Mallow Castle - Number of finishers - This week CANCELLED, last week 77
Macroom Demesne - Number of finishers - This week CANCELLED, last week 59
Clonakilty - Number of finishers - CANCELLED this week, 56 last week
Welcome to the Running in Cork blog, home of the Cork running community. This is the largest website in Cork & Munster for news on road races and general running news. Included are a current race calendar, race previews, photos, results as well as some local, national and international news items.
* Dublin City Marathon *
Best of luck to all taking part this weekend in our premier marathon in this country. I do hope that everything goes well and that all the hopes and dreams come to fruition. Bit of FOMO on my part but I know I can’t do it and have reached acceptance. I’m sitting writing this post with Storm Austen turning my garden in a swimming pool and the roof rattling. It doesn’t seem long since we were relaxing in the evening sunshine with a chilled beer. Forecast is good for Sunday and ideal for a marathon.
For those going to Dublin can I offer some advice. Relax and enjoy it.
For those at the front end have their own game plan and tactics but for ordinary Joe it is a day to savour. Years to come you will look back and let it be a day you will cherish and talk about with friends.
Relax before the start as much as you can. Conserve the energy needed for the later miles. The most important tip I can give is to start slowly. It is always a shuffle anyway with huge numbers but just settle in and let the miles pass by. Too many people set out too fast and nothing in the tank for later. Take on fuel and water as early as possible to offset later fatigue.
I won’t bore you with too much more but just put on a smile, embrace the day, the occasion, your fellow participants and the supporters. It is a notch on the belt of life if you do many more or never again run a marathon.
When you finish a marathon, will you ever run one again? Hopefully yes but maybe no. You need time, luck, health, family, friends and a good birth cert. No guarantees in the journey of life.
Remember your finishing time isn’t engraved on the medal. Everyone receives the same momento. How you enjoyed the experience is personal to you. Time doesn’t matter.
“The sun rose and set in a land of dreams whether the clocks where right or wrong.”
Pic below from 2016 is myself and Patrick Kavanagh when we used to have the bants on the banks of the canal after every DCM. I have a pic of myself and Paddy after every DCM I ever ran.
Best of luck everyone. Go and make memories.
#pwr #dublincitymarathon
Please note that the following 5k parkruns are cancelled...
Mallow Castle
Macroom Demesne
Glengarriff
This parkrun was announced well in advance so a lot of people got to know about it and hence, 600 plus turn up for the inaugural run.
This creates a lot of problems for the organisers from available parking to space on the course. It also puts huge pressure on the volunteers trying to cope with these huge numbers.
The photo above is from the start of the inaugural Midleton parkrun and it shows the greenway full of runners just after the start. While this field will gradually thin out, the front runners will be turning back at the 2.5km mark and face all the runners going out.
Flatten the surge... Both of the new Carrigaline and Dungarvan parkruns started on the same day - Sat 17th Oct 2026. This was no accident. The start dates for both events were not made public and if it did leak out then there were two events to choose from.
This strategy worked and there were 48 finishers in Carrigaline and 144 in Dungarvan.
The problem now is that people know about the new events and there is a real risk that they'll be swamped for the first few weeks. Both Dungarvan and Carrigaline are out and back courses and the greenways are a lot narrower than Midleton.
I'd guess that the maximum comfortable capacity for the Dungarvan parkrun is probably about 240 while Carrigaline is about 120.
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| Narrow start for the Carrigaline parkrun |
Parkrun Ireland are appealing to participants to consider delaying their visit to help flatten the initial surge.
Parkrun Ireland... "Thinking of visiting an inaugural parkrun event? 🌳
We understand that there’s something special about being there for a new event’s very first parkrun. Before you head along, it’s worth thinking about how you can best support the new volunteer team - not just on week one, but for weeks and months to come 🙌
New events can sometimes experience a huge turnout on their inaugural day, with numbers far higher than expected. While it’s fantastic to see so much enthusiasm, a sudden influx of participants can also be challenging for a new team finding its feet. Large crowds can mean more pressure on volunteers, increased incidents, complaints from other park users and, in some cases, concerns from landowners about congestion or overcrowding.
One of the best ways you can support a new event is to spread the love 🧡
If you’re planning to visit a new parkrun, consider making your first visit on week three, four or one of the following weeks. Your support is just as valuable then and it can make a real difference to an event as it settles into its regular rhythm.
And if you really want to be there for the inaugural, why not volunteer? Your extra pair of hands can be hugely valuable to a new team as they navigate their first ever event 🦺
Every new parkrun is built by its volunteer community. So whether you visit on week one, week four or months down the line, your support can help a new event thrive and make it sustainable in the long term 👏 "
The Churchtown 10-mile road race in north Cork is coming up this year on Saturday 14th November 2026. The race starts at 10am.
After a successful three years, this will be the fourth edition of this race. Please note that entries close on Wednesday 11th November at 11:30pm.
Entries HERE
Churchtown is located just 4kms west of the N20 Cork to Limerick road so access couldn't be easier.
Anyone checking the parkrun website for results or future volunteer rosters will have seen a message like the one above.
