Marathon Mission Announces its 2012 Standards

The Marathon Mission programme is a system which was set up to nurture Irish marathoner runners. This was done in the hope that it will lead to Irish runners qualifying for and competing with distinction in major championships (i.e. the London Olympics) and being competitive on an annual basis in the Dublin Marathon.

Marathon Mission have now announced their 2012 Qualifying Standards for new aspirants. For the women the bar has been raised higher on two of the standards, the 10 Miles and Half Marathon while the Marathon mark of 2.45.00 has been left unchanged for the 3rd year in a row. For 2012 both the 10 Mile and Half Marathon marks have been lowered by 30 seconds each to 59.00 and 78.30 respectively.

30 Athletes by virtue of running at least one of the qualifying standards in 2011 have been offered places in the 2012 squad. Not all are interested in pursuing a Marathon career. A more likely starting group will be 24 with anyone outside of that 24 who achieves a 2012 qualifying time being offered a place. 2011 was a year of significant progress with 14 women running under 79.00 for the Half Marathon. In the Marathon itself 7 women ran sub 2.45 portraying the growing depth. In the previous 4 years no more than 3 women in any given year had gone under 2.45.

2011 also saw a stronger Marathon male pool emerge too with 5 athletes going sub 2.20. The fact that Mark Kenneally and Sean Connolly achieved the mark twice meant that there were seven sub 2.20 runs in 2011 compared to a total of two sub 2.20’s in the previous 4 years combined. Only the Half Marathon Qualifying time on the men’s side has been adjusted, reducing to 66.30 for 2012 aspirants.

Marathon Mission Qualifying Times 2012
10 Miles    Half Marathon    Marathon
Men    50.00    66.30    2.24.00
Women    59.00    78.30    2.45.00