Another New Marathon in Kerry??Whos interested?

RobMarathonMan

Hi everyone

I am in the process of organising a marathon event consisting of a half and full marathon in Killarney National Park for the most part.
I have got the ful go ahead but have got a bag of mixed reactions.
Do ye think that there is "room" for another marathon is Kerry??
I certainly seem to think so,why not like?
So the questions is that if i was to go full on ahead with this would all you runners be interested??

Many Thanks

ekevosu

when were you thinking of holding it?

misty floyd

When would be very important I would think. Would be a beautiful place to race. Hilly? I'm going to hold off on voting until I know these things.

HardyEustace

If it's well run and a reasonable price then there's always room for another marathon.

RobMarathonMan

I was thinking of holding it either May 15th or June 26th?
What would be your opinions on that?

And the full marathon route would certainly be more challenging than the half.The half is flat but the full would have a hill or two,however nothing bigger than seen in previous marathons E.g. Connemarathon and Dingle

RobMarathonMan

And yes reasonable price I agree but first year costs are always highest.the expenses are actually huge you know,however in saying that i wont be charging more than the Dublin,Connemarathon,Cork or Dingle.

donothoponpop

I'd say it was a great idea, beautiful part of the world, it would be a magical marathon. If it was well run, with a low (<€25) entry fee, it could build a yearly following from there.

RobMarathonMan

Thanks for your advice.the only thing is that dingle is charging 60euro,i was thinking something along the lines of €50 for the half and €60 for the full.i wouldnt like to be seen in the shadow of the dingle marathon you know.i would have to judge expenses carefully.from what i have been told by race directors is that they were always happy with charging what they did because there are so many unforeseen expenses.thanks for your input by the way.much appreciated:)

scottreynolds

Would it be on trail on or road..... Ireland sadly lacks trail marathons.

donothoponpop

RobMarathonMan wrote: »

Thanks for your advice.the only thing is that dingle is charging 60euro,i was thinking something along the lines of €50 for the half and €60 for the full.i wouldnt like to be seen in the shadow of the dingle marathon you know.i would have to judge expenses carefully.from what i have been told by race directors is that they were always happy with charging what they did because there are so many unforeseen expenses.thanks for your input by the way.much appreciated:)

From my experience, the price of entry never correlates with how well a race is run. Get a few clubs involved, volunteers interested, and right there, you are on the way to a well-organized race. Clubs tend to be happy to help out, and get runners out, if the proceeds are going back into the sport.

There's also a market for race directors running races as a business, these are the type of races personally I avoid, but best of luck to you if this is your motive.

RobMarathonMan

This route has all different kinds of terrains.The full route has trails in it for a good part of it.The marathon would start on road,then enter the national park and as you go deeper in the more varying terrain you will come across.I think the route appeals to every type of runner you know,it has everything.

Rebelrunner

Sorry to be negative but with either or those dates you exclude any competitors of the Cork marathon as its too close to run both. Thats my 2 cents anyway.

ekevosu

Not clashing with any but would be close enough to Cork which I'd imagine would get a lot of your crowd. Are you planning a similar relay scheme to boost numbers?

Connemara International Marathon 11th April 2010

Ballyhoura Mountain Marathon 2nd May 2009

Belfast City Marathon 3rd May 2010

Clare Burren Marathon Challenge 23rd May 2009

Newry City Marathon 31st May 2010

Cork City Marathon 7th June 2010?

Longford Marathon 29th August 2010?

mooathon 27th September 2009

Dingle Marathon 4th September 2010

Addidas Dublin Marathon 26th October 2009


Am I missing any Irish marathons here?

Killarney would be a fantastic place to have it. Are you talking along the molls gap to national park road or where? Will you have a time limit on the marathon as I'd imagine you couldn't keep the tourists / locals off the roads for that long?

RobMarathonMan

No this isnt my soul motive.I am only talking about the costs and entry fee so a loss wouldnt be made.i will have associated charities which i have already contacted and made aware of the event as well as if all goes well i would donate to A.A.I.

--amadeus--

Hi Rob,

I'm assuming that you are new to Boards. Each forum has "Moderators" assigned who's responsibility it is to keep the place tidy, spam and abuse free and so on. I'm one of teh three Mods in this particular forum.

It would have been preferable if you had got in touch with one of us in advance of posting this as generally speaking we don't encourage this sort of thread.

