If your ambition for Sunday’s Dublin Marathon is to finish ahead of a Premier League winner, this could be your chance.
Former Manchester United winger Karel Poborský is heading to the capital for his first Irish Life Dublin Marathon on October 25th, with a target that plenty of runners will recognise: getting home in under four hours.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport ahead of the race, the Czech football favourite confirmed that he and his wife will both make their Dublin debuts, with their daughters supporting them along the way.
Poborský joined United in 1996 and was part of Alex Ferguson’s Premier League winning squad the following year. His stay lasted around 18 months, during which he made 48 competitive appearances and scored six goals.
Now, the opposition is a stopwatch. And unlike football, there is no prospect of being taken off after 70 minutes if the legs are gone.
Dublin will be his fourth marathon. His first came in Rome in March 2025, where he recorded 4:31:16. He followed that with 4:31:15 in Florence that November, improving by the smallest possible margin.
His return to Rome this March brought a much bigger breakthrough: 4:09:20, taking almost 22 minutes off his previous best.
That leaves another nine minutes and 21 seconds to find if he is to get below four hours in Dublin.
“I’d like to get under four hours, which will be quite a challenge,” he told RTÉ Sport.
There is more to his running than chasing a time. In an interview with RunCzech earlier this year, Poborský described it as a source of enjoyment and a way to recharge mentally. His wife encouraged him to enter races, turning a longstanding running habit into something the family could share.
He also takes his preparation seriously, discussing pacing with a coach and adjusting his other activities before races. The football career might be over, but the homework still gets done.
For anyone chasing the same target on Sunday, there is now another reason to look around.
You could spend months training for a marathon and come home talking about the time you beat a Manchester United player.
