They say all records are there to be broken, only for 26 long years it felt as if David Matthews might hold some everlasting distance as Irish record holder for the 800 metres, such was the quality of his 1:44.82.
Then in June it suddenly and duly changed hands, Mark English, who in truth had been knocking on the door of the record since clocking 1:44.84 back in 2013, improved it to 1:44.71 in Barcelona while wrapping up Tokyo Olympic qualification in the process.
Matthews was among the first to congratulate English, as is his style. Still all is not lost for the two-time Olympian, who ran his 1:44.82 in Rieti back in 1995, as according to my records, Matthews is still the Irish record holder for the Goal Mile, running 4:09.5 on the old Belfield track on Christmas Day 1992, and I know that because I was there.
It was thanks in part to his former coach, the late Noel Carroll, who was always dreaming up new ways to help promote the Goal Mile. Carroll always said the day you’re too busy to go for a run is the day you’re too busy; in saying that he meant Christmas Day, too.
Carroll practised what he preached and although he was often a very busy man - serving 24 high-profile years as press officer for Dublin Corporation - he never missed his daily run. He was also one of the wisest heads in Irish distance running history, a two-time Olympian, before his sudden death - mid-stride, as it were - after one of his daily noon-time training runs around Belfield, in October 1998.
This unreserved love of running is also what inspired Carroll to help dream up the first Dublin Marathon, back in 1980, and also the first Goal Mile, two years later, along with Goal founder and chief executive John O’Shea.
Carroll also acted as a chairperson for Goal, aware of the need to raise vital funds and awareness for their humanitarian work in developing countries, and on that Christmas Day of 1982 he used his endless powers of persuasion to assemble a small group of famous runners in Dublin’s Phoenix Park - including Eamonn Coghlan, training that winter for the 1983 World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, where he went on to win 5,000m gold. Good prep, it seems.
The following year Carroll moved the Goal Mile to Belfield, running four laps of the track to better validate the distance, and the times, and the rest is Christmas Day tradition.
In 1992, he had the idea of staging a sort of elite Goal Mile, as if to prove that elite athletes are always in shape, even on Christmas Day, inviting the likes of Matthews and then top Irish-miler Niall Bruton, who also went on to run in the 1996 Olympics, and won two Wanamaker Miles.
“That was Noel Carroll, you just couldn’t say no, even though it made little sense for us to be racing flat out on Christmas Day,” Matthews told me this week. “I wasn’t even a mile specialist, although in fairness I know Niall Bruton had enjoyed himself a little too much on Christmas Eve, and did well just to make a race if it.”
Roll on 2021, and after going entirely virtual last year because of Covid-19, the Goal Mile returns to 150 locations across the country over the Christmas period. There is still the option to run virtual, and donate online, although given the outdoor nature of the event the intention is get most out running on the day.
“We are so excited to re-connect with people in-person this Christmas,” says Eamon Sharkey Goal director of fundraising and marketing. “For many, it will have been two years since they were last with family, friends and neighbours, and we hope the Goal Mile can play a part in bringing people together as we come out of such a challenging period.”
Goal's work includes supporting those displaced by the ongoing conflict in Syria, nutrition programmes saving the lives of infants in Ethiopia. And ongoing emergency response to thousands of people affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti. Among the new locations this year is Fernhill Park in Stepaside, on the newly built round running track, which might well turn elite. All GOAL Miles are listed at www.goalmile.org
