Marathoning. The triumph of desire over reason
New Balance
It was a 22,500 sell-out event last Sunday. 16,540 runners turned up on what was a pretty cold and rainy day. 16,347 of them crossed the finishing line. I was one of them.
Dublin is much harder than Hamburg. I knew that from previous years, pre COVID. There are no hills to talk of in Hamburg.
I really wanted to do this, maybe because I wasn’t too sure whether I could. I didn’t really tell people about it.
In the end, I finished Dublin in much the same time as I had finished Hamburg earlier this year.
I have been recovering all of last week.
When I crossed the finishing line, I felt over the moon.
A good friend who had followed me from the start, on his bike, and I then had to walk for a another few kilometres from Merrion Square to Parnell Square to find a pub that was not overcrowded to have that all motivating quiet pint and a good chat.
The following day, I signed up for 2024, both in Hamburg in the spring and Dublin in the autumn.
I’ll do it for that pint at the end. For Pádraig, our family, friends, An Saol, and myself.
With confidence.
Last night Pádraig went to see Mary Black in Vicar Street. He had met her years ago in Donegal for the first time, and then again in the Inveigh Gardens at the Bell X1 concert this year.
She was supported by her Australian friend Shane Howard who wrote Don’t say ok, also performed by Mary Black. And then Roisin O came on stage. What a voice! I knew her name but had not heard her singing before – and only realised later that she is Mary Black’s daughter.
As an encore, Mary Black and her friends performed a cover of Dylan’s I Shall Be Released, with a reference to the Middle East.
It was a brilliant night out. Heaven had its way and fear had lost its grip, all harmonised. With brilliant music. And hundreds of happy people singing along with Mary’s songs.
If your life is a rough bed of brambles and nails
And your spirit’s a slave to man’s whips and man’s jails
Where you thirst and you hunger for justice and right
Then your heart is a pure flame of man’s constant night
In your eyes faint as the singing of a lark
That somehow this black night
Feels warmer for the spark
Warmer for the spark
To hold us ’til the day when fear will lose its grip
And heaven has its way
And heaven has its way
When all will harmonise
And know what’s in our hearts
The dream will realise
Hospi-Tales 