Grant Thornton Corporate Challenge

viperlogic

Just got an email about this http://www.grantthorntoncorporatechallenge.ie/

13th May - NSC, Fingal
30th June - The Mall, Cork
1st Sept - Docklands, Dublin

€100 for a team of 4 with only 10% of entry going to charity :rolleyes:.

For Cork, there is no map yet but I'm guessing it may be the Run in the Dark course.

donaghs

Not much interest in this one?

I did it last night. Seemed to be a huge crowd there, lots of Business T-shirts visible. Seemed to be well organised. Quite crowded for most of the run, but at least everyone seemed to stick their time-group, e.g. no "walkers" at the beginning.
Couldn't see any KM markers so hard to tell exactly where I was on the course.

crisco10

Yeah did it too, and actually claimed a PB on the nice flat course. Was well organised to be fair. I started in the Sub 20 min pen and it was quite crowded up to the U-turn down toward the Point but it thinned out after. I think this is pretty much the case on any of the races on the quays.

Very much aimed at corporate crowd at €25 per person, but was glad I did it and nice to go running with colleagues too.

average_runner

Yeah I did this also. The only fault I had for this race was that had no medium, large or xlarge mens t-shirts.

aquinn

I did it and enjoyed it. First mile difficult with crowds and slippy underfoot so lost time. People doing mad things trying to get through.
I'd forgotten how much I hate running around Grand Canal with footpaths and up and downs but a PB, fastest female and Fifth overall in the company so happy with that.

Fiona44

This was my second year running this and once again found it really congested & not very well organised.

This year I started at the very front of the second wave and after less than a km caught up with the back of the first wave - people were running at 25min pace and slower, some were practically walking - and this was meant to be a sub 20min wave!

They should move the entrance to the first wave forward by about 20 meters so that it's not straight in front of people when they walk across the bridge.
I think alot of people just didn't read the sign and walked straight into the first wave they saw.

So I spent the entire race trying to weave through groups of joggers.
A few times I called out to people that I was coming through but they couldn't hear me because they had headphones in & music blaring!
I was getting stuck behind slow joggers all the way to the finish so couldn't get into any sort of rhythm!
Didn't enjoy it at all.

Strangely I still managed to get a PB for a second year running.
I didn't feel like I ran at PB pace & my garmin measured a good bit short so I'm quite convinced that this course is short. A few people I spoke to afterwards thought the same.

In terms of general organisation, I also have a few criticisms. I had a few friends who were stewarding & they were given really vague instructions.
One of them was told to direct people to the water at the finish line but no one told her where the water actually was so she didn't know where to direct people to! I had about 30 people come up to me asking me where I got my water.
Also no one seemed to be in charge at the start line and this also caused some delays with getting the race underway. One of the stewards at the start line told me the race started while they were still standing in the middle of the road so they nearly ended up caught up in the stampede!


I think it's just a blatant advertising campaign for Grant Thornton and there are much better races out there. In order to run the race properly they need to reduce the number of participants to about 60%.

aquinn

I'd forgotten about the course coming up short which annoyed me but was advised that it would have been properly measured. This left me a little bittersweet as a result. Watch had 3.05 and my friend was tracking on km and also measured short.
Same last year I started near the back of the second wave and was overtaking walkers from the start who started in the sub 20 wave. Problem with this is that people sign up for the company with no race experience and just go where it suits them.
This year I was maybe halfway up the second wave and people still in the wrong starting positions, this made for a difficult and annoying first mile as I didn't want to weave on the wet ground and be sent flying but some people were shooting across in all directions trying to get through.

crisco10

Oh yeah, My Garmin came up at circa 4.9km, as did the others in my company. I always come up short on races though, not sure why - I generally take bends wide etc to avoid the carnage on the inside line. But looking on GarminConnect, I see the u-turn point on the quays looks to be short of where it actually was, and apparently I cut a few corners at each of the 4 bridges and crossed the water. I think the twisty nature of the course would have caused a fair bit of aliasing on the GPS data points.

Sharkey47

Have to say I thouroughly enjoyed this event. We don't have any club runners in our firm so it was nice to be part of a team for a change. I started in the first wave , about 20 rows back and the start was all pretty orderly and polite. There were the usual quota of ear phone wearing runners but that's as you'd expect. I was somewhat taken aback by the number of people who were taking shortcuts but I imagine it was as much about avoiding congestion as about nicking the odd second.

cloneslad

average_runner wrote: »

Yeah I did this also. The only fault I had for this race was that had no medium, large or xlarge mens t-shirts.

