For as long as Seán Ó Riain can recall, his October bank holiday weekend has revolved around the Dublin Marathon. Everything from packing goody bags beforehand to gently encouraging runners across the finish line.

Only Ó Riain has never been involved as a runner. Not yet anyway.

“I’ve never run a race, never mind run a marathon,” he says, unabashed. “I have been around the Dublin Marathon all my life, there’s a big family tradition there, and I’ve always been surrounded by runners. But I just never got the running bug, honestly. I don’t know why.”

Whatever Ó Riain may lack in his own running experience he’s made up for elsewhere. In July, he was appointed the first full-time chief executive of the Irish Life Dublin Marathon, his responsibilities also including the three countdown races, plus the new Dublin half-marathon staged in March.

Running is now strictly his business and his interest, and he couldn’t be more excited about it.

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His father Liam is a former Dublin Marathon race director and a member of the original organising committee, and Ó Riain himself has first-hand experience of the highs and lows of the marathon over the past 25 years. Sunday’s 44th running of the event is another 22,500 sell-out, and he’s got some bright ideas on how to make it bigger and better again.

The chief executive role has been needed for a few years now, he says. The Dublin Marathon is a not-for-profit organisation, still organised on a largely voluntary capacity.