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Runner who set marathon PB after fall is awarded €15,000

By December 5, 2019 No Comments

Runner who set marathon PB after fall is awarded €15,000

A mother of three who ran a personal best marathon time only five weeks after injuring her feet, knees and wrist in a fall while training has been awarded €15,000 damages against Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Lisa Nagle (46), of Beechdale Way, Ballycullen, Dublin 24, was also awarded her costs which, together with the county council’s legal expenses, is likely to cost the local authority another €30,000.

Ms Nagle, an avid racer and club runner, told Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court she had specifically trained hard for the 2015 Dublin Marathon in a bid to beat her previous best time of four hours and one minute in 2014.

Despite her injuries, she succeeded in clipping 13 minutes off her previous best, with 3hrs 48mins over the 26.2 miles just over a month after her accident.

She put her ability to clock that time – after having crashed to the ground in an early Sunday practise run with clubmates – down to an intensive five-week course of physiotherapy.

“I had trained so hard for that marathon and to improve my time,” she said.

Accomplishment

Counsel for the county council told Ms Nagle her time had improved quite incredibly to get below four hours and he described her race as “quite a considerable accomplishment” which she had posted on Facebook.

Ms Nagle said she suffered seriously with swollen and painful feet after the marathon and other races she had taken part in.

Judge O’Connor rejected a submission on behalf of the local authority that Ms Nagle had exaggerated her injuries. The judge said Ms Nagle had been truthful in court and had not been one to deliberately exaggerate her claim. Some of her evidence had not been as clear as one perhaps would like and she had come across as someone who had a lot of trauma in her life.

“Just because the plaintiff was a get-up-and-go person and ran marathons does not mean that her evidence is somehow exaggerated,” Judge O’Connor said. “Her get-up-and-go attitude is to be commended.”

Irish Independent