National Half Marathon - Athenry 2/09/2012

ThePiedPiper

What's the procedure for number pickup? Will this still be happening up until 12.30 ish and where do you pick up the numbers? Thanks.

doctorchick

RunForestRun wrote: »

What's the procedure for number pickup? Will this still be happening up until 12.30 ish and where do you pick up the numbers? Thanks.

Numbers can be picked up from Presentation College (the Race HQ) from 11am. This is all being administered by AAI so have absolutely no idea what you will need to bring along to get your number.

There will be signs all around Athenry (assuming they don't get stolen....again) pointing you in the right direction.

Iain

doctorchick

Good morning race fans,

Athenry is springing into life and as I look out I can see blue skies. The day started a bit drizzly but it looks like we might be on for a warm one.

I have the boiler stoked and so hopefully we should be able to provide you hot showers (why do I feel I am going to regret saying that).

One final reminder - Registration opens at 11am from Presentation College Athenry Gym - plenty of signs to guide you there, and the race starts at 1am from Raheen Woods Hotel (again, plenty of signs to guide you).

Enjoy and see you out there.

Iain

bonaparte2

doctorchick wrote: »

Good morning race fans,

Athenry is springing into life and as I look out I can see blue skies. The day started a bit drizzly but it looks like we might be on for a warm one.

I have the boiler stoked and so hopefully we should be able to provide you hot showers (why do I feel I am going to regret saying that).

One final reminder - Registration opens at 11am from Presentation College Athenry Gym - plenty of signs to guide you there, and the race starts at 1am from Raheen Woods Hotel (again, plenty of signs to guide you).

Enjoy and see you out there.

Iain

batteries in headlamp check

tang1

According to results on Precision, no sign of Gary O Hanlon and tunguska home in over 1.30. Something happen?

TRR

Got text to say Tunguska ran a low 72.

tang1

TRR wrote: »

Got text to say Tunguska ran a low 72.

Apologies must be somebody with same name.

TRR

tang1 wrote: »

Apologies must be somebody with same name.

He finished 13th. Gary ohanlon 5th. I found both in results, may have just been updated.

menoscemo

tang1 wrote: »

According to results on Precision, no sign of Gary O Hanlon and tunguska home in over 1.30. Something happen?

You are looking at the wrong results.
O'Hanlon 5th

Tunguska 1:12

http://www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer?v=%252Fen%252Frace%252Fshow%252F997%253Flayout%253Dprecision_timing

Results seem to be split between people entered as part of a team and those of Individuals. You were loking at te individual results...

tang1

menoscemo wrote: »

You are looking at the wrong results.
O'Hanlon 5th

Tunguska 1:12
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, just copped that, cheers.

RacoonQueen

Well done to Athenry, pulled off a good race.

Highlight of my day meeting Magnets lovely little baba.

And Mick, I still reckon that 10 mile marker was out of place.

Mick Rice

RQ - I'll forgive your scepticism...just this once, but that course was measured three times by different qualified measurers :-) My money's on it being bang-on.

I think everyone at the club is very happy with today's race and the feedback we've had has been almost universally positive so far. If we did slip up anywhere please let us know where we could improve. This was the first half marathon in Athenry since 1962, when the NACA held their National 15 Mile National Champs here, which as as close to a 'half' as they got back in those days. We were anxious to put on a good race and we hope we met that goal.

We had almost 200 volunteers on the road today stewarding every junction, twist and bump on 7 miles of road. Those who weren't on the road were making tea, hauling barriers and doing the myriad other tasks that go to making a successful day out.

We hope you enjoyed the day. Perhaps we'll do it again sometime...

RacoonQueen

I must have cut a couple of corners. :pac:

Nice course, not too hilly - lots of people saying it was very hilly but didn't agree myself (though I wasn't running HM pace). Great support out on the route and the laps were well managed.

Be good to see Athenry host another half. Not enough club organised HM's around which is why the commercial races have taken over that distance.

dev123

Great race today. Really enjoyed the course. Definitely wouldn't describe it as hilly. The head wind was tough in some exposed stretches. Registration was a bit all over the shop. No record of my name so had to re-register. I had registered on line last week. As far as I know this was AAIs fault and not athenry. I would definitely be back if this was to be an annual thing. Well done athenry ac

ThePiedPiper

Great race today. Well done to everyone in Athenry for putting on a good event. I thought the course was very fair.
Nice chatting to you briefly after the race Mick.

