The Long and Winding Road

People are doing it everywhere in the quiet recesses of university campuses, along country roads and lovers lanes, in the hills and the  lowlands, they are at it. Jogging is the name of the game and currently there is a veritable outbreak of urbanites purging themselves of the unwanted calories of a sedentary work style in an orgy of strained calf muscles, sore knees and blistered feet. The jogging boom has definitely hit Ireland and RTE has underlined its arrival by staging on October 27 the first ever Dublin City Marathon.

Last October, Louis Hogan, radio producer at RTE, wrote to Noel Carroll, veteran athlete and Dublin Corporation Information Officer, to inquire if he would be interested in helping with the organizing of a Dublin marathon, to be sponsored by RTE . Carroll has been trying for some years now to get someone interested in the idea and such was the enthusiasm of his reaction that within three months the run was definitely on.

As technical advisor, Carroll's first concern had been to establish a schedule covering the six months prior to the marathon (or joggathon, which is the term preferred by Carroll) which would be of use to the genuine joggers - that is those joggers with no previous marathon or track running experience. The primary aim of the run was to involve those people who would not normally compete in an organized event - for the twice-around-the-park-after-work runner this run would provide a target toward which he/she might train.

At 26 miles and 385 yards, the marathon is one hell of a run and even for the regular jogger it would prove too much without thorough preparation. Carroll's schedule of six day week cycles aimed to bring the runners from relatively unfit in May to fit enough to run a marathon in October. The programme is based on the concept of time, not distance. Thus in the first week the runnel was asked to do ten minutes each day which six months later should have been gradually upped to two hours at the longest. Wisely, Carroll suggests that at no time should the first time marathon runner try his or herself out over the full distance. His preparation will see them through a marathon all right - but it may be only one marathon for this autumn at least.

 Many are the sage, pot-bellied citizens who from the visionary heights of an ale-house counter have offered the opinion that the marathon's path will be strewn with lung collapses, heart failures and sprained ankles. Carroll and Hogan point to the extensive radio advice, athletic, medical and nutritional which they have offered to the nation. Carroll continues: "We have prepared too thoroughly. There can be no doubt in any entrant's mind that this is not a fun run, this is serious, 26 miles is a very serious run. With very few exceptions, the people who enter this run will have prepared themselves.

On the day itself, some 1500 runners will go to the post and a motley lot they are - CIE workers, US Embassy marines, Ruairi Quinn, TD, ten husband and wife teams, priests, managing directors and army commandants. There are some well known athletes in the run, including Ireland's two best marathon men, the Hooper brothers; and Carroll himself. But the run is not about household names, it is for the genuine amateurs who will make up maybe half the field, the rest being those who have had some previous running experience.

Carroll expects that as many as 65 per cent of the field will finish and oddly enough is convinced that the biggest drop out rate will be among the track athletes who will be too competitive.

"If I could persuade the majority of the entrants to practically walk the first hour of the run, then I have no doubt that they will last home without undue bother."

The course itself has been carefully picked and follows a circular progress around Dublin. Starting at St. Stephen's Green, out to the Phoenix Park via the Liberties and the Sean Heuston Bridge, northwards to Ashtown and Finglas, through Whitehall to Raheny, passing through Clontarf and Fairview before recrossing the Liffey at the Matt Talbot bridge. The course then continues south as far as Donnybrook where it turns round and comes back into the centre of town to finish where it started; at Stephen's Green. A nice little trot indeed!

According to those who know, it is an easy course, since there are no real climbs, only a few drags. As the race is

run on a Bank Holiday, there should be no traffic problems and anyway the field will soon stretch itself into Indian file. Since the date is October 27 and the country is Ireland, there are unlikely to be many sufferers from heat exhaustion - just common or garden exhaustion will be the order of the day.