The 'Scheduled Maintenance' is most likely because the website will need to be updated as two critical security vulnerabilities have been identified which threaten sites using #PHP , a language present on nearly 70% of the web. These vulnerabilities can enable cyberattacks and data theft.
A total of 144 runners and walkers took part in the inaugural Dungarvan event which starts in Ballinroad on the Dungarvan to Waterford City Greenway. Ballinroad is about 4 kms to the east of Dungarvan town.
The course itself is pretty much dead flat. It's 2.5 kms out, around a cone and 2.5 kms back.
It's hard to be sure what the long term average might be like but I think it might be about the same as Mallow which had an average of 72 finishers per event in 2025.
That would a reasonable number for an out and back course where space is limited. As can be seen from the photo below, the course is about 3-metres wide and would be unsuitable for say 200 plus with runners going in both directions.
Full results HERE
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| First 3 women in the 10k (L-R) Kim Muckian 3rd, Caitriona McGettigan 1st & Catherine Murphy 2nd |
5k...
10k...
The new Carrigaline 5k parkrun has started and the inaugural event was held on Saturday 17th of October 2026. The first event was a low key event so that it wouldn't be overwhelmed with huge numbers.
The official name of the course is the Cork Harbour Greenway Carrigaline parkrun.
As the map shows above, the parkrun is an out and back course and it's held on the Carrigaline to Crosshaven Greenway and it's about 1.5kms east of the town.
This is a more detailed map of the area.
The car park at the start of the Greenway is reasonably small and the organisers ask all parkrunners to use the much larger car park at the Primary Care Centre. There will be stewards available every Saturday to guide visitors to this car park.
The Primary Care Centre is only a few hundred metres away from the start of the parkrun.
This is the road junction near the parkrun. Parkrun visitors are asked to turn right here for the Primary Care Centre.
You can see the traffic lights ahead where people can cross the road to get to the parkrun.
The course is dead flat and it's basically 2.6 kms out, turn near the car park by the Rabbit Island car park and then 2.4 kms back.
The course is quiet narrow and is only about two metres wide in places. The capacity of the course is about 100 runners so it would help a lot if you could delay your visit to give the numbers a chance to calm down.
* Survival *
I am a runner but I want to stay running through the winter. How do I do it?
We all need motivation, a plan, encouragement to keep us going. No one is a Duracell bunny the whole time. There will be dips and stress periods where it is a struggle to go outside the front door but we must persevere.
What is your motivation?
Have you a Winter or Spring race in mind that will force you out. I use the word force but once we enter a race then we feel the need to properly prepare ourselves to give it a go.
A race entry might seem expensive but taken against the mental and physical benefits of training and achieving over the next few months then it is small change. A round of drinks or a meal in a good restaurant would be a lot dearer with no benefits.
Do you run to get out of the house and have a little me time? That is good
Do you run as a health prescription to keep the weight down and to help offset long term issues that could arise. Fair play
A plan
I will run 3 times a week.
I will run 20 miles a week.
I will do a parkrun each week.
I will run once, do strength training and do an aerobic session in the gym.
I will make my life fit around getting out for a run.
I will get out and enjoy it.
It actually doesn’t matter once you set a realistic plan for yourself and follow it through.
Encouragement
I cannot stress this one enough. We all need help. Find a running buddy, make yourself accountable to someone else. This will drag you out when you don’t feel like it.
I have repeatedly stated on this page how toxic social media is, but an odd post for your friends only, about a run or something noteworthy achieved and give yourself the boost of a bit of love and praise. Genuine people love seeing genuine people just doing something. That sounds basic and simplistic but it is true. I love seeing my friends do well. Why wouldn’t I? They are my friends.
Treat yourself to a cuppa afterwards. Share the joy. I ran with you, didn’t we do well. Positivity brings more rewards than negative. Highlight the can do, rather than the doubts.
When possible find somewhere scenic to run it might encourage you to return.
As an aside a good pair of leggings, a breathable running jacket, a pair of gloves and a nice hat can be of great use. The Summer was great so they maybe buried somewhere deep and quite smelly but in the fresh air no one will notice. .
"I don't know when the end of the journey will come, but I know that sure as hell I'm going to enjoy every path along the way" Ciara Mageean.
#pwr
Plans for a new 5k parkrun in Killorglin, Co Kerry are well advanced at this stage but one major obstruction that has popped up is confusion on who actually owns the old railway bridge across the River Laune.
In order to get the parkrun course certified by the official parkrun website, organisers need letters of permission from every landowner along the route.
The Iron Bridge in Killorglin, also known as the Laune Viaduct is shown above and below.
Kerry County Council said the lands at the bridge and around it are not registered with the land registry and are not sure who actually owns it.
Despite this, Kerry County Council carried out extensive repairs to the bridge back in 1993 and recently installed lights on it.
A council official said it would take a ‘number of months’ to find the physical records as they would need to access a national archive in Dublin.
Once it gets going, it will be the sixth 5k parkrun in Co Kerry.
Killorglin has a population of about 2200 people so there should be enough people locally to support a 5k parkrun in the town.
John Buckley Sports is one of the main running stores in Cork and Munster and they are now moving to a new location!
The new store is literally just 90-metres east of the old one and still across the river from the Opera House.
Some photos of the interior are shown below.
John Buckley Sports also released the following...