DUBLIN MARATHON: National Marathon Championships Monday

The Woodie’s DIY National Marathon Championships take place on Bank Holiday Monday next October 25th around Dublin City and its suburbs. It will be the eighth time the National Marathon Championships will be incorporated into the Dublin City Marathon. This year’s race promises to be another highly competitive race, with the men’s course record holder Alexey Sokolov of Russia taking on last year’s Champion Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe Harriers.

No National Championship winner has broken 2:20 since the Championship merged with the Dublin City Marathon in 2003. The last sub 2:20 performance was by Gerry Healy back in 1999 when Healy won the race in Sligo.

The Marathon Mission programme, which has been undertaken this year by the Dublin Marathon organisers in conjunction with Athletics Ireland, will hope that the general standard of performance in the event this year among its team will be an improvement over previous outings. Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham WSAF), Brian McMahon (Clonliffe Harriers) and Thomas Frazer (St Malachy’s) will be hoping for good runs in the men’s race.

The Women’s National Marathon title is held by Annette Kealy who ran 2:45:40 in Dublin last year. Maria McCambridge , the Championship record holder with 2:36:23 from 2008, will be favoured to compete well on Monday alongside Rosemary Ryan and Pauline Curley.

The Woodie’s DIY National Marathon Championship entries will be competing alongside the record entry of 13,000 for the 31st running of the Dublin City Marathon on Monday. On Saturday & Sunday, the Marathon Expo will be taking place at the RDS in Dublin where all running on Monday can enjoy the many running related stalls on offer, including the Irish Runner Magazine stand, and get their copies of Ian O’Riordan’s new book Miles to Run, Promises to Keep signed by author.