The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Through rain and gales, Dingle Marathon shines like a beacon
IT takes a helluva marathon to glow through the mist of a Status Orange weather warning – but, thankfully, The Kerryman Dingle Marathon is a helluva marathon.
Saturday’s staging, the ninth in this gorgeous event’s history, had it’s 3,000-runner allocation booked out since April; fair to say, then, there was never a chance that even the weekend’s bullet-like rain could dull the gloss on this most attractive of marathons. Its natural beauty - the kind that has helped it to national and international recognition from magazines as influential as “Running in Ireland” and “Runners World” - is too compelling to resist.
But this day - even with the natural advantage of having places as beautiful as Dingle, Ventry, Ballferriter and Dunquin on its route - would have been nothing without its participants and the sub-plots they wove into the occasion.
Take Adrian “Christy” O’Connor’s story, for example. After sustaining a brain injury from an accident in 2004, his family was told he had little chance of ever walking or talking again - if he was to recover at all.
Fast forward to 2017, and the man from “Below the Hill” in west Kerry has completed his sixth Dingle Half Marathon in a row, and has improved his time by over two hours since he set off on his remarkable journey.
“I’m aiming to make it ten half-marathons in a row, and I hope one day to go back and do the full route,” he told The Kerryman.
“It’s one of my favourite occasions, and I’m from west Kerry and I know the route well. My story will be covered in my upcoming book: ‘Christy’s Comeback: My Second Chance at Life’.”
Elsewhere in the field, there were plenty other stories being penned. For the third year in a row, Gerard O’Grady called to the marathon to push his nephew, wheelchair athlete Luke Graham from Dingle, while Pat Sheehy and plenty others joined in to get Luke to the finish line once more, much to the delight of the 29-year-old and his family.
“My son, Luke, has West Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy, and my brother Ger came up with the idea for the 2015 half-marathon to bring him along the route,” Luke’s mother, Mags, said.
“When we started out in 2015, Luke was a little bit overwhelmed by the sense of occasion. But he got into it as the day went on, and now he loves everything about it: the fresh air, strangers wishing him well, the colour and the excitement.
“It’s still Gerard and Pat who do most of the pushing, but so many others get involved now and want to push Luke.
“As ever, the organisers went out of their way to facilitate us in making sure Luke could do this, and my family is hugely grateful to them. Now it’s on to the Dublin City Marathon on October 29, where Luke will take on his first full marathon!”