Krusty_Clown

Very well organized race. Can't fault anything (except Doctorchick clearly stated that water would be in 200ml bottles, and it was quite obviously in 250ml bottles :P). A bit of messing at registration, but it was organized by the AAI rather than Athenry AC, so it's probably to be expected (next year, have Athenry organize the registration!). I thought it would be difficult for anyone to match Waterford AC's organization last year, but Athenry AC succeeded admirably.

It was a good, fair course, with a nice mixture of weather! Extremely happy with how my race went, finishing in 1:17:16, more than a minute faster than my target, and 2.5 minutes faster than my PB in the national Half marathon last year.

dev123

Great to meet you at registration Krusty. Congrats on the PB. Tis a year of PBs for the Clown. I'd say you can't wait for a pop at London '13.

doctorchick

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Very well organized race. Can't fault anything (except Doctorchick clearly stated that water would be in 200ml bottles, and it was quite obviously in 250ml bottles :P).

I hang my head in shame for that one - the suppliers managed to give us 25% extra free, I did start pouring 50ml out of each bottle but I just ran out of time, I promise it won't happen again.....

Glad you enjoyed it, we enjoyed putting it on.

Iain

Kittycat77

Enjoyed the race today, good conditions, fair course and stewards very professional and friendly. 2 issues, there should have been toilets at registration, either access to the PC own toilets or a few portaloos. Im sure most like me were sipping on fluids during the morning so after a journey down to Galway that was high on the agenda after getting out of the car. I thought it was poor that you had to walk to the finish to use the toilets, also had to do the same walk again while waiting for the prize giving, might seem like a small thing, but I don't think I was the only one a bit stiff at this stage, so I didn't feel like a walk of a few hundred metres just to go to the toilet. Second issue a small thing, but thought the food after was poor, most club races would have sambos and/or brack after, which wouldn't have cost much, and would have been more nutritious and nicer than loads of biscuits. Otherwise well done Athenry

ManFromAtlantis

well done and thanks athenry ac.

what a well organised race. huge numbers of stewards/helpers etc. actually a good course too, a bit of everything and overall fair.


a few portaloos at reg would be the only constructive criticism.

stipes212

any results??

RacoonQueen

stipes212 wrote: »

any results??

They're in the independent(or times) today.

tunguska

This is how a race should be run, well done Athenry AC. Cant fault the organisation at all, it was perfect. Marshalls at every junction giving us clear instructions as to which direction we should take. I know that sounds very simple but I did a few commercial races this year where the marshalling was shocking and even that most basic of jobs of directing people wasnt accomplished. Good course aswell, thought the race flew by, before I knew it we were at 12miles gone. A good day all in all, even my fantasy football team ran amuck.
Great stuff lads cheers.

lway

stipes212 wrote: »

any results??

They were up on the precision timing website yesterday, was looking at them.
http://www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer?v=%252Fen%252Frace%252Fshow%252F997%253Flayout%253Dprecision_timing
Can't see them today for some reason. Might just be work blocking them.

EDIT: Seems they have taken them down "Results will be available here after they are published in the Independent paper tomorrow and from Athletics Ireland thereafter. Thank you "

Well done to Athenry AC on a well organised race, my first half marathon and wanted to go sub 2hr and managed it. Great support along the way and especially at the finish straight, a nice wide road for the holding/warmup area as well as the start. Still plenty of water for those of us towards the back of the field and the jellies at the last junction were very welcome .

A bit confusing at registration as others have pointed out, was queuing for a while to then be told individual registrations were at a seperate desk, that desk was for team registrations only, same with the t-shirt collection. Also why were the XL t-shirts grey ?

