Results of the poll..."How long have you been running on a consistent basis?"

A total of 53 people took part in this poll and thanks to everyone who took the time to select an option. So, on to the results and my own conclusions...

The main result was that the poll shows that 79% have been running for 5 years or less. I would think that the main reasons for this large figure are...
1) For the last few years, there has been a slow increase in the numbers of people running. In addition, there has been a new influx of beginners recently due to the introduction of the Cork City Marathon and Relay. In fact, 51% of those who responded have been running for 2 years or less.
2) I would think that the other main reason is that most people just get tired of running after a few years. I guess we all started running for a variety of reasons...getting fit / losing weight / wanting to do a Marathon and so on. After a few years, most people have achieved their original goal and they lose the motivation for carrying on. But, I guess, the exact same could be said for many other sports.

For me, the main conclusion of the poll is that to sustain the local road race scene and to keep it in a healthy state, new people have to be attracted to the sport constantly so as to replace those who drop out after a few years. High profile events like the Cork City Marathon and the Ballycotton 10 are great events for doing this.

If you think the poll shows something different, then leave a comment and I'll post it here.