I picked up all of our race packs on Tuesday afternoon and I was able to get tshirts in all of these sizes, as well as small mens & small and medium ladies.



I saw a woman walking, I almost ran into her, before I had even gotten as far as the CHQ at the start of the race. She wasn't even injured, she was very happy to be just walking along...in the middle of the road...in what was the sub 20 minute category, she must have pretty much walked from the bridge if I was able to catch up with her by then.

I do wish people would realise their level and stick to it.

average_runner

cloneslad wrote: »

I picked up all of our race packs on Tuesday afternoon and I was able to get tshirts in all of these sizes, as well as small mens & small and medium ladies.



I saw a woman walking, I almost ran into her, before I had even gotten as far as the CHQ at the start of the race. She wasn't even injured, she was very happy to be just walking along...in the middle of the road...in what was the sub 20 minute category, she must have pretty much walked from the bridge if I was able to catch up with her by then.

I do wish people would realise their level and stick to it.

I was down there at 1pm yesterday and they had nothing!!:mad:

Course is only short if you take the corners on the 4km, sometimes you had no choice and forced to do it by other runners. Would prefer if they had barriers there

cloneslad

average_runner wrote: »

I was down there at 1pm yesterday and they had nothing!!:mad:

I got a small female t-shirt for myself, gave it to my gf because I've never worn either o the two t-shirts from the last two times I ran it.

They really should provide better quality tshirts considering the price of the race and number of people who enter it.

Aquals

I know this is a twisty course with high buildings around, and that this can cause GPS watches to be inaccurate, but my experience is that if you feel like a course was short, then it probably was.

A few people told me that they got PBs last night, without feeling like they'd had to put in a "PB effort." Then, there was a piece on the radio this morning interviewing people at the race last night and almost everyone seemed to be saying that they'd gotten a PB. That'd be enough to put me off next year!

clickerquicklic

Course was 200metres or so short which was dissapointing. Run 5k every week and could pb this with little effort.

newinvestor

At €25 it was a bit pricey enjoyed it none the less , went smoothly so credit to the Garda and the marshals.

I was chasing sub 25 and managed a 24:40 despite stopping for a few seconds at 4km so I strongly suspect it was short. My garmin had me coming in at 25:10 which felt about right.

average_runner

clickerquicklic wrote: »

Course was 200metres or so short which was dissapointing. Run 5k every week and could pb this with little effort.

Course was only short if u ran on the footpaths

newinvestor

average_runner wrote: »

Course was only short if u ran on the footpaths

No corner cutting from me and still measured short but more importantly perceived effort tells me it was short or I've somehow done a 20 second pr while stopping mid way.

Hani Kosti

My two cents here.
Nice flat course clearly meant for a PB... If only walkers were more considerate and not so fricking selfish walking 3 abreast in sub 20 wave!!!
Even with a injury I ran a decent time so overall happy with that!
Pros:
T-shirt (probably first ever event with female and male T-shirts)
very good food at the finish line
overall great vibe

Cons:
Allocation (or rather the absence) of waves which lead to high number of walkers at the front
Short course
Chaotic bag drop

Great to see so many people taking a challenge

Ferris B

I echo the sentiments here re possible short course. I finished about 30/40 secs less than I would have thought without quite bursting a lung. Also seemed to be an unusually no of sizeable PB's run. While I'm delighted with my time, I'm not quite convinced it's legit.

The corner cutting was crazy. You normally get a few who do it but up at the south quays/ canal dock area about 95% of runners cut the corners up on the paths. These were not fun runners either (19/20 min pace) who should know better. One guy was so far inside the path he slipped on metal grating under the building and landed on his ar$e. I promise I didn't smile as I ploughed a lonely furrow on the road.

TheBazman

In one sense I really enjoyed it. I also had a pb and just managed under the 20 mins. In fact I dont know if I met anyone who didnt pb. I measured it as 4.94km. I did cut some corners a little just to get around people but I also went wide around some also to avoid people, so I think it was a little short alright.

Yeah agree re the waves. There were people in the 15 - 20 min wave that were closer to 30min runners. I really didnt feel that there was much room even towards the finish let alone the start. In fact the video clip of me finishing on the precision timing website has me bouncing off someone across the line.

