Clonakilty Marathon December 8th

estariol

race was a disgrace end of! insult to injury is milan marathon has worked out cheaper than connemara....truly f*cked off with the nonsense race scene in this country

ChampionChip

I can just imagine the complaints if they had started the race without the late arrivals. Its a no win situation for the organisers. The marathon started at 28 mins past nine and the others at 34 minutes past nine.

estariol

what like we needed the national anthem, the blessing and the minutes silence? stfu!!

am so annoyed cant express it, truly disappointed!

ChampionChip

I deeply resent your stfu comment. No need for it.

I'm Northern Prod from Belfast so the anthem certainly was not for my benefit nor was the blessing. Minutes silence was very relevant for those amongst the organising committee who had lost a close family member recently.

Manners cost nothing but go a long long way

estariol

i believe it was 60 euros!!!! I'm not often vocal on here but please dont try and defend this my money will be spent elsewhere in future!

sadie06

Look, the majority of late arrivals followed advice from the organisers but ended up caught in traffic. My husband had registered on Friday night, and upon asking advice about transport the following morning, was told to definitely drive as 'there is loads of parking, so nothing will be backed up'.

He left our B&B in the town in plenty of time, but was turned back by a steward on his first attempted route as it was so backed up, and sent back into the town to approach from a different direction. A Garda tried to turn back traffic on the second route also, and many listened to him, but my husband forged ahead and finally got parked and to bag drop at 9.15am. Not his fault.

I would question the suitabilty of Inchdoney as a Start/Finish point for sure!

Seanie_H

estariol wrote: »

race was a disgrace end of! insult to injury is milan marathon has worked out cheaper than connemara....truly f*cked off with the nonsense race scene in this country

End of? So you're posting on a discussion board to tell everybody you're right and that's it?

And an stfu?

You're trolling here buddy.

estariol

no what I'm trying to say is I spent good money on this and it was a shambles, there is no way of miss-interpreting it! cost me race entry 60, 75 euro petrol and 2 nights hotel and am totally disappointed. If i were in a restaurant I would send it back!

macinalli

estariol wrote: »

no what I'm trying to say is I spent good money on this and it was a shambles, there is no way of miss-interpreting it! cost me race entry 60, 75 euro petrol and 2 nights hotel and am totally disappointed. If i were in a restaurant I would send it back!

You're annoyed, so you decide to come on here and abuse the timekeeper? Maybe you should contact the race organisers instead?

Shane12

I think the gripe that most people have is the price of the entry fee as it was expensive to enter, therefore the race organization should be relative to the fee.

The Dingle marathon is something they could learn from well organized. I also cant understand why they don't post out the race numbers this would eliminate late registration and if you are late tough. I am sure the entrance fee would cover the postage costs.

Just to add what everybody else said the volunteer marshals were very good and some even encouraging people.

estariol

maybe you've mis interpreted what the internet is there for! race was a joke, absolutely disgusted and an email has already been sent to the runclon. Commenting on it and now discussing is absolutely what boards is about! My most fervent and admonishing statement is don t waste your time and money this race!

dizzymom

couple of issues with the clonakilty events, there was several mats at the start of the race, I was a good bit back at the Half Marathon race, which mat was the actual official start ? It was extremely chaotic and confusing, it was so so clustered at the start, I think they should have kept the start in the town ! Another issue I had was the bag drop, it was in a small tent with queues and queues of people.
Another problem was the finish, also chaotic and no bananas or anything to eat, i had to search for water ! At the finish of half marathon there was cars going both ways, I had the little train coming towards me and when I crossed over there was a car coming, I mean there could have been serious accidents, I dont think Clonakilty coped well with the volume of people who came for the race. But these are teething problems and I think Clonakilty with a couple of tweaks could be an amazing yearly event.
Weather was amazing yesterday, not a puff of wind or a drop of rain, the course was challenging and extremely scenic, the tshirt and medal were top quality. Clonakilty could learn a lot from Dingle Marathon where there was a barbeque at the finish for the exhausted starving runners, this is just my opinion though !

grasscutter

Hi

this was my first race of the year after injury and overall I enjoyed the race

Positives:
Scenery - lovely part of the country and a 13 mile tour -on foot was a great way to see it

Gardi/Stewards/Volunteers on the course - seemed well organised and switched on and gave clear orders at various locations.

Water stations = well stocked, frequent and enough people handing out the water.

