There’s nothing more satisfying in sports than watching an underdog rewrite the script, and that’s exactly what 19-year-old Ava Crean did at the Dublin Marathon. Just six months after casually running her first-ever marathon in Manchester with no competitive ambitions, the teenager turned the streets of Dublin into her playground. She stunned everyone by finishing sixth overall in 2:34:12, dethroning three-time defending champion Ann-Marie McGlynn (eighth overall, 2:36:24) to claim the national title.

“From the third kilometre I was like, ‘How am I supposed to keep this pace?’ I was getting cramps here and there but I kept pushing. With 10 kilometres to go, my legs seized up. I never felt so much lactate in my legs before. I couldn’t even believe it until I saw the finish line. In my head, I was fighting demons the whole time. But I just kept pushing, kept pushing,” said Crean.

Born and raised in Raheen, Limerick City, the 19-year-old prodigy spent her early years dabbling in everything from mountain climbing to karate and camogie, her perfect escape from the city’s chaos. Yet, as primary school ended, she took an unexpected four-year break from sports. That pause ended when she found her groove again on the basketball court, earning a place in the Irish U-17 national team academy. But it was during the quiet days of the pandemic that she truly discovered her passion — running. What began as a simple fitness routine soon evolved into a full-blown pursuit of excellence.

“I don’t want to go above that,” she says now after her Dublin success. “Some days are more, some are less.” Her quest to be competitive started last year when Crean began studying exercise science at University Academy 92 in Manchester. On her very first day at the University, she wrote a letter to her future self, promising that she would run a marathon, and by the time she got back to it, she was already on the verge of running the Manchester Marathon.

“I remember seeing influencers who were [running] over three hours and seeing the sessions they were doing, and I was like, ‘I’m not doing anything like that, I’m just going out, enjoying running.’ But then with the adrenaline and the crowd, I was like, ‘This is so fun.’ I did 2:49 and was like, ‘What the heck?” She said in her conversation with the Irish Independent. Months later, she tried her mettle in the Dublin Race without knowing about her real capability.

“I can’t believe it,” she smiled afterwards, and ended up winning a national title at the Dublin Marathon. Yet, even though this was Crean’s debut on Dublin’s grand stage, she ran it like she’d been there all her life. Her performance was such a huge feat that the track analysts and hometown celebs couldn’t help but react to her massive victory.

Track and field insiders unite to celebrate Ava Crean’s Dublin Marathon triumph

What happens when you run a mile or two? The distance itself isn’t the challenge; it’s the moment when your legs start to give up midway, and every step feels heavier than the last. Despite your body begging to stop, there’s still that strange pull to keep moving. As hometown journalist Brian McDonald once put it, “Running is easy, it’s the standing up afterwards that’s tricky.”

For Ava Crean, though, that “tricky” part seemed effortless. The young athlete has been involved in multiple sports since childhood, from mountain climbing and karate to professional marathon running, and her journey proves that nothing is impossible if you have the courage to face challenges head-on.

Another journalist took to X to write, “Jesus. What a story! She’s making a mockery of the rest of us.” Maybe that’s the lesson: to write a letter to yourself and chase your goals relentlessly. Another author’s reactions poured in, too, with one posting simply, “This 👏🏼.”

Daniel Hussey, one of the voices of Ireland AM, added, “Absolutely incredible ☘️.” Before embracing marathon running, Crean had looked up Ann-Marie McGlynn’s back-to-back winning times of 2:34 and thought they were out of reach. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing,’” she recalled. “Listening to her and the story that she missed out on the Olympics by four seconds, and she kept running, and she’s still running at 45 – I want something like that. That’s amazing.”

Well, no wonder Crean stormed through the Dublin Marathon. As Limerick Councillor Elisa O’Donovan summed it up perfectly, “Unreal win by Ava Crean 🏃‍♀️ You would often see Ava running around Dooradoyle and Raheen. We are all so proud of her 🙌.”

With her new achievement, the 19-year-old will surely be satisfied, but is that enough? Certainly not. She wants more, and who knows, she might just become one of the greatest distance runners in Ireland’s history. Regardless, what are your thoughts on all the buzz?