SPIRASI Marathon Team hit the streets of Dublin

The Dublin City Marathon took place on the October Bank Holiday Monday (30^th October 2006). Eight SPIRASI staff and volunteers participated in the marathon and six of these successfully completed the whole 26 miles.

At 8 am on the bright Monday morning, the marathon participants met by the entrance to St. Stephen's Green park to prepare for the race by warming up and stretching their muscles. Participants were given their choice of SPIRASI T-shirt from a selection of designs which had been hand-painted by a SPIRASI art class. Before setting off for the starting point on Nassau St., they were joined by the six volunteer street collectors who had given up their Bank Holiday Monday to help raise funds for SPIRASI.

The race itself was a great success. Deogratias Ladislas Ndakengerwa was the fastest of all the SPIRASI team completing the 26.2 mile course in 2 hours 48 minutes. While Deo had previous marathon experience, he had suffered a serious knee injury a few months ago which meant that he was unable to properly train for the marathon and was not able to run as fast as he otherwise would have been able to.

Finn Lyons (4:08), Anabelle Hogan (4:50), Edward Horgan (5:03) followed in his foot-steps and finally Connor Courtney walking at a steady pace completed the course just within the 8 hours it was open for. These were all very good performances considering the short preparation period before deciding to do the marathon.

The participants also included two women who had never run any kind of long distance beforehand but who had hoped to walk the course within the allotted eight hours. Fatima Gholizadeh completed 18 miles and Agustina Ayeni completed over 14 miles before retiring (until next year?).

The money raised by this marathon participation will go towards the services provided by SPIRASI towards our clients. This year’s participation was really just a trial run for next year, and the SPIRASI marathon committee has judged the effort a success, with valuable lessons learned for future years. As a result of their efforts, several thousand euros have been collected in sponsorship which will be put to good use in assisting survivors of torture and other refuge seekers. In addition to the money collected, all the runners benefited from, and some even enjoyed, their efforts. SPIRASI congratulates all the marathon participants for their efforts and greatly appreciates the work of both the runners and the volunteers who collected money on the streets of Dublin.

More Pictures of the Participants

Higher quality versions all images on this page (aside from the last one) are available by clicking on the images.