The reasons for not allowing these threads are pretty simple - there are thousands of races up and down the country and if we allowed every race director to use us for market research then the forum would have very little else in it.

We also cannot tolerate either spam or "shilling", where people either blatantly advertise or do it more subtly, adversing under the guise of being unconnected to a company or as part of a research thread.

I'm going to leave this open for now but if I get complaints from readers that this is slipping into advertising or if there are many more "the route appeals to every type of runner you know,it has everything" posts that come across as simply hyping the event then I will close this down and delete it.

Should you wish to discuss advertising then please feel free to contact Hello@boards.ie and they will be happy to sort you out.

donothoponpop

scottreynolds wrote: »

Would it be on trail on or road..... Ireland sadly lacks trail marathons.

http://imra.ie/events/view/id/585/ (link is to 2009 event), held in April every year, a smidge over marathon distance, a hefty €7 entry fee. You can slip by me when I'm chasing my map around an erratic boulder;)

--amadeus--

scottreynolds wrote: »

Would it be on trail on or road..... Ireland sadly lacks trail marathons.

Clare Burren Marathon is also a mix of on and off road, looks excellent as well.

donothoponpop

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Clare Burren Marathon is also a mix of on and off road, looks excellent as well.

The "winner" of this last year recommended it to me for 2010, he speaks really highly of the course- however!- it is more geared towards walkers, ie., no prizes etc for 1st,2nd,3rd, etc.

RobMarathonMan

Hi Moderator

Very sorry and yes I am completely new to this.Didnt know the regulations and i will be sure to keep to your guidelines.Thanks for the warning

--amadeus--

donothoponpop wrote: »

The "winner" of this last year recommended it to me for 2010, he speaks really highly of the course- however!- it is more geared towards walkers, ie., no prizes etc for 1st,2nd,3rd, etc.

I had heard that alright, it's organised by a walking club and I think that they actually recommended against running it in the 1st year as they didn't think the terrain was suitable (they obviously reckoned without IMRA heads!). Personally I wouldn't worry about a lack of prizes as long as the event is well marshalled and safe and teh entry fee is reasonable. I think this one was €40 last year and that covered:

* Parking
* Race entry
* Water, refreshments and aid stations along the routes
* Finishers T–shirt
* Finishers medal
* Finishers certificate
* Soup and a roll served after you finish your challenge in Logue’s Lodge.

So that's probably the benchmark for any future trail event in terms of pricing and support.

[edit] any idea of teh winning time?

mithril

My take for what its worth. Try and have it in February before any of the existing ones.
The weather, particularly in the south-west, is mild enough so that it will not be very cold at that time of year and anyway runners tend to be a hardy enough lot.
There is demand for an earlier marathon than offered at present in this country and this will avoid a clash with competitive events in the region.

donothoponpop

--amadeus-- wrote: »

[edit] any idea of teh winning time?

Think around 3:16. He's going for something like 2:40 or under in NY in Nov.

baza1976

I would have thought Dec, Jan or feb would have been the months to have another marathon.

And none of this registering/collecting numbers the day or two before hand adding extra expense in the current economic climate!!!! post them out or have it on the morning of the run.
It's a pain spending x amount of money to enter a race and then more money on B&Bs etc. I jsut want to pay my entry run the marathon collect my t-shirt and medal then go home.

rigal

mithril wrote: »

My take for what its worth. Try and have it in February before any of the existing ones.
The weather, particularly in the south-west, is mild enough so that it will not be very cold at that time of year and anyway runners tend to be a hardy enough lot.
There is demand for an earlier marathon than offered at present in this country and this will avoid a clash with competitive events in the region.

+1 on this. I think there's definitely a gap in the calendar for a long distance race in January, February or March. I know a lot of people don't like to train during the winter but a huge amount of people train all year round.

Best of luck with the organising.

robinph

I'd also be of the having it during the "winter" months opinion, running a marathon in June/ July is not a good idea. Cork was enough trouble this year with only doing a couple of legs of the relay, I'd not be interested in doing the full distance.

RobMarathonMan

Do you think it would be possible to stage it in March and have enough time to get in enough entrants?or would it be the best thing to just go for 15th of May/26th of June and then put the marathon forward the next year after support is gained(fingers crossed:))

belcarra

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't worry about a lack of prizes as long as the event is well marshalled and safe and teh entry fee is reasonable.

