Jingle Bells 5km, 05/12/15

Firedance

Well done to the Donore volunteers for marshalling in that weather today, very much appreciated. Things may not have gone to their plan, I believe no start mat due to safety concerns, but given the conditions imo they did a great job today.

Baggirshorts

This was to be my first 5k run....and was extremely disappointed that I had to pull out after a horrible night of sickness....:(
I had done a nice run yesterday and was suffering with breathing throughout...

A big well done to everyone who participated as the weather was (for some) quite bad. I managed to cheer a few souls on for about 15 minutes as my token gesture....
Well done organizers for getting it off....where many others have failed today...

RacoonQueen

Would rather have been marshaling in that than running anyway. Well done all who ran, not an easy day for it. Couldn't even get the portaloos put down with the weather so that tells you how nasty it was out there today.

ChampionChip

I had start mats with me in the truck but when we could barely get the finish mats to lie flat in the wind we thought it was just too risky to use start mats and have them lift and trip lots of runners and cause loads of injuries.

The times published online and by text are gun times so will vary from your watch time by a certain amount depending on how far back from the front you were when the hooter went off.

Its in accordance with Rule 165 where guntimes are the only official time for a race and chip times are solely for information. To clarify, guntime are taken from the start signal until the runner crosses the line whilst chip times are taken from the runner crossing the start mats (if any) to the finish line.

Donore Harriers

Not the easiest of days today. Thanks to all who took part and volunteered, it was a very challenging day. I don't know what it was like to run but the set up was certainly more difficult than expected. There wasn't much surface water about but the wind played it's part. The timing mats were more like magic carpets so hence the decision to remove them from the start for safety reasons as has been pointed out. We tried several locations for the portaloos but we had to abandon them and the finish area set up was compromised too.

Apologies for the confusion at the start. My understanding is that it wasn't actually a false start, the hooter sounded and then sounded again and it was taken as a false start by the lead runners who slowed down and stopped so we called them back. The clock was reset but wasn't synced so hence was out.

Congratulations to John Travers and Ciara Mageean and well done to everyone. Results should be posted on our website soon.

Not the most enjoyable Jingle Bells from our end but many thanks to all involved.

runnerholic

I'm giving myself an unofficial PB for this race. Came in 8 seconds short of PB according to my Garmin but considering the conditions it was probably my best run to date.

ooter

Thought the wind was going to be horrendous when we came off chesterfield avenue on to ordinance road but it actually wasn't that bad.
The downhill section to the finish on upper glen road was very welcome, thought I was going to bag a sub 20 min for a while but it wasn't to be.
I was hoping for 20:xx so I'm delirah.:)

fletch

ooter wrote: »

Thought the wind was going to be horrendous when we came off chesterfield avenue on to ordinance road but it actually wasn't that bad.

Did we run the same race!? I think I let the wind get to me too much and I just gave up.

Murph_D

Donore Harriers wrote: »

Not the easiest of days today. Thanks to all who took part and volunteered, it was a very challenging day. I don't know what it was like to run but the set up was certainly more difficult than expected. There wasn't much surface water about but the wind played it's part. The timing mats were more like magic carpets so hence the decision to remove them from the start for safety reasons as has been pointed out. We tried several locations for the portaloos but we had to abandon them and the finish area set up was compromised too.

Apologies for the confusion at the start. My understanding is that it wasn't actually a false start, the hooter sounded and then sounded again and it was taken as a false start by the lead runners who slowed down and stopped so we called them back. The clock was reset but wasn't synced so hence was out.

Congratulations to John Travers and Ciara Mageean and well done to everyone. Results should be posted on our website soon.

Not the most enjoyable Jingle Bells from our end but many thanks to all involved.

Cheers, guys, very well done on getting the race done under challenging conditions. Can I as what you mean by "clock was reset by wasn't synced so hence was out?" The published gun times look about right to me.

fletch

I presume the clock at the finish line wasn't synch'ed with the new starting time hence the confusion by some as they finished?

Donore Harriers

Murph_D wrote: »

Cheers, guys, very well done on getting the race done under challenging conditions. Can I as what you mean by "clock was reset by wasn't synced so hence was out?" The published gun times look about right to me.

The clock display at the finish line. It wasn't synced with the restart.

fletch

Have to say...for a club run, the food/drinks/gifts at the end were excellent...water, jellies, bananas, a mug and High5 taster pack (of which I got 2 of).

Auntie Matter

Well done everyone who braved the wind and rain today. I had entered, but decided against running when I looked out the window this morning.