Registration - was well organised and I was dealt with efficiently


Issues:

getting access to the start line was confused on the race day. Was it following the Conemara model or not? Ended up getting some tractor train yoke to the start

Timings - still no chip time given(just gun) and no split time mats for the 1/2

Start/Finish area was overcrowded for the numbers

Goody Bag was sparse apart from the nice t-shirt

Hotel selling overpriced bbq at the end

Overall i enjoyed the race and I think the fact that it was the first time starting on the island, so as long as the organisers commit to addressing the start/finish line issues I would go back.

cheers

grasscutter

a_non_a_mouse

ChampionChip wrote: »

I am not one of the organisers, just a paid service provider but I know they had certain restrictions forced on them re the route, start and finish etc. Its not their fault the race was held up by late arrivals, after all everyone knew the start time. I was on site at 6.30am and the organisers were there long before me.

Hummm...anyone who ever went to Inchydoney on a summers day would know that access and parking was going to be a nightmare on the day.
Don't blame the people who turned up late, blame the people who put on the race on in that venue.

DMGACC

ChampionChip wrote: »

I deeply resent your stfu comment. No need for it.

I'm Northern Prod from Belfast so the anthem certainly was not for my benefit nor was the blessing. Minutes silence was very relevant for those amongst the organising committee who had lost a close family member recently.

Manners cost nothing but go a long long way

hi champion chip,

are you goin to going to put chip times on internet? i done the half marathon but because start was so crowded had to start at back of field. it was almost 2 mins from the gun to when i passed the timing mat which was difference between achieving my target time and not achieving it. it would be nice for my chip time to also be published on internet. thanks

Longboard

Results were up here (http://www.championchipireland.com/results/index.php) since last night.

I would agree with most of the opinions posted here about the event (late start, poor traffic management, lack of supplies at the finish, crowding at the bag drop off, overcharging at the hotel barbecue, expensive entrance fee), however i still found it an enjoyable day for my first half marathon. Weather was great, volunteers helpful, great atmosphere (even with the drawbacks) and a nice challenging course!

Mad Benny

I did the marathon and achieved a PB. I thought that the organisation was fine apart from the late start.

I agree with ChampionChip regarding the prayer and national anthem. It's not my thing either but it only took a couple of minutes and I'm sure it meant a lot to some of the people there.

I met two chaps from Westmeath who ran the marathon. One had 50 Euro stolen from his trousers. It was in his bag left at the bag drop. I was very disappointed to hear that.

DMGACC

Longboard wrote: »

Results were up here (http://www.championchipireland.com/results/index.php) since last night.

I would agree with most of the opinions posted here about the event (late start, poor traffic management, lack of supplies at the finish, crowding at the bag drop off, overcharging at the hotel barbecue, expensive entrance fee), however i still found it an enjoyable day for my first half marathon. Weather was great, volunteers helpful, great atmosphere (even with the drawbacks) and a nice challenging course!

Im pretty sure those results are time from starting gun as opposed to chip times. normally both would be given?

cbig

In my opinion the organisers got lucky. If the weather had been bad there would have been serious issues making people wait 30mins and then insisting on the anthem and a prayer and minutes silence.
I think they should have done those things on time at least.

But saying that the course was great.

The pacers were not great (pace uneven etc from what I saw)

Traffic wasn't an issue until near the finish when the volume of cars on the route increased and on a few occasions I had to move for them. (Is this not the reason I pay to run on closed/safe roads?)

Water stations and marshalls were good

Goodie bag was non existent

T-shirt and medal as expected

This is not a pb marathon course due to its extreme hills but that's not a reason to stay away. Every race has something to offer and this has beautiful scenery and a challenging course.

Ill give this race a 6/10

boreder

I couldn't get over the lack of a bar of chocolate / piece of fruit at the end. I thought it was standard practice. I wouldn't enter this again - nearly got run over twice. Standing around in the bitter cold for 30 mins after warming up is a joke too. As is letting 1800 odd people off at the same time on roads so narrow.

I enjoyed the course for the most part, but the entry price coupled with the other issues (as well as travel costs, personally) mean that I won't be putting this on my schedule for next year.

HelenAnne

Longboard wrote: »

I would agree with most of the opinions posted here about the event (late start, poor traffic management, lack of supplies at the finish, crowding at the bag drop off, overcharging at the hotel barbecue, expensive entrance fee), however i still found it an enjoyable day for my first half marathon. Weather was great, volunteers helpful, great atmosphere (even with the drawbacks) and a nice challenging course!

I'm sorry to say, I'd have to agree with all of the above too. I ran the half yesterday with two friends (both doing their first half marathons) and while we had a great day & a great weekend in Cork, there were a lo of organisational problems.

