THE PROMISED LAND

We've seen worse.

Stablemate Cathal “Fixer-Upper” Fitzgerald flamethrowered his marathon début in Dublin with a thunderous 2:59:58, placing 786th overall and 230th M40! 

Ally “the Chin” Smith was ready with notepad in hand to hear from Fitzy for The Stable News: 

Ally: Yeeessss, Fitzy! Sub-3 in the bag! Tell me all about it! 

Fitzy: Overall, a fantastic experience. I couldn’t believe the amount of support all over the course; it was a massive boost throughout. It might be the same for all marathons, but this was something that really struck a chord with me. 

Ally: I’m sure—canny beat a bit of cheering! 

Fitzy: In terms of my own race, I felt good up to mile 20 and was hitting my pace targets. A combination of some inclines around Clonskeagh, the weather turning, and just gassing out meant the last few miles were a struggle. Picking up COVID four weeks out from the race, and missing two big training runs, might have been catching up on me here, too! 

The 3-hour pacers passed me with a couple of miles to go, so I thought my chances were gone, and my head was dropping a bit. However, when I saw the finish line, I had about one minute to get under the three hours, so I just went for it and scraped in with two seconds to spare! Finish line photos show things weren’t pretty at that stage!

Ally: It doesn’t matter if it was two seconds or two minutes, pal—a sub-3 is a sub-3! What are you up to next?

Fitzy: No plans! I had two goals when I joined The Stable in July 2022:

1. Do a marathon.

2. Do a sub-3 marathon.

(I need to have a chat with Stazza to see where we go from here!)

Ally: Enough said! Enjoy your chat with The Bossman, and I hope you come up with something great! 

Fitzy: Thanks, Ally; me too!

The Stablemaster answered the call from the News while up to his neck in duct tape, cable ties, and pipe cleaners (he was attempting to fix his aerial): 

“Argh! Where’s Fixer-Upper Fitzgerald when you need him? … He’d have this MacGyvered in a jiffy! … He put in a blinder of a showing in Dublin … His head went down, but he picked himself up to sneak under three hours by a whisker … Top stuff!”