Silly question maybe but should I send back the unused timing chip? If there were a lot of non-starters today, will the club lose money by having to pay for the chips that aren't returned? I wouldn't care if it was a commercial race but I wouldn't like to see the club losing out - might be a small amount per person but mightn't be long adding up if a lot of people didn't turn up.

The Muppet

Congratulations to Donore Harriers on their organisation of today's event in what must have been nightmare circumstances for them.

It was a really enjoyable run, I loved every minute of it and the goodies at the end were really appreciated.

HelenAnne

aquinn wrote: »

I didn't see a finish clock but they were calling out times. Not sure what my thoughts are on that today. Think I'm still struggling that I actually raced and a PB. Watch a few seconds off text. Still puzzled by the false start.

Well done on getting a PB! Amazing!! I was 40 secs slower than my PB - pretty disappointed in myself!

Nice to bump into TFGR, Firedance and Murph_D. And to literally bump into Singer -- apologies, I didn't mean to bump off you a few times in the race -- the wind was pushing me!! Well done on your race!

ETA: Thanks to Donore for the lovely mugs and the spread after the race. Thanks SO MUCH to the marshals for standing out in that weather.

Darren 83

A fantastically well organized event, and the spread at the club house was brilliant. Well done. Will be back next year.

glacial_pace71

Congrats to Donore on the event going ahead, considering that pretty much everywhere else in the country the race organizers were too worried about risks, insurance etc.

Wholly understandable that ChampionChip couldn't erect an archway over the start: it would've been dangerous to construct and/or safely maintain.

I think the stewards did a really good job trying to marshal the runners, the families/fun-runners-with-kids into waves but once the false start took place it was impossible to get everyone back.

Further, once the starter had to walk up and down to get the 'train' into reverse there was always the problem of people taking a random mid-point of that range and standing their ground. Very difficult for the starters to control the situation, so it was good common sense to just get it underway with a few people 10-15 m the wrong side of the line rather than cause a riot with the "I'm not going back any further .. shure look where he/she is ..." type scenarios as people literally dig in their heels.

My finish time was 22:20-something on the chip but it was about right as a gun time I suppose. My own Garmin recorded a moving time of 22:05, which also records that minor upward incline in the third mile:
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/975190694

Happy to get a mug too. I've so many technical t-shirts at this stage and too few summer evenings to wear them. Hopefully some more race organisers take the option of mugs, protein shakers and other utensils that runners might use. (Having said that I'll still be happy to add to my collection of 'Raheny5' plaques next month).

stephendowney

Also wanted to say thanks to Donore on putting on the race in very difficult conditions. Especially to all the stewards who braved the weather.

SnappyDresser

I did this race a few years ago and found that it was a bit of a mess. At the finish area it was not marked just a volunteer saying you are finished. No marking no nothing. No time clock. Luckily I had my watch and did a PB. Asked the guy "Is this the finish area? Why is not marked?",,,"Ah well we were told to slow people down and funnel them in here"..It really cheesed me off. I see that it was another mess again. Yes the weather was bad but seems that they are not organized. Lots of races I have done have bad weather but run well. The 5k in sentry organized by Clonliffe has often run in really bad weather and has proper start and finish and runs very well. Sorry but this race jingle bells race is not well organized.

fletch

I wouldn't describe it as not well organised at all. Yes the start didn't go to plan although that was in part down to the runners thinking it was a false start when in fact it wasn't. You also weren't there this year so you can't really comment. The finishing area was very clearly defined and there were lots of people around it so it would be very difficult to confuse it for anything other than the finish.

i008787

i008787 wrote: »

I did this race a few years ago and found that it was a bit of a mess. At the finish area it was not marked just a volunteer saying you are finished. No marking no nothing. No time clock. Luckily I had my watch and did a PB. Asked the guy "Is this the finish area? Why is not marked?",,,"Ah well we were told to slow people down and funnel them in here"..It really cheesed me off. I see that it was another mess again. Yes the weather was bad but seems that they are not organized. Lots of races I have done have bad weather but run well. The 5k in sentry organized by Clonliffe has often run in really bad weather and has proper start and finish and runs very well. Sorry but this race jingle bells race is not well organized.

"Bad weather"?

There were races - from parkruns to marathons - which had to be called off around the country because of the bad weather. This wasn't just bad weather, it was a storm.

There was a bag drop van at the start line. There were markers for sub 20/25 etc. There was an issue with the starting mats and a "false start", but the wind was so bad that it was really difficult to hear the organisers - even with their megaphones, and they've already explained that it was dangerous trying to put the mats in place.

There were marshalls the whole way along the course. There was a very clear finish line. There was water, food, medals for the kids, mugs for the grown ups, and your bags were available for pickup at the finish line.

