Christmas runs - South of Ireland

seatrump

Hi guys and gals,
Avid runner coming to Ireland for the Christmas. Will be staying in the Cork area but willing to travel. Would love to line up for something to stay motivated over the Christmas from 10k to ultra distances. A Google search hasn't turned up much - I know Ireland pretty much shuts down for Christmas but surely someone must be organizing a race somewhere? Any leads?

Thanks in advance
Seatrump

RacoonQueen

seatrump wrote: »

Hi guys and gals,
Avid runner coming to Ireland for the Christmas. Will be staying in the Cork area but willing to travel. Would love to line up for something to stay motivated over the Christmas from 10k to ultra distances. A Google search hasn't turned up much - I know Ireland pretty much shuts down for Christmas but surely someone must be organizing a race somewhere? Any leads?

Thanks in advance
Seatrump

Athenry 10K on St. Stephens day.

Lots and lots of races over Christmas, have you checked out runireland?

fruit salad

There's a 4 miler on in Farranfore, Kerry on Stephen's Day - be about an hour and a half drive from Cork City. I'm sure there will be some more on closer to home though.

I'd see what's on http://corkrunning.blogspot.ie/

After that, be worth checking out http://munsterrunning.blogspot.ie/ or popping John Desmond a line. johndesmond247@gmail.com

mossym

4 mile in clonmel on stephens day as well.

RubyK

There's The Baldyman 8K race at Tramore beach on Saturday 28th Dec at 11.00am

http://www.waterfordac.com/index.php/179-baldyman-race-in-aid-of-waterford-hospice

Registration is online http://www.runireland.com/active/all-events or on the morning of the race at the Majestic Hotel, which is only a few hundred metres from the startline.

overthebridge

There's the annual 5 mile & 10 mile runs on St. Stephens Day in Caherdavin in Limerick. I've ran this for the last few years. It's a no frills, show up, pay your money and run event. Perfect really ;-)

Link http://www.athleticslimerick.com/2013/11/st-stephens-day-10-5-mile-run/

sixpack's little hat

http://corkrunning.blogspot.ie/p/calendar.html

hopefully something in there that suits...

Condo131

Comprehensive listing of races in the greater Cork area, including permit and measurement status, HERE on Eagle AC website.

Plenty of choice over the Festive period - 7 races, inc Goal mile in region.....and, thankfully, not a commercial in sight!

Listing for 2014 is in progress, but all races with AI permits for first 6 months included. Hope to post BHAA, add further races for July-Dec, and backfill Parkruns, in next few days.

seatrump

Thanks everyone! That's great. If I can just shake off this congestion I might be able to log a decent time (for me!) or two over the festive season!

Beef

Condo131 wrote: »

Comprehensive listing of races in the greater Cork area, including permit and measurement status, HERE on Eagle AC website.

Plenty of choice over the Festive period - 7 races, inc Goal mile in region.....and, thankfully, not a commercial in sight!

Listing for 2014 is in progress, but all races with AI permits for first 6 months included. Hope to post BHAA, add further races for July-Dec, and backfill Parkruns, in next few days.

What's wrong with the commercial races? <runs>

Condo131

Beef wrote: »

What's wrong with the commercial races? <runs>

As regular Boarders will know, I'm flogging this topic all over the gaff.
In short:
High entry fees
Exorbitantly high profits generally in excess of 50% of gross (without allowing for sponsorship either!)
Very sparing on the prizes spread
With *VERY FEW* exceptions, they hide their true identity - the club events go out of their way to say who they are. Why conceal or withhold your identity? [Btw, it is an offence, under both Irish and EU law, for companies to withhold this info on their websites and documents, and that includes race flyers!]
Limited or no contact details - often just a blank web form.
High proportion claim the event is for charity - general commercial race donation to charity is in the range 15 to 20%. The professional street collectors give more!
Many claim that they are charity events, while donating absolutely nothing to charity and actually CHARGING the charity for the privilege of being called a "Partner".
Those are just the main ones. If you feel I'm exaggerating, just pick a random commercial race and try and answer some of the points above. Even where you can find this info, it's usually pretty well hidden, and, almost certainly, not on the main page.

Slick marketing goes an awful long way.

Things are in motion, along several fronts, to force events like these to become transparent.

...and there are 12 non-commercial races in County Cork before Dec 31st

eliwallach

Condo131 wrote: »

Exorbitantly high profits generally in excess of 50% of gross (without allowing for sponsorship either!)
]

And this is bad because?
Surely this is good business?

And as regards prizes, 98% of participants don't give a hoot about prizes (me included).

Condo131

eliwallach wrote: »

And this is bad because?
Surely this is good business?

And as regards prizes, 98% of participants don't give a hoot about prizes (me included).

Hi Eli....haven't seen you for ages.
Profit isn't the issue. Profit drives business. The issue here is exorbitant profit taking. A race soon coming to a venue near you is expected to turn a nett profit of over 62%. Why charge (say) €32 for a (say) 10k and take profits on a supernormal level - far in excess of normal business levels. Cutting the entry fee down to €20, would still yield a good profit of around 30%, something a lot of businesses would kill for.

Prizes....Yes, I agree, the vast majority don't really care about prizes...BUT, you'd sure be disappointed if the winners got little or nothing, wouldn't you...or would you rather just have fun runs.

OK, we may agree to disagree on the first two points I raised.. What about the other four. ...and I really should have put an "AND" between each....cherry-picking points doesn't address the whole picture.

With apologies to the OP, for hijacking the thread............

Here is an update calendar of remaining Christmas runs in Cork

hypersonic

prize money is important for hobby joggers, with out prize money even middle of the road hobby joggers will find himself racing on their own due to a low quality/thin field. So you end up running a time trial and not a race, I always feel short changed when I this happens, it's like watching a match where only one team turns up.
Give me some one to chase and I'll happily pay my share for the prize money.

allthedoyles