When Aoife Talty passed the 25-mile mark in the Dublin marathon last month an important person was cheering her on: her mam.

40 years earlier, Talty’s mother, Márie, paved the way for her daughter’s own marathon ambitions, running just 18 months after giving birth to her.

A new mum herself, completing the marathon for the first time 13 months after having her second daughter, Talty says the significance of the repeated history didn’t hit her until after the race.

“Mam ran a marathon a year and a half after I was born… I was a year and a half and my older brother was three… it actually turns out that that was exactly what I had when I ran the marathon. It’s a kind of nice full circle story,” Talty explained on the Irish Athletics Podcast.

“It was only afterwards… we kind of talked about it and reflected on it that there was almost 40 years in between the two pictures.”

While many family members were dotted around the course, it was reaching her mam with just over a mile left to run that was one of the motivations to finish.

“She was at mile 25. So that kept me going because I said, ‘I have to get to mile 25 to see her’.

“She was the person who got me involved in sport full stop. She was my PE teacher in school.

“She was my first cross-country coach. She was the reason I got into Raheny Shamrocks.”

Growing up with a strong female sporting role model in the house may be why the full-circle moment wasn’t realised until after; marathon running and sport were just something the Taltys did.

It wasn’t just athletics, Talty’s father Brian is a former Galway footballer.

“It was never kind of a conscious decision that I would run the marathon and follow in her footsteps.

“When I was growing up and I was part of a really sporty household, both my parents are former PE teachers, and so that kind of set the tone for our house… when we were younger, we saw mam do every sport, and she ran a couple of marathons in between her babies.”

Talty has followed in her mam’s footsteps in more ways than one. Originally from Clontarf, she is back teaching in a primary school in the greater Dublin area and balancing time with her children, working and then training for Dublin.

While most of her marathon block coincided with the summer holidays and maternity leave, she made a conscious decision before starting the challenge.

“I decided from the start that I wanted my training not to be invisible to the girls, that it didn’t impact my time with them.

“I’d get up early in the morning before they woke up or I would go late in the evening when they went to bed… I was getting that time with them during the day, and my training wasn’t impacting them.

“That was a change I had to make too if I wanted to do it… it turned out that that was a lovely time for me to get up, to run, to set up my day and then get back to the girls and give them my time or else go in the evening.”

Talty is quick to emphasise that all journeys are different. While this was possible post-baby number two, after having her first daughter, running wasn’t physically possible -common occurrence for many women.

“After my first pregnancy and delivery, I had a really difficult recovery and didn’t get back running at all. I suppose there were times after my first little girl, I thought, ‘Will I ever get back running again?’

“It was just a really tricky physical recovery afterwards. And I think that’s important if people are hearing stories of women coming back postpartum, that everybody has a different story.

“Even with my own two girls, I have two completely different stories. So, yeah, it just didn’t happen the first time afterwards.”

There was also the mental toll of new motherhood to consider. Talty said she fully “surrendered” herself to the experience.

“It’s important to kind of talk about first-time mothers, just how overwhelming and all-consuming that can be.

“I did hear a lot of people kind of saying you lose yourself in motherhood. I never lost myself in motherhood. I kind of just fully surrendered to it the first time because it’s totally new.

“You’re doing a total new job. Every second of the day, you’re kind of wondering what I should do next. You’re learning, you’re reading, you’re listening to podcasts.

“And there just wasn’t space in my head, in my mind to think about running.”

The 40-year-old was a talented runner in her youth, and has been a proud member of Raheny Shamrock since she first started running, but due to recurring injuries, hadn’t run consistently in the ten years before starting her marathon block.

When her second daughter, Grace was born, the recovery was easier and thoughts soon turned to a possible return to running.

“The recovery for me was night and day between my first delivery and my second delivery. So I recovered really well.

“I actually felt as I was leaving the hospital that I was nearly recovered. So that was October. And so the back of my head, I was thinking, could I run the marathon next year? Is it too soon? Like bearing in mind that I hadn’t run in 10 years.”

There have been many changes in the running world over the last 40 years, meaning the experiences of the two generations have been different. Shoes, nutrition, training and technology have all become more advanced.

Márie ran an impressive best of three hours and 35 minutes without the bells and whistles that Aoife has been afforded, and saw her clock an impressive three hours and nine minutes for the 26.2 distance on her first attempt.

“Her best time was 3.35. That she could run those times with no super shoes. I think we’re all getting caught up with the technology and the, you know, the super shoes and the fuelling… but I’d be so interested to see what kind of time she could have run if she had all the things that I have.”

One similarity of the experience of mother and daughter that Talty highlights is the support of their families.

“I suppose the similarities there are that she had- My dad was really supportive as well, it was probably out of season for him. His GAA was over. So it was her time to go out and run.

“I never remember as a child thinking, where’s mam going? Or missing mam when she was going training. The memories that I have are just wanting to be like her.

“I never remember thinking, ‘Where is she? She should be here’. Maybe there was judgement from other people. I don’t know that. But for us, we were four very happy kids thinking how amazing our mom was. That’s the memory that I have.”

You can listen to the Irish Athletics Podcast episode with Aoife Talty HERE