The Great Limerick Run, 2 May 2010

asimonov · 05-05-2010 08:00AM

More mixed reviews here, including a comment by one of the guys who went the wrong way.

http://munsterrunning.blogspot.com/2010/05/limerick-results-of-great-limerick.html

Pacers take a bow, it seems you were the highlight of the day!

Cartman78 · 05-05-2010 08:16AM

re: Medals - I heard that the boxed medals were for the first 300 finishers in the marathon. Personally thought it was a nice touch.

re: Expo and Goody Bags - the goody bags were indeed lame but no more or less lame than any other bag i've received in the past. The expo was ok for a first effort. One thing though (and nothing really to do with the organisers) - what is it with all the women-only races??? Really don't understand the thinking behind this. Imagine the uproar if a men only event was advertised

On further reflection a couple of days after the euphoria has died down - I think there was a lot of issues with traffic management in the last 8-10 miles of the marathon. The coned lanes were simply too narrow for the volume of people - lots of swerving to avoid cones; running outside against oncoming cars etc.

There's still massive potential there for a great annual event but the organisers will really need to take heed of the feedback from here and elsewhere.

Condo131 · 05-05-2010 08:36AM

I've been waiting for the full results for the three races to be put up on the website. It would appear that this is not going to happen.

The results format in the Irish Times was poor: Men's and women's results were separate, so you couldn't see how anyone placed overall and no finishing place was included. No club/town/townland or nationality was included.

The only results on the website are individual and those are got by inputting name and/or bib number.

Imho, these results are not acceptable, given the amount of money people have paid for their respective events. The information is in the organisers database. It's not rocket science to produce full results - the punters deserve it.

btw, if you are missing from the results, as many appear to be, use your Bib Number as your Last Name or enter your Last Name as "Runner" - there are loads of those, c/w Bib numbers (so their details, including surname, must be in the system ) Another search method is to use "%" in the Last Name field - this brings up all finishers, unfortunately in all 3 events, in alphabetical order.

topper75 · 05-05-2010 08:46AM

asimonov wrote: »

Pacers take a bow, it seems you were the highlight of the day!

Defo. A personal thanks to Krusty (3.15 pacer). I got dropped at mile 19, but he really held it so steady for me up to that point.

If there is willingness to address issues, then I am happy to give organisers a second shot. They got it mostly right.

Krusty_Clown · 05-05-2010 08:54AM

Cartman78 wrote: »

re: Medals - I heard that the boxed medals were for the first 300 finishers in the marathon. Personally thought it was a nice touch.

you mean if I had slowed up I could've got a nice medal?
Darn.

Krusty_Clown · 05-05-2010 08:58AM

topper75 wrote: »

Defo. A personal thanks to Krusty (3.15 pacer). I got dropped at mile 19, but he really held it so steady for me up to that point.

If there is willingness to address issues, then I am happy to give organisers a second shot. They got it mostly right.

It was a pleasure topper75. What colour bib/top were you wearing?
I lost a lot of guys around 19-21 miles. I think the hills and head-wind (which seem to have died down 15 minutes later) contributed a fair bit, but we had a solid crew up until then. Hope you finished well.

shotgunmcos · 05-05-2010 09:24AM

I'm glad this event was organised for Limerick and hats off to the RD and his team for the forsight to run it. From listening to people who did it most seem happy enough with their day and I heard also that the pacers did a superb job. However I had a good chat with the winner of the womens race and a couple of the top men over the last 2 days and am quite frankly shocked by the following

- Nothing for the winnners! Not even their entry back or a voucher for a pair of runners - DISGRACE :mad:
- No course markers for the half - DISGRACE :mad:
- The 10k being less than 9.5k - DISGRACE :mad:

There were lots of other horror stories about water stations , people getting lost etc but in my opinion the above are just fundamentals of running an event.

Respect the runners by marking the flippin course and doing it accurately!!! And give the winners the respect of earning something for their performance!!!

In fairness There was over €3000 in prize money given out for the Joey Hannon which was €50 to enter. You also got a meal voucher, a tech running top, a protein bar, some hair gel, anti ageing creme and some chedder cheese....! Now that was value for money

Well done to all running The inaugural Great Limerick Run. I hope it is on again next year and some important bits ironed out.

donothoponpop · 05-05-2010 09:34AM

shotgunmcos wrote: »

I hope it is on again next year and some important bits ironed out.

