Dublin Marathon 2024

Hilarious how the word "lottery" is lost on some people, almost as funny as wanting Mick who wins the local parkrun every week to win the Dublin marathon rather than an elite. I'm sure the sponsors would be queuing around the RDS to have their name associated with Mick and his 2.40 marathon

You beat me to the point about local Mick winning it - it'd definitely make international news which the sponsors would be delighted about…in a sub 3-hours effort.

If the DCM is to really become more than a "local" marathon, it needs to bring elites. As many as them as they can get. It'll never get the really top elites but it does get decent elites at the same time.

Do you think those Irish elites would be running it if there was no one within a mile of them? They wouldn't, They'd be in Valencia a month later where they have actual depth. Not much longer than 10-15 years ago, 2:25 was a time that put you as first Irishman home in Dublin. Our best athletes of the time, Cragg, Kenneally and Fagan wouldn't come near Dublin, They ran marathons with you guessed it, depth.

When you go out and run it next year and are targeting a time, just imagine running it completely solo with no one within a mile either side of you the whole way and then think how likely you would be to ever run it again. Elites add competition to races, they add depth, it's not about selling more bibs, it's about about driving competition in the field.

I also think you seriously overestimate what paid means. Eliud Too(the 2015 winner) coach used to post on here, I believe all he got was a comped entry. I'd be massively surprised if most of the elites got much more than free entry and travel.

But hey, if you want the sport to go back to the dark ages, a sport where the vast majority of the pros barely live above the poverty line to completely die as a sport, your ideas are fantastic because not paying elites also means not paying Irish athletes. If every race took the same view to foreign athletes, they'd stop paying Irish ones too. Besides the fact that title sponsors usually front the elite field costs, not the entrants.

I wonder if your views on other sports are as draconian. Like should the taxpayer be funding the FAI and IRFU high performance units when the majority of the country don't care about them either?

I'm well versed in the depth of Irish eilte runners, my post was aimed at someone suggesting they would rather see someone who wins their local road race win the marathon because they paid for an entry.

Why bring in elites ????? To bring in sponsorship, ( I'm pretty sure any company would know who Kipchoge was) But to also drag our Irish lads to even more impressive times and try get close to an Olympic standard. Fairly basic stuff if you want your marathon to grow and improve our runners.

Just read SuspectZero's post, he summed it up perfectly

Yeah, somebody asked above has anybody ever heard anybody say "I couldn't get an entry" as a reason for not doing it. There is always lots of entries floating around.

The only change I would make from this year is if you didn't cross the start line you should not be guaranteed an entry. I get that people have sicknesses, life issues come up etc but hard cases make bad law - the vast majority of those who didn't start probably knew from months out they weren't going to start.

great point. As news of the rules changes filter out, I’d expect a lot more transfers available in the summer window.

I didn’t even consider DCM ‘25 yet, but I know I’ll get a bib if I want one, just like every other year