Ann-Marie McGlynn is preparing for another Dublin Marathon and this time she is doing so as the defending national champion.
The 44-year-old finished last year’s race in the quickest time of any Irish female competitors, clocking in at 2:34:13.
After a couple of near misses in previous years, McGlynn still feels emotional when she reflects on her 2023 success, as she did in speaking with RTÉ Sport at the 2024 Irish Life Dublin Marathon Media Day.
“The lead bike stays with you while you’re leading and for the two years previous, he left me at two miles to go because he had to follow the lead lady,” said the Offaly woman.
“Last year, he said to me with about a mile to go soak it in. I even get emotional thinking about because I love running, I love Dublin but I kept falling short of that trophy.”
While many 44-year-olds are winding down their athletic endeavours, McGlynn is showing no signs of slowing, and she credits her family – her parents, her former international sprinter husband Trevor and their two children – with keeping her motivated.
“I do it because I love it,” she said. “You can’t plan these things. Sometimes you go to a race and you go ‘I’m coming back here next year’ and unfortunately sometimes you don’t make it because of niggles or injuries.
“I feel younger. I love doing it for my mam and dad as well. You (interviewer Greg Allen) said you saw me 31 years ago and they were on the sideline videoing, watching me, shouting me on. They’ll be in Dolphin’s Barn on 27 October and I’ll lock eyes with them and I’ll give them a high-five.
“I do it for them. I do it for (my husband) Trevor, I do it for the kids. That’s why I keep coming back.
McGlynn has previously spoken about drifting away from the sport in her 20s before a traumatic experience involving her son Alfie, now 12, led to her putting on her training gear again.
“Alfie took really sick at three weeks old,” she explains. “It was depression I suppose. I was told to prepare for the worst, he’s more than likely not going to come home. I thought this isn’t happening, I prayed and we had everybody praying.
“I just found myself in a little dark place and I knew it wasn’t normal. I said to Trevor ‘there’s something happening, I don’t feel right, I need to go out and walk’.
“I put on my trainers and went for a walk, then a couple of hundred metres job and then a walk again. I knew when I ran years ago it made me feel amazing and I thought I need something to get me through this and that’s what I did.
“I just got so much strength from it and thankfully Alfie pulled through and I found the love of running again. Something happened in those three weeks when he was in intensive care.”
The Irish Life Dublin Marathon will take place on Sunday, 27 October, with up to 22,500 entrants expected to take part on a course featuring a new start and finish.
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