Great Limerick Run 2025

Where is the bag drop for the half? The email says the time but not where the bag drop is

Great day out.

Almost perfect conditions for the half.…ran very conservatively and managed to beat my time from last year somehow 🤔

Great to see Limerick looking so well…enjoy the celebrations folks 🍻

ran a PB for 6 mile and managed to high five every mid from the materinity to the finish line .

Made sure I enjoyed it this year as last year was too hot .

Great day

my first full.(41yo- 5’11-110kg) Finished in 4hrs 48.

Could have been quicker but I was with my Younger bro who had to walk a few times- we split at 28km and my pace improved.

Hardest part was when around the old dunnes- people were on the street and it when 30km+ in, it was difficult to get bearings.

Well done on your first full.

I had no complaints/quibbles about the half but there seemed to be a shortage of marshalls between O'Connell St and Henry St to keep the road clear for the slower runners doing the full.

Weaving around prams, dogs, oblivious people on their phones etc is no fun on tired legs.…poor form considering the relatively high entrance fee.

Something that could be easily resolved for next year hopefully

Another relatively tough day at the office for me, was fairly spent by 20 miles so was a struggle bus home. Slight improvement on my time but my wait for a well executed marathon goes on!

I was just ahead of the 4:30 pacers til around the guards barracks after 20 miles.

Admin wise, couldn't have been simpler. We got down just before 8am, parked near the bus station which was only a couple minutes walk from the start line.

I thought the route was ok, a couple of minor complaints.

It gets fairly narrow in places, there was spot around the 20 mile Mark just before we merged with the 10ks that has barriers either side that seemed needlessly narrow.

Running out to dooradoyle on the road where there is a lidl a couple of times the runners in the opposite direction would be at least 3 or 4 deep on wrong side of the cones forcing us to avoid them

It was tough logistically when struggling to meet the 10k, I would have just met the start of them so they were the fast bunch. When I got to bridge across the Shannon I started to cramp up and trying to get myself into a safe place to walk wasn't ideal as it was narrow enough

Would have loved a lucozade at the finish line, if I was doing it again I would take one from the 40k water stop (assuming they had them). They had ran out of the protein bars, but we're in the process of restocking them, but they didn't have them when I was going through.

I didn't realize there was meant to be lucozade available at the finish line! I didn't see any evidence of it being given out other than I saw a good few people with blue lucozade after the finish line.

To be honest I probably could have done with them as I actually ended up not being in great shape after the race. I ended up sitting on steps and I was bit light headed and my arms were kind of pins and needles. guards came over to me saying I looked very pale and called for a paramedic to come. It was around this time my wife met me too and she had some electrolyte drink with her so I took that and another runner gave me a protein bar.

After a few minutes I felt normal enough again, but by the time the paramedic came he said I was too cold to get a reading from my finger and sent me to medical tent. They checked my BP and blood sugar and they said it was pretty normal considering, this was about 25 mins after the gaurd first saw me, I was feeling much better at this stage.

I was probably one of those running on the wrong side of the cone, it was just tight and difficult to get a clear line at times, so ended up on the path quite a bit and running 13.2 mile on GPS for the Half.

A good time in the Half, by my standards, had to walk for about 10-15 seconds by the Gaelic grounds, the strain of the hill was just a bit much, but just other than that just managed to keep going.

A few regrets that I'd didn’t stick with the full, maybe next year, but who knows, a year is a year away...

Anyway the atmosphere was great, the weather was good and the pizza after

was good too. A great day.

Yesterday was a blast. On my 6th attempt, the first time I managed to run an entire marathon without having to walk/shuffle for the last few k.

I ran the half here a couple of years ago and loved it, so signed up for the full. Went out with the intention of enjoying it and not putting any pressure on, planning to average 5:35/km for the first half, 5:20 for the next 10k and then seeing if I could increase it further. In the end, I averaged 5:31 for the first half (feeling really strong and holding back) and pushed it, averaging 5:17 over the second to finish in 3:47 for a 9 min PB and 4 1/2 min negative split.

