"God Help Ye, Luv."

That's what the Irish customs official said to me when I told him the reason for my visit was to run the Dublin Marathon.

What a great trip! We flew out of Phoenix on Friday morning and had a pretty substantial layover in Chicago. Bea just happened to be there that week, so we were able to hang out for a bit before my flight to Dublin. Yay :) The flight over was pretty uneventful, other than the horrible turbulence that hit during the night. My friend Kristin was sitting next to me doing Hail Marys while I had visions of smoke monsters and punching numbers into a computer in the hatch. Thankfully, we made it to Dublin safe and sound around 9:30 on Saturday morning.

We got all checked into our hotel with no problems. ... Ok, that's a lie. There was a minor snag involving someone knocking over my bags whereupon a small packet of soft cheese and crackers leftover from the plane dinner fell out of my purse onto the lobby floor where it lay unnoticed until it got stepped on and smeared around by some business guy and they had to call over the bell boy to clean it up. So, you know, made a really good first impression on the hotel staff. But, other than that, it was smooth sailing. Terry, Kristin and I dropped our bags in our rooms and headed off on foot to check out the area. We hit up a pub for lunch and wandered past Trinity College (which was right by our hotel). Then we met up with the rest of the group around 3 and headed to the Expo.

The marathon Expo is where you pick up your race packet - this includes your race number and timing chip as well as a bag o' swag, which doubles as your drop bag for race morning. They also have lots of vendors where you can find all kinds of running related stuff to buy. We hit up the booth selling the official marathon race apparel and I purchased a kickass marathon sweatshirt from a fine-looking specimen of an Irishman. He included a wink and some tips on the best pubs to visit at no extra charge.

That night Kristin, Audra and I met up with Audra's friend from the States who is currently a grad student at Trinity College. He bought us our first pints of Guinness and we spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours in the Trinity College pub, and then got an insider's nighttime tour of the grounds.

Sunday morning we got up early and caught the bus over to the Breakfast Run - a free event for all marathon participants. We gathered with about 1500 other runners from all over the world for a 3k run followed by breakfast and t-shirt swapping. They had live Irish music and dancers, and I managed to swap my Scottsdale Night Run shirt for the exact shirt I'd had my eye on all morning: The Sodbury Slog. How hilarious is that?? Those crazy Brits...

Sunday afternoon we did some shopping along Grafton Street and hit up H&M (of course). We gathered that night for the TNT Inspiration Dinner, where we ate our traditional carbo-load dinner and heard stories that remind us why we raise all this money in the first place. About 98 TNT runners from 7 chapters across the US raised over half a million dollars for blood cancer research and patient support. Go TEAM!

Monday morning finally rolled around. We all met up in the lobby before heading over to the start line, which was only three blocks from our hotel. The weather was overcast and chilly - perfect for running. I was comfortable in my short sleeved jersey, gloves, and homemade arm warmers (knee socks with the toes cut off - once you start running and get warmed up, you just peel them off and throw them away). We gathered into our starting corral and waited for the 9am start. The announcer kept things peppy with multiple attempts at starting the wave. They sang the Irish National Anthem (and also the Dublin National Anthem). If you've never stood in a group of thousands of Irishmen singing their hearts out, you don't know what you're missing. It was awesome.

The starting gun went off at 9am sharp and 12,500 runners made their way across the starting line. At 9:07, I was on my way! We started off winding our way through the streets of the Dublin city centre. I passed people wearing some pretty great costumes, including Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Spongebob Squarepants, and this guy, who I saw at our hotel before the race and passed sometime around the 1 mile marker. It was amazing running through such beautiful, old streets. We crossed the River Liffey and entered Phoenix Park at mile marker 4.

Phoenix Park was GORGEOUS. 4 winding miles of rolling green hills, low stone walls, trees in all their Autumn glory. Le sigh. It is also the location of the Dublin Zoo. As we ran by the zoo, I noticed runners pointing off to the left. I kid you not, there was a gorilla sitting high up on a post in his enclosure watching the runners go by. And every now and then he would wave. Seriously. And this Irish lady next to me goes "I think we're the moonkeys now!"