Overall a great day and met my target time so very happy overall .

lway

First bunch of photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/72157631376782086/

More Photos on the main page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/

doctorchick

Kittycat77 wrote: »

I thought it was poor that you had to walk to the finish to use the toilets, also had to do the same walk again while waiting for the prize giving, might seem like a small thing, but I don't think I was the only one a bit stiff at this stage, so I didn't feel like a walk of a few hundred metres just to go to the toilet. Second issue a small thing, but thought the food after was poor, most club races would have sambos and/or brack after, which wouldn't have cost much, and would have been more nutritious and nicer than loads of biscuits. Otherwise well done Athenry

OK, to address the first point, and I have to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for deciding to shut those toilets as I pushed for it to be done. There were anumber of reasons for doing it:-

Every year when we run the FoA 10K the toilets downstairs will block, and we either end up having to close off some toilets or task someone to put on the big glove and go fishing to unblock the toilet (it is like a right of passage in the club these days), and so we wanted to avoid the blcokages. This is not our infrastructure we are using, it belongs to PCA, and less than 24 hours after using that hall this weekend it reverted back to being the school gym and cafeteria and we could not risk a serious blockage which was not going to be easily rectified by school time. PCA set the conditions for us using that hall and we rely on it so much for our races that we will do as they wish. St Stephens day race is not such a problem because we have time to fix any problems such as blockages that may occur before school reopens.

Secondly, the race start was approx 400m away from the school and we wanted to avoid having large queues building up in the school toilets that would mean people missing the start, which is why we put the bulk of our portaloos at the start line. One of the absolute rules that are put on us by PCA is that we cannot have portaloos on the school grounds. Again for FoA 10K we put the portaloos in the carpark external to the school, but again this would have been taking people further away from the start and so we didn't put them in the normal place.

The upstairs toilets in the school WERE open, and plenty of people were using them. We just didn't advertise they were open, again to try and limit the effects detailed above. We will discuss this decision internally and see what others participants had to say on it, and that will be considered into the planning for future events.

As to the second point with regard to the food, we just don't do that type of catering at our big events, we don't do sambos, and there is only cake if someone takes a whim and does a bit of baking for the event, it is never planned for. What people may not realise is that this event is going to cost Athenry AC money (and probably quite a lot of money), we only get a nominal 'grant' from AAI, and AAI also cover the cost of some of the key items, but all catering costs have to be met by the club, as does the water, as do the bananas etc. We get absolutely no cut of the entry fee - this goes to AAI.

Iain

doctorchick

lway wrote: »

Also why were the XL t-shirts grey ?

There is a story around the T-shirts which probably not best to go into, but it seems that the sponsors weren't happy with the design on the grey T-shirt and so a smallish number of replacements were bought in - the white ones. We said that when all the 'official' white ones were gone we would give out the grey shirts, and hence why you probably ended up with a grey XL. Personally I think the grey shirts are a much nicer shirt.

Iain

Krusty_Clown

lway wrote: »

They were up on the precision timing website yesterday, was looking at them.
http://www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer?v=%252Fen%252Frace%252Fshow%252F997%253Flayout%253Dprecision_timing
Can't see them today for some reason. Might just be work blocking them.

EDIT: Seems they have taken them down "Results will be available here after they are published in the Independent paper tomorrow and from Athletics Ireland thereafter. Thank you "

Just curious: Anyone know who benefits from delaying the results until they are published in the papers? Obviously the Independent pays someone a few quid to delay publishing the results on the site. I mean they were published and subsequently withdrawn so it's not a technical limitation, so clearly a financial incentive. Not a complaint, just curious.

I have to say the Precision Timing system works really well. No faffing around with shoe laces and cable ties and the results are (*usually*) available very promptly.

wgtomblin

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Just curious: Anyone know who benefits from delaying the results until they are published in the papers?

Presumably, the Independent benefits?

RacoonQueen

doctorchick wrote: »

OK, to address the first point, and I have to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for deciding to shut those toilets as I pushed for it to be done. There were anumber of reasons for doing it:-

Every year when we run the FoA 10K the toilets downstairs will block, and we either end up having to close off some toilets or task someone to put on the big glove and go fishing to unblock the toilet (it is like a right of passage in the club these days), and so we wanted to avoid the blcokages. This is not our infrastructure we are using, it belongs to PCA, and less than 24 hours after using that hall this weekend it reverted back to being the school gym and cafeteria and we could not risk a serious blockage which was not going to be easily rectified by school time. PCA set the conditions for us using that hall and we rely on it so much for our races that we will do as they wish. St Stephens day race is not such a problem because we have time to fix any problems such as blockages that may occur before school reopens.

