Here is a statement from the organisers....
It is with regret to inform you that The Cliffs of Moher Half & Full Marathon that was due to take place on Saturday 24th September 2011 has been cancelled and a full refund will be processed for you within the next 21 days.
The reason for our decision is as follows: The Cliffs of Moher Marathon Team started marketing the event in February 2010 with the introduction of The Half Marathon on 25th September 2010, this event was enjoyed by a total of 677 participants.
Much to our disappointment, since October 2010 when the registration went live for both events, a total number of 104 participants have registered to date. To stage a Full and Half marathon event is a very costly exercise and a minimum amount of participants are required for the event to take place. With just over 3 months remaining we had to look carefully with regards to the interest shown to date and make a decision.
With this in mind, The Cliffs of Moher Marathon Team have decided to cancel the event for 2011 and refund the 104 participants fully via the means of which payment was made when registering.
Kind regards
The Cliffs of Moher Marathon Team
As far as I know, this is the first high profile cancellation of a commercial race, certainly in the southern half of the country. In comparison to say club races, commercial races operate on a different level. Besides the obvious higher entry fees, their costs are a lot higher. They may not have the number of volunteers that an athletic club could muster while they spend a whole lot more on marketing.....it's not a case of just handing out race flyers at some local 5k and hoping that people will turn up.
So, has the commercial race market reached a saturation point? Is just plain old simple market forces of supply and demand? Or is the market shrinking with less people willing to pay the higher entry fees just because they can't afford to?
Now I know some people are opposed to commercial races but there are obviously commercial races out there that get large numbers so not everyone agrees. They are offering a product and people are willing to pay for that product.........so I'm not going to start a debate on the merits or otherwise of commercial races.
But do you have an opinion on the number of races? On the number of say Half-Marathons in particular......Are there too many? Click on the comment link below...
as you say john it's a market forces thing. every boom is followed by a bust though i would hardly call the cancelling of a half marathon a bust!!! in the case of cliffs of moher their timing is poor coming after the dingle dublin and cork half marathons. by the end of sept people would be either burned out or upping there mileage for the big one in dublin. the athlone 19 mile is doing very well as is the cork/cobh 15 mile because of their timing. timing is everything- connemara have done very well precisely of the siting of the race in april. ballycotton is the same, march is a excellent time to run a ten mile. new years resolution and all that.
ReplyDeleteYes there are too many commerical races at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSaying that I don't know how much marketing had been done for this Cliffs of Moher marathon, am sure more could have been done.Scenery for the Cliffs marathon is spectacular all the same.
Problem with a lot of the commercial races is that they are organised by people who don't understand either athletics or the importance of finding the right date.
ReplyDeleteThey can't charge €70 for a 10km so they put on a half marathon/marathon - at a completely inappropriate time of the year.
My issue with commercial races is the price. A commercial half marathon may be over twice the price of a club half marathon (compare Bay Run to Bandon in May 2011)The Cork BHAA races offer tremendous value. The entry fee of €10 for the Cork to Cobh 15 mile race in Oct. is unbeatable for a long distance event, with brilliant organisation, a t-shirt & goody bag for all finishers, a relatively flat route and of course lovely post-race refreshments. It puts some some commercial races to shame.
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