Pauline Curley won her first and Gary Crossan his fourth National Marathon title when the race was run in conjunction with the Adidas Dublin Marathon around the wind and rain swept streets of Dublin to-day. Gary's winning time of 2.23.19 left him in 13th position one place ahead of his Letterkenny clubmate Pauric McKinney who clocked 2.23.29 with the Salford based Belfast man Gerry O'Neill a further place behind taking the third National place in 2.23.51. A "pit stop" around 18 miles allowed the recent arrival on the veteran scene Pauric McKinney to move ahead of Crossan but the title holder recovered to move ahead and retain his title. McKinney a winner of this title on one previous ocassion was taking the silver medal for the fifth time. As a thirteen year old Gerry O'Neill finished the race with his father 25 years ago but up to last year had given up the sport and returned to the marathon this year and was well pleased with his time and more especially the third National place. Pauline Curley has been running well over the shorter distances and was unsure about getting the distance. "One twenty mile run was my longest one" she explained after the race and she was headed by Sligo's Lucy Brennan for the first eight miles . The Tullamore woman finished relatively comfortably in 7th place overall in 2.42.16 with Lucy Brennan clocking 2.48.08. Carly Dobbyn a 25 year old Dubliner took third spot in 2.51.35. Carolyn an MBA student at Trinity College has done a lot of her running in the USA and very happy to be inside her target of 2.56.