Dublin City Marathon 29 Oct 2017 - *** NOTE: no number transfer!

Last I saw, there was 1,000 spots left. I expect a sold out announcement by midweek. Fair dues to them. I've done it the past two years, but I'm giving it a miss in favour of Berlin a month earlier this year. Both times, it was very well organised with amazing support. If you're on the fence, I highly recommend (the event, the pains of a marathon less so... )

Zebra3 wrote: »

Have signed up for this and will be starting in the first wave. Will be my fourth and final marathon of the year.

They tweeted two days ago that there's less than 2,000 spots left. Anyone know how many spaces are open this year? Will it break the 20,000 mark? Is it the fourth biggest marathon in Europe now?

That's an incredible jump in numbers. I doubt it would be top 4. Some big ones out there. London, Berlin, Paris, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona????

Ones that mix Full and Half make it harder sometimes to count.

Itziger wrote: »

That's an incredible jump in numbers. I doubt it would be top 4. Some big ones out there. London, Berlin, Paris, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona????

Ones that mix Full and Half make it harder sometimes to count.

London, Berlin, Paris are all bigger

Rotterdam about 13,000 in the marathon
Frankfurt 15,000
Barcelona 16,000
Vienna somewhere around there

but add in the other races and the others would be bigger events

Itziger wrote: »

Yeah, I did a bit of research after posting and was surprised at some of the numbers. Watch out for Valencia, growing by the year, kinda similar to Dublin. I'd be interested in seeing the difference between numbers registered, starters and finishers.

So, is Dublin cut off 20,000?

yeah, 20k afaik

probably about 17k starting, I suppose the further away the entry closes, the more likely it is that people's plans will change

kin9pin wrote: »

Can you remind me who the confirmation email was from? I'm having trouble finding mine. 99.9999999% sure I did register!

It's ok, found it

Just in case anyone else panics confirmation@eventmaster.ie

El Caballo wrote: »

is the course the same as 2014 or have they made any changes?

There were a few minor changes made in 2015, and they've been kept since. Up Manor St. and sideways into the park rather than just all the way up Chesterfield, but then a straighter finish to Merrion St. from Merrion Road.

Well described here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97463033&postcount=6885

and the timer starts... now!

Selling out 3 and a half months early is fairly good going. The move to a Sunday and a well organised day is working well for the event. Looking forward to first Dublin marathon and first full race series this year. Should be fun.

Jaysus it wasn't that long ago you could register in October without any bother, just shows how popular the event has become.

Working class heroes wrote: »

Are they taking entries on the day?

No.

ger664 wrote: »

On a side note how big can they safely make this ?

I was wondering the same myself, theoretically they could stage more starts, but that'd lead to later finishers and roads being closed longer into the day (realistically it's more than one day a year for residents of affected area's as other events lead to road closures too).
More marshals would be required too, not to mention the additional space around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Street / Baggot Street.
It'd be great if they could fit more people on but I imagine it's harder than it sounds.

Glad now I booked early despite being worried about being able to get all the training in (double jobbing & college make it tricky to fit loads of training in)

It's terrific that Dublin Marathon is a sell out event, year after year. There is capacity to develop a bigger field by increasing the commitment to closing roads, but that requires a degree of political will and a bit of political clout. Sell-out numbers deliver that clout, and hopefully the event will get even bigger. It just goes to show that you don't need an easy course to attract the crowds.

As it's chip timed you could theoretically have two four hour groups to reduce the bottle necks; say if group A started at 9:20 and group B started at 9:30 or 9:35. The problem would be trying to actually implement something like that on the morning as the vast majority of peopl will want to be in the first group.

youngrun wrote: »

Probably going to lose 3000 entrants anyway from the 20k so 17/18k is as big as current route manages?

Last year 16762 finishers of a 19500 entry

Havent done it in a number of years I think there were 10k back then or so, would imagine its pretty crowded in midpack as there are still not many sub 3

My thinking is that the powers that be think that they can handle 20,000 runners. I am assuming they have to plan for everyone turning up thats has entered. Realistically 18,000 is probably what will toe the line. If they are not taking drops into consideration then they could increase the entry to 22,500 as it stands.

More of an argument for it now, alright, with entries closing so much earlier.

at the same time, most big city marathons (London, new york, Paris, Berlin) don't allow transfers. A certain drop-out rate is expected.

Frankfurt allows transfers, for 10 euro
Marine Corps marathon allows transfers, for $50
Edinburgh charges £15

None of them give the original entrant their money back.

If DCM introduced a 20 euro transfer fee, how many people would even bother paying it? People swap numbers now, when it is against the rules, wouldn't they just keep swapping directly without paying the fee?

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Berlin has done this. Started pace groups in different time zones. Last year for example 2 3.45 pacers in zone E and 2 in zone F.

Yes but pacers will get the grief from runners who started in the second group catching up with the first group and them complain that they went to fast when they blow in the second half.

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Berlin has done this. Started pace groups in different time zones. Last year for example 2 3.45 pacers in zone E and 2 in zone F.

I wouldn't copy Berlin, pacers are fairly poor quality over there compared to Dublin.
Better to have 3 or 4 pacers together as if one has a problem you are not left with one on their own in such a big Marathon.

RayCun wrote: »

More of an argument for it now, alright, with entries closing so much earlier.

at the same time, most big city marathons (London, new york, Paris, Berlin) don't allow transfers. A certain drop-out rate is expected.

Frankfurt allows transfers, for 10 euro
Marine Corps marathon allows transfers, for $50
Edinburgh charges £15

None of them give the original entrant their money back.

If DCM introduced a 20 euro transfer fee, how many people would even bother paying it? People swap numbers now, when it is against the rules, wouldn't they just keep swapping directly without paying the fee?

I don't know if they still do it, but in 2015 Rotterdam allowed you to pay €5 extra when entering, which would allow a refund of the entry fee up to one month before the race in the event you needed to cancel for any reason.