Just received an email from the GLR- "Great Limerick Run is delighted to announce that online entries for 2011 will be open from today May 5th.
Results from Great Limerick Run 2010 are now available online at http://www.greatlimerickrun.com/search.php"

Checked on website- online entry is not yet open, and the "search bib" function is not a set of results:rolleyes:

MarieC · 05-05-2010 09:39AM

shotgunmcos wrote: »

- Nothing for the winnners! Not even their entry back or a voucher for a pair of runners - DISGRACE :mad:

Did not realise this. Shocking in fairness. No way to attract top runners.

nerraw1111 · 05-05-2010 09:45AM

I believe a property developer was behind the organising of this race

topper75 · 05-05-2010 10:01AM

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

It was a pleasure topper75. What colour bib/top were you wearing?
I lost a lot of guys around 19-21 miles. I think the hills and head-wind (which seem to have died down 15 minutes later) contributed a fair bit, but we had a solid crew up until then. Hope you finished well.

I was the West Limerick guy, in white singlet/green shorts! At least I got to thank you in person at the finish. Your attitude was great and was a key ingredient in our enjoyment of the day.

I was a marathon novice. I think I needed more 20 milers back in March. I ran out of fuel by the Regional hospital in Raheen and the switchover from glycogen to fat wasn't smooth- a classic problem I gather. It was 6 or 7 miles of shuffle and hanging on. I crossed the line at 3.22, so maybe I wasn't utterly mad to choose your group. I had this down as a once-off experiment, but I'll decide where I'm going next with all this when the DOMS subsides.

Krusty_Clown · 05-05-2010 10:23AM

Sean_84 wrote:

Munster Wednesday League
Most of the posts in the thread are about races in Leinster, but in case anyone from Munster is reading, there's a series of 8 races starting tomorrow. They're on every second Wednesday. The first one is in Clare Glens on the Limerick/Tipperary border near Newport, starting at 20:00:
http://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/774/

Just thought I'd cross-post this, as it might grab the attention of some runners from the Limerick (Munster) area, looking for new goals (or some hills to vent their frustration on!). €20 for 8 races is amazing value for money (just don't expect mile-markers, medals or water-stations!).

baza1976 · 05-05-2010 10:37AM

Cartman78 wrote: »

re: Medals - I heard that the boxed medals were for the first 300 finishers in the marathon. Personally thought it was a nice touch.
.

I was hanging around till 3pm as my sister inlaw was walkin/running the full ( did I mention she had to step over the finish line as they were dismantle it as she was coming down the straight!!!)
Well any way, all that was left was the medals in the boxes. there was so many of the medals in the boxes that the red cross guys were filling there pockets!!!

Munster_Gal · 05-05-2010 11:50AM

I stayed around the half way mark and finish line on Sunday and happened to be at the finish line when the first 2 guys came in - No one seemed to know how or where they went wrong and as you can imagine they were really cheesed off about it! I felt soooo sorry for them!

They probably could have done with closing off the roads for the race also! The gardai were trying to direct traffic in between runners passing through!

Baza - disgusted to hear that your sis-in-law had to step OVER the finishline! That was pretty bad form!

Hopefully they'll get all this stuff sorte for next year. A bit more advertising in advance wouldn't go amiss either. I thought there would be alot more people on the road side supporting the athletes and alot of people I spoke to last week didn't seem to know that the event was even happening!!!!!

JimWhoIs50 · 05-05-2010 12:03PM

I have done a little work with the marathon results and I will try to attach my Excel file to this post. Not sure if this can be done until I try it!
I came 75th out of 499 (forgive the errors if you find any).

I would upload all finishers but the file exceeds the allowed 300kb size.

donothoponpop · 05-05-2010 12:30PM

JimWhoIs50 wrote: »

I have done a little work with the marathon results and I will try to attach my Excel file to this post. Not sure if this can be done until I try it!
I came 75th out of 499 (forgive the errors if you find any).

I would upload all finishers but the file exceeds the allowed 300kb size.

Great work Jim. From a quick glance at those times, we sub 4 pacers had in our bunch:
circa 42 @ 10k, 41 @ half, 16 @ 30k, and about 11 under four at the finish!

lecheile · 05-05-2010 12:42PM

donothoponpop wrote: »

Great work Jim. From a quick glance at those times, we sub 4 pacers had in our bunch:
circa 42 @ 10k, 41 @ half, 16 @ 30k, and about 11 under four at the finish!

Interesting analysis d.....p - what did you use as the +/- time to assess? cust have a look at the 3:30 group.

