Ger Cronin is our club’s first Youth Officer, and since his arrival at the Celtics, he has been a lot more than that. Midfield dynamo, hurling coach, and leader of our running group, and he has played a crucial role in the organising of some of our biggest events since he became involved with us. However, this is not a Ger-Cronin-Appreciation post; maybe we will do that at a later date!
Ger oversees our running club and is an experienced marathon runner and triathlete. In one of his very first training sessions with us, he had arrived directly from a Park Run in Bonn and said that he had completed the 5km in 20 minutes. Having taken up running myself during COVID-19 to keep fit, and as a club, we had been involved with #RunningHome in 2021; that time sounded very impressive – really impressive! It quickly became clear that Ger was a serious runner.
Ger has run marathons, half-marathons and completed triathlons. In this piece, he outlines stories from five of those marathons. Bain sult as!
I began my 40th year weighing just over 110kg, “stocky and strong”, as my dad would say. My last run was as a 15-year-old at the community games in Limerick, where I got an asthma attack during the last 200 meters of the 1500-meter race. I focused on hurling, football and badminton for the next years until a cruciate ligament injury put an end to this in my early 20s. By my 40th birthday, I had a wardrobe without any sports clothing or running shoes and a 38-inch waist on my jeans.
15 years and 30 full marathons, 40 half marathons, countless triathlons and the Irish Ironman later… my wardrobe is full of finisher t-shirts, and I have a running shoe collection that exceeds that of my partner’s shoes…
Oisín asked me to choose 5 marathons and to share a few moments from these with you. Perhaps they might inspire you, but more likely, they will confirm to you that your current choice of sport or hobby is a wise one! Let’s see..
“Run for Paul” Dublin 2008 – 4 hours and 55mins
Paul and Caroline are close friends from Ireland, and we had spent lots of time together at the wedding of mutual friends in Sienna, Italy, where I was the photographer. During this week, they confided in me that they planned to marry next spring in Ireland and if I would be available to photograph them on the day.
Sadly Paul was diagnosed with cancer and quickly passed from us. They did marry at a ceremony which was heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal proportions.
A few months later, I met with Caroline, and she was understandably distraught and lost her motivation to live her life as she had before. As we drank coffee in Bewleys in Dublin, I threw out the notion of a group of friends running the Dublin marathon with t-shirts “Run for Paul”. She loved the idea and was totally motivated by it.
I flew home to Cologne and didn’t think more of it until one of our friends contacted me to advise me that she was training for Dublin and telling everyone that I was running it with her. I hadn’t trained at all! It was less than 3 months to the race, and I was still over 100kg and had not started running! I have since created many “last minute” training plans for people… but this was extreme. My first 5k nearly killed me.
The race itself actually went really well. We agreed on a tactic of Running 3km and then walking 1km. It was an amazing experience to run the streets of Dublin, and the crowds were unbelievable. I would later run Dublin several times, but this first time was emotionally the most memorable. Obviously, because of the Paul bit and also due to the slower pace that allowed me to enjoy the Dublin crowds. As an aside, we raised over €20,000 for Cancer Ireland!
“Bloody Experience” Monschau Marathon 2009 – 3hrs 45mins
Monschau is a beautiful town and natural area in the Eifel region of Germany. The marathon is called the “Advent Marathon”, as it is held in November during the Advent season. It was a cold frosty, but sunny morning as we lined up for the start.
I was in good form. I had completed 4 marathons already, and this was a training marathon before Boston which I was planning to run the next spring. Relaxed and in good form, I got into conversation with several in the start field, and it was with good humour that I ran the first couple of kilometres.
The race is mainly run on single trails and the tarred country road that network the German countryside like no other landscape. Every turn leads to a wonderful scene of nature, trees and hills. After 5km, while running in the second group after the leaders, there was a large boulder right in the middle of the trail. We all saw it in plenty of time, and all the runners could run left or right, avoiding it. This merry Irish guy decided to jump over it, steeplechase-like, putting one foot on the rock and then jumping off. Except the rock was ice from the cold night, and I slipped.
It happened very quickly, and with the help of a couple of the guys next to me, I was back on my feet and running. A little shaken but not hurt. Or so I thought. I had slit my leg open against the rock, and a deep wound was bleeding heavily. My shoe was full of my blood, and each step made the squelching noise you have in your boots after walking across a ford or marshland.
