Entry Statistics for the 2013 Ballycotton 10 race...

Now that the final entry list is out for the 2013 Ballycotton 10 race, it's time to have a look at some of the stats.

Number of entries......As you can see from the graph below there was a slight drop in entries this year, down from 3,582 in 2012 to 3,473 in 2013.

As such, it's only a small drop so the new mix of postal and online entries this year doesn't seem to have had much impact on overall numbers. A possible reason for the drop is given further down.

Gender Balance......As can be seen from the graph below, the number of women taking part in the Ballycotton 10 continues to grow...

There was a big jump in numbers this year and women are likely to make up almost 40% of the field on race day. Considering that this is 39.9% of 3,473 entries then it's not some statistical error. This shows a very real growth in the numbers of women taking up running.

This is a breakdown of the female entries by age...

As a side note, any properly organised race should have a prize structure that reflects the gender balance. In other words, if 40% of the field are women then 40% of all the prizes should be for women. Looking at the prize structure for the Ballycotton 10, it's 38.7% for women which is very close to the percentage entered last year.

Entry by Athletic Clubs.....Pride of place goes yet again to Midleton AC with 151 entries, up from 144 last year. In second place, St.Finbarr's AC keep their second spot with 111 entries, down from 123 in 2012. Eagle AC have just 3 fewer entries this year with 94 to keep third. Mallow AC stay in fourth with a slight increase from 57 to 62.

The big change in the top 5 is with the non-Cork clubs. Back in 2008, West Waterford AC were the largest club by entry with 87 entries. With the increasing popularity of their own Dungarvan 10 mile road race, it seems that many are opting for that instead and this year, there are 38 entries from West Waterford AC as they move out of the top five. In their place, Kilkenny City Harriers take fifth spot with 55 entries, up from 38 last year.

These are the other clubs with 10 or more entries....
Youghal AC 43 (2011=29), West Waterford AC 38 (2011=60), Galtee Runners AC 35 (2011=40), Donore Harriers 33 (2011=43), Waterford AC 33 (2011=40), Slaney Olympic AC 32 (2011=37), Leevale AC 28 (2011=22), Sli Cualann AC 25 (2011=18), Rathfarnham-WSAF AC 22 (2011=18), Bandon AC 20 (2011=23), Donoughmore AC 19 (2011=20), Limerick Country Club AC 19 (2011=30), Bridge Milers-Olympic Harriers 15 (2011=0), Brothers Pearse AC 15 (2011=8), Limerick AC 14 (2011=20), Thurles Crokes AC 14 (2011=8), East Cork AC 13 (2011=18), Grange-Fermoy AC 13 (2011=15), Ballincollig AC 12 (2011=11), Clonakilty Road Runners 12 (2011=6), Clonmel AC 12 (2011=20), North Cork AC 11 (2011=20), St. Catherines AC 11 (2011=2), Crusaders AC 10 (2011=10), Mullingar Harriers 10 (2011=19), Raheny Shamrock AC 10 (2011=21)

Having a closer look at some of those stats, there are 16 clubs from Cork. From that 16, there were 640 entries in 2012 and 643 in 2013...i.e. hardly any change in the number of people from athletic clubs in Cork taking part.

Looking at the 20 largest non-Cork clubs by entry, there were 387 in 2013 compared to 451 in 2012. That's a 14% drop which is significant. Why the drop? Is it the cost of travel? Is it the fact that there are more choices of races locally available now and there is less need to travel? If that was a trend that continued then it might suggest perhaps some of the other 10 mile and Half-Marathon races during the year may find it harder to attract people from outside their local area.

Non-Athletic club entrants.....This year, 37.8% of the total number of entries are members of athletic or running clubs....

That's actually a drop from the 2012 figure which was 40.7%. Considering that the number of non-club runners was restricted somewhat by the initial 2,500 limit, it seems as if it's the 14% drop in club runners from outside of Cork which is mostly responsible for the decline in the overall athletic club percentage and probably why the numbers overall dropped slightly this year as well.

So in summary...
1) Numbers steady for the Ballycotton 10. If 2012 is anything to go by then 2,310 runners should turn up for this year's Ballycotton 10 race.
2) More women taking part.
3) Numbers from local clubs steady, big drop by non-local clubs.
4) There is a huge number of non-club runners now taking part. Obviously this means that there is plenty of opportunity for clubs to grow but it also means that a lot of people are quite happy doing their own thing and don't feel any need to join a club.

Thoughts?

Acknowledgements....Thanks to John Quigley of Eagle AC for the raw data for the stats.