Liam's Dublin City Marathon 2025

By Liam Boggan.

The Dublin Marathon 2025 was one of the most enjoyable activities in my T3 career.

The day itself started after a decent night’s sleep, preceded by the Leinster match at the Aviva where I counted the number of marathon hats being worn. Breakfast was pasta which I had saved from a carbonara on the Friday night, plus a banana and some granola and honey. I had, needless to say, fussed over laying out my kit and had made sure to acquire my selection of gels and salt tablets in the previous two weeks.

I cycled in and had given Sara and Roger a key to access my office. I met them there on Pembroke Street having met Donal for a photo on the way to nervous bag drop.

Before the race, I knew I was probably fitter than I had been in a long time and without injury, so I was secretly hoping that today was going to be my day. There was no point in disguising my ambition—as many of you know, I had missed my 3:40 goal from last year, so I made no secret of my desire for the whole year to see if I could achieve this.

I knew I had managed a few 4:55 pace 10Ks by myself and set my own personal PB on a UCD lap in the two weeks ahead of the race, so I was just nervous that I would blow it by accident on the day.

After Dublin last year, I entered and took part in the Paris Marathon in April. I had been injured pre-Dublin in 2024, but it hadn’t impacted me on the day—though it had impacted my training. Again, ahead of Paris, I managed to tweak the same hip injury, so I had my wife laughing at me in Paris about the pointlessness of even taking part, as I was limping badly on the Thursday before the race. Miraculously, the injury faded and I really enjoyed the run in Paris, though I failed to hold off Dara’s late charge in the final couple of kilometres. I blew it by running too fast too early but Paris was most of all social fun with Dara and Eleanor as great tourists with Paula and myself. My finishing time of 4:01 sort of rankled, though I wasn’t that upset and I am sure Dara can live with himself.

The big difference for me in October 2025 is that I had managed to not get injured in the run-up to the event. I have struggled for the last few years with variations of high hamstring tendonitis which come on when training volume goes up which can make running and walking very painful. Believe it or not, the secret to not getting injured was that I learned a few very simple hip rotation exercises which I made myself do before every run. I recommend this.

The start of Dublin on Leeson Street has an amazing atmosphere. Roger, Sara, and I were able to walk out my office front door and proceed directly to the start line. I was confident that I could hold the 5:12 pace for most of the way, but last year, the last 5 miles were hellish, with me slowing dramatically right at the points where my friends were there to support me.

The race is an amazing experience. I had told Raymond repeatedly that you find yourself running easily at about 10km, and the danger is that you begin to think that you are Eliud Kipchoge and you blow the one shot of energy that you have.(See Liam Paris 2025 most recent lesson) The challenge of the marathon is to hold yourself to your pace and hang on—if you run too fast, you will blow up and you simply cannot recover, and you do live to regret it.

This time around, I managed to find myself ahead of the 3:40 pacer in the Phoenix Park—not very far ahead, but enough to still feel that I was with the group. I was surprised at what I can only describe as my appetite for the race, and I spent a lot of time talking to myself and encouraging myself to slow down.

There are parts of the race where it is mentally and physically challenging, particularly around the halfway mark and past Crumlin Hospital, up to Walkinstown and on towards Terenure. Here the headwind was obvious and I used my triathlon experience to ruthlessly draft bigger blokes and shelter behind them, while being careful to not trip them up or let them know just how close to them I was running. I took a SiS Beta (black gel) every 7km and alternated salt tablets every 3km when I remembered. This gave me something to focus on.

In 2022 I had Covid which I only realised halfway around as I had been determined to ignore the “little head cold” prior to the start however when I saw my heart rate at 170 I knew that there was something very wrong and my 2022 race got reduced to spurts of walking and trotting along.

Im lucky to have a low heart rate when I’m fit so it is a very handy metric to check on my watch to make sure that what I feel matches the stats and so it was today with heart rate ticking along around the 125 level which is my “run forever” heart rate.

If there is one thing I know about T3, it is that it is an amazing club where people will show up to support each other no matter how wet or cold or miserable the day is, and this day was no different.

As I ran through Terenure in the rain and towards Rathgar village, I knew that Fiona would be there with her T3 flag. I really looked forward to seeing her and was thrilled to see Fiona, Maria, and Grace at the Runzone shop. This was a thrill and a sign of things to come.

Next up was Maitena with a big wave and a grin and then Niamh Foran at the Milltown traffic lights, then Sinead and Tom at Wild and Green, and I am sure that I saw Sinead’s Luke Foran in Miltown too. disguised with a hood up against the weather, Helena Walsh was at the top of Milltown Hill, followed by my wife Paula and son Marcus near the top of Eglinton Road, accompanied by Johnny the Springer Spaniel. Around the corner towards Ashtons was the ever-present Mark Foran in his regular spot with John McAree, full of smiles and encouragement.

