Great Ireland Run 2018

derailed

3823 finishers in elite men and women and masses from results page. Well down from close to 10000 runners between 2009 and 2012 with a lot more events since then on calendar. Enjoyed run as much as I could today with field more spread out with less congestion apart from 1st km. Second 5km always tough with 3 separate hills along with the last stretch where the finish seemed like it would never come. Well organised event but not a lot could be said for finishers goody bag at the end. Still a good mornings run.

RacoonQueen

Definitely a race in decline, assume that is why they introduced the 5k to bulk up their numbers. The 'elite' field speaks volumes really. They used to get a decent elite field back when it was on the telly box.
The one improvement in this race over the years though is the start time. Back when it was a 1pmish start time to facilitate the cameras it was a right pain in the foot.

colin32

Best run for me today in the 3 times I've done race, even with the poor weather

Very poor goody bag, everything went in the bin bar the medal

4 year old did the mini run this afternoon & even the kids goody bag was disappointing, not even a bag of jellies or a chocolate bar

They need to take a leaf out of raheny 5 mile book for goody bags

lastbuilders

Maybe I am sentimental as have done this a few times but always enjoy this run. It is well organised and I like the t-shirt colour this year though wish they had jellies as others have said. Second half has not gotten any easier but I did a pb for this course so I was very happy. Especially considering the conditions.


Lastbuilders

sideswipe

colin32 wrote: »

4 year old did the mini run this afternoon & even the kids goody bag was disappointing, not even a bag of jellies or a chocolate bar

They need to take a leaf out of raheny 5 mile book for goody bags

TBH I think having ‘goody’ bags full of junk food is the wrong message, especially for kids.

Cormac2791

Very tough run in poor conditions, but great to get out.

As mentioned above, was extremely disappointed with the goodie bag. No sandwiches / fruit / bars at the end. All we got were some cod liver oil tablets and a few seeds to sprinkle over tomorrow’s breakfast; not really suitable for the end of a difficult run.

If you take the Dublin Bike Ride, there’s food galore. Or take any local run, with a cheaper entry fee AND money going to charity, there would be sandwiches, buns, cakes, tea and coffee.

That was the biggest disappointment, but I have submitted that complaint, following a survey they emailed me after the race.

T-shirt not well fitted either, but not the biggest issue!

colin32

sideswipe wrote: »

TBH I think having ‘goody’ bags full of junk food is the wrong message, especially for kids.

Never said it had to be full of junk, but at least a small bag of jellies or a fun size bar. A pack of raisins, bandana (I think) and bottle of water is pretty poor

Goose76

Wow, didn’t realise you had to pay for the photos!! I had no problems with the goody bag (it’s the first time I personally have seen a medal and a t shirt as well as some extras being offered so no complains from me) but for 30 euro I would have expected to download the pictures for free.

19 euro to download 7 pics...:o

Ultraman100

Co Kildare 5k on yesterday...€5 to enter,..accuratly mesured course,tee shirt,goody bag,tea coffe sambos after it,free finisher fotos..amy money left goes to local sports partnershipz rather than that sports presenter guy(name eludes me)

SeeMoreBut

Ultraman100 wrote: »

Co Kildare 5k on yesterday...€5 to enter,..accuratly mesured course,tee shirt,goody bag,tea coffe sambos after it,free finisher fotos..amy money left goes to local sports partnershipz rather than that sports presenter guy(name eludes me)

Does he think Mo Farah is his love child?

Dublin night run is the next rip off race in the calendar where they want people to run as lemmings

footing

SeeMoreBut wrote: »

Does he think Mo Farah is his love child?

Dublin night run is the next rip off race in the calendar where they want people to run as lemmings

... and (disappointingly) promoted by Parkrun.ie in their newsletter.

Ultraman100

SeeMoreBut wrote: »

Does he think Mo Farah is his love child?

Dublin night run is the next rip off race in the calendar where they want people to run as lemmings

dats him

Nermal

Dust to put on my cereal and a shirt that would be roomy on an international prop. If you ran 10K with that weight on you the glucosamine sampler would be useless, you'd have to go straight for orthopaedic surgery. Where do I send a nasty email to?

youngrun

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Definitely a race in decline, assume that is why they introduced the 5k to bulk up their numbers. The 'elite' field speaks volumes really. They used to get a decent elite field back when it was on the telly box.
The one improvement in this race over the years though is the start time. Back when it was a 1pmish start time to facilitate the cameras it was a right pain in the foot.

Similar numbers to last few years with the weather losing a few more from entry list i suspect
Early start for the country cousins though , to be in place before ten..
Goody bag what the hell! i eat the seeds i was so hungry !. No medal needed unless you are top 3, just give us bars/jellies instead please!