I didnt use the bag drop myself but a few people from work did and said there was absolutely no hassle.

PVincent

Personally I think this race is one of the best on the calendar for what it sets out to do . That is to bring company employees together in a great environment , and in a healthy pursuit. Hundreds will tell you how much of a buzz it brings to their company both before and after, never mind during the action of the race. In most cases the runners are not paying the entry fee , so I think it's rather petty to be critical of the price. In any case I think the value of this race far outweighs many many others. You get a pretty decent tee shirt and as someone said above , I don't recall ever seeing a female cut top at a race. The quality of the tops are good as far as I am concerned. The registration process and the collection of the race numbers is straighforward. A small goodie bag is fine. The race night itself is well organised with a well placed baggage area, and a proper system to get in and out it. Plenty of announcements about start time . People will make their own mind on the course. There is no doubt that the cutting of corners on the loop on the Southside is a real issue nd despite the cones and stewards shouting to stay on the road , they were largely ignored . Yes the start area was narrow but the road works played a part . The finish area was better than last year as we were largely diverted up away from the bridge to collect water and fruit , of which there was ample for everyone. If you headed back to CHQ, you could have had any number of sandwiches ( must have a choice of about 10 types) and tea/ coffee. Results were available incredibly quickly. A decent set of team prizes were presented also within a very short space of time . The results were online almost immediately as were videos.
Of more importance was the great atmosphere that people who do not do races , or were new to this type of event bring . You could smell the buzz and surely that is what this event is truly about . Please God those new to the sport will now see what running is about and maybe just maybe , will venture to a Parkrun or their local club, or maybe start a running programme in their office. Corporate fitness is a massive area of growth for our sport , and the AAI are right to keep tipping away with the support of Grant Thornton .
As with any event there are issues that will be looked at . The wave system did not work and I am sure they will tinker with that to get it right. But you know it's up to the runners in the companies that take part to explain to their runners what the etiquette is . I did it with my 6 teams and they all know what is expected .
The event is probably over full and it was a close call last night to when the leaders came down to the last 1k and the last runners were still in the first 1k, so any more runners would have resulted in a pile up. I am sure they will have seen this and were alarmed at how close a call it was .
I ended up with a work mate , jumping in and helping the baggage reclaim , as they were struggling after the race . Easily fixed .


So I have nothing but praise for this race . Look at what it is achieving for the sport before you are over critical .

Killerz

Has anyone got a Garmin connect map or whatever showing the route they ran from last night? I'd hate to think it was short, but otherwise we're going to be all here speculating about whether or not it is short. With Athletics Ireland etc involved you would hope its been done correctly. I would have thought the tall buildings, corner cutting etc might contribute to a short recording of the course but who knows.

HelenAnne

Killerz wrote: »

Has anyone got a Garmin connect map or whatever showing the route they ran from last night? I'd hate to think it was short, but otherwise we're going to be all here speculating about whether or not it is short. With Athletics Ireland etc involved you would hope its been done correctly. I would have thought the tall buildings, corner cutting etc might contribute to a short recording of the course but who knows.

Yes, I'm so disappointed to think it might have been short. My watch measured it as 3.08 miles, which is close enough - I never go with my watch measurement over professional course measurement, it often seems to be a little bit off.
I think I put PB effort in, and it was completely flat and windless, so that would result in fast times, but I suppose it could have been short.

After last year's MSB 5k all the experienced runners I met after we're saying it was short straight away, whereas last night I was talking to a few top 20 finishers after and none of them mentioned it being short.
Sigh, I will just have to do another 5k ASAP to get a legitimate sub 20

Killerz

Okay, think I figured out the Garmin Connect thing myself. Here's a link to mine (hopefully it can be accessed), shows it at 3.03 miles, but look at the mapping.... look where it starts, look at the Grand Canal Dock area (which clearly is not right) and also it says I'm not moving for 15 seconds. So unless someone knows for an absolute fact that this is short, I would be very reluctant to hop on the 'short course' bandwagon due to people's Garmin readings. It is a very flat, sheltered, fast course with lots of runners at different pace levels to pull you along which might make it seem like an easier effort. I don't have any vested interest in this race by the way, but would be a shame to see it get a bad rep unnecessarily.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/886129406

