Great Ireland Run 2011

Seres

did it last year and knew it was goin ta be a tough second half but forgot exactly how tough , came thru first half in 19.49 and had a finishing time of 40.39 , so an awful lot of time lost in the second split , i still managed to pull back 5 people that were fairly well spaced apart , caught most of them on the hills , hate hilly races but somehow the hills always seem to do me justice . Probably could of pushed it a bit more but figured i wasnt goin to pb or even beat last years time , not a good attitude to have ! Had alot of sinful thoughts bout dropping out too
Its a great course though !

funrunner95

48 mins. Happy enough with the time considering the heat. I took issue with much of the tactless cost cutting, however. One water station is grand for most elite-ish runners, yet many hadn't even ran 10k before and aren't seasoned runners and would've needed it. Compared to last year the medal is cheaper and the tshirt is now cotton (and even a cheap cheap cotton one at that). The "1 bottle per person" rule at the finish line was unacceptable considering that people were collapsing in the heat. 28 euro for do a loop in the Phoenix Park like. I know a proportion is going to charity but that doesn't abdicate getting value for money. If costs were spiralling out of control it would not bother but AFAIK 2,000 more people entered this year. Apologies for the rant but blatant pocket lining really grates on me!

Stupid_Private

funrunner95 wrote: »

I know a proportion is going to charity but that doesn't abdicate getting value for money....

Apologies for the rant but blatant pocket lining really grates on me!

You probably won't like me telling you that 0% of the entry fee goes to charity then?

PaulieC

funrunner95 wrote: »

Compared to last year the medal is cheaper and the tshirt is now cotton (and even a cheap cheap cotton one at that).

I found two medals on teh ground walking back down through the park, so obviously you weren't the only one who thought they were crap . I brought them home to my kids, told them I got three medals coz I ran so well :cool:

The t-shirt, I put that on after the run and then binned it when I got home, it wasn't worth risking all that blue running into my real clothes in the washing machine...

Mad Benny

Stupid_Private wrote: »

You probably won't like me telling you that 0% of the entry fee goes to charity then?

Is that true? That's very bad form. Who do the proceeds go to then? There must be a massive profit on that.

TheRoadRunner

Mad Benny wrote: »

Is that true? That's very bad form. Who do the proceeds go to then? There must be a massive profit on that.

Yes it is true. In their defence they do "allow" you run for charity :rolleyes: and even designate particular charities. This is a big gripe with a lot of people here, the wording of the entries lead most people to believe a proportion of their money is going to charity when in reality it is not. Some races do give a proportion of profits to charity but again they generally never give an indication what the percentage is.

I'd love to have a poll of the people who raced on Sunday and ask were they under the impression that some of their entry fee went to charity. I bet 80-90% of the field would have been under this illusion.

PaulieC

Mad Benny wrote: »

Is that true? That's very bad form. Who do the proceeds go to then? There must be a massive profit on that.

I shouldn't think that the profit on an event like that is that big. Say there are 10,000 people entered. That would give a total entry fee of 280k. Out of that you need to pay:

• portaloo rental
• all race literature
• timing equipment (chips and mats etc)
• t-shirts
• water (lots of it)
• park clean up afterwards
• photography/websites/postage etc
• Policing

on the plus side, you have money from sponsors like Spar etc. and some money from RTE for rights. I'm sure they made some money, but I doubt it's massive profit

TheRoadRunner

cambo_gueno wrote: »

I shouldn't think that the profit on an event like that is that big. Say there are 10,000 people entered. That would give a total entry fee of 280k. Out of that you need to pay:

• portaloo rental
• all race literature
• timing equipment (chips and mats etc)
• t-shirts
• water (lots of it)
• park clean up afterwards
• photography/websites/postage etc
• Policing

on the plus side, you have money from sponsors like Spar etc. and some money from RTE for rights. I'm sure they made some money, but I doubt it's massive profit

They are a professional company who organise events such as the great north run etc. They're not in it for the good of their health and good luck to them just don't confuse participants with the usual charity ****e.

IMO a lot of the stuff you list above isn't relevant either. For example policing is free as is in a public park. Timing chips are probably owned by the company as they organise many of these races, obvious an initial out lay here. Website is a central one for their suite of races so again minimal cost after initial outlay. There are costs but a healthy profit is still made I'm sure. This is the 10th year of the GI run and I'm sure they wouldn't be back if it wasn't worth their while. I've no problems with the event and actually quiye enjoyed it apart from the delayed start.

macinalli

cambo_gueno wrote: »

I shouldn't think that the profit on an event like that is that big. Say there are 10,000 people entered. That would give a total entry fee of 280k. Out of that you need to pay:

• portaloo rental
• all race literature
• timing equipment (chips and mats etc)
• t-shirts
• water (lots of it)
• park clean up afterwards
• photography/websites/postage etc
• Policing

on the plus side, you have money from sponsors like Spar etc. and some money from RTE for rights. I'm sure they made some money, but I doubt it's massive profit

There's a lot of info on this forum already about the cost of each of the above - and it doesn't cost that much. There are a lot of better races than GIR run every month in Ireland where you'll get much more for a lower entry fee. Check out the thread here about the Dunshaughlin 10k in June as a good example - last year it was €12 entry and for that you get everything listed above, plus showers and a good feed afterwards.