This is a great race so competitive and funnily enjoyable, 300 odd sub 40 on a tough running day. The second half is a real test and something else.
Can never understand why many dont do this event looking at other races around the country yesterday, its the National, get out and give it a go. Thats year 10 for me in a row and only the National XC gives a similar buzz and real race feel

Well done to Brian Maher what a run .

RacoonQueen

youngrun wrote: »

Similar numbers to last few years with the weather losing a few more from entry list i suspect

Yep, since 5k was brought in

2009 - around 8000 finishers
2010 - over 8000
2011 - around 8000
2012 - 76xx
2013 - over 6000
2014 - just under 5000
2015 - just under 4000
2016 - 42xx
2017 - 42xx
2018 - 38xx

I was working backwards and got bored by 2015 but kept going anyway

Would have thought our country cousins would prefer a more central national 10k? Dublin probably easier for many of yee to get too though. Might be nice and competitive in the mens field but a tough race in the women's national 10k where you don't have big numbers and can spend much of the race in no mans land. Tough with weather like we had yesterday.

youngrun

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Yep, since 5k was brought in

2009 - around 8000 finishers
2010 - over 8000
2011 - around 8000
2012 - 76xx
2013 - over 6000
2014 - just under 5000
2015 - just under 4000
2016 - 42xx
2017 - 42xx
2018 - 38xx

I was working backwards and got bored by 2015 but kept going anyway

Would have thought our country cousins would prefer a more central national 10k? Dublin probably easier for many of yee to get too though. Might be nice and competitive in the mens field but a tough race in the women's national 10k where you don't have big numbers and can spend much of the race in no mans land. Tough with weather like we had yesterday.

Big drop off , maybe so many events in Dublin is reason too/

Its good to get a day out in the big smoke and the fact that there is a big race atmosphere makes it enjoyable/competitive. I guess they could merge mens and womens but a few of our crew preferred the separate start you know who you are against etc .

OOnegative

As RQ has shown it’s a race in decline, not to sound like a dick, the field for the AAI 10k Championships was very weak. There was plenty of fast 10k lads that didn’t show. What does that tell you? Route is horrendous as has been stated 100’s of time already, and Brendan Foster has enough money at this stage i’d say.

Testosterscone

I have run this most years reluctantly however missed out this year for personal reasons. Normally support it simply because its the AAI championship however for once i didnt feel guilty for not supporting.

Over the past few months i have been bombarded by AAI mails for the night run and not once did i see a push for the GIR. They look to have given up on this event at this stage. I have come to appreciate the course and challenge of it but would prefer the championships given back to clubs

youngrun

OOnegative wrote: »

As RQ has shown it’s a race in decline, not to sound like a dick, the field for the AAI 10k Championships was very weak. There was plenty of fast 10k lads that didn’t show. What does that tell you? Route is horrendous as has been stated 100’s of time already, and Brendan Foster has enough money at this stage i’d say.

Always the way though isnt it? Plenty of fast runners dont run the major champs , maybe easier to get a local win ? Why would you not run it and /or clubs push it? Its the National championships in a major event in a central location roads wise wasy to get to, traffic free and well organised . Get out and do it. Course is a fair test and its very competitive , 300 odd sub 40 mens and womens?

Great races , down to the wire, at the front of both Mens and womens this year.

average_runner

youngrun wrote: »

Big drop off , maybe so many events in Dublin is reason too/

Its good to get a day out in the big smoke and the fact that there is a big race atmosphere makes it enjoyable/competitive. I guess they could merge mens and womens but a few of our crew preferred the separate start you know who you are against etc .

I would say the drop off is because its not a great race. Haven't done it in a 5-7 years, but when I did, it always was about 30 mins late in starting!! That's unacceptable.


Its just a money making race, not my type of race.

There is way better 10k's around the country right now.

corcaigh07

Just for balance here, I enjoyed it for the most part. Got around in 51.24 ish.

The route is fine, quick first 5k, hard 2nd 5k, it’s a good challenge, doesn’t matter it isn’t flat. It’s the same course for everyone!

No traffic on the route, well organised and marked out. The separate waves really helped any potential congestion issues and it was nice to be running with others roughly the same level as you.

The goodie bag and stuff were poor but the run part of Great Ireland Run was executed very well I thought.

adrian522

I don't think I'll be doing this race next year. I honestly can't remember the last time I did a race where there was no food/drinks provided afterwards. Not even a piece of fruit. One of our guys had to spend 10-15 mins looking for his bag in the bag drop afterwards as it had been moved to a completely different section.

Worst of all the team results were not published until yesterday and even then a fair few of our runners did not seem to get counted in the team results. The whole race is a mess with no redeeming features.