I heard that the 2008 version had the leading marathoners take a wrong turn and go about 2km the wrong dirction before having to double back.
The reason apparently was the assigned marshall hadn't expected them to be there at that time and therefore hadn't arrived himself at the junction.
I hope it was much better this year!?

rigal

RobMarathonMan wrote: »

Do you think it would be possible to stage it in March and have enough time to get in enough entrants?or would it be the best thing to just go for 15th of May/26th of June and then put the marathon forward the next year after support is gained(fingers crossed:))

It depends how many entrants you are expecting to get and what kind of advertising you intend to do?

I think March is enough time, certainly for the half anyway. Even February would be ok assuming you have the time to get things moving quickly.

belcarra

I think personally Feb would be the best.
Might serve as a useful training run for Conne ultra in April.

Placing it later in the year might mean it'd get caught up in the middle of the other marathons.

Perhaps a thought might be to place it after DCM next year?
There's been many people saying their training for it this year took a few weeks battering and that they'd prefer to do a marathon a few weeks later because they're not 100% ready for DCM.
Just a thought.

Reaganomical

I ran the Burren Half this year, would 100% recommend it. Completely different to every other race I've done.

Yes, there are no prizes for the top finishers but it's hardly a complaint, given that it is organised by the walking club in Ballyvaughan.

The vast majority of people walked the course, some were finishing the marathon walk after 7/8 hours and they were still getting welcomed home by a very enthusiastic M.C.

The terrain is pretty wild, first couple of miles on road, before going off road and up hills, across limestone fields, down sharp descents, before running the last couple of miles back into the village. You know you're in for a challenge when the race briefing material refers to running along exposed cliff ledges...

Great finishers medal and t-shirt, and as already mentioned, a cup of soup and bread rolls waiting at the end.

Definitely doing this again next year if at all possible.

kennyb3

mithril wrote: »

My take for what its worth. Try and have it in February before any of the existing ones.
The weather, particularly in the south-west, is mild enough so that it will not be very cold at that time of year and anyway runners tend to be a hardy enough lot.
There is demand for an earlier marathon than offered at present in this country and this will avoid a clash with competitive events in the region.

+1 on this also. evrybody seems to have to wait around between DCM (late Oct) and Conn (April) for a marathon. those who miss out on Dublin for whatever reason, dont have to wait as long taht way

RobMarathonMan

i would be aiming for 1000 runners on year 1 and advertising on websites,radio,magazines etc and handing out flyers at events.do you reckon its well possible?

Enduro

Two more off road marathons are the Mourne Way Marathon and the Causeway Coast Marathon (which was last weekend). These both cost around 40 sterling.

HardyEustace

RobMarathonMan wrote: »

And yes reasonable price I agree but first year costs are always highest.the expenses are actually huge you know,however in saying that i wont be charging more than the Dublin,Connemarathon,Cork or Dingle.

The first year you'll be ironing out the kinks in your race. If you're looking for a long term race then I'd be more inclined to have a cheaper entry fee so that if something does go wrong that people will feel less ripped off. From what I gather from other organisers, it's rare that you'd make money the first year of a race.

HardyEustace

baza1976 wrote: »

And none of this registering/collecting numbers the day or two before hand adding extra expense in the current economic climate!!!! post them out or have it on the morning of the run.
It's a pain spending x amount of money to enter a race and then more money on B&Bs etc. I jsut want to pay my entry run the marathon collect my t-shirt and medal then go home.

Very, very true. Equally, this would mean having the marathon late enough that you can get from Dublin say(as it's where the biggest amount of people may come from) without having to leave at five in the morning.

tunney

HardyEustace wrote: »

The first year you'll be ironing out the kinks in your race. If you're looking for a long term race then I'd be more inclined to have a cheaper entry fee so that if something does go wrong that people will feel less ripped off. From what I gather from other organisers, it's rare that you'd make money the first year of a race.

Very very true.

Race often fall flat on their face first year. If you charge the earth and promise the stars but deliver a pile of sh!te odds are the first year will be the last year. However if you run the first year as a loss leader. Either get it perfect and charge full whack or charge reduced and learn from it. IMHO.

*whats that between the lines*

SucCes09

Would it make more sense to "just" run the half in Feb, and take it from there? Having experience an event this year that was in it's first year, and tried to do too much too soon, and it encountered some difficulties and bad press as a result.

