Final Tips & Thoughts for the 2010 Cork City Marathon and Relay...

Well that it, the last and final post on what was a busy week of blogging ;o)

Some final thoughts...

1) What to wear...

If you are doing the full Marathon, you should wear whatever gear you are used to and trained in. This is not the time to try out that new running top! For relay runners, it's not so important.

A big factor on Monday will be the weather. If it's dull and overcast then that's great. If however it is constantly raining and you are like to get soaked then thats something else.

For relay runners....you are likely to be waiting quite a while for your relay partner arrive. Consider using a black rubbish bag. Just stick a hole in it for your head to pop through and wear it. Better to be a little damp than soaking wet and cold.

For Marathon Runners....wearing wet gear for 26.2 miles is no joke. It's nothing like in hot weather where you might dowse yourself to stay cool. Once gear gets soaking wet, it will cling onto you and as you run, it starts rubbing. It's a bit like very fine sandpaper!

For men, nipple burn is a very real issue in wet weather and will result in the above! Use good quality waterproof plasters to protest exposed areas and use loads of vaseline or bodyglide to protest any area that might rub...i.e. thighs, underarm, toes, etc.

Don't wear anything made from cotton. Wear as little as possible!!  Leave the sweatshirts, hoodies, tracksuit bottoms and so on at home. Consider wearing a hat/cap to stop the salt from your sweat going from your forehead into your eyes.

2) Drink...

This year, they will be giving out Club Energise Sports drink as well as loads of water. If you haven't used this before in your long training runs then be careful. It may end up not agreeing with you or giving you cramps. Take on plenty of water especially if you are taking gels. Dehydration should be much less of a problem this year compared to previous years but that doesn't mean you can ignore it!

3) Using the racing line...

Please note that the course is accurately measured by a Jones Counter over the shortest possible route. See the example below...

You should be running from corner to corner on the 'race line' taking the shortest possible route. The Marathon is 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kms), there are no medals for running 27 miles! All of those long sweeping bends add up and will lose you time. Every year, runners are stuck to the right hand side going through the Jack Lynch tunnel even though the racing line is on the left! Why?!?! Use your head....follow the racing line.

4) Relay Changeover.......

Every year there are problems here. Imagine the following.........you are running the 1st leg and you get to the Relay changeover. You are confronted with a mass of several hundred runners. Where is your running parter? He said 'he was wearing white'.....unfortunately, half the relay changeover are wearing white! Imagine the 2nd stage runner looking out for the 1st person coming in. The first batch of relay runners arrive in dribs and drabs and he's watching everyone. Now 20 minutes later, there is a wall of runners arriving....some relay runners, some Marathon runners. Trying to spot the 1st stage runner is not as easy as they first thought.

Every year, you hear stories of relay changeovers where minutes have been lost as people wander around looking for their team member. Plan ahead to make the changeover easier. Maybe wear a distinctive colour? Be at a certain position....back or front? Some people use balloons! Discuss it with your team members and plan ahead.

5) Relay Strategy ... 

Consider letting the slower people go first. Otherwise, once they start, everyone around them will be going faster than them and overtaking. It's an awful lot easier to run when you are passing people rather than to have everyone passing you. If you are a beginner, start slow. It will take about 2 miles before you get warmed up properly. It's so easy just to start too fast, for oxygen debt to kick in around the 1 mile mark and then you spend the rest of the time trying to recover. Start slow, find your pace and give it everything in the last mile.

6) Pacers for the full Marathon...

This year, there will be pacers for the first time in the Cork City Marathon. The pacers should have estimated finish times on their back and small helium balloon as well so that they can be easily spotted. There will be pacers for the following times...

3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45?, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45 and 5:00

If you have a particular target in mind then pacers can be very useful. For example, if you are trying to break say 4 hours then you have a choice of going with the 4 hour pacer and trying to stay with them. Or maybe you would prefer to stay with the 3:45 pacer for a while and build up a cushion and try and hang in there at a slower pace for the last few miles?

7) Map of the Full route...
If you would prefer to see the full Marathon route for 2010 with all of the changes, I have put it up on the MapMyRun website.
Note that the positions for the mile marker are close by may be out slightly. I had to do a small bit of surgery on the bit by Inchagaggin to get everything to fit in ok ;o)

8) Acknowledgements...

An event like this just doesn't happen overnight. Months of work have gone into organising the Cork City Marathon to make it the success that it is. Some might consider the event to be expensive but there is a huge expense in organising an event of this size in a city. An event like this causes a major disruption for a lot of non-running people in Cork so full credit to the Cork City Council who are the driving force behind the event.

Any Marathon is only as good as it's course and it has been accurately measured by Kevin Cummns of the Cork BHAA and John Quigley of Eagle AC. Both are AAI accredited and you can be sure that the course is spot on.

Many of the photos used here in the Relay leg descriptions were taken by John Quigley as he measured and re-measured parts of the course. Thanks John!

.......and of course, we have to acknowledge the many volunteers who will turn up on Monday to steward the course, hand out water and do a variety of other jobs. When a lot of runners have finished and gone home, they will be there whatever the weather is like.


With roughly 1800 runners in the full Marathon and 6,700 runners in the Relay event, it really is one of the major races in the country.