Dublin Marathon

Rineanna

I'm suprised there hasn't been a thread on this yet here. Just thinking about it, there probably is one for those taking part in another forum. I thought I'd set one up to look at the more elite side of it; hopefully it's of interest.

Well, in general, the elite field isn't as strong as previous years. The men's winner from the last two years, Sokolov of Russia, is still recovering from Beijing, so he won't be present, unfortunately. Tomas Abyu of Britain returns, having run 2:10 last year. He'll be a favourite for the title in Sokolov's absence. Ukranian Dmytro Osadchy is another big name, having hovered around the s:13 to 2:16 region over the past few years.

On the Women's side of things, I'm very interested in the debut of one of our leading long distance athletes over the past few years. Maria McCambridge lines up for her marathon debut. She's been in reasonably good form over 5000m this year, and won the National Half Marathon championships not so long ago. I'll nail my flag to the post, and bed she'll run inside the Worlds qualifying standard of 2.35. She faces Ivanova of Russia, who's won the event for the last two years, with two sub 2:30 times.

Has there been any move to make the Dublin Marathon an IAAF accredited event? I just remember that Tomas Abyu's time last year couldn't be used as an official time, and I hope they've rectified that.

Slogger Jogger

Plenty of stuff Dublin marathon related under the Marathon / Tri heading...

RoyMcC

Rineanna wrote: »

Has there been any move to make the Dublin Marathon an IAAF accredited event? I just remember that Tomas Abyu's time last year couldn't be used as an official time, and I hope they've rectified that.

That was certainly a surprise, though I'm not sure how onerous the criteria are. A fully accredited race would surely increase its attraction, especially at the sharp end.

Racing Flat

I'm fairly sure it was ratified a few weeks ago.

Chris Carriss and Anette Kealy to take the honours in the National Championships for me. Don't know enough about the foreigners to pick the race winners.

bo-sco

Would be very surprised to see Maria McCambridge running under 2.35. I beat her in both the 10 mile and the half marathon in the Adidas series and I'll be very happy to break 2.45 tomorrow.

T runner

bo-sco wrote: »

Would be very surprised to see Maria McCambridge running under 2.35. I beat her in both the 10 mile and the half marathon in the Adidas series and I'll be very happy to break 2.45 tomorrow.

Id agree with that this time. I know she ran two consecutive halfs on the 2 weeks before the adidas which may have cost her the race. The national, she did 77, and she ran 76 in Derry. She ran the mooathon the week after too. Looks like a quick preparation. She may get good strenght out of those races if it doesnt backfire. I think it will be close between herself and Annette Kealy with Maria McCambridge possibly holding out in 2.43-44 territory. If Kealy wins it will probably be from behind as in the adidas.
Id agree with Rineanna that she has the speed to get down to 2.35 but that may come later. Best of luck to both of them and all tommorrow.

Brian McMahon might be a dark horse for the mens national title. Ive read a posting on a different forum indicating that a good run might see him break 2.20. He finished 24th in the world mountain running trophy at the end of the summer beating plenty of 2.20 men there.

myflipflops

I've had a close look at the elite entries and did my best to rate them. It was very difficult to be honest and it looks like being a very competitive race that's difficult to call. Here's my predictions;

1. Festus Langat - a young Kenyan with a good 61 minute half marathon under his belt from last year. Looks like this is his debut marathon to me (i've found no form for him anyway) so it's yet to be seen how he transfers his fairly obvious talent to 26.2 miles. If he takes to the distance he has a great shot and i'm calling him the winner.

2. Tomas Abyu - Course knowledge and form can be key in a marathon and nobody except Sokolov has ran faster in Dublin than Abyu. A great 2.10 last year for second was followed by a very disappointing run in London in what was essentially a run off for the Olympic spot with Dan Robinson. Abyu seemed to go off too hard and paid dearly for it. If he reacretes his run from last year, he will be there or there abouts.

3. Mike Fokoroni - i was amazed at this guys record when i looked into him as i'd never heard of him before. 11th (!!) in Beijing and 16th in Osaka running 2.13 and 2.16 respectiveily in tough conditions. He has no real form in city marathons and as such i haven't picked him to win but i wouldn't be surprised if he did. Another reason i haven't picked him in 1st is that he has the Olympics in his legs. Most marathoners who finished Beijing have struggled after it so we'll see how he does.

4. Leonid Shvestov Looks the most likely of a number of Ukrainians in the race (they all have similar class though). Getting on a bit but has a great history in marathons of similar standard to Dublin. Very likely to run in the 2.10's and as such won't be far off the pace.


There are plenty of others to factor in but i'm calling the above as my favorites.

