As I drove down to Cork from Galway on Sunday morning I was

thinking to myself am I wasting my time driving over a 100 miles

for a race I may not even finish.

I have avoided the marathon in recent years as I had a couple of

bad experiences in the past but I was determined I was going to

finish this race, even if I had to crawl over the finish line.

Monday morning dawned, I got up and headed straight for the

window and was happy to see that the sun was splitting the rocks.

I ate some breakfast and headed down stairs to meet Mark

Flannery. We jogged down to Patrick's Street where we bumped in

to Liam Mycroft and Ian.

We chatted to them for a few minutes and went for a jog for about

10 minutes around Cork city. I was feeling fairly good. We

headed to the start line at about 8.50am where we met Ray

O'Connor, who was lining out for his 33rd marathon.

The race started on time and off we went.

Within one minute I discovered I was running alongside another

Athenry AC runner, Frank Burke. I went through the first mile in

just over 8:00. Was pretty pleased with that. Just before 3

miles had to stop for a whizz outside a petrol station. Once I

got going again I felt fairly comfortable.

One thing I noticed about this marathon was that the crowds were

amazing, cheering and encouraging us on. I went through 5 miles

in 41:35. Just after 7 miles, we entered the Jack Lynch tunnel.

There was a good downhill stretch for about five minutes and then

a steep incline for about the same.

It was about 10 miles when I felt the legs starting to get weary,

as I went through in 1:23:00. Just after 16 miles I was

beginning to suffer and decided to walk a little bit for about

three minutes. At about 200 metres before the 18 mile marker, Ray

O'Connor passed me out and he looked as if he had only begun

running. I don't think he was even breaking a sweat. At the

last relay handover, I think it was around 21 miles, my attention

was drawn to a runner behind me roaring out "Thanks be to f---k,

never again." He was just about to finish his leg of the relay!

I thought to myself I would love to be in his position. I wasn't

but was now even more determined than ever to finish. The next

few miles are a bit of a blur until about half mile from the

finish when a relay runner (a woman) crossed right in front of me

and nearly tripped me up.

I had a target for the rest of the race: to finish in front of

her! I put the boot down and felt my stride lengthen and once I

hit Patrick's Street again I got a sudden burst of energy and

sprinted to the finish, spotting my real girlfriend along the way

cheering me on.

I crossed the line in 4 hours 7 minutes and change. I was

surprised how well I felt. We walked back to the hotel and I had

a shower straight away. I went to bed for an hour and slept. I

got up after 3pm. I was stiff in the legs but still felt very

good. I went to bed that night around 11pm thrilled with my

day's work.

Who knows, maybe Dublin later this year and a sub-four?