Organised by the late international athlete, Noel Carroll, the idea was simple. Run, jog, or even walk one mile and donate whatever you could afford towards GOAL’s work with some of the poorest people in the world.
From that small beginning, the GOAL Mile has grown in the intervening years to become one of the country’s most popular annual fundraising events.
Thanks to volunteers all over the country, tens of thousands of people take part in GOAL Mile events in more than 160 locations every Christmas.
“A successful GOAL Mile usually has two elements; a good venue and a small group who are keen on promoting it and engaging with the local community on it,” Vard explained.
“There isn’t much work involved, and of course, we have a dedicated fundraising team here at GOAL who will support you at every point along the way, including providing you with all promotional material and any other support you need.”
Further information on the GOAL Mile can be found on the web at www.goalglobal.org or you wish to contact Alan Vard, you can do so by e-mail avard@goal.ie
