Feyisa Lilisa from Ethiopia won the Dublin City Marathon today. | Photo 05

Feyisa Lilisa from Ethiopia won the Dublin City Marathon today. He crossed the line in an unofficial time of two hours, nine minutes, 11 seconds which is just four seconds off the record.

Russian Aleksey Sokolov, who is the record holder, came second in an unofficial time of two hours, ten minutes, 35 seconds.

The Kenyan runner Noah Serem came third.

The first Irish man home was Sergei Ciobanu, a member of the Clonliffe Harriers club, with a time of two hours, 22 minutes, six seconds.

The winner of the women's race was Katerina Stetsenko from Ukraine at a time of two hours, 32 minutes, 45 seconds.

Annette Keeley, from Raheny, was the first Irish woman to cross the finish line.

This is the 30th year of the Lifestyle Sports - adidas Dublin Marathon, which is run through the historic Georgian streets of Dublin.

The course of the Adidas Dublin Marathon is a classic city loop with start and finish lines in the city centre near the famous Trinity College. The course is fairly flat but with a couple of climbs of about 50 m altitude.

The race finished at Merrion Square where a couple of Ireland’s most celebrated writers, Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, have resided.

The Adidas Dublin Marathon is run every year in late October. Since the first race in 1980 the number of runners has increased steadily with more than 12,500 taking part in today's race.

In the 2008 Dublin Marathon almost 9,000 runners crossed the finish line. More than half of the participants are from outside Ireland.

The Adidas Dublin Marathon is known as the ‘Friendly Marathon’ due to the many spectators aligning along the streets to support the exhausted runners with enthusiastic cheers.

Every runner to complete the Adidas Dublin Marathon received a medal and a certificate for their efforts, and the overall winner is endowed with a prize of EUR 15,000.