Newry City Runners take to the Fair City for the Dublin Marathon

Dublin is by no means an ‘easy marathon’ with a total elevation of 1,795 feet and there are challenging hills throughout the route - the killer being Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 – the distance where a lot of runners come a cropper!

The leg burning distance of 0.6 miles seems worse than Everest to a lot, but each of the 19 NCR members smashed it to dust, slaying the beast that is 26.2 miles.

Among the 19 fantastic runners there were three first timers, at least six PBs and all had fantastic times.

First home for NCR was Mark McNulty, taking 4.5 mins off his time, coming home with a new PB of 2:47:37, Ryan Corrin was another achieving a PB, with a finishing time of 2:48:29. Peter Linden, came within the top 20 in his age group, in 2:51:07 and Conor Morgan’s running success continues this year as his new PB is 2:58:20.

Paddy Havern stormed home, taking fifth place in his age category with a time of 3:03:28. Thomas Murphy 3:09:43, Mark Sloan – 3:13:05 PB (a personal best of four minutes) and Paul O’Brien also got a new PB - 3:16:29 (taking 15 mins off his previous time).

Sam Andrews, who was making his debut for NCR finished in in 3:17:22 and Daryl Bogues, running his first marathon crossed the finish line in a fantastic 3:25:12.

Eva Kitchen and Deborah Loughran trained together almost every weekend and it paid dividends. Eva finished in 3:29:50 and Deborah bagged herself a PB of 3:36:08 (taking 11 minutes off her time).

Noel Moan, who had been plagued by injury in the weeks leading up to the marathon finished in 3:44:57 and another runner who battled through injury was Peter Maguire, finishing in 4:25:33.

Julianna Markey was another member taking on her first marathon she did so in style, finishing in 4:32:00. Declan McConaghy came back strong to the marathon scene 4:43:15.

Conall Hearty, running his first marathon and race for NCR finished in 4:57:05 and Jainie Burns, after a very tough week with little rest, finished 5:17:45.