I stopped at the next aid station, where the Red Cross had an ambulance. I was quickly advised to end the race. “But I have come from Ireland especially”, I lied. After a lot of discussions, it was agreed to bandage me up and to send word to the other first aid stations to check me at the 10km intervals along the route. So I ran on.
The bandage held, but the bleeding continued throughout the race. I finished in a respectable sub-4 hour time in spite of the stops and delays. My leg didn’t really affect my running too much, if I am honest, and my pace while I was actually running was good. But the real drama began at the end.
When you finish any marathon, you feel exhausted. Regardless of how well-paced you have run, it is an exhausting experience. It is also a hugely emotional experience when you cross the line. I have had this every single time. So as I crossed the line and felt fainthearted, I wasn’t overly concerned. But suddenly, I was being supported by a Red Cross doctor who caught me as I fainted at the line. Soon after, she was telling me off for being so stupid as I lay in an ambulance connected to a drip on my way to the hospital.
I got 8 stitches on my leg, and she reckoned I had lots, at least over a litre of blood, and I was lucky that I collapsed at the finish rather than before out on the country course. But a very memorable race… if only for the cool photos! I wore a cool pair of white runners that day… the left shoe remained red, I never could clean it or use it again. Note… I never got to Boston the next year, a volcano named “Eyjafjallajökull” erupted in Iceland, and all flights were cancelled. Boston is still on my to-do list…
“The Holy Grail” Frankfurt 2012 2 hours and 59mins
While the elite marathon runners of the world, and in the true elite, there are only a small dozen, strive to achieve the ultimate prize of cracking the 2-hour barrier (in normal racing conditions), we normal runners strive for the Holy Grail that is the sub 3hr mark. I have heard so many times from people, “But shur ye are a whole hour slower than the Kenyans,” and I usually nod and say they are, of course, correct.
But to put this a little bit in context.. the 2-hour marathon requires a pace of 21km/hr. I would challenge most of the people reading this (those who aren’t trained cyclists) to cycle their bikes for 42km at this speed. It is simply mind-boggling. For a sub-3-hour marathon, the pace is reduced to 4mins 15 sec per kilometre or just over 14km/hr. Fairly doable for 1 km… but repeat this 42 times?
OK. So I am in Frankfurt. I have now chased this ultimate goal for two years and, each time, have fallen short by less than 5mins. The reason was always the same… the final 10km. The saying that “a marathon is a race that begins after 30km” is very true.
When you are well prepared, you shouldn’t “hit the wall” unless you have begun too fast or the external conditions are not favourable. Heat is a great challenge, as is, of course, hilly terrain. But when you are running against the clock and going for a time, it is in the final 10km or even later that determines if you will achieve it.
Maintaining the pace from before is a great challenge of mind over matter. Your brain tells you that you don’t need this; it’s just a silly race; slow down a little, and you will get to the finish. No one is interested if you go sub 3 hours in any case. No one understands. One has to dig very deep and want it really badly to come through this.
I did so in Frankfurt that day for the first time. I wrote about the experience in detail in my running diary afterwards. Of the people who ran next to me early in the race. We obviously shared the same goal as we maintained the same pace. Some dropped off the pace early, others later, but very few stayed in our group to the end.
I actually got a real runner’s high in the last 5kms of this race. I didn’t feel any fatigue any more. My head had totally won over my body in that battle, and I ran swiftly with a smile on my face. I knew I would achieve it. I may have had just seconds to spare at the finish as I ran inside the Festhalle in the Messe in Frankfurt. The hall was full of supporters, and I was totally high with delight and emotion as I crossed the line. As with many things in life, it is often easier when we know it can be done.
I followed this race with a series of 12 sub-3 marathons, and some were much faster.. but Frankfurt was the breakthrough.
“The Fastest Fairy in the World” London 2013 – 2 hours 51min
OK… this story doesn’t have a happy ending. Sorry to spoil it as we say in Cologne, “Wat wellste maache?”
Or, in the bigger picture, perhaps it did?.. during my marathon journey, I was fortunate to raise lots of funds for a few charities. I ran the London marathon a total of 3 times and raised funds for the charity SADs (Sudden A Death Syndrom) due to connections to the charity via a colleague who lost his young son.
For the race in 2013, I was at the peak of my running ability, and it was my daughter who, when reading the „Guinness Book of Records“, noticed that the current “Fastest Runner of a Marathon in a Fairy Costume” was a time of 2hours and 50mins. This was well within my capability at the time, even if I considered the formal conditions for the costume. Wings, a tutu, and hold a fairy wand for the duration of the race.
