Dublin City Marathon 2016 *NO NUMBER SWAPS/SALES/TRANSFERS*

joesoap5

happygoose wrote: »

Always next year for improvements, I guess this couldn't be envisaged.

GFA entries, QT times, separate procedures or starts as with most marathons that demand > places. It needs to stay credible and not go the RnR route.

I think as well they need to get the national broadcasters involved and start televising it again

hillsiderunner

Hard Worker wrote: »

It's been mad all day in the Dublin Marathon office. Phones hopping non stop. "But I've collected €5000 for charity ....." etc. But the best one of all was "this is a national emergency. You have to release more entries".
I can understand peoples disappointment as this is the first time this has ever happened, although there was plenty of notice given that entries were way up on last year and that it would close when the limit was reached.

Some other marathons offer name changes for a transfer fee. The injured runner is permitted to give their details (number and name/address) to someone else, who (on producing those details to the organisation) can then pay E20 or 30 to transfer the entry into their name. Of course the injured one has likely got some money or so from the new-runner to hand over the details, usually the difference between the original registration and the transfer fee.

Everyone wins (DCM gets a batch of transfer fees, injured runners get some of their fee back, latecomers get to run).

happygoose

joesoap5 wrote: »

I think as well they need to get the national broadcasters involved and start televising it again

It cost €250,000 to televise it in 2011 apparently. I understand the cost of coverage has to be paid by the marathon organisers to RTE so it's big overhead.

Bahanaman

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Some other marathons offer name changes for a transfer fee. The injured runner is permitted to give their details (number and name/address) to someone else, who (on producing those details to the organisation) can then pay E20 or 30 to transfer the entry into their name. Of course the injured one has likely got some money or so from the new-runner to hand over the details, usually the difference between the original registration and the transfer fee.

Everyone wins (DCM gets a batch of transfer fees, injured runners get some of their fee back, latecomers get to run).

Sounds like a win win situation!

joesoap5

happygoose wrote: »

It cost €250,000 to televise it in 2011 apparently. I understand the cost of coverage has to be paid by the marathon organisers to RTE so it's big overhead.

They could definitely look at getting it next year, if this one is a success the bigger fish will look at sponsoring it hopefully.

d7guy

<snip>

kit3

joesoap5 wrote: »

Yeah, i totally agree with you. I bought my own place even though I've a dodgy leg based on the fact that I've been following this thread and FB regularly.

I'm just saying I can understand why some would've missed the deadline.
If you read back the thread here you'll see that I told Kitty that FB said they had 4 weeks left to register. They said that about 2 or 3 days ago. Now some people probably havn't logged on since.

Then you have people who dont follow social media and only heard through friends that it sold out and are now complaining.

Either way its great to see it sell out and somebody in SSE Dublin marathon office should get a raise for getting a decent marketing strategy together.

I do believe London Marathon organisers came over to Ireland to see how we ran the event as we started the marathon before them.

Yet they made a real success of it and we didn't

.

In fairness, I think that it's because the Dublin marathon has been so successful that the organisers find themselves in this position now.

It was understandable that there was no deferral or transfer of numbers when there was unlimited entry. It might be time to re-think this aspect under the current circumstances ?

avfc1874

chrislad wrote: »

I was going to register tomorrow. I'm gutted. I agree with the majority, that the organizers did all they could. It's no ones fault but my own, and since I got rid of my Facebook app, I'm didn't see any announcements. I'll keep my eye out for any charity entries or if more open up, but I may look towards Frankfurt instead. Either way, I'll keep up the training just in case!

I was going to leave it until end of august to register, nursing a slight injury and 80 euro a lot to lose if you can't make it, (still 11weeks left ). If it's not to be, so be it, there's still a few marathons left around the country before the end of the year, might fancy Kilkenny, or there's a 3/4 marathon in Meath shortly

joesoap5

kit3 wrote: »

In fairness, I think that it's because the Dublin marathon has been so successful that the organisers find themselves in this position now.

It was understandable that there was no deferral or transfer of numbers when there was unlimited entry. It might be time to re-think this aspect under the current circumstances ?

I think you misinterpreted what I was saying or maybe I picked you up wrong.

To sum it up, we didn't capitalise on our marathon the way the english did even though they came over to us to see how we ran the show.

At one stage we had no sponsor and they stopped televising it and it went very down hill though still a lovely marathon.

I'm talking about up to now and I'm saying it's great that things are turning upwards for the marathon and hopefully it will develop even more in the future.

Yeah I think there's still time THIS YEAR to organise deferrals, cancellations and resubmit entries to the general public on a first come first serve basis.

kit3

joesoap5 wrote: »

I think you misinterpreted what I was saying or maybe I picked you up wrong.

To sum it up, we didn't capitalise on our marathon the way the english did even though they came over to us to see how we ran the show.

