Run in the Dark 2014 - Dublin

P_Fitz

The issue with the distance was because most people were cutting corners. There were some wide footpaths on the course and runners were cutting across them instead of staying on the road which is how the course would have been measured. Also, there was a small roundabout on the 10km route and a steward was telling runners to go around it but nobody was. By rights there should have been cones and tape up to stop people taking short cuts. I started near the front so congestion wasn't much of an issue until the last 2km when we merged with the 5km runners again. Then it was a disaster trying to zig zag around them.
Most of you won't have seen it but just before the start the organisers brought out 3 or 4 barriers about 20m from the start line with the idea of forcing the field to spread out across all lanes of the quays. Thankfully they saw sense and removed them again because there would have been carnage.

who_ru

Runinthedark needs a city centre location for accessibility, i was thinking that the phoenix park would be a good location for it but maybe not in hindsight as getting people there with little or no public transport to serve it wouldn't be wise. people need to forget PBs or times at an event like this, it isn't designed for that. Feel very bad for the family of the guy who died, anybody know what age he was?

rondeco

who_ru wrote: »

Runinthedark needs a city centre location for accessibility, i was thinking that the phoenix park would be a good location for it but maybe not in hindsight as getting people there with little or no public transport to serve it wouldn't be wise. people need to forget PBs or times at an event like this, it isn't designed for that. Feel very bad for the family of the guy who died, anybody know what age he was?

38

blackwhite

I have to say I quite enjoyed it, but then it was my first ever organised run so I'd most likely have enjoyed anything.

I'd only ever ran my first 10k training run in mid-October, and was just hopng to break an hour on the night. Was delighted to get home in 54.09 (Net), having never managed better than 58 in training.

On the distance thing, I was using MapMyRun (which I know isn't always perfectly accurate), and it gave me a distance of 10.05km having hit start as I crossed the timing pads after the start line, and hitting stop just after the timing pads at the end. (For comparison, the MMR time was 54.22, which tallies with the chip time when you allow for time taking removing the thing from my arm before I could hit stop!)
I made sure to stay on the road at all times, and was very careful not to cut any corners, so maybe this is why some people are having the distance come up short?

Agreed that the organisation was pretty amateurish (which I guess is the price of having most of the donations going to the charity). One suggestion that might make things better would be to have a separate starting pen for walkers.

As highlighted, the park section was poorly done, especially the hairpin turn and the run along the wall after it.
Also, the section along the side of State Street's offices (google maps calls it Benson St) was very poorly lit, and was quite dangerous when you consider the high curbs, uneven surface, and the presence of a Dublin Bikes stand jutting out into the road!

Despite some of the problems, it was an enjoyable night and I'm glad to have my first "competitive" run out of the way.
Now to target a sub-50!