Secondly, the race start was approx 400m away from the school and we wanted to avoid having large queues building up in the school toilets that would mean people missing the start, which is why we put the bulk of our portaloos at the start line. One of the absolute rules that are put on us by PCA is that we cannot have portaloos on the school grounds. Again for FoA 10K we put the portaloos in the carpark external to the school, but again this would have been taking people further away from the start and so we didn't put them in the normal place.

The upstairs toilets in the school WERE open, and plenty of people were using them. We just didn't advertise they were open, again to try and limit the effects detailed above. We will discuss this decision internally and see what others participants had to say on it, and that will be considered into the planning for future events.

As to the second point with regard to the food, we just don't do that type of catering at our big events, we don't do sambos, and there is only cake if someone takes a whim and does a bit of baking for the event, it is never planned for. What people may not realise is that this event is going to cost Athenry AC money (and probably quite a lot of money), we only get a nominal 'grant' from AAI, and AAI also cover the cost of some of the key items, but all catering costs have to be met by the club, as does the water, as do the bananas etc. We get absolutely no cut of the entry fee - this goes to AAI.

Iain

Could understand the toilet decision and figured the fact the school was open again this morning would be the underlying reason. Expalined to people it was probably down to the fact that do many people are dirty and disrespectful and the toilets at races like that are always left in a disgraceful state.

Re: Athenry not getting an money from the AAI. That is absolutely disgraceful. How do they justify that? Don't understand that at all. That would put me off entering the national half in future knowing it costs the clubs money to host the race.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Just curious: Anyone know who benefits from delaying the results until they are published in the papers? Obviously the Independent pays someone a few quid to delay publishing the results on the site. I mean they were published and subsequently withdrawn so it's not a technical limitation, so clearly a financial incentive. Not a complaint, just curious.

I have to say the Precision Timing system works really well. No faffing around with shoe laces and cable ties and the results are (*usually*) available very promptly.

No idea. I never understand it. Wouldn't encourage me to buy the paper. Find it very annoying when races do this, I assume the Indo buy exclusive rights to the results. Would be interested to know if it actually increases sales

Krusty_Clown

wgtomblin wrote: »

Presumably, the Independent benefits?

Well, clearly (or at least in principle). But who do they pay/incentivise to withhold the results? Is is the AAI or Precision Timing?

average_runner

Seems like a great race. I think the idea of bottle water is great, pity other half marathons don't do this.

Krusty_Clown

Results are back online again.

lway

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Results are back online again.

For some reason these still don't show up in my browser.

So for anyone else like me here is a link to the Athletics Ireland Results page

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

It has the results broken down by Overall, Women, Men's Team and Women's Team, results are Gun time, Precision Timing link has the Chip times too (for those of us who started at the back:))

RacoonQueen

lway wrote: »

For some reason these still don't show up in my browser.

What browser are you using?

Safari has gone crazy for me, not showing up any pdf links.

Krusty_Clown

lway wrote: »

For some reason these still don't show up in my browser.

Nah, they seem to have whipped them out again, which I'd imagine would be a bit annoying for anyone looking for their chip time!

lway

RacoonQueen wrote: »

What browser are you using?

Safari has gone crazy for me, not showing up any pdf links.

I'm using Firefox, I even dug out my link to IE and tried that.

As Krusty says they seem to have taken them off again, presumably to make allow people go to the Athletics Ireland page.

In case it was lost, I updated my previous post with a link to some more photos , the set 2 has more photos not in the original Set of 100.

jahaco

I am thoroughly confused. Why use Precision Timing if AAI only ever intended to report gun times? Seems like a wasted effort and expense!

doctorchick

jahaco wrote: »

I am thoroughly confused. Why use Precision Timing if AAI only ever intended to report gun times? Seems like a wasted effort and expense!

That is something you will to take up with AAI, Athenry AC had no real say in who did the timing and I believe Precision Timing have some form of agreement with AAI to provide their timing services.

RacoonQueen

jahaco wrote: »

I am thoroughly confused. Why use Precision Timing if AAI only ever intended to report gun times? Seems like a wasted effort and expense!

Because then they'd have to manually have someone jot down times as 400 people cross the line. Gun times are the official record of your race time. Chip time is merely a novelty. The AAI have no interest in chip times they don't count for anything.

It's strange they don't allow precision timing to put them on their site though.