Cork runner George Waugh from Bandon won the Great Limerick Run Marathon last Sunday, the in an impressive time of approx 2 hours 37 minutes. This was also his very first Marathon after having won his first race only two weeks earlier in the Great Island 10 mile race in Cobh.
In an interview with the Rising Sun AC athlete, the Irish Times wrote........"George Waugh from Bandon’s time of 2:37 was marginally faster than he’d been hoping for while his placing was way beyond his dreams. “I thought I’d be well back,” he said, with a broad if tired smile, shortly after crossing the line."
Welldone to George Waugh.
ReplyDeleteSaw Cosmas de Burca and Vasiliy Neumherzhitsky come across the line at 2:22. Vasiliy mentioned seeing the 24 mile mark and then the 26mile mark straight after that. Through no real fault of their own, they missed a section of the course...
ReplyDeleteLots of complaints of poor stewarding... people not knowing where to go... how far they had run, etc. Then after the race people didn't know that the timing chips were disposable...
running out of water at water stations...
Obviously lots of new runners or runners in the main pack wouldn't have noticed some of these problems and largely would have had a positive experience. However, is that really good enough?
The top 10k and half marathon runners had to weave through finishers of the marathon to get to the finish...
Most of the top 10k guys who had Garmin GPS watches mentioned the course was short by at least 400m and lots of people were setting pb's, even though the course was described as an obstacle course in places and therefore should have been a slow course
So many mistakes made by the organisers...
I have to say that it doesn't really help the sport of distance running in Limerick.
Most of the athletics clubs distanced themselves from the event beforehand because of the way it was being organised and now the predictable has happened.
what does this do for new runners in Limerick who might have done the "Great" Limerick run for the first time?
The sad thing is that Limerick is one of the flattest cities in the country and has the potential to hold a very good marathon with fast times, but left in the hands of organisers like this who obviously lack the expertise to execute a race organisation effectively, the "Great" Limerick run will soon disappear again.
AAI need to do more than require race organisers to apply through clubs. They need to require a certain set of standards be met and assist the organisers in whatever way possible to have an event which meets certain standards.
None of these comments are to take away from the achievements of the runners who got to run the correct course. All credit is due to them and its great to see an athlete like George emerge from the ranks to win a race like this. However if there had been a runner ahead of George with the lead car and George had gone the wrong way, he also may have had the same terrible experience as Cosmos and Vasiliy.
Well done to George Waugh !!
ReplyDeleteI saw George around the 7 mile mark and he had built up an impressive lead even at that early stage.
ReplyDeleteJust so there is no mis-understanding...Cosmos and Vasiliy were never in the lead. It would be wrong if people got the impression that they were winning the race and then took a wrong turn. George lead from the start and was the deserved winner.
Cosmos and Vasiliy were almost certainly in the top 10 and as such, there would have been big gaps in the field. Looking at their times, I would guess that after running next to the river around 22.5 miles, they turned left over the bridge and back into the city rather than going right.
This should never have happened if the stewards had done their job properly.
Details and comments on the Limerick Marathon can be seen on the Running in Munster website.
yeah the great limerick run was great for running in munster and limerick ,i do agree organisers need to bring the athletic clubs on board and both need to iron out issues with this inaugral race the organisers need to contact all running clubs in the next few weeks and start organising for next year to make it a successful race.
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