The support along the course was just fantastic. The entire 26.2 miles was literally lined with people cheering us on. I must've heard "Well doone!" about 500 times. My name was on the front of my shirt, so every now and then I'd hear someone in their Irish accent holler out "Well doone, Kristen! Good on ye, lass!" I highly recommend foreign marathons for the accents alone - you can't help but smile through the pain.

The miles ticked by relatively quickly and my fueling plan went very smoothly - I never hit the wall and was able to keep up a very solid, even pace through the whole race. I passed Spiderman around mile 22 and told him he was definitely beating Superman, so he was doing really well. Around mile 25 one of the Team in Training coaches ran with me a bit to see how I was doing. As he fell in beside me he looked at my face and said with a smile "Wow. You're looking a little salty there." If you've never seen someone after an endurance event, you get some salt buildup from all the evaporating sweat. Some just get a little gritty coating. Apparently I get a good, solid crusting of salt. Whatev. It's an excellent exfoliator.

The race is a loop course, so once I passed mile 25 things started looking very familiar - the finish line was literally a block from our hotel. As I rounded the corner into the final straightaway, there was this solid crowd of people lining both sides of the road just cheering their heads off for the people running in. I had just enough left in the tank to kick it up to what felt like a sprint (it was probably a 9 minute mile :)) to bring it on home in 5 hours and 27 minutes - nearly 25 minutes faster than my marathon last year. I was shooting for under 5:30, so, as you can imagine, I was pretty thrilled. :)

I made my way through the finish chute, where they remove your timing chip (it was attached to the race number - that's the first time I've seen that. Usually you have to attach it to your shoe.), give you your medal, your t-shirt, and a boxed lunch. As I passed the lunch area, the guy actually asked me "Do you want a lunch?" Um, that would be a hell yes, buddy. I got my finishers picture taken and signed out at the Team in Training cabin. Then I hoofed it back over to the hotel (damn those steps!) to sit in a quick ice bath, take the best shower there ever was, and head back downstairs (damn those steps!) to wait for Audra, my one remaining participant - I was her Team Captain and there was no way I was going to miss her crossing the finish line. She had spent the three weeks prior to the race in a walking boot due to a tendon injury and had gotten a really bad cold the day before, but she finished that sucker - I was so proud.

That night we had our Team in Training victory party. Yes, there was Guinness involved. And dancing, which didn't hurt nearly as much as you might think. Different muscles, I guess. Those Irish DJs really love them some Michael Jackson. After my TNT chapter closed out the party, we made our way over to the Temple Bar district where we spent some celebratory time in a packed pub.

Tuesday, we checked out of the hotel and spent the day exploring Dublin. We took a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour (damn those double decker bus stairs!), and stopped at some areas of interest including the Guinness Storehouse. We found out how the stuff is made and enjoyed our free pints and 360 degree views at the Gravity Bar on the top level. We had a delicious lunch at Nancy Hands pub. We finished up the tour and said goodbye to Audra as she headed off to stay with friends in Dublin.

Kristin and I headed over to Clontarf Castle, where we stayed for the night. Our taxi driver was such a hoot - he was this older Irish guy who told us all about his four lads and what football teams they support, etc. etc. etc. The castle was gorgeous.

We had dinner in the Knight's Bar and turned in pretty early. We got up around 6 the next morning so we could explore the castle grounds before I had to leave. Watching the sun come up over an Irish castle was a pretty great way to end the trip. I caught a cab to the airport and started my 23 hour trip home. I'm sure I've left stuff out (I know, how can that be possible, right?), but this is pretty much the gist. As you can see, it was a really great trip. Up next: P.F. Chang's Rock 'N' Roll half marathon in January. :)

Kudos to anyone who made it all the way to the end of this post. You're a trooper.