Road runner’s mum rejoices in son’s special day

Sean Hehir wore out two things in the run-up to his Dublin Marathon victory — his shoes and his mammy.

“He goes through a pair a fortnight,” said proud mother Cushla Murphy-Hehir of her son’s rather expensive footwear habit. “He just eats, sleeps, trains. Twice a day, 130 miles a weeks — it’s pure dedication.”

As for herself, at times like this it’s pure torture. “You have no idea how nervous I was,” said Cushla, originally from Douglas, Cork, and now living in Co Clare. “I was tossing and turning all night. There’s so much effort gone in and you just want him to see the results for it.”

Well, results were exactly what the 28-year-old primary school teacher got when he became the first Irishman in 20 years to win the event, clocking in at a time of two hours, 18 minutes and 19 seconds.

“It’s fantastic. It’s a special feeling,” he said, although he didn’t feel even a hint of that until the last stretch of what was a very competitive race.

“It wasn’t until I got to within 30-40 metres of the finish line that I took a quick glance over my shoulder and, well, it’s a special day.”

It was also a special one for Maria McCambridge, who was the first woman home in every sense of the word, as the Dubliner was running in what felt like her own neighbourhood. “I’m just so happy. I can’t even describe how much it means to me to have won my home city marathon. The crowds were amazing. I heard my name the whole 26 miles,” said the 38-year-old former Olympian, who crossed the line just moments before her husband, Gary Crossan.

But then it was special in 14,000 ways, for every participant in the race had a different reason for being there and a different reason to remember it.

Some glided across the line with a grin across their faces, others hauled their shattered limbs the last inches with pain written across every strained sinew.

Some crossed hand-in-hand with a loved one, others fell into the arms of strangers, stewarded towards wheelchairs, warm clothes, and physiotherapy.

Some cursed and said ‘never again’. Others said ‘same time next year?’ Some fell down, some threw up. All looked heroic regardless.

Some ran for fun, like former Saw Doctors drummer Johnny Donnelly from Galway. “It’s the one day of the year when all the runners, all the spectators, have only one thing in mind and it’s living. They forget about everything else and they’re just living.”

Others ran for good causes, such as Tommy Freeman, raising funds for Dunboyne, Co Meath-based charity, Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, in memory of his best friend’s daughter, Aoibheann Norman, who died from cancer two years ago.

“We’re helping families in all 32 counties providing practical support,” said Tommy. “If they need their electricity bill paid, we pay it; mobile phone credit, petrol, anything. Because when you have a child going through cancer, you’re in the hospital all the time, you’re not working... What we try to do is take that burden [of bills] away from them so they can focus on the child.”

John Quigley also ran with a cause, and a message. Emblazoned across his running vest was “Cancer Survivor”.

“It’s a true statement,” said John, 60, from Douglas, Cork, who had surgery for prostate cancer five and a half years ago and has run four marathons since.

“I wear that to provide inspiration and hope to people who think that once you’ve cancer, you’re finished,” said John, a self-employed mechanical engineer who was raising money for the Irish Cancer Society and Cork Arc Cancer Support House. “It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a lot of survivors mad today doing the marathon. I got 30 or 40 pats on the back saying ‘me too’.”