A total of 254 people took part and the poll was open for most of January.
I guess that it's no great suprise that the Cork Marathon came out so far ahead considering that a high percentage of the people visiting this site are from Cork. Still though, the Cork Marathon has now become a well established event after a few teething problems in the first few years.
Dingle takes the second spot with 23 votes which is no big suprise considering it's scenic location. On a nice day, it's a fantastic route especially out around Slea Head.
The Clonakilty Marathon is in 3rd place with 16 votes. As a Marathon based in Cork and with it's scenic coastal route, this one would probably have got a lot more votes except for all the problems it had last December.
Sixmilebridge is a small low key Marathon which attracts it's own following. Twenty six laps of a one mile course may not be everyone's cup of tea but there is a great community spirit there.
The Limerick Marathon only got 9 votes despite the fact that a fair few people from Limerick actually visit this blog. I have to say that as a Marathon, it's ok but there is nothing special about it. It always strikes me as one that's handy for the locals to do but I don't think I'd recommend anyone traveling from afar to do it.
The last one was the new Waterford Marathon. I haven't heard anything bad about it but it strikes me as one for the locals as well. 2012 was the first year so there was an obvious novelty value to it. We'll have to wait to see if it is able to attract the numbers in the years ahead.
And what of 2013?? One obvious theme with nearly every Marathon in Munster is that it's usually locals that run them. If we have a quick look at the county population stats...
....then you can see that Cork dwarfs the other counties in Munster. As such, the Cork Marathon will always has a large population base to draw on but what about the others?
In 2013, there will be three more Marathons, all of them in Kerry. That makes 9 Marathons in Munster in 2013 in total. Is that too many? All of the bigger ones have other events like Half-Marathons associated with them which no doubts helps to subsidise the additional costs of the Marathon itself. Will it get to the stage where the actual Marathon ends up costing too much and some organisations will just go for just the Half-Marathon & relay option instead? How many are too many? Is it feasible to have 4 Marathons in Kerry in one year? Are we reaching a saturation point?
Don't forget John the Clonakilty back 2 back in February as well. That brings it technically to 5 extra marathons. However I think they'll need to ensure this runs seamlessly after the December's issues. Should be easier to manage though, with the much smaller entries for this. Will be interesting to see how many will survive by 2014 if the numbers don't sign up this year.
ReplyDeleteI was generally referring to Marathons for sane people ;o)
ReplyDelete10 Marathons in 10 days in Co.Clare as well but the numbers will always be small at these.
Personally I think we have enough all ready and can't possibly see how they will all survive...they will really have to rely on 10km and half marathon and relay runners considering the average marathon runner will do 2 marathons in a year and one of those will probably be Dublin.
ReplyDeleteI have reservations about encouraging amateur runners to run two marathons in two days. Many will be tempted by the challenge of it but the risk of incurring injury is so significant, I have to ask whose interests are served by this ?
ReplyDelete