Dingle Half Marathon

by Gerry O'Doherty

The joys of being able to run !

If you are a runner in Ireland - does not matter what your ability is - you must at some stage run the Dingle Half Marathon. I have been involved in athletics for 40 years and have run in many events in UK, Europe, Africa,and Asia, so to return home to run in the inaugural Dingle Half Marathon on Sat 12th Sept was an absolute pleasure.

On saturday most of Ireland was enjoying some late summer sunshine and Dingle was no exception - glorious sunshine. - Just as well it was a 9am start with most of the half marathon runners finishing by noon. The 4 hour marathon finishers were not so lucky some of them suffering in the early afternoon heat -a fairly rare sight at Irish running events.

This was the first Dingle Marathon and what a very well organised event it was - right from the pasta party on the Friday night through to the prize giving at 2pm on the Saturday. Both the half and the full marathons were run on closed roads - infact most of Dingle was closed to traffic for the saturday morning. Nothing was left to chance and the organisers seemed to think of everything to make the event enjoyable for 2,000 runners and the many spectators around the course. The course was according to the organisers 'a wee bit challenging' but even having trained over the hills of Donegal in my early Finn Valley days, some 35 years ago, I classed it as 'bloody hilly'. The hills did not matter in the end as the scenery on a beautiful sunny day on the Dingle peninsular was spectacular --- a joy to be able to run !.

Date for your diary next year --- Dingle Half and full Marathon Saturday 4th September - see you there !

Slainte - Gerry and Margaret O'Doherty

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