Dublin Marathon 2023

Trampas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330739#Comment_121330739

I’m not directing to you but the reason they give

Sunny Dayz

Been offline for a few days but some interesting points raised in this thread.

Seen Jim Augney at the finish line - at that stage there was nearing 6 hours on the main race clock and there he was congratulating and shaking hands with finishers. It was nice to see.

The guaranteed entry was introduced a number of years ago to ensure that those who ran every year or many years got to run. I suppose it would have been difficult to implement a cut off for guaranteed entry.

I wouldn't welcome a move of the race route out of the city. Part of the lure of an event like that is getting to run roads/routes you wouldn't normally be able to. Getting to run by St Stephen's Sq, along the Quays, even parts of Dublin I'd never been in before. I ran the RnR half many years ago (my first half) and it was surreal running past O'Connell bridge on the quays.

The event is certainly embraced by locals in many parts of the city - Castleknock, Chapelizod, Milltown, Roebuck and UCD fly over were unreal! There was a lot less people cheering in the Phoenix Park than I would have expected and out around Crumlin, Terenure seemed to be very few spectators. Moving the event out of the city to some industrial estate or the outskirts of the city would take a lot of the atmosphere away. Someone did mention Raheny and I will say I've done the 5 mile race a few times and that gets brilliant local support.

In terms of complaints from locals - no matter where you have an event on this scale - there are always going to be complaints. There's always going to be someone who wants to drive to/from their house at a time that they want. My husband is involved in motorsport - a lot of time is spent voluntarily in planning and organising a rally where roads are closed for most of the day of the event and the vast majority of residents have no issue as they have been spoken to in advance and are facilitated as best as possible if they do need to leave.

I'm someone who got into running via the Women's mini marathon - I first did it walking in 2010 to fundraise and got the bug. Much like DCM - there's a great buzz about the city centre on the day. Marathon training is a huge undertaking - my family is almost grown now and I really do commend those with smaller kids in how they can manage the training. I was surprised to hear that men outnumber women participants by that much - my local club and running group I think we are able 50/50 in gender participants.

AlmightyCushion

I've always been an on and off runner. Used to run only when the weather was nice, once it got dark and cold I would stop. Last year, I went out to watch the marathon only because I knew a few people doing it. I never had any interest in watching it before. The atmosphere was unreal and I really got caught up in it. I enjoyed it so much I decided to start taking running more seriously this year to built towards doing the marathon in 2024 (I really should have just done it this year). Moving it outside of the city will be a disaster. The atmosphere makes it and moving it away from the city centre will probably kill that atmosphere. Less people will go to it and less people will get caught up in the buzz and as a result you will get less people interested in running. Public transport is important but it would be a shame to kill something like this because it causes hassle with re-directing some bus routes for a few days.

I'll still do the marathon next year all going well. If they move it though I will probably just look at going abroad if I want to keep doing marathons.

left_hander

Apparently Eoin Keegan once said he would and I quote "cut down every tree in Dublin if he could because of claims when they fall on people's property".

Seems a bit odd that suddenly he has had an epiphany of sorts and is so concerned about public transport being re-routed for a couple of days over a bank holiday weekend.

I can't help suspecting he just picks fights he wants but thankfully he is no longer in DCC so hopefully his replacement will be a bit more clued in to the enormous positive effects of this for the runners and the city.

healy1835

Owen Keegan only cares about real big ticket sports like kayaking and white water rafting.

Laineyfrecks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331868#Comment_121331868

I heard he's gone to the NTA, let's see him try sort that out!!

FazyLucker

I think he has retired.

Get Real

Doing the marathon again next year but yes, if they move it, I won't be doing it anymore, I'll look at ones abroad.

Might sound a bit extreme over a route. But it's what makes Dublin so special. The route, the buzz, the crowds. It's an amazing day.

