Dublin Marathon

Dublin Marathon
Elite runners competing in the 2007 women's race
Date	October
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Event type	Road
Distance	Marathon
Established	1980
Official site	Dublin Marathon

The Dublin Marathon is an annual marathon in Dublin, Ireland, held on the last Sunday in October. Prior to 2016, the race took place on the last Monday in October, which is a public holiday in Ireland. Held each year since 1980, a record 19,500 people entered the 2016 race including over 5,000 entrants from outside Ireland.

The course is generally reasonably flat. It starts at Fitzwilliam Square in the city centre and concludes at Merrion Square. Exact routing varies, although in recent years the race has proceeded in an anti-clockwise direction around the city, including passing through the Phoenix Park before moving towards the southside suburbs.

The race was founded in 1980 by a group led by Noel Carroll, who persuaded the Business Houses Athletic Association (BHAA) to take up the idea. In the first year, 2,100 took part, of whom 1,420 finished. Dick Hooper of Raheny club Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club claimed first place, in a time of 2:16:14. The women's winner was Carey May who finished in 2:42:11. That year's runner-up was Neil Cusack, who returned in 1981 to post a winning time of 2:13:59.

Jerry Kiernan's 1982 time of 2:13:45 was a long-standing men's course record. This was finally improved upon by Lezan Kipkosgei Kimutai over twenty years later in 2004, but Russian runner Aleksey Sokolov twice broke the record with consecutive wins in 2006/07, running 2:11:39 then 2:09:07 the next year. Moses Kangogo Kibet became the first man under 2:09 in Dublin with his win in 2:08:58. The current men's record is 2:08:33 set by Geoffrey Ndungu in 2011.

Moira O'Neill was the first woman under two hours and forty minutes with her win of 2:37:06 in 1988 and home athlete Christine Kennedy improved this with a run of 2:35:56 three years later. Kenyan Ruth Kutol win in 2:27:22 in 2003 was the first sub-2:30 time and Russian Tatyana Aryasova broke this record in 2010 with her current women's record of 2:26:13.