Results of the Cork BHAA 'Stride by the Tide' 4 mile beach race...Tues 21st April 2009 Just to keep things in order, I'll put this post up now even though the results are not out yet. Most likely, they will be ready for Friday afternoon.
Just over 180 runners turned out for this race near Youghal in east Cork, one of only 2 beach races in the country. The numbers were probably a bit down on what would normally be expected for a Cork BHAA race. Most likely this is due to the fact it's a good 45 minute drive from Cork City.
Conditions for the race were pretty ok with a dry bright evening although it was a little bit cool with the south-westerly breeze. The beach this year seemed to be in better condition than last year. Perhaps it was just down to the tides but there were no big pools to avoid or soft pockets of dry sand to fight through.
As expected, times on the beach were slower than what you would expect to get on the road. It is however a unique event and it makes a novel change from the usual road races.
Results.......the results are now available HERE.
10 comments:
Thanks for the mention of the Kerry contingent! :-)
Mary
Why were the Deloitte & touche team disqualified?
In general, I usually publish all comments that are left on this blog. Today however, I had to make an exception. An anonymous poster left a long comment in which they were critical of specific BHAA teams which is not acceptable. It's very easy to write something critical about teams or individuals and then refuse to give your name.
Part of the comment went as follows......
"I see from the results of last week's Stride by the Tide race that three runner and their team have the word DISQUALIFIED after their name. Now surely it's a "bit Irish" for the Cork BHAA to disqualify one team for presumably not following the rules when you could say the same for at least 9 of the 15 teams mentioned in the various grades."The anonymous poster then went on complain about the fact that some of the BHAA teams are made up of individuals from different companies.
Comments....???
Is it a BHAA rule that team members must work for the same company?? I think it's probably fair to say that alot of BHAA teams comprise of people who do not work for the company. Some runners work for small companies or companies who do not have many people interested in running. Therefore it's natural for them to want to join an existing team (if they know somebody etc). I don't have a problem with it but some companies might if they see "dream teams" being established.
I don't think that the composition of the team was the issue. I think it was to do with a runner not being registered and running under someone elses name. Although how they are going to tell who is who for 300 people I don't know, are we going to be required to produre our passports when registering. How long before the first positive dope test? We already have team doping.
If it was a case of running somebody under a false name, then the disqualification was definitely merited.
Well done to the BHAA in the interest of fairness this was the correct thing to do rules are rules.I've see prizes been handed out to guys claiming they are over 40 and over 45 in club race's yet they are down as male senior and male 40 in BHAA race's just look for yourself Belgooly 4 mile road race last Dec and Paddys day ballinhassig 4 i'm not going to mention names maybe there is a mistake not sure one from Midleton Ac and the other from Eagle AC how is this can one explain.
With regard to category prizes, it would be wrong to assume that there was any dishonesty on the behalf of any runners.
Some race organisers use special race software which uses a database of runners names, clubs and dates of birth. Once a runner reaches a certain age, the software knows this on the day of the race and will put the runner in the correct category.
Other race organsiers like the Cork BHAA use an older spreadsheet/paper system and with the best will in the world, a few runners can still move into a certain category unnoticed.
So, if a runner get a prize in the wrong category, it is most likely due to human error rather than any dishonesty.
For anyone running in a Cork BHAA race and who has recently moved into a new category, they should check at the time of registration that they are in the correct group. For example, M40's will get the letter A on their number, M45's will get a B and so on.
It's very easy to be critical but remember that the organisers are doing their best. When you are trying to keep track of hundreds of runners manually, it's easy for errors to creep in.
This would not be down to the race organizer and no one is been critical of the race organizer in this case,If the runners took the prize's on the day knowing they were not the age they said they were well thats a problem.This month at the beach race a chap was called out i think for second place male over 55 for second place and refused the prize because he said it could not have been him that finished second as he knew the chap that finished before him that was the difference here honesty.
As regards to teams, the BHAA allow individual runners to come together and form a team. This increases the overall level of competition. There are many runners who find themselves in the situation where they are the only person running in their company. As long as the situation is not abused (i.e. dream teams), it's fine.
The majority of runners in BHAA races are happy with this current arrangement.
If someone feels strongly enough about the matter and thinks the status quo is wrong, then they should contact the BHAA directly.
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