Any thoughts?

aoboa

I run around there a lot and the tall buildings throw the garmin off all the time. Regularly shows me running through the corners of buildings, detouring down the middle of the Liffey, doing impossible switchbacks in zero seconds and zigzagging through buildings.
Pretty sure the gps bounces around a lot.

newinvestor

I mapped it out on google maps and it measures 4.83km that's using the roads all the way. Makes me doubt my pr which was no where near pr feel in all honesty , I'll just have to find a 5k to pr now nearer home.

aquinn

Killerz wrote: »

Okay, think I figured out the Garmin Connect thing myself. Here's a link to mine (hopefully it can be accessed), shows it at 3.03 miles, but look at the mapping.... look where it starts, look at the Grand Canal Dock area (which clearly is not right) and also it says I'm not moving for 15 seconds. So unless someone knows for an absolute fact that this is short, I would be very reluctant to hop on the 'short course' bandwagon due to people's Garmin readings. It is a very flat, sheltered, fast course with lots of runners at different pace levels to pull you along which might make it seem like an easier effort. I don't have any vested interest in this race by the way, but would be a shame to see it get a bad rep unnecessarily.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/886129406

Any thoughts?

Eh, why aren't you running back up the North Quays?

Mine looks like this?

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/885063859

Last year identical course:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/581388488

Looks like we should have gone closer to the roundabout at the Point?

Just that I wasn't pukey and able to chat at the finish had me suspicious.

demfad

Killerz wrote: »

Okay, think I figured out the Garmin Connect thing myself. Here's a link to mine (hopefully it can be accessed), shows it at 3.03 miles, but look at the mapping.... look where it starts, look at the Grand Canal Dock area (which clearly is not right) and also it says I'm not moving for 15 seconds. So unless someone knows for an absolute fact that this is short, I would be very reluctant to hop on the 'short course' bandwagon due to people's Garmin readings. It is a very flat, sheltered, fast course with lots of runners at different pace levels to pull you along which might make it seem like an easier effort. I don't have any vested interest in this race by the way, but would be a shame to see it get a bad rep unnecessarily.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/886129406

Any thoughts?

I was top 15 the other night. Im in OK shape, and I had a bad spell in the race when i surged at 2k down the quay, forgetting that there is actually a hill on the Samuel Beckett (that flatenned me). Cost me about 10s. I was astonished to see my time on finishing, which would be a PB for me. I thought immediately 20s short. I emailed another club mate yesterday who finished ahead of me and his gut feeling was short too as it was with others he chatted too.

As the start and finish were at the same spot the only variable point on the course (that can be re-positioned to lenghten or shorten the course) would seem to be the U turn position near the point roundabout.

For a short course it would either mean that the Point Roundabout (which needs to remain open I guess) gets in the way. This would mean the course is always short.

Otherwise, simply the U-turn was positioned in the wrong position this year and too far from the roundabout.

I cant see aquinn's links but what he/she says confirms for me that it was short for the latter reason. With the GPS readings, all the PBs, and this I have no doubt in my own mind that it was short, about 100-150m I'd guess.


For the first time ever I had a beetroot shot (a few hours before the race). I had 2 double espressos hanging around the CHQ beforehand too. I did spend some time foolishly musing if i'd inadvertantly stumbled upon the ultimate rocket fuel concoction. Not this time.

I didn't tell my work colleagues though as they are buzzing with the fast times and more likely to keep running if I don't burst their bubble.

(edit: Start/Finish always outside Grant Thorntons but still scope for some error there too)

average_runner

I just email the Athletics Ireland about this as they are the contact source on the webpage.
Knowing Athletics ireland the response will be very vague but I have asked for proof that the course was measured.

DubOnHoliday

If you look at the race on Stava, and there is a group of about 20 plus runners, all of them are 4.9 and 4.8. Not one made the 5k.
While I would agree totally with PVincent's post that the event is great for getting people out, the basics have to be gotten right.

menoscemo

average_runner wrote: »

I just email the Athletics Ireland about this as they are the contact source on the webpage.
Knowing Athletics ireland the response will be very vague but I have asked for proof that the course was measured.

Just a question, but what would this prove?
I'd have no doubt the course was measured, but if someone put the turnaround (or start/finish for example) at the wrong place it makes no odds. It' not like they measure the course on the night of the race....