VHI Women's Mini Marathon - 1st June

menoscemo

Myles Splitz wrote: »

Sad (but not surprising) that someone who stoop to such levels for a bit of attention.

Obviously got the number from someone they knew. Personally, I would like to see that person blacklisted from entering future events if I was the organizers to discourage entry swaps.

He got it from his grilfriend/partner; it's a blue number (sub 60 I think?). She as of yesterday morning was claiming she was doing the race and he is even wearing the singlet from her pre-race picture. Looks to me like he was trying to get her a fast number for next year and got a bit carried away. Both should be disqualified IMO.

Edit: Blue number were for joggers (60-75 minutes) so if she was looking for a fast jogger or even an elite number for next year; he really overdid it!!

Sunny Dayz

These are the times required to qualify in each category from their website:


"Proof must be provided by entrant that the following qualification times have been achieved within the past three years:

• Walker: Open to all - no qualification time required. Minimum age 14 years
• Jogger: 100 minutes or under. Minimum age 14 years
• Fast jogger: 75 minutes or under. Minimum age 14 years
• Runner: 60mins or under. Minimum age 18 years
• Elite Runner: 45mins or under. Minimum age 18 years
• Racing Wheelchair: 60 mins
• ​Elite Visually Impaired: 60 mins"

Linky: http://www.vhiwomensminimarathon.ie/race-information/faqs.216.html

AFAIK Yellow = walker, blue = jogger, pink = fast jogger, white = elite

HelenAnne

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

AFAIK Yellow = walker, blue = jogger, pink = fast jogger, white = elite

White numbers are for runners and elite runners - the elite numbers are just lower (maybe 1-100?) (only a few of the runners in the elite pen are real elites / international-level runners, though, maybe the top 10?)

I suppose we should give him the benefit of the doubt - maybe he was racing as hard as he could for some really personal charitable cause. But even so, he could have done it in another race. One of my friends who was out watching us said he was really disgusted to see the man really racing a club mate of ours up near the front -- she's a really good O45 runner, so you'd think a man (who looked younger than her as well as male!) could rein in his competitive instincts and let her have her deserved finishing position in an all-female race! (He finished 2 places ahead of her).

dublin runner

HelenAnne wrote: »

I suppose we should give him the benefit of the doubt - maybe he was racing as hard as he could for some really personal charitable cause.

I know you have expanded on your argument but in no way should this be tolerated. What's next? A man going toe-to-toe with the leading lady to get some attention? They both should be disqualified and reprimanded further with a ban in some way.

It's one thing coming 1,200th or whatever in under sub 60 minutes. It's quite another placing highly and in all honesty, taking the p!ss out of the race.

yaboya1

There's loads of ways to raise money for charity. Running in a women's race when you're a man and depriving competitive club runners of a place or two is not one of them. Somebody should have rugby tackled him in the finishing straight, then had it shown on the Six One news. Would probably put people off doing something similar so quickly in the future.

HelenAnne

dublin runner wrote: »

I know you have expanded on your argument but in no way should this be tolerated. What's next? A man going toe-to-toe with the leading lady to get some attention? They both should be disqualified and reprimanded further with a ban in some way.

It's one thing coming 1,200th or whatever in under sub 60 minutes. It's quite another placing highly and in all honesty, taking the p!ss out of the race.

I completely agree. I actually don't think any men should be allowed in it at all -- I know it matters much less further back, and some runners and competitors enjoy it and think the men dressed as women bring a bit of colour to it etc etc, but I don't really like it.
And if I was a woman who struggled to run/jog 10k in 90 minutes+ I would be quite disheartened to have some man dressed as Mrs Brown (or similar) mincing along beside me!

It's much worse if a man is really racing it and finishing high up (as in this case)! He should have been pulled off the course. I just meant maybe we should give his intentions the benefit of the doubt -- maybe he was misguided rather than an attention-seeking tool? Whichever it was, he shouldn't have been allowed to finish and he shouldn't be in the results. He cost me a place too!

eta: and before people start crying 'discrimination' because it's an all-female race, there are races / sporting events, both individual and team, etc that women can't enter and some that men can't enter. As long as we all have equal access to sporting facilities / clubs (which I think we do in this country with running / athletics -- i think all clubs / tracks etc are open to both genders).

menoscemo

HelenAnne wrote: »

It's much worse if a man is really racing it and finishing high up (as in this case)! He should have been pulled off the course. I just meant maybe we should give his intentions the benefit of the doubt -- maybe he was misguided rather than an attention-seeking tool? Whichever it was, he shouldn't have been allowed to finish and he shouldn't be in the results. He cost me a place too!