At one stage we had no sponsor and they stopped televising it and it went very down hill though still a lovely marathon.

I'm talking about up to now and I'm saying it's great that things are turning upwards for the marathon and hopefully it will develop even more in the future.

Yeah I think there's still time THIS YEAR to organise deferrals, cancellations and resubmit entries to the general public on a first come first serve basis.

Apologies, I did misunderstand you & agree with what you say.

Airtel31

With 11 weeks left surely they can make the extra arrangements needed to handle more people by adding and extra wave maybe cutting times between waves etc and providing for the requests for transfers

chinguetti

joesoap5 wrote: »

Yeah I think there's still time THIS YEAR to organise deferrals, cancellations and resubmit entries to the general public on a first come first serve basis.

I doubt its something as easy as that. It would be a logistical nightmare. Have worked on events in my line of work and its a nightmare when a small number of people change details. Hate to see the thought of say 2,000 people change their details.

The Dublin marathon is a volunteer run body. To have someone in an office sorting out all those deferrals would come at a cost that runners have to pay. One of the main reasons that people didn't enter in time was about the cost according to here and Facebook so that will bring another lot of undue criticism on the Marathon organisers. They can't win.

They're getting alot of flak because the race has become popular and sells out, the cost of it, the lack of deferrals and other stuff I probably haven't seen. I've entered marathon months in advance and got injured afterwards and couldn't do them. This happens to everyone and comes with the territory so its a risk but its the way city marathon have gone.

I would love to think that everyone who didn't get a place and has given out would go and volunteer (done it 3 times myself) during the Marathon and help the event. When they see some of the nonsense and abuse that being a very small part of running such an event involves they might have a better understanding of what it takes to close a city for a day.

RayCun

There is more of an argument for allowing transfers/deferrals this year than usual, because of the early sell-out.
But as chinguetti points out, it would be a lot of work. And DCM expects a certain number of no-shows each year, they've probably planned for about 15000 runners this year, not 17.

Worth noting that London marathon sells out much earlier and does not allow transfers, and while you can defer your entry a year, you have to pay the entry fee again the second year. New York is the same. Boston, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona don't allow transfers or deferrals.

Krusty_Clown

RayCun wrote: »

There is more of an argument for allowing transfers/deferrals this year than usual, because of the early sell-out.
But as chinguetti points out, it would be a lot of work. And DCM expects a certain number of no-shows each year, they've probably planned for about 15000 runners this year, not 17.

Worth noting that London marathon sells out much earlier and does not allow transfers, and while you can defer your entry a year, you have to pay the entry fee again the second year. New York is the same. Boston, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona don't allow transfers or deferrals.

Frankfurt does allow transfers, but then, it's now a much smaller marathon than Dublin.
It's also €85 (currently), + €6 (chip rental) + €28 (T-shirt) + €5 (if you want results texted to you), plus a further €10 transfer fee (and you lose the other optional purchases, without refund).

Transfers is certainly something the DCM committee should consider in future years (and I'm sure they discuss it every year - there has never been significant justification until this year). The whole process could likely be outsourced, if the system supported it (which is probably unlikely). Next year, there will be additional participant spaces made available, but.... Whenever the cut-off point happens (limit reached, or calendar date reached), there will be a queue of unhappy people who didn't register on time.

Bahanaman

Many entrants will be unable to run on the day and will be looking to offload their numbers. It would be good for them to have an official way of doing this.

adrian522

The organisers would plan for people to not be able to run so if they were to allow transfers they would have to reduce the numbers accordingly. Which would lead to more complaints.

The lesson here is that if you want an entry to get it good and early.

I wonder would they look at a separate national marathon entry for club runners in the future?

joesoap5

chinguetti wrote: »

I doubt its something as easy as that. It would be a logistical nightmare. Have worked on events in my line of work and its a nightmare when a small number of people change details. Hate to see the thought of say 2,000 people change their details.

The Dublin marathon is a volunteer run body. To have someone in an office sorting out all those deferrals would come at a cost that runners have to pay. One of the main reasons that people didn't enter in time was about the cost according to here and Facebook so that will bring another lot of undue criticism on the Marathon organisers. They can't win.

They're getting alot of flak because the race has become popular and sells out, the cost of it, the lack of deferrals and other stuff I probably haven't seen. I've entered marathon months in advance and got injured afterwards and couldn't do them. This happens to everyone and comes with the territory so its a risk but its the way city marathon have gone.

I would love to think that everyone who didn't get a place and has given out would go and volunteer (done it 3 times myself) during the Marathon and help the event. When they see some of the nonsense and abuse that being a very small part of running such an event involves they might have a better understanding of what it takes to close a city for a day.

That as a valid argument but I'd be inclined to think more positively about it.

