SHOCK NATIONAL MARATHON champion Ava Crean has revealed she won’t defend her title in the 2026 Irish Life Dublin Marathon in October.

Crean was 19 when she finished sixth in last year’s race and was the first Irish woman home, beating two-time national champ Anne-Marie McGlynn to the title.

“It’s definitely been life-changing,” said the Limerick athlete. “I don’t even know if it has sunk in yet, to be honest.”

However, Crean had an injury flare-up at the end of February and, speaking at the launch of the 2026 Irish Life Dublin Marathon on Wednesday, she confided that the hip bone injury will rule her out of competitive running until at least November, when she hopes to participate in a half-marathon.

She also plans to run in the Valencia Marathon before Christmas or, if her rehab stretches beyond that, in Seville next February.

The men’s national champion, David McGlynn, is also set to miss out on the action on the streets of the capital as he chases qualification for the European Championships, which takes place in August in Birmingham.

Caused by a growth plate in her hip, Crean is grateful that the issue is a stress injury rather than a fracture.

An initial MRI didn’t show anything serious but, after going back running and cross-training, the problem only got worse.

She had the MRI rechecked and a bone marrow oedema in the iliac crest – the top ridge of the hip bone – was diagnosed.

Crean is to meet with Dr Ronan Kearney of the Blackrock Clinic today to discuss the nature of the injury and how long her rehab and recovery will take.

“There had been a misunderstanding,” she said. “No-one really knows what caused it, maybe overuse.

“It’s definitely been really hard, the hardest couple of months, not knowing what it is is kind of the most frustrating part.”

A chat with Sonia O’Sullivan after she suffered the injury prompted Crean to get it checked out and the Cobh legend also advised her to intermittently run on softer surfaces.

Crean admits that her old school training routine may have contributed to the setback.

“I was getting away with a lot,” she said. “To be honest, I wasn’t doing what I should have been doing, because I was still thinking to myself I was just a normal runner, who just put in my shoes and went out the door.

“I wasn’t doing the strength training, I wasn’t doing any warm up or activation. I wasn’t doing any cross-training or anything like that.

“That is definitely what I’ll take forward, maybe swapping out a double run for cross-training to maybe make some impact less.”

Crean is finishing her studies in Manchester next month before starting a master’s online on Food and Human Nutrition with University College Dublin (UCD). She says she won’t rush back into full marathon running.

“It’s trying to do everything, do something each day that gets me closer to that and then to the start line,” she said. “That’s all that’s on my mind right now.”

Reigning national marathon champion, Ava Crean was speaking as part of the launch of the 2026 Irish Life Dublin Marathon, which takes place on Sunday, 25 October 2026, and marks the 45th running of one of Europe’s largest city marathons, attracting 22,500 participants. The launch also marks the beginning of the race’s “Road to 50″ journey towards its 50th anniversary.