He really caught my attention yesterday hence the investigations. I was fuming when I saw him (I think he was just overtaking your clubmate at this point.

His GF/Partner was claiming she was doing the race as late as yesterday morning (as per FB) so it looks very much to me like he was just supposed to jog it for her.

Sunny Dayz

Curiosity got the better of me. I put in the race number of the man in the photo and it brought up a female name, completing the mini-marathon in 37 mins. Same female name in 2014 results shows a time of 1hr 27mins.

eviltwin

Did it yesterday and had a great day, very happy with my result. The men don't bother me but I'm in the Blue category so I'm not running it to place. Can someone answer me this? Does your time guarantee what corral you are in next year or is it limited to numbers? In other words, does 'Ciara' :rolleyes: coming in 11th place deprive a female runner of an elite status next year?

menoscemo

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Curiosity got the better of me. I put in the race number of the man in the photo and it brought up a female name, completing the mini-marathon in 37 mins. Same female name in 2014 results shows a time of 1hr 27mins.

Exactly; and her social media pics show that the man running with her number looks very like her partner

menoscemo

eviltwin wrote: »

Did it yesterday and had a great day, very happy with my result. The men don't bother me but I'm in the Blue category so I'm not running it to place. Can someone answer me this? Does your time guarantee what corral you are in next year or is it limited to numbers? In other words, does 'Ciara' :rolleyes: coming in 11th place deprive a female runner of an elite status next year?

No, I don't think so. The times are set (i.e. everyone with a sub 45 time gets an elite number). What she does do is deprive the 12th place runner of 11th place, the 21st place runner of 20th place the 101st runner of a top 100 spot etc etc....not to mention she disrupted and unsettled runners during the race itself.

TRR_the_turd

menoscemo wrote: »

No, I don't think so. The times are set (i.e. everyone with a sub 45 time gets an elite number). What she does do is deprive the 12th place runner of 11th place, the 21st place runner of 20th place the 101st runner of a top 100 spot etc etc....not to mention she disrupted and unsettled runners during the race itself.

But has anyone ever seen them in the same room together? Maybe she gets really angry 2k into the race and turns into a bloke Incredible Hulk style!

Streak101

yaboya1 wrote: »

There's loads of ways to raise money for charity. Running in a women's race when you're a man and depriving competitive club runners of a place or two is not one of them. Somebody should have rugby tackled him in the finishing straight, then had it shown on the Six One news. Would probably put people off doing something similar so quickly in the future.

Worked on this event a number of years ago and most involved are in the finishing are just volunteers. They would be leaving themselves open to all sorts if they intervened to remove someone, as nice an idea that would seem at the time , but pretty sure that's not in their brief.
Not sure if a paid committee member or member of the security group they have working with them could though!

yaboya1

Streak101 wrote: »

Worked on this event a number of years ago and most involved are in the finishing are just volunteers. They would be leaving themselves open to all sorts if they intervened to remove someone, as nice an idea that would seem at the time , but pretty sure that's not in their brief.
Not sure if a paid committee member or member of the security group they have working with them could though!

That's fair enough I suppose. I doubt if you put yourself forward to volunteer for any event, you expect to have to do anything like that.
It's just that (although I've never seen it myself) I've heard of people without numbers in marathons being removed from the course before the finish line, and assumed a similar system would be in place here (in this case men, or women without numbers).

Pink11

Despite the rain, a lingering head cold and cough, too many layers (never been so close to throwing away my beautiful adidas running jacket away halfways through but knew I'd regret it) I got a PB but only 9 seconds away from my end of year 10k target time. I also stopped for that orange energy drink towards the end. Which almost made me sick! haha does anyone know what it was? If i had kept going I would have smashed it!

I'm itching to do my next 10k now!!

Amazing atmosphere. What a great event.

I can't complain as I started near the front thanks to my qualifying times from earlier races this year so had a clear enough run most of the way.

Even still I saw a few people start working from about 1km on. That high up the field!? I didn't see their numbers but I presume they were one from the pink/yellow/blue zones and had pushed up. I know it's supposed to be a fun event and it really is but that is absolutely crazy and dangerous as so many runners have to try and dodge around these people. Fair enough if it's your first time and you're a bit green to it all but is it not basic common sense and manners?


