Lies.........Damn lies........and Statistics.......

Will this be one of my last posts about the 2008 Cork City Marathon & Relay? Possibly but I doubt it! Looking through some of the results and comparing them to last year, some of you may be interested (...or not ;o) in the following statistics.

So, on with the anoraks and here we go...

1) Marathon finishers......In 2007, there were a total of 1355 finishers. In 2008, it was only slightly lower with 1338 runners finishing the event. So, no great change there but as an event, the numbers did not grow despite the fact that a lot of Relay runners from 2007 probably came back in 2008 to run the full event........or did they???

2) Relay event........The huge change this year was in the Relay event. In 2007, there were 634 relay teams. In 2008, that number had risen to 833 teams, an increase of 31%. By doing a VERY rough calculation, I'd estimate that the average relay team consists of about 4 runners (3.8 to be more precise!). So, that suggests that in 2007, about 2,400 people took part in the Relay event while in 2008, about 3,200 people took part. An increase of about 800 runners.

3) Totals.......Just going on the figures above, roughly 3,750 took part in 2007 while roughly 4,550 took part in 2008.

4) Women........In 2007, around 25% of the Marathon runners were women. This year, it was down to 21.3%. This drop is so small that it may be just a natural variation in numbers rather than suggesting any particular trend.

5) Sub 3 hours........In 2008, a mere 2.1% of the field managed to get in under the 3 hour mark. This was slightly down from the figure of 2.4% in 2007.

6) Sub 3.5 hours..........A modest increase in numbers this year with 14.6% getting inside 3 hour 30 minutes while 11.7% did it in 2007.

7) Sub 4 hours............In 2007, 35.9% got under the 4 hour mark while in 2008, 40.5% did it. It's a sobering thought to think that even after 4 hours, roughly 60% of Marathon runners are still out on the course.

8) Sub 4.5 hours.....At this stage of the Marathon, they are finishing in droves. In 2007, 58.5% finished under the 4 hour 30 minute mark. In 2008, it was 63.8%. At this stage, roughly 40% are still out on the course during what was probably the hottest time of the day.

Notes.....Looking through the numbers, the numbers finishing this year seem to be a bit faster than last year. Reason...??? Maybe the fact it was a bit cooler?? Was it because the water stations were better???

Comments....