Running in Cork blog nominated for Irish Blog Award...
I came across this about 2 weeks ago when I noticed that this blog had somehow got nominated for Best Blog in the Sports and Recreation section along with 21 others. I didn't mention anything at the time because things were kind of busy on the blog with the Dungarvan 10 and the Cork BHAA 5 km races.

Well, it looks like the first round of judging is over and this blog is now on the shortlist of 11. I can see visitors coming here from the awards website so perhaps we might get a few more converts!!


Looking at the the number of hits that this blogs is getting, it just keeps going up! It seemed to have reached a plateau back at the end of 2007 with around 2,200 to 2,400 hits per month. I thought at the time that maybe I had reached the saturation point with regard to the level of interest in running in Cork? However, along came January and the blog hit a new record of 4,452 hits for the month. Here we are halfways through February and it looks like it will be as busy again.

At a recent race with a record crowd, someone asked me... ' Are you responsible for this? '...as a joke ;o) Is it a coincidence that as the blog traffic grows, so do the numbers attending the local races? Or is it the blog traffic gets bigger because there are more people at the races!! (Kind of a chicken or egg question...which came first ;o)
Looking back at some of the race numbers for the BHAA races, here are the figures for % changes on the previous years...
Little Island 4 mile...2006 = +17%, 2007 = +13%, 2008 = +29%
Feb 5 km...2006 = -6%, 2007 = +16%, 2008 = +31%

All we can be really sure of, is that in 2008, we are getting a big jump up in numbers participating in the local races. I guess we'll never know for sure what the exact reason is. The main thing is that it is going in the right direction and that can only be good for the sport.

Comments...
"Congratulations John. The blog is going from strength to strength. Your stats will keep going up, as you are improving your output each month. I think the regular updates (weather, numbers etc) on upcoming races are a real plus. Personally I think you deserve some credit for the increase in runners at each race. Your information is very useful, and probably helps some people to get to a race they might otherwise not do. Well done again, and keep up the good work. Where can we vote for you?...Rich"

"Rich...As far as I know, it's a panel of judges rather than a public vote that decides who wins...John Desmond"