Blueskye

schnellimbiss wrote: »

I ran the Burren Half this year, would 100% recommend it. Completely different to every other race I've done.

Yes, there are no prizes for the top finishers but it's hardly a complaint, given that it is organised by the walking club in Ballyvaughan.

The vast majority of people walked the course, some were finishing the marathon walk after 7/8 hours and they were still getting welcomed home by a very enthusiastic M.C.

The terrain is pretty wild, first couple of miles on road, before going off road and up hills, across limestone fields, down sharp descents, before running the last couple of miles back into the village. You know you're in for a challenge when the race briefing material refers to running along exposed cliff ledges...

Great finishers medal and t-shirt, and as already mentioned, a cup of soup and bread rolls waiting at the end.

Definitely doing this again next year if at all possible.

I did the Burren half this year too and absolutely loved it. It was really mucky in places but such a laugh and everyone taking part was really friendly. A great change from the road races I had done previously. Some challenging hills though!" Will definitely be back again next year .

catweazle

Yes I would be interested in doing an early marathon also, I would be like some of the above, keep the cost down, have the registration and race at a reasonable hour so entrants dont have to go down the night before, chips I might not bother with either at that time of year you will be getting the more serious runners, they will have the stopwatches. Dont bother with the goody bags most of them are useless anyways, have water stations and stewards who know where you are supposed to run.

If the course is good and people enjoy the race the word will spread and it will enable you to go large the following year. Look at the glowing reports of the Banner half above, its one I will pencil in myself now

HardyEustace

I think there's a gap for a marathon at the end of February , the middle of March.

And yes, no goodie bags, no rubbish-y extras, no extravagant promises, just a well run, good value race would be brilliant.

RobMarathonMan

Thanks for the advice.i think perhaps on the first year my best bet would be to keep things safe and just go with a half marathon.would be more manageable and then like you said i could build from there.would people recommend this?a half marathon around feb-march?

helpisontheway

Why are you interested in starting up a marathon in Kerry Rob? Are you a member of a club or charity or a company looking to make money from it?

RobMarathonMan

it will be a privately run event,but will have associated charities and clubs that will benefit from this you know.and my interest is basicly because i saw the gap for a marathon in kerry(before the dingle marathon was set up) and i thought killarney national park would be a suitable location

TFBubendorfer

HardyEustace wrote: »

I think there's a gap for a marathon at the end of February , the middle of March.

If you do that, make absolutely sure that it is at least 2 weeks either side of Ballycotton, or you'll be standing there on your own.

2 weeks before Ballycotton, inbetween that and Dungarvan, would probably be your best bet.

helpisontheway

RobMarathonMan wrote: »

it will be a privately run event,but will have associated charities and clubs that will benefit from this you know.and my interest is basicly because i saw the gap for a marathon in kerry(before the dingle marathon was set up) and i thought killarney national park would be a suitable location

So your running it on your own to raise money for charities and clubs?

Clum

I was going to head over seas for an early-in-the-year marathon but if there was one in Ireland I'd do it instead.

March 21st, two weeks after Ballycotton is probably best bet. Dungarvan and Ballycotton would be good warm up races for it. The only other major race I can think of around then are the national intermediate and master cross countries which you should try to avoid too. Not sure what date they're on though.

baza1976

HardyEustace wrote: »

Very, very true. Equally, this would mean having the marathon late enough that you can get from Dublin say(as it's where the biggest amount of people may come from) without having to leave at five in the morning.

But not too late a start. Don't want people running the last stage in the dark!!! that would be a disaster. 10am start would be good.

SharkTale

Same as above, would normally head away for a spring marathon. Great if it was in March as per other posts and even better on a Saturday, I think you will be hard pushed to get 1,000 entrants but count me in.

Best of luck

RobMarathonMan

after it is up and running well then i would look to take a slice of the profits but for year one and two atleast money will be pumped back into the event to make it better.thats the plan.money will be raised for charities through the runners and clubs that supply volunteers for the on day running of the event will get something in return also:)

meathcountysec

Clum wrote: »

The only other major race I can think of around then are the national intermediate and master cross countries which you should try to avoid too. Not sure what date they're on though.

14th February 2010, venue to be decided.

RacoonQueen

A January marathon would be nice. Do it in January, break the mould, go on.