First of all 2000 people will not be ringing the office at one time.

A deferral might not be an option. It may be a case of of offering a cancellation without a full refund to allow for administration fees and setting a deadline of October 1st for this and resubmiting to the public in early October.

Of course there will always be whingers but this is not about pleasing everyone, it's about improving a process.

It's in the organisers best interest since they must've had some idea that this could happen posting on their website that entry was only guaranteed till end of July and realising that a lot can happen injury wise and life wise to people.

RayCun

I think a lot of the people who think,
"well I can't run, so I might as well sell my entry to someone who can"
will also think
"why should I sell my number back to DCM to 20 quid when I can sell it to someone else for 50?"

If you could buy "cancellation insurance" with your entry - pay ten euro extra and you can get a full refund, no questions asked, until October 1st - how many people would buy it?

kit3

They have just announced that they will be making an announcement later today - anyone not in should keep a close eye on the FB page

adrian522

kit3 wrote: »

They have just announced that they will be making an announcement later today - anyone not in should keep a close eye on the FB page

A sort of pre-announcement announcement.

kiloecho15

luckily I registered last week but only did so when I heeded the warnings about the possibility that the race closing. I understand all the frustration out there. Last year I registered later in the year and had to pull out due to injury and so lost my fee ( didn't give my number to anyone else as it said it was not permitted). A transfer system should be in place. the Waterford half has a transfer system in place for a small fee. This works well and done through the website so no one needs to be manning the phones. I think the large numbers of entrants is good for the DCM and hopefully next year there will be more places available.

yaboya1

I don't see what the fuss is about. Many of the other big city marathons close a lot further in advance with far bigger entry fees. The DCM organisers even had the goodwill to publish a warning in the national newspapers the other day for those not on social media. What are people expecting? A personal warning by registered post?

People just love to moan about something. If they weren't selling entries so well, people would be criticising them about that. They advised everyone ages ago to sign up by the end of July as entries were well up on previous years. They said they expected to sell out soon after that, which they did, yesterday (August 10th).

Anyone who intended to run and didn't sign up has only themselves to blame. They were given ample opportunity.

joesoap5

yaboya1 wrote: »

I don't see what the fuss is about. Many of the other big city marathons close a lot further in advance with far bigger entry fees. The DCM organisers even had the goodwill to publish a warning in the national newspapers the other day for those not on social media. What are people expecting? A personal warning by registered post?

People just love to moan about something. If they weren't selling entries so well, people would be criticising them about that. They advised everyone ages ago to sign up by the end of July as entries were well up on previous years. They said they expected to sell out soon after that, which they did, yesterday (August 10th).

Anyone who intended to run and didn't sign up has only themselves to blame. They were given ample opportunity.

You're having a good all moan there yourself the irony!

MonkstownHoop

Seen as I signed up when there was 3 waves how do I find out if my wave has changed since they put 4 in?

coolhandspan

Rlooks like dcm 2016 are about to release a few more tickets in next hour... On social media another big announcement today....

coolhandspan

Important Notice:

We will be making an official announcement regarding our 37th SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon event later today so please keep an eye on all our social media platforms & our website.

Many thanks for your patience at this time - it's greatly appreciated.

donnacha

MonkstownHoop wrote: »

Seen as I signed up when there was 3 waves how do I find out if my wave has changed since they put 4 in?

Its going to be interesting to see how they manage this. I can't see them reallocating those runners who have been told they are in waves 1-3 and it will be up to the individual runner to choose whether they move onto the next wave.

Bear in mind that at past Dublin marathons you could always move to a lower wave without any issue - you just couldn't move up a wave unless you contacted DCM and got sorted at the expo.

tomwaits48

they should ramp up the price if they are going to release a few more spots, auction them off the highest bidders, the demand is clearly there :-)

Shuttle666

Amsterdam is two week earlier, entries were to close on 3 Aug but seem to be live at https://registration.mylaps.com/tcs-amsterdam-marathon/ - It's on the Sunday, so late flights back that evening will not be cheap. I'd already gone with it and am training with DCM runners until close to race day.

fletch

Just posted on Facebook

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Registration for the 2016 SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon has closed earlier than anticipated due to unprecedented demand for places. Despite an increase of an additional 2,000 places being made available to accommodate the new Sunday format, the event has reached its capacity of 17,500.
A waiting list has been created to reallocate any additional spots that may arise. Priority will go to those who have competed in the 2016 SSE Airtricity Race Series. Those getting one of the places will be informed on 31st August 2016. Waiting list registration can be found at http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/contact-us/
We apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment, but the health and safety of race participants remains our priority. We are currently working with the authorities to explore ways of increasing the capacity for next year's event.
The SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon forms part of the Dublin Race Series with entries for the half marathon which takes place the 24th of September in the Phoenix Park, still available.