Regeneron Great Limerick Run 2022

Switched my half marathon entry (from 2020) to the marathon. Hopefully it goes ahead. January could look like the apocalypse the way things are going.

Some drags, lumps and bumps. .nothing really bad til roughly 10 or 11 miles when you have to head back up the gaelic grounds direction back into town. That section will knock the stuffing out of you if you've overdone it earlier. It's not a course I'd consider flat I'll put it to you that way.

On the plus side its very well supported in town. Although I do have a little bit of a bug bear with the lack of support in some of the estates on the raheen and North circular sides. I really wish more of the run was spent in the city but its a very "cost effective" race. Understandable that they wouldn't want city roads shut all day.

Nope! Big climbs around mile 4. Other than that it's OK.its the last 6 miles of the half and full

I'm planning on running a marathon on May Bank holiday so either Belfast or Limerick. I haven't done either before, what would anyone that has done them recommend?

Thanks

Hmm tricky one to answer.

Its not Berlin flat but not Dingle hilly either.

Starts in town, heads out towards the UL direction. Back into town along the riverbank from UL. Then out towards Raheen, little loop in Raheen and back into town. Then out North Circular road, down Ennis road past GAA grounds, loop around and back up towards town for the finish. None of that will mean anything to you if you dont know Limerick.

So...........there are some drags and pulls. The worst hills are probably coming up onto O'Connell avenue and back in towards town. Thats a short enough one though. The worst one is coming back up past GAA grounds at mile 24/25. Thats tough.

There are parts of the route I like especially passing through town and then there are parts I hate. Through housing estates quite a bit and the support can be hit and miss in places.

I'm biased but overall I think its one thats worth doing and they build Riverfest around it so there's a great buzz around. Now, God knows what will happen with Covid and Riverfest but in non Covid times its a definite plus.

There will be a decent crowd running it. A major negative for some people might be the fact that the half marathon and 6 miler link up with it so if youre a bit back in the marathon field you might have a lot of half marathoners and 6 milers whizzing by.

Thanks @Swashbuckler & @ThebitterLemon. The bigger question seems to be if I want to do a marathon at all this year, Limerick seems like a no brainer if I do. P I have close family living very close King John's castle and in Dooradoyle so I have some familiarity with the city but I haven't run the streets as such. But it sounds like a fair course. Amsterdam was similar, the HM anyhow, went through some pretty lonely industrial estates. There is no where like Dublin for the support/crowds but that's not necessarily everything.

Looked at the 2019 results/splits and alot of cheating taking place.

Boys running nearly 3 miles in ten minutes.

Faster splits at the end than Sergiu Ciobanu, who has represented ireland and ran in the european championships.

That was enough for me.

S**** organisation if you can literally spot the crap from the results page.

If you ran a pb on this course would anyone believe you?

Funny how 99% of runners splits are fine and look reasonable with the a handful of runners running world class at the end.

You can protest all ye want.

Doesnt add up 🤣🤣.

Would hate to have a pb on that course as people would forever query it.

I'd forgotten about this but seems I'm entered from two years ago, guess I'd better do a bit of training :)

It's bad when you can literally see it in about a minute of looking at official results.

My wife noticed it when I said I might run it, we we're looking at results and she doesnt even race. In fairness she's an accountant so she's looking for anomalies in data everyday. It stands out a mile when pointed out. I don't need to point it out further unless your blind.

I find the smaller marathons are amateur. It'll probably fold in a few years like most smaller marathons. You need big numbers to make it worth your while organising stewarts for 26.2 miles.

You're safe for a while yet! Numbers in marathon pretty low in comparison to the HM & 6 Mile, which is the biggest in terms of numbers. Marathon definitely doesn't sell out and registration (i think) is open until very close to the race.

Signed up for the marathon, not sure what to expect. I actually did the half marathon back in 2019 but remember very little about it.

Here's a Strava link if that helps 👍

I'll be doing the Full here. Last long run planned for Wednesday but two 20 Milers already.