Like others, I came up behind the HM field which was very busy, particulaly of course where there were pacers, but any time I was held up, I just took it as an opportunity to recover a little and get set again. There were plenty of times I had to sprint around people, up on paths, over kerbs and around the cones, but going in with the goal of enjoying it, it didn't bother me. In fact, it probably gave me a lot of confidence to be passing people, feeling good, and seeing everyone enjoying themselves.

I did suffer a little from abdominable pains throughout and I think it could be due to maybe drinking too much water the hours/day before, or maybe the breakfast from the hotel, but nothing like previous races. So, I skipped quite a lot of the water stations (and there were loads and loads), and only took 4 1/2 gels throughout, but this was the first time I took Precious Fuel Hydration Capsules every 10k (skipped last) in a race, and reckon they really helped me.

The other change this time was in training my easy runs were run much slower than I have done in the past and my taper was longer.

I really love the course, and find the hills quite challenging, particularly over the last 8k. The Gaelic Grounds area is a grind, particularly the hills in the residential areas and then back up towards the city. I'll definitely love to do it again next year. Oh, and first time seeing UL, and that was a super interesting part of the course.

On the taxi back to the hotel in the late afternoon, I saw a group of young lads pushing around a trolley full of lucozade trying to sell them to passers by.

Did the full yesterday in 4h 48 so most likely finished close to a few of ye above.

@ThebitterLemon I ran with 4:30 pacers for a few km out by Castletroy and UL. There was great banter going. Well done!

Completely agree with what has been said above. On the positive, it was a very well organised event. Had no issues with getting there, toilets, getting to start line etc. The support was amazing from the crowds in the city and the volunteers and stewarts out on the course.

My first "annoyance" was heading out against the half marathoners. As said above, because of congestion, they were over on our side of the road and because I was on my own, they just didn't seem to see me. 3 or 4 also spat across the road in front of me, which was not the nicest!

Next was running back through city, at I think 30k. I was on my own with not alot of runners around me and struggled a little, to know what way to go. There were lots of people/supporters out on the road.

My last "annoyance", and my biggest, was heading out of city with the 6 mile runners after Sarsfield bridge. I almost got knocked over/tripped a few times here with fast fresh runners zipping past leaving no space. I found it so tough with the crowds coming through from behind.

I was really impressed with the water stations. Given the heat and being at the back of the pack, there was plenty of water. The support coming in at the finish was unreal. I, too was worried about getting a medal after what happened in some previous races. But had no issues. Was handed medal, banana, bar and large bottle of water.

All in all, there was a really great buzz about the place. A really well run event, but not a course I would be in a hurry to do again.

6 mile runner here. I thought I had positioned myself far enough up the front of the first wave. But I was way wrong. I in no way anticipated the crowd that was there. The first km was thronged. And, as mentioned above, the course remained busy as we hit the Ennis road and met up with the longer runners.

Fabulous crowds altogether. I'd done the full marathon 12 years ago and was not expecting the numbers I saw on Sunday.

I had a similar experience after the Galway Full a few years ago.

I was advised to take a few deep breaths by the paramedics and even that normalised my blood oxygen levels. (Like you I had been told I looked pale so sought attention.)

-The body will be in a bit of oxygen deficit immediately after a long intense run. So it's a good idea to continue to take some deep breaths for a few minutes after, walk a little bit if you can.

Obviously fuel up ASAP as well and you should be fine.

Had never tried the blue lucozade before but 2 bottles over a few minutes plus a banana or two certainly helped my body recover from it's energy depletion within 10 minutes or so.

I do limerick every year and it was so much more crowded this year, it was chaos at the finish line but people had no where to go.

https://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2025/05/big-jump-in-numbers-for-2025-limerick.html?m=1

Yeah it appears to be a massive increase in numbers, don't know whether it was a deliberate plan to increase numbers or demand just naturally increased? There's a bigger interest in marathons generally over the last few years anyway(super shoes make it more appealing I think), and Limerick has the benefit of maybe the best bank holiday weekend of the year in terms of weather, and for most people the training really gets going as the evenings get brighter.