My daughter began putting together what I needed from her wardrobe, and while the fairy wings were sown to my running shirt, a green fairy tutu was found in our Karnival costume chest and a special green wand was found in the local 1 Euro Shop. I was an Irish Fairy who was going to run a marathon in front of millions of people on the streets of London!
It was a crazy idea, but the charity website overflowed with donations, so it was all for a good cause. On the morning of the race, I was greeted at the start by the Guinness Records team, who had my certificate printed out and framed for the presentation at the end. I lined up for a photo shoot with all kinds of ninjas, running bananas and a particularly fast guy running in a business suit. No pressure, then!
I was actually in the starting formation when I got word from some friends that the BBC were on their way to interview me. As a kid in Ireland, I watched the London marathon several times live on RTE, and now I was being interviewed live just before the start. The effect was dramatic and was the main reason that I didn’t succeed.
A marathon is won in the last 10km, as I explained before. But it can lost in the first 5km! The reason is that before the start, we are filled with adrenaline. Inexperienced runners will feel invincible and run with ease over the first 5km or 10km at a pace 15 or 20 seconds faster than their planned pace. “a few minutes in the bank”, one may think, but this is a fatal mistake. Those few seconds become several minutes lost at the end of the race. I won’t go into the biological reasons for this here, but it is a simple fact.
Now, experienced runners know this. They deliberately slow their perceived pace for the first 5k and then find their grove thereafter. But most experienced runners don’t get interviewed and get broadcast live minutes before a race. My adrenaline shot through the roof. I looked at my watch at 5km.. less than 18mins… I knew then that my race was run… I had blown it. I calmed myself and pulled on all my knowledge and inner strength to get under the 2:50 time. I missed it in the end by just over a minute.
But perhaps it’s better not to be remembered as the fastest fairy to run a marathon? And we did succeed in raising a lot of funds for SADs. Note: as you would expect 2014, I returned to London, without a costume, without the BBC or a Guinness Record team… and ran 2:48.
“Healthy Again!” Paris 2021 – 3hours 36mins
It is normal on a marathon journey to chase new personal best times. “Beat yesterday”, as my watch manufacturer tells us in their advertisement. Runners rarely compare themselves to other runners directly except for the very competitive. Most runners are seeking to achieve their own personal goals which are personal to them. It is for this reason that most athletic and triathlon sports are divided into age categories. While we obviously become slower with age, so too do our competition. So it is the theory.
As mentioned earlier, I reached the peak of my running ability at the age of 45. I was comfortably running sub-3-hour marathons and had also begun completing triathlons for Ireland in my age category. I took a break from marathon running as I focused on Triathlon and Duathlon over the next five years. But then, due to illness, it all stopped suddenly. I was unable to run, cycle or swim. I was unable to do any sport.
Dial forward to 2021 in Paris. I am standing at the start line of a marathon for the first time in nearly 5 years, but more importantly, for the first time since I recovered from my illness. I had trained for the past 6 months for this day, and despite having to pause due to COVID, I was here. This marathon wasn’t about great times or beating yesterday. It was about being healthy again and proving this to myself. Having COVID just a few short weeks before the race may well have been a blessing in disguise.
My training had gone really well, and my form and pace were good. I was telling myself that I wasn’t going to run for a time, but just to finish.. this is not as easy as one may imagine. I remember a month before the race of ideas to run a Boston or New York qualifying time (both races are only guaranteed entry with a “good for age” time), but after getting COVID, I had a 3-week complete break and was not 100% fit on race day.
I ran a comfortable controlled race that day. Karin ran around Paris to meet me at key places on the course, and at the finish, we did something even the French were impressed by… we opened a bottle of red wine and shared it under the Arc de Triomphe. It was my own personal triumph that day, and I was happier than I ever remember after this race.
I hope this hasn’t been a long and very self-indulging read (Editor’s note – it hasn’t!), but perhaps there is a wee lesson for one or two of you there. I have had the great fortune to run in many corners of the world, all around Europe, Japan, Korea and the USA.
I have met amazing people during this journey, and it continues today with the Cologne Celtics. We are a GAA club that, in the cold and dark winter months, runs together to maintain fitness. I coach this small group of runners with goals and ambitions as diverse as their abilities and backgrounds. It’s a wonderful place to have arrived at, and I will continue to enjoy my running here.
If you would like to join our running club and find out more about our club, please do not hesitate to contact us directly. Our club is welcoming to those of all fitness levels.
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