The GIR people are perfectly entitled to charge €28 for their race, but it's up to the runners to know what they're getting for their entry fee and how this compares to other races.

RayCun

A good comparison would be the race series 5 and 10 mile races.
Same location, almost all the same costs, running t-shirt instead of cotton, and 8 euro cheaper.

The GIR is far from the worst, but it's not good value.

PaulieC

I signed up for the Boyne 10k, simply because it's in my hometown. It makes the GIR look like phenomenal value :rolleyes:

ergo

cambo_gueno wrote: »

I signed up for the Boyne 10k, simply because it's in my hometown. It makes the GIR look like phenomenal value :rolleyes:

but for the Boyne 10K (from their website)...:

Where your entry fee goes
To enter this great event will set you back €22.00 up to 1 March 2011. After 1st March it will cost €27.00. Enter on line at www.runireland.com.

Proceeds
Last year the event raised E30,000 for GOAL. This year 50% of the proceeds are going to the development of athletic facilities in Drogheda for young and old and 50% is going to the Building of Hope Charity, to build a school for blind kids in Mombasa, Kenya www.buildingofhope.org. We are hoping to beat last year’s funds raised.

so at least it is for a good cause

gerard65

cambo_gueno wrote: »

I signed up for the Boyne 10k, simply because it's in my hometown. It makes the GIR look like phenomenal value :rolleyes:

At least you know 50% of the fee is going to good causes and one being local. Still, €27 is a bit steep for a 10K.

shazkea

I just got an e-mail from GIR to fill out online evaluation questionnaire which I did.
If anyone has any complaints about the event, I suggest you fill it out too. For anyone who didn't get the e-mail, link is http://www.greatrun.org/PostRaceQuestionnaire/default.aspx?raceid=203

G-Money

I have to admit I thought some of the money went to charity too. I'm not sure why I thought that, but for some reason I did.

As for the medal, I thought it was nice enough, but then I don't exactly have a shelf full of them to compare it to!

funrunner95

Not surprising that none of the entry fee goes to charity I guess. I thought some of it went to the Marie Keating Foundation or 3TS because of the amount of the exposure these charities get with the race, just goes to show how easy someone can be duped. It truly was awful value for money, the half Marathon I ran in Omagh the week before was much better run and substantially cheaper (£19). Anyways my mine gripe was that they were obviously cutting costs when 2000 more people had entered, in other words the quality of the race has regressed. At least the money from the Boyne 10k is going to charity and back into grassroots athletics. Not a cent of the GIR entry fee goes to either, in fact I can't imagine it even going into the Irish economy

asimonov

National 10k results are up on the athletics ireland site

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?page_id=160

PGL

Does anyone know what the total ascent was for the GIR route?

I used the micoach iphone app for the race, which measured a total ascent of 107m. I seriously doubt that this is accurate, as I have seen other gps routes online which claim the total ascent is something closer to 40m.....

Also, the app measured the route as 9.76km - i assume the route was accurately measured by the race organisers, so obviously the app is underestimating distance, and most likely overestimating total ascent.

Any comments welcome

TrinityPhD

mapmyrun measured the route I ran as 10.11km and gave a max elevation of 61m and a minimum of 26.2m.

That'd make the overall climb 34m.

My iphone is the 3GS

(When I ran the 5km in Dublin on the 20th March it measured the route short @ 4.98km so the accuracy may not be that much better.)

PGL

TrinityPhD wrote: »

mapmyrun measured the route I ran as 10.11km and gave a max elevation of 61m and a minimum of 26.2m.

That'd make the overall climb 34m.

My iphone is the 3GS

(When I ran the 5km in Dublin on the 20th March it measured the route short @ 4.98km so the accuracy may not be that much better.)

cheers for that Trinity.

I've had a quick look at the mapmyrun app - it doesn't appear to have a facility to set up training plans for say 5k, 10k, half and full marathons etc, as is the case with the micoach app - or am I missing something?

many thanks

RayCun

PGL wrote: »

Does anyone know what the total ascent was for the GIR route?

There's a Race Profiles sticky in this subforum, where people post up the Garmin tracks of various races. The profile for the GIR is here.

JosDel

Can you spot yourself, a video I done at the start of the GIR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86awE5cMlw

daymobrew

JosDel wrote: »

Can you spot yourself, a video I done at the start of the GIR

Note the walker at 1:36, without even the courtesy to move to the side.

WithCheesePlease

cambo_gueno wrote: »

The t-shirt, I put that on after the run and then binned it when I got home, it wasn't worth risking all that blue running into my real clothes in the washing machine...

Ha - had to laugh cos that's exactly what I thought and did!!