Twice a year, the marathon and Paddy's Day, this disruption happens and can be planned for well in advance. I work in the city centre myself and organise deliveries and getting to work around these big events. I don't get people just showing up expecting to be able to go from A to B as if it's a normal day. It's a one off, relax.

And by moving it, there'll just be complaints from people who work and live wherever it's moved to. If they can deliver babies right beside the finish line on marathon day, people can make arrangements for their cross city Sunday trip or leave a half hour earlier than normal for work.

ligerdub

One thing that Keegan/NTA haven't recognised is that the Sunday morning the race is on is quite a quiet morning to say the least. I suspect that a significant percentage of people going anywhere near central Dublin are either doing the marathon or are going in to support the marathon. Public transport is largely not an option for many yet they still have to make their way to the start line. The restrictions are disadvantaging those who are taking part in the event.

gaf1983

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305376#Comment_121305376

I ran the Great North Run last year, and they had something similar.

left_hander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339071#Comment_121339071

Exactly, FFS its not as if they are organising a weekly run around the city centre inconveniencing everything and everyone! Its one day a year. As I say, I live close to the route and it doesn't bother me. Nor have I ever heard it bother any of my neighbours. Maybe we see the benefits of it.

gaf1983

I was offline for a couple of weeks after the marathon - went on holidays for about 10 days on the Bank Holiday Monday, so have only been catching up on this thread this week. The pilot congratulated the handful of runners on the flight as the plane began its descent, that was a nice touch. Well done to all who ran it on this thread. Anyway, as I'm back from holidays and have access to a laptop again, I thought I'd do some analysis of how it went - people might find some of the metrics used useful for your own analysis and planning for future marathons.

Overall, I was happy with how it went. I got a PB by about 5 minutes, running 3:29:11. I was really happy with that, as the training block hadn't gone great with injuries (hip and hamstring inflammation). I ran a half marathon 3 weeks prior to Dublin that I really struggled with, in which I finished in 1:45:48 - in hindsight I might have been better off sitting that one out.

On the day in Dublin, I probably went a good bit faster in the first half of it, and then struggled both going up the Crumlin Road, Mile 17, and then Roebuck... but my time for the Roebuck stretch was better this year than for last year, so I was happy enough with that.

In my preparations for the 2022 Dublin Marathon, I went along to the Science of Running Symposium that was held by the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, in association with the Jerry Kiernan Foundation, at UCD last year. It was on again this year, but I couldn't go.

I found the first presentation, by Barry Smyth (a data scientist and a runner) to be fascinating. In his research he got access to huge datasets from big city marathons around the world, and he has conducted research into topics such as the effect of starting too fast (try not to - you'll finish too slow!), and also the concept of hitting the wall.

His presentation is here, and it's excellent - the Hitting the Wall section starts about 21 minutes in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w1hy7UJ898

And a study he wrote about hitting the wall is here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34010308/

Anyway, in his research, he defined "Hitting the Wall" as when your pace drops in the second half of the marathon by at least 25% for at least 5km, compared to your pace for kms 6 to 20 inclusive. He excludes the first 5km, because that can be a bit messy - crowded starts, or the buzz of the start of the race, can make you go a bit too slow or a bit too fast compared to your "steady" marathon pace.

Based on that definition, I got out an Excel spreadsheet and my Strava history to have a look at the 3 marathons that I've done since 2022. I chose that year because in 2020 I joined a running club, and I think that has made a huge difference to my running generally. I feel that I prepared much better for those 3 marathons than the 5 I had run previously. Of those 5 (which I ran between 2008 and 2018), I had run 3 in over 4 hours, and 2 were under 4 hours, with my PB being 3:54:40, and my slowest time being 4:17:25.

