2022 Raheny 5 mile

sk8board · 30-01-2022 9:40pm

They mismeasured the masters XC in st Anne’s a few weeks ago as well, almost 200m long on a 6km race.

bizarre they didn’t doublecheck this, 3 weeks later.

Being off by 500m is more than a human error surely! Made a balls of trying to judge a finish line sprint, but didn’t take away from a great day out

Van.Bosch · 30-01-2022 10:34pm

Surprised nothing from them on social or their website. Surely they knew it was off with the first finishers.

sk8board · 30-01-2022 10:38pm

With the XC, they updated the distance on myrunresults after a day or two, so the time/distance/pace matched with the watch time (or as close as it normally would)

morceli · 30-01-2022 10:49pm

Heard someone put the turn at the sport for the race walking champs that were on there a while back.

Pherekydes · 30-01-2022 11:09pm

When I saw Fionnuala finishing in 27 and a half I knew it was way over. She would have been close to 26 otherwise. My wife and many running buddies got it at 8.5 - 8.6 or thereabouts.

AuldManKing · 30-01-2022 11:15pm

Yeah agreed. There's not a big online lambasting going on (that I can see), so hopefully people still have goodwill towards them - but no doubt they are scratching their heads over how it happened.

ParkRunner · 30-01-2022 11:17pm

I was wondering alright what the 4 mile marker was doing at 7km. These things happen. No excuses for not being able to do the next 5 mile in a good time :)

ClashCityRocker · 30-01-2022 11:43pm

Such a pity about the extra distance - first time doing it and thought everything else about it was spot on. Fair play to Raheny and the sheer numbers of volunteers they had out. real buzz about the place and good to see that kind of race back again and the kind of numbers taking part. Even the weather played ball for the most part on what’s been a changeable day.

Lovely tribute to Pat Hooper at the start too

sk8board · 30-01-2022 11:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557016#Comment_118557016

Very little head scratching required - the turnaround in the park was 250m too far forward.

on a course with the same start and finish line, the U-turn around the cones is the way to tune the course to the precise distance - the rest of the course is immaterial, so to speak.

Runster · 31-01-2022 12:01am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557171#Comment_118557171

I think he meant how it wasn't spotted

Murph_D · 31-01-2022 12:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118556816#Comment_118556816

Nothing to do with today’s race, which was an error, but XC distances are usually approximate. Not unusual to be a bit longer or shorter than the stated distance.

pc11 · 31-01-2022 12:15am

Just a guess, but did they accidentally use the parkrun junior turnaround mark? That's along the same avenue.

I was so deflated in the last 800m as I thought I was running an awful time. My legs were dead but if I had known I was actually doing a decent time I could have raised a gallop for the last 300m.

Such a pity because in every other way it's a wonderful event, a real community highlight every year.

Snodge · 31-01-2022 12:54am

Great to be back racing and to see the crowds, fantastic atmopshere and the organisation that goes in to such an event has to be commended. At the end of the day it is volunteers giving of their free to organise the race. However, very disappointing about the extra distance as times were affected. I wonder would it be possible for my run results to adjust the times..similar to what happened in Belfast a few years back

MrMacPhisto · 31-01-2022 1:44am

Great race, and great event. I walked down the avenue this morn well before the race and said to the wife "that turn looks like its in the wrong spot", and then when we got to the parkrun finish line I said "Ah, they have changed the route, we are joining the avenue here and not at the start of the avenue, that makes sense". I'd hazard a guess that there was a minor but ultimately crucial miscommunication between organisers and marshals somewhere along the line, somewhere along the lines of "it always goes this way...."

Enjoyable race, well organised and **** happens!!

Sandwell · 31-01-2022 2:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557441#Comment_118557441

Sandwell · 31-01-2022 2:08am

I've got huge respect for Raheny as an athletics club but I'm quite disappointed that there's been no official statement/apology for what happened today. There's nothing wrong with holding your hands up when there's been an obvious error. It's the one thing you have to get right if you're organising a road race and they screwed it up. Apologise and then explain what you're going to do to prevent it happening again. There's a race report on the results site at the moment that doesn't even mention the issue. Very poor response.

Van.Bosch · 31-01-2022 8:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557624#Comment_118557624

Yes, and they have stopped calling it the Raheny 5 Mile, they now refer to the “Raheny 5”.

surprised they didn’t acknowledge it.

SeeMoreBut · 31-01-2022 10:39am

Lets be honest if it was Belfast and the likes people would be slaughtering them here.

3000 entries with them pulling in tens of thousands in money and nobody thought they'd check the route to make sure.

Can't blame the contractor for everything.

The silence is terrible also.

Should be treated like any other race for such a bad mistake

sk8board · 31-01-2022 10:50am

I don’t believe Raheny said anything after the XC either, but as someone said above, the XC route by its nature will vary, albeit this was a big enough variation - however a few days later the myrunresults distance was updated

rovers_runner · 31-01-2022 11:22am

Luckily for me in hindsight I had been building back miles at home so had to give it a miss, had tweaked something was amiss when the live results feed didn't update until nearly 25 mins in.

It's the only place on the route that this could have happened, the rest of the course is turns based on junctions. It's a fair distance to be out by even if you were basing it off a mapped drawing from the previous running in 2020.

