Brayheadtrail.com 19th May

grasshopper2

14 k Run in aid of Fighting Blindness. I did the Glendalough trail last year and was very well organised and good buzz at it.

Thinking of signing up for this. €15 entry fee and €50 to charity - not bad.

Krusty_Clown

It's really a fee of €65, of which €50 goes to charity. Still, I love running in the area and the IMRA photos make it look pretty amazing.
Will keep it in mind (though the IMRA Bray Head race is on the 25th April, for €7).

donothoponpop

I'm getting pissed off at the amount of charities jumping on the hill running bandwagon. It's a free country, so enter if you like, just be aware that over 40% of every euro Fighting Blindness raise is spent on administration, CEO salary, etc. , and not on charitable efforts (2011 figures). Puts the high cost of entry in context.

GoHardOrGoHome

grasshopper2 wrote: »

€15 entry fee and €50 to charity - not pretty bad.

fyp

donothoponpop

[IMG]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-v7BjVYzm8Oc/T0ZOzXccIQI/AAAAAAAAAhI/oSNQLjfm1NI/s800/FB.jpg" height="288" width="800"[/IMG]

Maybe they let IMRA runners do it for €7?

sconhome

Cliff walk should be in great condition after all the runs along it.

Another one on 31st March

http://www.gaelforceevents.com/trailblazer/en/event_details/bray_cliff_run/the_course.html

€25 for this race.

donothoponpop

amphkingwest wrote: »

Cliff walk should be in great condition after all the runs along it.

That's a very pertinent point. IMRA have been running this route as their season opener for years- it's got history, it's got records, its got winners times, going back years. All voluntary, great race, no-one is making any money out of IMRA hill running. Put hundreds of runners up and around these routes in a close succession of races, there will be a lot of erosion, and ultimately someone will step in and call stop to hill running on this route. Years of tradition will be gone, but the johnny-com€-lat€ly'$ won't care, they'll just move in to the next "gap" in the "market".

nerraw1111

donothoponpop wrote: »

That's a very pertinent point. IMRA have been running this route as their season opener for years- it's got history, it's got records, its got winners times, going back years. All voluntary, great race, no-one is making any money out of IMRA hill running. Put hundreds of runners up and around these routes in a close succession of races, there will be a lot of erosion, and ultimately someone will step in and call stop to hill running on this route. Years of tradition will be gone, but the johnny-com€-lat€ly'$ won't care, they'll just move in to the next "gap" in the "market".

The GF race doesn't go up Bray head from what I can tell?.

To be fair, there's feck all trail up there, there's nothing left to erode. We're talking an extra few hundred runners over an entire year. That's a small dip in a very big ocean that is Bray head.

Was up there recently and it was full of walkers sliding down it. I don't believe runners cause much erosion in the first place but could be wrong? Genuine question.

All that said, you would be better off doing an IMRA race and if erosion is an issue then of course races should be limited. But with Bray, I don't think that's an issue.

I'm not sure if the race is aimed at runners but rather non runners looking for a challenge and raise a bit of cash for person affected by x charity.


I do think they are overpriced as essentially the race is €65, no chance a friend is going to pay me to run. I'd love to do the Wicklow half marathon race but similar price means I'll give it a miss. A shame, I'd be happy to pay €20.

I still say these companies have a right to put on these races once they get the necessary permissions. Effective way of raising money. Look at chuggers. No-one likes them but they work.

donothoponpop

Well, so far in this thread I've muddied them by ripping into "charity" business's, exorbitant entry cost, use of IMRA material in their promo, and erosion, so take what I have to say with a pinch of salt. I'm a crank who doesn't like the ever increasing number of business's looking at our nice free mountains and thinking "how can I make a few quid from that?". Some are more responsible in how they go about it than others, granted.

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Was up there recently and it was full of walkers sliding down it. I don't believe runners cause much erosion in the first place but could be wrong? Genuine question.

Don't know if you just mean Bray head specifically, but in general runners cause far more erosion than walkers. You're hitting the downhills with a lot more impact forces, anywhere from 3-7 times the amount a walker would. So its something that needs to be considered by any responsible hill runner. The Tonelagee & the Lake has only been run twice, already there's a new brook coming down the deepened chasm thats been cut into the mountain. I remember recce'ing this route prior to the first race, and for most of it the trail was nothing more than gently pressed heather. Ditto quite a few others I can think of, repeated use causes a cascade effect.

Slogger Jogger

donothoponpop wrote: »

I'm getting pissed off at the amount of charities jumping on the hill running bandwagon. It's a free country, so enter if you like, just be aware that over 40% of every euro Fighting Blindness raise is spent on administration, CEO salary, etc. , and not on charitable efforts (2011 figures). Puts the high cost of entry in context.

Thats a shocking high figure. I queried the spend for the Debra run as I didn't want to mislead anyone seen as I was championing this as an event as its a charity I was moved by. Its 20 + minimum fundraising of 50. Thats effectively 70 if its self-spend, fair enough. 100% of fundraising is to the charity. c. 12.50 of the 20 goes towards the admin overhead - buses, chip timing.

Re:this race I could see issues running along the cliff walk with potential runners vs walkers (& walkers with dogs) collisions. I hope they've their insurance in place.

nerraw1111

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Thats a shocking high figure. I queried the spend for the Debra run as I didn't want to mislead anyone seen as I was championing this as an event as its a charity I was moved by. Its 20 + minimum fundraising of 50. Thats effectively 70 if its self-spend, fair enough. 100% of fundraising is to the charity. c. 12.50 of the 20 goes towards the admin overhead - buses, chip timing.

Re:this race I could see issues running along the cliff walk with potential runners vs walkers (& walkers with dogs) collisions. I hope they've their insurance in place.

The council will close the path for a couple of hours or so for the race.

That's the overall annual spend rather than for just this event. Debra would be similar enough I would guess although I can't find their accounts online. The UK part has their accounts online and tell a similar story.

Depends on your viewpoint but I'm of the opinion that you have to spend money to raise money. The ratio can be a bone of contention. But with these events, you have to take in account the free publicity, the awareness it creates, the profile, the brand etc. Debra plays a blinder in this regard and valued their free press overage at over £400,000. That's down to events like this.