One final super gel at Ashtons before seeing Johnny and Orla at White Beam. Then I set sail around the toughest physical part of the course—around the back of UCD, where my son Guy and his girlfriend were waiting in the rain near Roebuck before Heartbreak Hill—and then the run towards home down Fosters Avenue, where I heard then spotted Bridget amongst the crowds, then Stephen Kieran sheltering under the flyover on the N11 with his family.

To my joy and amazement, Paula materialized at the UCD flyover, having herself run in the opposite direction around UCD to intercept me at the UCD flyover. Paula has become the not so secret runner in her own right but makes a point of limiting her runs with me to foreign shores like Estepona, New York London and Paris.

It was also lovely to get a big wave and a cheer from our former chair Anna Rowan, who was and always is a stalwart supporter.

I am sure I missed loads of people, I was afterall supposed to be concentrating not looking at the crowds so apologies if I managed to not see you.

Turning at Tesco Merrion, there is still over 3.5km to go and the crowds are dense and the crowds were also soaked. I just prayed that my legs would hold up. I was grinning like a Cheshire cat as I heard the distant roars, which I knew to be the cheers for the 3:40 balloon pacer and his group—and he was still behind me. I

kept saying to myself, “just bring it home,” and prayed I would not cramp sp i restrained myself from trying to accelerate in the last 2km. Crossing the line was magical. I got to talk to some of the people who had been my new friends for 42km, then got a call from my family as soon as the tracker confirmed the finish. I spoke to Mark before I even got my medal, and then to see the blizzard of T3 texts was just incredible, including the one from Sean to say he had the table in Toners, which is always the immediate post-marathon goal.

In Toners, I met Sean and the incredible Niall Rea, who had smashed his 3-hour target, and then was joined by Raymond Reilly, who was probably smiling just as much as me. We were joined then by Donal, also smiling, and Eleanor, who is always smiling.

We tracked Roger home and Sara, who once again proved that training is overrated with her 4:12 time, taking 15 minutes off last year.

We heard of and drank to the heroic run from Emma, despite not feeling well, and Dara running with an injury to support his daughter and missed seeing Barry who had another amazing race grazing the 3 hour mark.

Three beers had re balanced my hydration requirements, and so eventually I hobbled off with my medal, hat, and marathon top to get on my bike and slowly and delicately cycle home. The Carlsberg feeling probably, no definitely, helped ease the pain.

So, 3:39:00 and job done. I was thrilled and feeling better than I had expected. My Garmin, however, told me that I had a whole 1% body battery left and that I had used 99% in the 41,000 strides it took me to get around the course and I had 96 hours of recovery time ahead ! This did not stop me having more beers and a burger in Tribeca to celebrate, however.

I tell everyone that it is a privilege to be able to take part and soak up the atmosphere of the spectators on the day. It is a day where you can take pride in the city and see families with little kids who have baked buns that they have set out on little kids’ toy kitchen tables that they just want people to take, and share their sweets, and grown adults with tins of Cadbury Roses on offer, or oranges or jellies to share. It is extraordinary with the brass bands and DJ’s and music where you least expect it.

People talk of the discipline required and all the training for the marathon, but being part of T3 makes this truly an entirely different experience. I can honestly say that I had company for 95% of all the runs I did,

There was the pitch dark torch lit morning runs at 6:45am in the wind and rain regardless of the weather and also the dark evening runs around UCD at 6:30pm with Johnny the spaniel and Sara and sometimes Mark and John Mc. The Thursday morning Grand Canal Kilmainham runs with Sean and Dara became a staple and of course the Saturday Lighthouse long runs with Raymond and Sara as well as Mark and John Mc and Grace and Orla and Olena and Fiona and Frank. It meant that there was always someone, or sometimes a gang to run in the dark at 6:45am, then at dawn 8:00am, or to be joined at the beach road for the lighthouse run.

Sean even materialized in Manhattan to accompany me on a Saturday run in Central Park around the reservoir. The famous or rather infamous stomping ground now tamed by Liam !)

The only time I was left to my own devices in an unplanned way was on my final the last 22km run, and even then that was literally only for the last 9km—where I had to improvise and keep myself company.

The maddest training run was the 30km on the morning of Storm Amy, where Raymond and I ended up doubled over with the rain like small pebbles beating us up as we tackled the lighthouse as usual after two UCD laps.

Work got in the way so I missed the T3 Training sessions but always appreciated the kind words of encouragement before and after the event from Will Byrne and Tiago and Jay.

I appreciated Wills knowing smile when he always saw me ducking into the jacuzzi “ to soak and save energy and stretch” whilst Raymond was brave enough to continue to Swim and Run all the way through.

The entries for Dublin 2026 open next week. They have abolished automatic entry, so there is a ballot. I can only encourage everyone to enter and experience this special day and the special support for yourself. You know you want to! And for those who, like me, have an entry for Seville on February 15th—I can only say—time to start thinking about the next lighthouse run and the start of a new adventure :-)