OOnegative

youngrun wrote: »

Always the way though isnt it? Plenty of fast runners dont run the major champs , maybe easier to get a local win ? Why would you not run it and /or clubs push it? Its the National championships in a major event in a central location roads wise wasy to get to, traffic free and well organised . Get out and do it. Course is a fair test and its very competitive , 300 odd sub 40 mens and womens?

Great races , down to the wire, at the front of both Mens and womens this year.

It’s a commercial race that’s purely for profit, I know 4-5 from my club chose to run a local 10k the same day purely to support a local club race rather than run GIR. One would have challenged for a National age group medal if he ran. If it was incorporated into Fields of Athenry or Dunshaughlin 10k as a National Championships I think the numbers would be much better. But i’m sure it’s not as simple as that and a part of running I have little knowledge on.

Goose76

I actually really like that it was a tough second half uphill. It was a nice change from all the races out there being promoted as 'flat and fast!'.

youngrun

adrian522 wrote: »

I don't think I'll be doing this race next year. I honestly can't remember the last time I did a race where there was no food/drinks provided afterwards. Not even a piece of fruit. One of our guys had to spend 10-15 mins looking for his bag in the bag drop afterwards as it had been moved to a completely different section.

Worst of all the team results were not published until yesterday and even then a fair few of our runners did not seem to get counted in the team results. The whole race is a mess with no redeeming features.

Bad goody bags alright , dunno how they do not cop this

Team Results are very tricky as clubs are constantly changing and amending entries right up to race day. Two systems GIR and AAI results as well. They would have to be sense checked before being issued.

Dont think any other 10k in the country has as many sub 40 so it must be doing something right?
Most clubs including the big ones out in the sticks will continue to support it eg Galway/Mayo/Sligo /Donegal clubs all travel in good numbers . Its the National champs and up to clubs to support it, or else clubs /counties etc can bring a motion to AAI Congress to change the competition to a club based hosting model .

HelenAnne

I really loved it!! I suppose because, on a personal level, it was my first 10k since getting back to running and I wanted to do it as a) it's the National champs and I wanted to run on a club team, b) I wanted to see where I was, 10k-wise, before the WMM in June c) it has a women's start so you can see who you're racing rather than being scattered among the men, and d) my husband was running with his work pals so it was a nice day out with coffee afterwards etc.

I REALLY enjoyed it -- I didn't know where I was, fitness-wise, for a 10k, so my A-goal was sub 45. People were making me nervous beforehand talking about the hills (I haven't been running many hills lately), but I just though 'I'll smile, use my arms, push up them as best I can', and actually they were fine! I was delighted with my run - I felt it was an honest effort -- I ran as fast as I could the whole way, didn't despair on the hills, tried to pick off runners (from other clubs ) and work my way up to my clubmates. I ended up with 43.55, which I was delighted with, 9th in my age category and 5th in the teams. So (while far from stellar!) much better than I'd hoped for. So I loved the course (Though I was dead on my feet for the last half mile!)

Organisation-wise, I thought it was good - we were in our pen on time, started on time, I liked Feidhlim's commentary, no congestion at the finish line, and the AAI entry fee wasn't too steep. They seemed to do the overall and National individual prizes pretty promptly afterwards too.

I don't care about the medal etc, but I admit it would have been nice to get a banana at the end.

I think this is the third time I've done this race, and I always really enjoy it. I think starting with the elite women, and starting ahead of the mass start really gives it a Championship feel - maybe they should do that for the club men too - like have the elite women and club women, then the elite men and club men, and THEN the mass race? At least it would give the AAI men the feeling that they were in a race with each other and they could see all their age-group rivals etc?

RayCun

I haven't run it in years myself, it's always "maybe next year"

But it does deliver what you want from a championship - an accurate course on closed roads, and a deep field of quality runners (in the men's race at least)

RacoonQueen

average_runner wrote: »

I would say the drop off is because its not a great race. Haven't done it in a 5-7 years, but when I did, it always was about 30 mins late in starting!! That's unacceptable.

Doesn't seem to happen anymore now that the tv cameras are gone.

adrian522

youngrun wrote: »

Team Results are very tricky as clubs are constantly changing and amending entries right up to race day. Two systems GIR and AAI results as well. They would have to be sense checked before being issued.

.

Other timing companies seem to be able to get results up pretty much straight away.

Also if you register as part of a club you should be included in that club in the results but they somehow dropped a load of runners from the club results even though they were registered properly.

RayCun

HelenAnne wrote: »

I think starting with the elite women, and starting ahead of the mass start really gives it a Championship feel - maybe they should do that for the club men too - like have the elite women and club women, then the elite men and club men, and THEN the mass race? At least it would give the AAI men the feeling that they were in a race with each other and they could see all their age-group rivals etc?

All the club men get to start in a pen ahead of the masses, so they should stay in front

or at least that's how it used to be