Thanks Jim for compiling the sheet.

donothoponpop · 05-05-2010 12:46PM

lecheile wrote: »

Interesting analysis d.....p - what did you use as the +/- time to assess? cust have a look at the 3:30 group.

Thanks Jim for compiling the sheet.

I just looked at similar times around us pacers at 10k and half, and 30k. Checked a few in the range 3:50-4:00, and they were/had been in our bunch. Unfortunately as were a few finishing 4:30+...:pac:

packieenright1 · 05-05-2010 01:10PM

donothoponpop wrote: »

Just received an email from the GLR- "Great Limerick Run is delighted to announce that online entries for 2011 will be open from today May 5th.
Results from Great Limerick Run 2010 are now available online at http://www.greatlimerickrun.com/search.php"

Checked on website- online entry is not yet open, and the "search bib" function is not a set of results:rolleyes:

Ah you're alright, i don't think we'll be going back there again.

packieenright1 · 05-05-2010 01:11PM

Ok guys not meaning to burst any bubbles or anything but Sunday’s Limerick 10k measured 9390m on my bike (as I cycled the course the next day). The racer fitted with a Cateye Cadence is calibrated to it’s wheelsize (in millimetres) off Morton Stadium running track in Santry. A lad who passed me at 8k from Dundrum in Tipp had it on his GPS as 9430m, so they’ve a better accuracy than I thought.

Anyway in layman’s terms twas 600m short, or out by 6%. For an average club runner, add 2:00 – 2:30 to your time. This is because we’ll be running 10k’s again and will be expected to repeat 31 mins, so it’s better to have a bit of honesty. For the vast majority of people in the race (fun runners & charity), it’s best not to tell them twas short, and hopefully they’ll be encouraged to joining their local club (e.g. LAC).

Assuming no loss of cadence in the last 600m, here are the genuine results then of my clubmates who came down from Dublin for it (Sportsworld AC), along with the winner from Kerry:

Name Time on course Adjusted upwards to 10k

Cian Murphy, Iveragh 30:30 32:29
Phil 31:18 33:20
Paul 31:21 33:23
Trevor 31:47 33:51
Mikey 32:48 34:56
Gareth 33:47 35:59
Liam 35:25 37:43
Packie (barefoot) 35:26 37:44

packieenright1 · 05-05-2010 01:13PM

Still twas an absolutely superb day, shows there’s more to Limerick than crime. I had my doubts beforehand thinking twould be a joke but it was grand. Shame about the short 10k. But it’s in it’s infancy so we’ll forgive, every race has a yr or 2 of making mistakes. Great for the fun people, but it would have been good to see more club runners & a better standard in all three. You can still get a mix of both (with chip timing).

Maybe next yr if they make one mega race (10k, marathon or half – best a marathon) that was done right instead of 3 wily nily runs in the one day, things would be better. One finger stuck in three pies. For some people the lessons of the Celtic Tiger & greediness still haven’t been learnt. The organisers showed very good local knowledge in fairness. But a marathon should be one or two big loops of a city (like the DCM), instead of all this in and out business three or four times over.

Mile markers every 5k and 5M would do grand, can’t be having markers thrown down everywhere. They’re hard to see in a crowd anyway. All three courses shouldn’t have been overlapping either, they should have been on separate courses especially when running pretty much concurrently (although this requires more manpower to marshall). In fairness the organisers employed marshals, as opposed to most clubs (whose members are pretty much forced to volunteer for it annually).

To beginners: you don’t need water for a 10k, it takes 20 mins to be assimilated into your system. So if you drink it 15 mins into the race, it’ll be in your system by 35 mins in which case the race is as good as over.

Simple solution for next yr: create one good loop around Limerick that’s around 13m and have marathoners (gun goes three hours earlier) run it twice; scrap the 10k. If you want something for beginners have a 5k that’s situated somewhere else (finish on Henry St maybe) but please have it accurate.

P.S. they should have included chocolate johnnies in the goodie bag like at the intervarsities last wk!

sean_84 · 05-05-2010 01:30PM

packieenright1 wrote: »

Ok guys not meaning to burst any bubbles or anything but Sunday’s Limerick 10k measured 9390m on my bike (as I cycled the course the next day). The racer fitted with a Cateye Cadence is calibrated to it’s wheelsize (in millimetres) off Morton Stadium running track in Santry. A lad who passed me at 8k from Dundrum in Tipp had it on his GPS as 9430m, so they’ve a better accuracy than I thought.

