Great Ireland Run

I was in the group just behind Donal's. When we approached the barred Chesterfield/Furze junction we had a quick chat to:

- confirm we all agreed this was the wrong way

- all agree to follow on, as 30-40 runners had already gone through

- try to figure out whether it meant the course was going to be short or long (that was my opinion, as i believed the RD would have us run the missing "triangular" bit at the end of the race which would make it about 11k).

So basically, we were racing an unknown distance at this stage.

After we climbed Upper Glen Road, it became clear to me that we were not going to do that extra triangle loop as we would merge with slower runners after the loop and it would require the RD to track which runners had done the extra loop and which had not.

And yes, it would have been a similar scenario had we used the correct route....

The triangular path is approximately 2.9km, which the top runners cover in around 9 minutes. With the delayed wave start, the last group left 5-6 minutes after the first, and with walkers allowed, it would take them another 7-8 minutes to get to the end of Furze road (about 800m). It was going to be very, very tight for the top runners to avoid clashing into the back of the pack. And we have to keep in mind these are fun runners, here to have a good day, who might not know if they should leave a bit of room to their left or right. They have absolutely every right to run side by side, dressed up, dancing, running/walking/stopping at any pace they wish etc ...

I had a look at the poster used for advertising the race. It had the start/finish way down Furze road to the West, like 100-200m before the turn to Ordnance Survey Road (as opposed to 800m from it). Had they actually positioned the start/finish there, it would have worked perfectly...

I don't know if DCH reached out to the non club runners (not sure if AI has anything to do with them or if they even have a list of non club runners).

I think the resolution is reasonable. The asterisk is just like any non record eligible race (like Boston marathon for instance) - and who cares about time or distance anyway in a championship race.

The fastest runners on the day get the medals. That is fair

I suppose its all they could do, it isn't fair and it isn't great but there are so few options left given the mess they made. I spoke with someone who went out with a very clear strategy of staying close to the medals in his category (but just behind) for the 8\9k before breaking for home over the last km, whether or not he'd have made it, we'll never know - it seems unfair on him but I don't think they could do much else