I've often said that there should be a male mini marathon, which could perhaps encourage men to run for charities that are specific to men. Would be great to raise awareness for e.g prostate cancer etc

TRR_the_turd

Pink11 wrote: »

I've often said that there should be a male mini marathon, which could perhaps encourage men to run for charities that are specific to men. Would be great to raise awareness for e.g prostate cancer etc

There was one started a few years back but it never generated the same interest as the womens version. It was in the phoenix park. It morphed into the ARC 5k/10k which is now open to all and raises funds for cancer support

link

PaulieC

Considering the social media hoohaa that grew around John O'Regan's inclusion in this race I would be very surprised if this clown (and the real Ciara) are not banned from this in future.

menoscemo

PaulieC wrote: »

Considering the social media hoohaa that grew around John O'Regan's inclusion in this race I would be very surprised if this clown (and the real Ciara) are not banned from this in future.

The clown himself was already banned even before this

This Fat Girl Runs

I wrote up a race report, posted the highlights on my training log with a full report on my blog. Should I post it here as well or is that ok to just say it's up?

Also, to add my two cents; on the day the walkers at the start were more annoying than the men on the course (if you're going to walk get in the walkers pen!). I took a photo of some lads in fancy dress and just checked their numbers; they're all women's names with finishing times of about an hour. I honestly didn't expect the men to get a finishing time or place so yeah, that's annoying me now too!

Emer911

Pink11 wrote: »

I also stopped for that orange energy drink towards the end. Which almost made me sick! haha does anyone know what it was? If i had kept going I would have smashed it!

I think they were pimping handing out berocca? I managed to avoid them even though they were half way across the road trying to get anyone to take it off them.
Very brave of you to partake of a strange 'orange drink' while racing! :P

Pink11

Emer911 wrote: »

I think they were pimping handing out berocca? I managed to avoid them even though they were half way across the road trying to get anyone to take it off them.
Very brave of you to partake of a strange 'orange drink' while racing! :P

Haha!

I thought it was strange alright how they were running out with them. I thought it was something really special :eek:
It serves me right for being so nosy!

ahnowbrowncow

Not sure why some people are getting so precious about that fella doing well in the race. It's quite silly and I wouldn't consider running that race myself but what harm has he done?

Insulting him, snooping around on facebook and wanting to post his personal information is far worse.

dubal

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Not sure why some people are getting so precious about that fella doing well in the race. It's quite silly and I wouldn't consider running that race myself but what harm has he done?

Insulting him, snooping around on facebook and wanting to post his personal information is far worse.

He can't win anyhow, the volunteers at the finish line would simply ignore him

Dubal

ahnowbrowncow

dubal wrote: »

He can't win anyhow, the volunteers at the finish line would simply ignore him

Dubal

Exactly, so why the attempted witch hunt here?

Firedance

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Not sure why some people are getting so precious about that fella doing well in the race. It's quite silly and I wouldn't consider running that race myself but what harm has he done?.

He has taken a place from every woman that finished behind him, when you're a club runner (or fast runner) racing for a place its,hard enough without someone like him racing against you (when you're expecting only female competition) Every girl he passed would have felt disheartened & frustrated I'm sure. So he did plenty of 'harm' in that regard.

dublin runner

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Exactly, so why the attempted witch hunt here?

What witch hunt?

He competed in a women's only race. He should be embarrassed of his actions. If you can't see the problem with him coming in the top 20 in race of almost 40,000 people women well then I don't know.

I'm sure you won't have a problem with me running with Maria and overtaking her in the last 200m next year?*



*doubt I can even match her next year! Nice target though

davedanon

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Not sure why some people are getting so precious about that fella doing well in the race. It's quite silly and I wouldn't consider running that race myself but what harm has he done?

Insulting him, snooping around on facebook and wanting to post his personal information is far worse.

You're obviously not a runner, or you wouldn't even contemplate posting this rubbish, so perhaps it would be best not to parade your ignorance in front of people who are.

dubal

dublin runner wrote: »

What witch hunt?

He competed in a women's only race. He should be embarrassed of his actions. If you can't see the problem with him coming in the top 20 in race of almost 40,000 people women well then I don't know.

I'm sure you won't have a problem with me running with Maria and overtaking her in the last 200m next year?*



*doubt I can even match her next year! Nice target though

The top 10 are hand selected by the volunteers so any man would be excluded from prizes.

As a volunteer I would like to thank the wonderful ladies for their support, particularly at the finish line where they were so considerate for those coming behind them... And yes we were all frozen and soaked :-)

Dubal

dublin runner

dubal wrote: »

The top 10 are hand selected by the volunteers so any man would be excluded from prizes.

As a volunteer I would like to thank the wonderful ladies for their support, particularly at the finish line where they were so considerate for those coming behind them... And yes we were all frozen and soaked :-)

Dubal

Fair play for volunteering. It's a brilliant race. I do think it's right to call out cheaters though. It's just not fair on the women competing.

Pink11

Anyone know where we can view photos online? Saw loads of photographers!