Con Houlihan always described the marathon as the equivalent of conquering a horizontal Everest
Still, there were some shows of the sheer exhaustion Zatopek talked about. Gabriele Anderson-Scheiss, a ski instructor representing Switzerland, entered the LA Coliseum already out on her feet, staggering around the final lap for five minutes and 44 seconds before collapsing over the finish line. Then aged 29, Kiernan had watched the first two editions of the Dublin marathon and thought why not? Dick Hooper won the first race in 1980, then Neil Cusack in 1981, and Kiernan would regularly beat those on the roads, breaking 46:30 for 10 miles three times during that summer of 1982, and that’s certainly not hanging around.
“I admit I have a new respect for it now,” Kiernan said, his time a Dublin course record which stood until 2004, though his once unassailable lead reduced to just over a minute. Kiernan would win Dublin again in 1992, the lesson of that first race perhaps applied most memorably at the 1984 Olympic marathon, where he moved more sensibly through the miles to finish ninth in a lifetime best of 2:12.20.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)