I think the actual race (after the first mile or two) was really good -- beautiful scenery, quiet roads, well marshalled, quite a bit of support & lots of water tables. Also, despite the hills, I ran a PB, so I'm happy with that.

We registered on Friday, and that went smoothly too. My only disappointment on Friday was that despite offering them on the entry form, they didn't have XS t shirts. I'm destined never to have a race t-shirt that fits! (I know Rahfarnham do really small t-shirts but I missed that this year). Everyone was friendly though & the setting was lovely, so that was all fine.

On Saturday we arrived in Clonakilty just before 8, but were very delayed getting out to Inchydoney by traffic. We parked in time though, and headed to the hotel. Though all the volunteers were working really hard, I think it might have been good to have more Run Clon team members around -- when looking for portaloos, bag drop and race start, I couldn't find anyone from Clonakilty to ask and had to ask other runners or hotel staff. (There may have been signs, but the area was so crowded and I am not tall, so I couldn't see anything like that due to the crowds. I also couldn't hear the PA -- I think sound was muffled by the little tent it was in?) On the plus side, the portaloos were lovely & clean and there were short queues.

I took SO LONG to leave my bag in, and because by that time people were saying the race wouldn't start on time, I had to keep my jacket on & run in it, which I hadn't intended to do, as I knew I couldn't stand about in my singlet for 40 minutes!

If I do the race again, I'll leave my bag in the car and wear a bin bag.

I'm sure the minutes silence/anthem etc was important to people, but I feel that maybe that could have been done during the 1/2 hour delay. It was a bit much to ask runners who were already cold and presumably a bit stressed by the constant inaccurate predictions of the new start time to stand on the line for an extra few minutes.

I'd intended to go with the 1.45 pacers, but because of the position of the start line there was no room to walk past runners making their way up from the lower car park, so I ended up quite near the back. I was passing walkers for several miles, and it took me about 11 miles to catch the 1.45 pacers.
I was a bit stressed by all this at the start, but I decided to just enjoy it, and after the bottleneck of the first mile or two I really did enjoy it.

Thanks so much to the locals who came out to cheer us on, and to the marshalls, who gave very clear directions etc. I loved the scenery and had no problems with road surfaces or cars, and the hills weren't THAT bad. I loved running through Rathbarry -- what a lovely forested entry to the village, and the man with the microphone and kids with bodhráns were great.

Great support at the finish, which I needed on that final hill, but no bananas or anything! Needless to say, collecting bags was awful, but thanks to the young people at the bag area for doing their best. I was also suprprised to see sausages being cooked in the very crowded tent ...

Nice medal, and I like my t-shirt, and I liked the silver blankets at the end.

I don't know if I'll be back. It was a lovely course, but other races I've done this year like Run the Line and the Slieve Bloom Mountain Run and the Glenfarne 10k, the Heart of Laois 10k and the Roundwood Reservoir Run have been just as scenic, cheaper and better organized. AND they all had tea and cake at the finish!

I hope the chip times as well as gun times go up on Champion Chip.

Well done to everyone who ran and thanks to the volunteers for giving up their time. Overall, I had a great day, but that was because of the countryside and the actual race itself. The other things need to be ironed out.

belcarra

cbig wrote: »

The pacers were not great (pace uneven etc from what I saw)

On that course with so many hills it would be wrong to run the same speed for each mile as the pacees would never survive the uphills. That is why we ran slower up the hills and picked up time on the downhills.

HelenAnne

What time were you pacing, Belcarra?

ultraman1

HelenAnne wrote: »

What time were you pacing, Belcarra?

4:16 i believe:p

ultraman1

cbig wrote: »

The pacers were not great (pace uneven etc from what I saw)

wat did u see....

ChampionChip

Chip times and splits are already up for the full marathon. Just posted chip times for the Mini and Half. Took all day to sort out the anomalies of runners starting one race and then doing a different route etc etc.

Puck

sadie06 wrote: »

He left our B&B in the town in plenty of time

Just out of curiosity, what time did he leave? I arrived around 7 and the roads were still pretty quiet at that stage.

grimbergen

As a matter of interest, is this a commercial for-profit event?

belcarra

ultraman1 wrote: »

4:16 i believe:p

Took me 8 seconds extra cos I had to carry Tom over the line!!:D

Oisin11178

cbig wrote: »

The pacers were not great (pace uneven etc from what I saw)

Can you elaberate on this. Was it a fact of them slowing on the uphills and speeding up on the downhills, if so thats a perfectly acceptable tactic on a course like that. Im not linked with this marathon in any way but am interested.