A pity as it's an excellent club and the race is usually one of the best each year. Sh*t happens to the best of us as it has been said.

kd82 · 31-01-2022 11:45am

Really enjoyed that yesterday. Cracking buzz and atmosphere and the weather was spot on. The end, yep, it was disappointing and a bit of a head-scratcher trying to gauge a last push for the line but all in all it was a great event. I should be able to knock 2 minutes off my time in 2023 now as well ;P

MisterJinx · 31-01-2022 11:51am

Thoroughly enjoyed the race myself, great atmosphere, support and marshalling. I know it take a huge amount of effort from volunteers to get something like that up and running and besides the error on the distance it was organised very very well. Personally I wasn't upset with the distance but it was my first time at the race and that distance so it was all new to me, I was only a little surprised when I realised how far left the finish line was after we exited the park. All round it was just great to be out racing again and see so many people out both racing and supporting.

Sunny Dayz · 31-01-2022 11:59am

Aside from the mishap with the distance - it was a great event as per usual. Plenty of volunteers and spectators on the course. A great turnout of participants. A lot of side stepping for the first while, a few near misses for me, but it made a change for it to be me doing the overtaking! Crowd never really thinned out that much the whole way around, testament to the good turn out. I didn't really miss the goodie bag but I think a lot of the treats were gone by the time I finished but a hot cup of tea and a banana are my usuals post race so the Crunchie was a well earned treat!

Personally I am disappointed in the cock-up with the distance and therefore the times. I've been working hard on my health and fitness this last 6 months or so, so this event was going to be a good benchmark for me to see where I'm at and how I've improved since the last Raheny 2 years ago. I'm sure it was a pb for me but I don't know what it actually was. The out and back in the park always feels long for me, it's the one part of the course I don't like as I don't like the motion of running against the flow of traffic on the far side of the cones. But when I came out of the park I felt the distance was off and thought maybe we were turning in for the finish sooner and approaching in towards the start. Running past the finish gantry and on around the little park, then the watch telling me 5 miles was done was disheartening. It made me feel like I wasn't going to get a fair result. It's disappointing to read here that they didn't address it in their race report and are supposedly blaming a contractor.

But look it, I'll be back again next year!

sk8board · 31-01-2022 12:15pm

So it’s the following day, and I figure Unless you were specifically training and targeting this race and specifically a 5mile time, there’s little to be disappointed with I think.

I was getting back from injury so I had an avg pace target, which I hit and plenty to build on.

I had a wry smile thinking about the announcers pre-race talking about this field being strong enough to break the old course record 😏.

Most of all, it’s Great to be back in a large field!

mathie · 31-01-2022 12:37pm

Absolutely unacceptable to have a race in this day and age and be so far off with the distance.

Nobody double-checked the distance?

I find that hard to accept.

Then to not acknowledge it since?

Lack of goodie bag "due to COVID" another head scratcher.

They are pulling in far too much money for this race to have it run like that.

Murph_D · 31-01-2022 12:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118558638#Comment_118558638

The club has not blamed the contractor, that's just someone's theory that's going around on social media, as far as I'm aware.

Van.Bosch · 31-01-2022 12:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118558909#Comment_118558909

And that will continue until the club addresses the issue in its report.

Rossi7 · 31-01-2022 1:04pm

Always enjoy running this race, yesterday was no different. But to have the distance so wrong and for Raheny to not even put their hands up and admit the balls up is disappointing. I got talking to one of volunteers on the way back to the car and he was full of apologies, he explained that over the last two years works have been carried out in the park and that part of the course was resurfaced and the old turnaround marker was covered over. I was probably more annoyed after hearing this, the fact no one bothered to actually measure the course and just 2nd guess and blame a contractor on it.

I'm not bothered about a goody bag personally, but to say there won't be due to Covid and then have pile ups at the end for handing out various bars, bananas and water was madness

The silence of the Raheny contingent is deafening on here particularly when they've been very vocal on Antrim and Belfast, aul Boris would be proud with the burying the head in the sand tactic

jebuz · 31-01-2022 1:38pm

Great race and atmosphere as always and as expected a really strong and deep field to measure yourself against. I knew heading up the U-turn that something was awry when my watch beeped for 4 miles as I distinctly remembered that 4 mile mark being after the turn last time. The 500m extra was so tough on the body but a race is a race and while it's disappointing to not get that 5 mile time (and PB for some) you can at least measure yourself on how you placed compared to your usual peers. I'd agree with above though that the organisers should probably come out and explain what happened, people will hopefully understand and the masses will certainly come back next year. It really highlights the need to double-check course measurements (especially when cones are involved) in high profile races, particularly with the potential backlash on social media that can affect the reputation of a race. One mistake in 38 years can probably be forgiven in time but it's clearly still very raw with people.

For anyone wanting to calculate their real time, I made up a little calculator here: https://myrunningpace.com/long-short/

Murph_D · 31-01-2022 1:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118559008#Comment_118559008

Agree with most of this. However the criticism of the deafeningly silent 'Raheny contingent' (of which I am one) would be fair only if it could be assumed that "we" know exactly what happened and how/why it happened. There's no doubt that there was an error, that's obvious. I agree that the club should make a statement.

2022 Raheny 5 mile

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