I thought it would be interesting to analyse if I hit the wall in any of the ones I've run since 2022, and also see where I maintained the steadiest pace. Here's what I found:

Great Limerick Run 2022

Chip time: 3:35:28 - Halfway Split: 1:40:01 - Second Half: 1:55:27

Pace for kms 6 - 20 - 4:43 mins/km or 7:35 mins/mile

Pace for slowest 5km in second half: 6:01 mins/km or 9:41 mins/mile

Pace decreased by 28%

Did I hit the wall? Yes! And I certainly felt it around the North Circular Road by Villiers School. Managed to get things going again, but I think I definitely went out too fast.

Dublin Marathon 2022

Chip time: 3:34:20 - Halfway Split: 1:44:26 - Second Half: 1:49:54

Pace for miles 4 - 13 - 7:49 mins/mile (I had switched Strava to miles for Dublin 2022 - can't find the km splits)

Pace for slowest 3 miles in second half: 8:57 mins/mile

Pace decreased by 14%

Did I hit the wall? Apparently not, though I do remember suffering a bit going up Roebuck, and then having to really dig deep in the last 2 miles if I wanted to beat my time from Limerick. Just about managed to do that.

Dublin Marathon 2023

Chip time: 3:29:11 - Halfway Split: 1:39:26 - Second Half: 1:49:45

Pace for miles 4 - 13: 7:26 mins/mile

Pace for slowest 3 miles in second half: 8:48 mins/mile

Pace decreased by 18%

Did I hit the wall? No, not according to Barry Smyth's definition. However, I probably felt like I was going relatively slower at times compared to the second half of Dublin 2022, probably because my first half in 2023 was much faster. Interestingly, my second half in Dublin for this year and last year were nearly identical.

Anyway, I thought you might find some of the above calculations useful and you might be interested in applying them to your own marathon running.

So even though the marathon this year was a PB by about 5 minutes, my relative pace decrease was much more than in Dublin in 2022. However, the fast first half this year probably helped me get my PB, and I was able to "weather the storm" of when my pace began to drop in the second half much better than I handled it in Limerick in 2022.

For next year, initially I was thinking about maybe just focusing on shorter distances and getting my speed up. However, I think I wouldn't mind tackling a relatively flatter marathon, to see if that might help getting a more consistent pace throughout, and hopefully a better time. I'm tempted by either Seville or Longford, as both would tie in with what else I've going on next year.

17 days since the Dublin Marathon and still no sign of the National Marathon Championship results, is this normal or a consequence of all the number swopping causing mayhem ??

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121371972#Comment_121371972

Provisional results were posted a good while ago on Athletics Ireland website. I presume they will become official if no one objects. Then they will be able to finalise provincial and county results.

Glencarraig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376989#Comment_121376989

Last results posted on the AI site that I'm looking at was October 15th Autumn Open Cross Country. The provisional National Marathon results were posted on Myrunresults and were provisional until Nov. 8th.

event

It will be as Murph said

https://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/scullion-and-mcglynn-secure-national-marathon-titles

Please note theses are provisional results until November 8th. Any queries please contact competition@athleticsireland.ie. No further amendments will be made after November 8th.

So its safe to assume after Nov 8th they are no longer provisional, any changes have been made. They are still available on My run results

sk8board

the Dublin and Leinster medals were handed out to clubs about 10-12days ago, so presumably it’s done

Murph_D

https://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/scullion-and-mcglynn-secure-national-marathon-titles

This was the post on the AI website I was thinking about, it contains a link to the provisional results (which as mentioned above were 'curated' by myrunresults - curious, as they were not timing the event themselves, but obviously took on the task of extracting the club members from the official timer's data).

Not surprising that it would take a few weeks to confirm results. As posted on AI site a while back, some runners would have been registered up to three years ago what with rollovers from the 2020 and 2021 non-events so plenty of changes of club, age bracket (and potentially gender 😉) in the intervening years. Not to mention the bib swapping - club members should really know better, or just remove the chip if 'borrowing' a number).

Anyway it's all done with now. Congrats to all the medallists, including one of my regular running/coffee partners who took Dublin M55 gold and probably a provincial medal too.