Only a certain generation of running aficionados will have felt any sense of déjà vu at the finish line of the Dublin Marathon last Sunday.
The fresh face and name, running so far and so fast, yet still so impossibly young …
Because maybe the best way to contextualise what Ava Crean achieved in winning the women’s national title is to go back to the first running of the event, on the October bank holiday of 1980.
Earning her place in Irish athletics history that day was Carey May - and 45 years later there are still plenty of lessons in what she achieved.
May had just turned 21, so was a couple of years older than Crean, who is still only 19.
Women’s long-distance running was also in a very different place in 1980, and May had to endure all sorts of obstacles – before, during and after the race. Starting with that notion no woman of any age should even consider running 26.2 miles.
It was just over a decade
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