The club had more food, hot drinks, showers etc for after the race.

Taking the horrendously bad weather into account, the race went ahead, the volunteers braved the mental conditions, and the race was an enjoyable one.

stephendowney

i008787 wrote: »

I did this race a few years ago and found that it was a bit of a mess. At the finish area it was not marked just a volunteer saying you are finished. No marking no nothing. No time clock. Luckily I had my watch and did a PB. Asked the guy "Is this the finish area? Why is not marked?",,,"Ah well we were told to slow people down and funnel them in here"..It really cheesed me off. I see that it was another mess again. Yes the weather was bad but seems that they are not organized. Lots of races I have done have bad weather but run well. The 5k in sentry organized by Clonliffe has often run in really bad weather and has proper start and finish and runs very well. Sorry but this race jingle bells race is not well organized.

What year did that happen to you?

I have ran the race each year since 2011 and never experienced that at the finish line. As everyone else, that actually ran the race has said, well done to everyone involved in running a race in such tough conditions.

Maybe instead of thinking about a bad experience, that happened a few years ago, give the jingle bells a go yourself next year, you might be surprised and hopefully it will bring you a new PB.

Maximus Alexander

Amen to that whoops. I will admit to being disappointed when I found out that it hadn't been chip timed, but it didn't spoil a great race and my hat is off to them for going ahead with it and making the most of the day. Bar the timing issues which were completely understandable in the conditions, I can't fault it, and I will be back next year.

Sandwell

Lol, the internet at its finest. Someone popping up to slate an event that they didn't run in due to something that happened to them a few years ago.

The Muppet

There was absolutely no problem seeing the finish this year, It was clearly marked and visible from a long way out.

You can't disagree with the decision not to use the mats, they would have obviously been a health and safety problem in those conditions. If they had been used and runners injured by tripping over them that would be a lot more serious than having to forego chip timing for what is essentially a fun event.

I wouldn't agree that the event is poorly organised, I think the fact that it went ahead at all and 800 runners got around safely is a credit to the organisers and stewards in what were exceptionally poor conditions. I'll be back next year for sure.

RacoonQueen

i008787 wrote: »

I did this race a few years ago and found that it was a bit of a mess. At the finish area it was not marked just a volunteer saying you are finished. No marking no nothing. No time clock. Luckily I had my watch and did a PB. Asked the guy "Is this the finish area? Why is not marked?",,,"Ah well we were told to slow people down and funnel them in here"..It really cheesed me off. I see that it was another mess again. Yes the weather was bad but seems that they are not organized. Lots of races I have done have bad weather but run well. The 5k in sentry organized by Clonliffe has often run in really bad weather and has proper start and finish and runs very well. Sorry but this race jingle bells race is not well organized.

I may be biased beign a member, but I've been involved in the event as a member since 2011 and I ran it in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and I'm struggling to see when the finish line was ever 'a mess', not marked or with no clock.
Perhaps try running it next year and then commenting on whether or not a race is 'a mess' - I haven't seen anyone commenting on it being a mess other than you, who did not run it.

ooter

First time doing the race and the finish line was clearly marked and the finish area was fine, unfortunate there was no chip time but understandable with the weather, anyone chasing a pb was probably annoyed but I didn't fall in to that category.
I'd defo do the race again.

vinny1313

I was happy to see the race go ahead given the disappointment that Waterford had been cancelled. It was well organised, just as it was the last time I took part. Fair play to everyone involved. The false start was a shame, but having happened I'm not sure how else they could have dealt with it. No mat at the start was understandable given the wind. My gun time equalled my chip time PB, according to my watch I was 3 seconds under (which seemed about right given where I was). You can count that can't you? If not it's all the more reason to run faster next time around!:)

jimjamkk06

I found this event very good over the last couple of years iv being doing it. It's one I always marked at the start of the running year and was no different this year. Weather conditions were bad but I think if the race was organized better this year things would have ran alot smoother. Start was a mess . My experience at the start .was everyone was standing waiting to Start thinking there was about. 3,4 minutes suddenly one of the the stewards shouts go. No countdown no checking the top runners were in start position. At the end at the finishing line I can't fault it at all it was very well looked after this point .most importantly for the 25th event there's not even one picture to look back on. This is just one thing I enjoy after a race but my be just me . I will do this event next year but hope things have improved by then..my thing is you have an event in December you should be prepared for that weather. Maybe if it was in June I could understand.

yaboya1

Some of the complaints here are hilarious. It seems to me that the club made the best of a bad situation.

Would people prefer if they'd cancelled the race completely?