With regard to the Irish race, Cariss should win the mens but i've hard that he's going off at sub 2.15 pace. If he does and it doesn't work out then someone coming from a steadier pace could get him. Michael O'Connor looks the next best of the Irish. I'm really hoping for a sub 2.20 from an Irishman to add some respectability to whoever takes the title.

The womens elite field is a lot weaker and i'd be shocked if Ivanova doesnt repeat again. Of the Irish, I'm looking forward to seeing Maria McCambridge and would love to see her run a qualifier but i can't help thinknig that's she's left it a little late in her career to run her best possible marathon. I hope I'm wrong though!!!

Paddy

Pherekydes

Ukranian Andriy Naumov is the 2008 winner of the Lifestyle Sports adidas Dublin Marathon, in a time of 2:11:06

Clearly overjoyed with his win, he looked like he had another 10 miles at least in him as he crossed the finish line in obviously comfortable form.

Thomas Omwenga (Kenya) was 2nd, 1.23 behind Naumov in 2:12:29 and Tomas Abyu (GBR)3rd, in 2:13:06

Russian Larissa Zouska was the first woman home, overtaking leader Haile Kebebush (ETH)in the last mile for a close finish. Zousko won in 2:29.55, 8 seconds ahead of Kebebush in 2:30:03

Third home was Hadish Letay Negash (ETH) in 2:31:13

Best of the Irish was Michael O'Connor from Galway, in 2:20:49, while former Olympian Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman home in 2:36:33

A fair time by McCambridge.

How did our boardsies do?

Krusty_Clown

Pherekydes wrote: »

A fair time by McCambridge.

How did our boardsies do?

Some results beginning to come in here: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055323774&page=95

T runner

Great run by McCambridge. Rineanna was right. I was marshalling at mile 17 and she absolutely bombed past looking fresh and confident.

At that stage O'Connor had a 20-30m lead on McMahon, I think. He must have just broken away. Won comfortably by 6 mins at the end.

Rineanna

Good on McCambridge. I hope she goes for a Spring '09 marathon to get a qualifier.

shels4ever

Pherekydes wrote: »

A fair time by McCambridge.

How did our boardsies do?

Yes she ran very well, looked very controled at 11 miles when she passed me and looks like she picked off a few over the second half.

thirtyfoot

Good season for McCambridge.

Fastest in the country this season at 3k, 5k, 10k and now marathon. Such a shame she didn't time it for Beijing.

Timmaay

Friend of mine decided 6weeks ago to do the marathon on the back of pretty much no training. He got around in 2hrs58, not bad for a 47 (i think) year old!

Running Bing

Timmaay wrote: »

Friend of mine decided 6weeks ago to do the marathon on the back of pretty much no training. He got around in 2hrs58, not bad for a 47 (i think) year old!

What training did he do?

Must've been some runner in his day if he can bang out a sub 3 at 47 with no training.

brutes

The Irish standards improved somewhat this year - something like ten women sub three v two last yr, and 20plus men sub 2.40 v 10/12 last yr, still big time gaps between M O' Connor and the rest, although rumour has it some of our top 10k runners will aim next year for marathon , guys that would be capable of sub 2.20 going well...looks like Fagan has really rekindled interest in the marathon as a race

Timmaay

Babybing wrote: »

What training did he do?

Must've been some runner in his day if he can bang out a sub 3 at 47 with no training.

Well I suppose it wasn't quite on the back of no training, he did track (200/400/800m) all summer, and was on a few weeks break, when he decided to do the marathon. I wouldn't say he was much of a runner in his day at all, never much under a 6min mile for the 5 or 10k.

His training wasn't crazy at all, he didn't wanto overdo it, and completion was his orginal aim! I think hes longest run was 20miles 2 wks ago, and his max weekly milage would have been 40 miles a wk!

robinph

Timmaay wrote: »

Well I suppose it wasn't quite on the back of no training, he did track (200/400/800m) all summer, and was on a few weeks break, when he decided to do the marathon. I wouldn't say he was much of a runner in his day at all, never much under a 6min mile for the 5 or 10k.

His training wasn't crazy at all, he didn't wanto overdo it, and completion was his orginal aim! I think hes longest run was 20miles 2 wks ago, and his max weekly milage would have been 40 miles a wk!

Sounds like way more training than a lot of people would have done before appearing on the start line then. It's certainly not no training, maybe not what he would consider a decent amount for doing a marathon, but it's a lot more than none.

Timmaay

ARGH, ya have picked me up wrong on this completely. With 6wks 2 go and having done no training then, he decided to go for it. I would consider it pretty mad to decide that late to enter the marathon. And of course ya get poeple who have done far less training, who complete the marathon (in 5/6/7hr+), of what must be complete torture for them!