GCH's Andy Power travelled to Dublin last Monday to debut at the marathon distance. Here's his own personal account of the struggle and pain involved, but more importantly, much, much more importantly, the triumph and sense of achievement at getting over the marathon course and completing the distance successfully. Well done Andy and welcome to the marathon club!

Although I was hoping for the sub 4 hour marathon (final chip time 4:06:39), I can put my hand on my heart and say that after completing my first 26.2 mile race, I can appreciate the humbling magnitude of effort involved in even finishing it and feel honestly delighted with the effort I put in. Despite all the long runs and preparations, nobody could really describe to me how difficult it is to keep up a paced run for 26.2 miles.

Ian rightly told me that you run your marathon between mile 13 and mile 20, and then hope to springboard through the last 6.2 miles. I totally agree now and found this period mentally and physically toughest to keep persisting with the pace throughout. Although ‘the wall' luckily didn't materialise in the literal form of a bricks and mortar roadblock like in the recent film ‘Run Fat Boy Run’, I remember somewhere around mile 20 feeling totally empty, and thinking I’d have to drop my pace right down just to finish. But luckily, with the adrenaline kicking in and all the shouts for GCH from the supporters, I was able to get back on track and my pace picked up again from mile 22. 

Running through the tunnel of people for the last half-mile, I started getting very emotional like I wanted to burst into tears. 26.2 miles does funny things to a man!  Once over the line, I was reduced to a wobbly walk and couldn’t even bend my knees to sit down.
I think my brother’s comments about spectating that day in an email afterwards sum up the atmosphere of the day:

“Was blown away by everyone running the marathon today as well as by the fantastic people on the sidelines who cheered on strangers as if they were lifelong friends. The joy on lots of people's faces as they rounded the corner, and also the huge support people gave to those others that were so obviously struggling to get that last 250 meters or so. Have to say I shed a tear or two. Powerful stuff.”

Thanks to Ian and Bernie and all the GCH gang for their support and good wishes.