Anyway in layman’s terms twas 600m short, or out by 6%. For an average club runner, add 2:00 – 2:30 to your time. This is because we’ll be running 10k’s again and will be expected to repeat 31 mins, so it’s better to have a bit of honesty. For the vast majority of people in the race (fun runners & charity), it’s best not to tell them twas short, and hopefully they’ll be encouraged to joining their local club (e.g. LAC).

Assuming no loss of cadence in the last 600m, here are the genuine results then of my clubmates who came down from Dublin for it (Sportsworld AC), along with the winner from Kerry:

Name Time on course Adjusted upwards to 10k

Cian Murphy, Iveragh 30:30 32:29
Phil 31:18 33:20
Paul 31:21 33:23
Trevor 31:47 33:51
Mikey 32:48 34:56
Gareth 33:47 35:59
Liam 35:25 37:43
Packie (barefoot) 35:26 37:44

There was two runners who finished in 21 minutes :eek:, and another one who finished in 24 minutes. Don't think it would be fair to put their names here, but I wonder how accurate in general the results are.

JimWhoIs50 · 05-05-2010 01:32PM

Here are the sub 1 hour 10k results. Again, don't shoot me if you find errors.

JimWhoIs50 · 05-05-2010 01:34PM

sean_84 wrote: »

There was two runners who finished in 21 minutes :eek:, and another one who finished in 24 minutes. Don't think it would be fair to put their names here, but I wonder how accurate in general the results are.

oops!:rolleyes:

Rob! · 05-05-2010 02:00PM

Munster_Gal wrote: »

alot of people I spoke to last week didn't seem to know that the event was even happening!!!!!

Only realized this afterwards myself. Despite the frustration of almost being hit by countless enraged and careless drivers, I do feel locals should have been informed that that traffic flow to many estates would be cut off.

Visited my grandparents who live out the Ennis Rd. on Monday - turns out their neighbour went into labour and needed to get to the hospital but eventually had to call for Gardaí to assist because they had no road access and had been given no forewarning of the event.

To be fair a lot drivers should have been more accommodating and should have paid more care to runners - but at the same time road access on certain latter parts of the route need some serious tweaking.

For it's first year the GLR wasn't a half bad attempt - but without all the fundamentals in place - it won't have a future. Although that said, I'm more than willing to give it a second chance next year. :rolleyes:

PIORUN · 05-05-2010 02:34PM

Does anyone know what time the sub 3.30 pacers finished in? They passed me at the turn by Ivans heading back into town ,I couldn't keep up and painfully watched them go off into the distance but I finished it in 3.30.35!!
Imagine the delight when I turned the corner onto O'Connell St to see the time.

--amadeus-- · 05-05-2010 05:20PM

PIORUN wrote: »

Does anyone know what time the sub 3.30 pacers finished in? They passed me at the turn by Ivans heading back into town ,I couldn't keep up and painfully watched them go off into the distance but I finished it in 3.30.35!!
Imagine the delight when I turned the corner onto O'Connell St to see the time.

3:30 pacer came home in 3:29:52 and was showing off the text as proof pretty much all night!

psychozeb · 05-05-2010 05:20PM

seen this on the munster running blogspot.what a let down for these two lads

cosmas said...i did nt have an email adress tell today and dont know my way round a pc very well but to post comment here i had to get started my name is cosie i took part in the limerick marathon on sunday and first of all i'd like to say well done to george had great run and nobody came close to him but me and another lad were fighting it out for third place[not just a top 10 place] when trough no fault of our own we were directed the wrong way lost 2 or 3 miles and came over the line in 222 or 223 not 230 like the times said today very angry about the whole thing and the way i was treated after ,even tought about giving up running on the way home and that night but arnie said it ill be back,but not to limerick .cosmas de burca.

bonaparte2 · 05-05-2010 05:26PM

thanks jim for the 10k excel

chinguetti · 05-05-2010 05:52PM

After reading alot of this thread and other sites, the one thing that baffles me is that between the three races the organisers could see that they had a large entry a few weeks out - i've read that they had 5 to 6,000 runners in total and they must have had most of these people signed up before Easter.

Why didn't they sort out the congestion/stewarding problems before they happened? Surely they knew the route they had planned and could see that a narrow bridge and open roads with a mixture of runners and cars were going to cause trouble.

As it was the first year of the event, you would expect problems but a narrow bridge was asking for trouble. As for taking down the finish line before people finished the marathon, i think it shows the height of disrespect for people who trained for an event and there is no excuse for that behaviour.

Does anyone know if the organisers at any stage consulted/spoke to local runners or clubs for a bit of advice?

The Great Limerick Run, 2 May 2010

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