Dublin Marathon and Molly Pulls a Pint!

Today was our first full day in Dublin and it was also the marathon. Because I was supposed to be one of the runners, I thought today was going to be difficult…but surprisingly I didn’t feel all that bad not being among the marathoners. So much of our trip would have been different. Beforehand, I would have been filled with anxiety and stress and I wouldn’t have been able to do so many of the things we did (like anything that involved drinking). Afterwards, I know I would have had a much harder recovery from the marathon. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would be sore and in lots and lots of pain. Further limiting what I’d be able to do. It was a running joke that I’d say, “it’s really better that I’m not running today, otherwise, I’d still be out there.” Hal and Lynn ran the marathon in amazing time; Hal ended up finishing around 3 hours and 6 minutes and Lynn was 21 minutes behind him. I certainly wouldn’t have been done for hours and hours after them.



What’s surprising, even to me, is that watching this marathon didn’t make me want to run one…and typically when I watch one, I do feel that pull. To be fair, I only saw the end- literally the last 50 yards. We had a hard time finding the marathon and ended up walking way out of our way. Not helping our directionally challenged morning, you could barely tell there was a marathon even happening. It’s the first city I’ve been in during a marathon where it’s not all about the marathon. Boston and NYC are just completely taken over by the marathon. Even though I was warned about the Dublin route not being lined with spectators, I thought in the actual city it’d be a little more happening. Not the case.

Anyway, once we finally found out where we were and where we were going, it was close to the time Hal thought he’d be finishing. So we made our way to the end and had about 10 minutes before Hal came across the finish line. That was basically my marathon experience.

I get sad when I think about the grand plans I had to lose weight, train for the marathon and complete it. Considering how far I feel from accomplishing any of that, it's easy to get down on myself, but I'm not going there. In fact, running a marathon may not even be a goal of mine anymore. It's certainly not a goal of mine in the next year, so it's pointless to beat myself up about it and just look towards the future. Which is looking pretty great from where I'm standing!

After the marathon we had a lame add adventure of returning the rental cars to the Dublin airport. We didn't really know where we were going and ended up getting lost. But we were back in the city centre in time to meet back up with everyone for drinks and dinner.

But the night took an amazing turn after dinner. We went to a place recommended by our waiter at The Hairy Lemon called Dame’s Tavern. Darren said to ask for Pat, the owner, and say “Darren sent me and he said to tell you that I want to pull a pint.” The bartender gave me a little trouble, “Oh you want to pull your own pint? Okay, come with me.” I think he was under the initial impression that I might shy away from the request and sit behind the bar like a good little girl. Not likely! Check out the two videos below that show me getting schooled on how to pull a pint of Guinness and then doing it myself.





I was so good at it that Pat let me keep going and anytime someone needed a refill or a new drink, I was the person to grab it for the next couple of hours. It was a lot of fun and Pat even told me he’d give me a job! Nice to know I have a fallback :)

It was a great way to end our night out and definitely one of my most fun experiences so far in Ireland. Pat invited me back Wednesday night, so I may just go back and pull some more pints!

Here are some of the best shots from the night: