Dublin Marathon 2024

It also closes for Pride and the Street performing world championships

Claiming that there is no need for change or some sort of success is a bit of a misnomer when there is a 27% no show.

There were people on earlier claiming it was all about the runners and not a cash grab (which I believe), but it is a success only financially.

The event does seem quite parochial, which in turn reduces the status of the event. It is not run, nor does it have the feel of an international marathon. I've done many.

Now this may be the goal of the organisation, which is well and good. However you can't then complain when dcc or the nta, treat it as the event that it is and feel they have the authority to pressure a move.

Its either an international event hosted in Dublin, with prestige and power.

Or is a large local Irish marathon that sails on the winds of council pressure.

I'm not suggesting there's no need for change. Simply pointing out that there is little evidence that a series of concurrent smaller races like a 10ks and/or a half marathon and/or a relay (your original suggestion) is necessary to drive interest in the event, which has been selling out at capacity for years. There's little evidence that there would be fewer no shows if these events were incorporated, even if they were needed to generate sales.

I've done a good few international marathons too. I would imagine they all rely on local authorities for permits and sign off on road closures, etc. The amount of buy-in from local authorities is probably different in different locations, with different systems of local government etc. While I wouldn't be too worried about the latest Dublin start/finish area kite flying, I would be wary of council pressure in general, due to the influence of local elected representatives lobbied by disgruntled local residents etc., which does seem to be more of a threat to city events in Ireland than elsewhere.

Dublin marathon is hardly parochial, or at least it's the most international event we have, and it certainly has international ambitions. It would have gone under years ago had the organisers not made special efforts to market to the international running community when locals had little interest in it. That said, things are far more competitive now, coupled with the extraordinary times we are living in, with high inflation , accommodation shortages, price gouging etc (although I've been recently gouged in Amsterdam and Berlin and Chicago too, so it's definitely not just an Irish thing.)

Sure, I've run Paris, Berlin, Valencia and Amsterdam.

Seeing as Amsterdam is the most recent and also the city the closest size and population (although Amsterdam is smaller on both) I'll use there as an example.

Of the 20,000 entrants and roughly 16,000 finishers. 52% came from a country other than the Netherlands, with a total of 130 different nationalities at the start.

That is in contrast to Dublins 2% rate.

This was my experience in all the other locations also.

Hence, when I say international marathon, this is what I mean. 98% of participants are from Ireland, making it a very big local feeling marathon. Which people on here seem quite happy with. Far be it from me...

That dublinlive article says there were 25,000 participants when there were just over 14,000, so I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

I read a number off 500 international participants in the newspaper last week, I've been trying to corroborate that online but there is no real detail on the Dublin marathon website like other marathons.

Sure, it might be easier to get to Amsterdam and that may be one of the reasons it has the feel of a proper international marathon, unlike Dublin.

By the way you didn't need to look too hard the other weekend to see the field was entirely dominated by Irish people, I've never seen so many John's and Mary's in one place.

Look I think Dublin has been a great success alongside the cultural change towards more athletic activity in society. I don't think they've increased the numbers and more people have signed up. I think demand has risen and they've kept up.

I think it's great, I just believe it could be so much better.

On the other hand you could take encouragement from how many Irish people want to take part, as others have said it was in the low single thousands not that long ago.

Also a large change also in the amount of unattached runners taking part, running clubs locally here had very few entries compared to the number of other unattached entries.

I wouldn't say resistance to change just don't see the advantage of change, you will still get 20% no show on average no matter what you do, Its only the last 2 marathons that there was any issue getting a place for.

Is it more of an Irish thing maybe? Every Race i sign up for be it 5km to Marathon has a huge DNS number. I'm sure it was the same for all the race series races too and you'd imagine it'd be highest of all in a marathon.

Edit

Berlin was 10% last year, new York something in the single digits.

Do you have figures for number of places deferred in those races? Are those places opened back up to the public

I imagine the vast majority of marathons are fairly local in their feel. You could certainly argue that's the way it should be too. You have to think that most people that do anything like this would do 1 a year, maybe 2. With that in mind you'd have to think that the biggest one near where you live should have the most appeal. It's also the least disruptive to your own preparation as you're less likely to have to engage in obstacles like travel close to race day as well as staying in unfamiliar surroundings. Even the local entrant is faced with a problem on race day unless you're coming from reasonably close to the start line.

I'd imagine only the most prominent races have any meaningful international presence. Entering the New York or London marathon has sufficient prestige that it has its own incentive and very few events have that draw.

There's a very understandable reason why Dublin wouldn't have much of a niche for the international competitor, outside of the fact that it's not a global major. Even the biggest events have this advantage over Dublin in the main too.....and that is the difficulty of the course. If you're going out of your way to participate you're likely either doing it to chalk off a major event or because the course offers a good PB chance. Amsterdam and Rotterdam aren't major events but they are flat courses and have excellent infrastructure to facilitate such an event.

With the greatest of respect this particular thread is a bit of a love in for past participants who want to clap each other and the marathon committee on the back. There is no space here for an alternative voice, so I will bid you adieu.

To those who enter the verious lotteries, best of luck. But if you don't make it there are many other marathons out there that offer something different to Dublin.

Interestingly I read somewhere that London has so much data from over the years that it can predict down to a couple of hundred runners how many will start on the day, must swe if I can dig it up.

Edit: found a link that breaks down London no shows, ranges from 24-30% over the last few years

https://atkosite.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/london-marathon-record-ballot-numbers-what-are-your-odds/

Was chatting to someone in the know (works for a timing company) and he was saying they have to rent out Dublin Castle for the weekend to house the Garda command centre (including anti-terrorism unit) on top of the guards on the route (all on Sunday rates paid by the marathon. He was saying the race risk assessment document alone cost up to 1/4 million euro. The reason the race is not shown on TV is that the marathon has to pay to broadcast it! The Dublin marathon has to pay for everything so sponsorship is vitally important (more so than entry fee).Only the volunteers are free (and the 3 cans of deodorant!)