The one thing Ava Crean won’t be fearing on Sunday is the distance. At just 19, the Limerick athlete has already displayed a remarkable capacity for 26.2-mile running.
If Crean can match the pace of the older and more experienced elite Irish women, she might also spring one of the big surprises of the Irish Life Dublin Marathon. What is certain is that she’s out to enjoy it.
Crean’s name isn’t top of the elite entry list for Sunday; it’s at the bottom. The leading Kenyans and Ethiopians have all run significantly faster, as has Ann-Marie McGlynn, who at age 45 is chasing a third successive national marathon title, which goes to the first Irish men’s and women’s finisher.
Given her age, Crean’s marathon experience is short but certainly sweet. Currently studying at the University Academy 92 (UA92) in Manchester, founded by Gary Neville and other top players from the Manchester United “Class of 92”, she first tasted the marathon distance last April. Or twice within eight days, to be exact.
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Running the Manchester Marathon on April 27th with no other target other than to finish, Crean ran 2:49:26 to place seventh overall among women, and fastest in the 18–23 age group across both men and women. Despite having no formal coach at the time.
The following Sunday, she returned home for the Great Limerick Run, winning the women’s marathon title in 2:43:38 – a whopping 14 minutes ahead of the second-placed woman. Last month, she won the Charleville Half Marathon in 75:22, and just last Sunday week improved that time again to 74:06 at the Manchester Half Marathon.
After her Limerick win, she said: “After Manchester, I said to myself ‘I will do Limerick for fun’ and I told everyone that I will do it easy. But inside I knew I would get competitive – but only competitive to beat my old time, I didn’t know at all I would win.”
These times clearly indicate her potential for Sunday, possibly setting up a generational battle of sorts between Crean and McGlynn, the Offaly native who has run nine marathons already, and won the Irish title last year in 2:34.05.
Crean, however, appears to have found her distance. The former Crescent College Comprehensive student from Raheen only took up running during Covid. In her recent blog for UA92, she talks about her sudden move up to the classic distance.
“My journey into running began during lockdown. I used to play basketball and football, but when sports were paused during Covid, I needed something to stay active. I was too shy to run outdoors, so I started on a treadmill at home. I could barely manage 1km at first but managed to build up my confidence and distance.”
Now in her second year as an Accelerated Sports and Exercise Science student (UA92 have two campuses, in Old Trafford and Manchester city centre) she also wrote a letter to her future self as part of an induction activity, setting herself the challenge of running a marathon by the time she graduated. She’s already well ahead of all that.
After winning the Great Limerick Run, her obvious potential was spotted by John Kinsella, also a Limerick native and who recently started the Back 2 Boston Running Club in the Southill area, aimed at promoting running in the community.
Kinsella now advises Crean and is also running Dublin on Sunday. He believes in her potential not just on the road – obviously warning against running back-to-back marathons in a week: “She has really blossomed over the last five months, and wants to be a role model for young people in Limerick.”
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However, McGlynn’s experience will surely be telling. She’s run Dublin four times already, her national title victories last year and in 2023 coming after two near misses, in 2022 and 2019. Among the other experienced Irish women are Meath’s Nichola Sheridan, winner of the Dublin City Half Marathon in March, who is running Dublin for the third time, and Caitlin Harvey of RoadRunners AC in Belfast, who won the Half Marathon countdown series race last month.
On the men’s side, Hiko Tonosa is a late addition, the top Irish finisher last year and third overall in a then national record of 2:09:42, although he has been injured of late. Cork’s Ryan Creech has finished runner-up twice before, with Jake O’Regan from Clare also in contention after winning the half marathon last month.
