3 MARATHONS OUT OF 4 DOWN SO ROLL ON NEW YORK THE MURPHY'S ARE COMING

The 2009 Longford Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Walk and Marathon has come and gone .So to all the participants and all the volunteers who helped make this one of most memorable marathons yet.The 2009 Longford Marathon got under way this Sunday, August 30. With over 1,000 participants coming from locations near and far, the Longford Marathon has grown to become the highlight of the county's sporting calendar.Great marathon, friendly and well organised.Overcast skies didn’t take away for the pre-race buzz, which greeted the runners of all abilities who waited at the start line in Longford town. As the countdown to the start began a fine rain fell, but even this didn’t seem to dampen to mood.The courses took runners on an initial lap of Longford town before heading away from the centre and into the countryside. After about 2 miles the Half & Full Marathon runners split and took separate routes. By the time the runners had reached this point the rain had become much heavier, and a strong but warm breeze cut across the course. The course for both races involved a mixture of dual carriageway and twisting country lanes, with the surfaces being mostly well maintained tarmac roads.Great course and the weather was perfect as far as I was concerned, light drizzle at times to cool down followed by wind and heavy rain lol. Great to have the use of St Mels college to change and get organized before and afterwards.As for the race it was a flat enough course very few hills but a lonely race as there was only 300 doing the full marathon u spent most of the 26.2 miles not seeing or speaking to anyone so u had plenty of time to think about why u put ur self through long endurance marathon running and keep telling urself u must be mad in the head lol.So it was a Great day all around, the only minor gripe is that water is given out in cups so you really needed to carry your own.As Always Thanks to my Wife and Girls for there support on the day and they made the day even more special by cheering me on.So new york is the next on my list of 4 marathons in 1 year challenge really looking forward to it but its only 8 weeks away so need to get back in to training soon as i can.It is also worth noting that the Longford Marathon takes place on open roads, meaning that runners have to be vigilant to passing traffic. But once again, there was no shortage of race marshals and local Garda ,to direct runners and manage the cars that were on the course.