Bay Run Half-Marathon...€3000 donation to Bantry Hospice & post race interview

The Bay Run Half-Marathon takes place at the start of May every year on the Bank Holiday weekend. It was run by a commercial company for several years until they announced that the 2013 would be the last one. In 2014, it was taken over by the Maritime Hotel in Bantry from the old owners with the intention that any profits made would go to the local Bantry Hospice.

Back in late April of 2014 before the race, I had an interview on the website with James Cleary, race director of the Bay Run Half-Marathon & 10k in Bantry in West Cork.

In this follow up interview, I asked James some follow up questions about the 2014 race, the donation and some of the issues raised in the original interview.

1) ok James, first off lets look back at the 2014 Bay Run Half-Marathon & 10k. Some people complained afterwards about the car rally and the reckless antics of some of those drivers. Would you like to elaborate on that?..........Hi John, Thanks very much for the opportunity to chat again. We had a very successful year 1 but as with all events there is always room to improve – we did have a few comments mentioning the rally- in our defence we were informed by the rally director months in advance of the Bay Run events that the 10Km race would not be affected in anyway, yet their drivers and crew came booming towards runners and our event team. Some of them were very abusive towards our water station crews and we addressed this with them after the races. Having contacted the local rally representative we have been assured that the rally will not be using our route for the 10Km and we have assurances from them that their drivers will be more courteous towards other road users.

2) Now that you essentially have what is the first Bay Run Half for you under your belt as race director, what changes would you like to see happen? Is there anything that didn't work so well in 2014 and what will you change?...........I think we as a team pulled off a very enjoyable event and we have some phenomenally positive comments, feedback around Cork City and County was tremendous and we feel we have done enough to grow the event.

Some feedback given was on the below topics:
Water- there were comments on running out of water but we reviewed this and found it to be a minor issue- we didn’t run out; we did however have Powerbar branded cups available with both water and Powerbar energy drinks but people assumed that it was just energy drink and that we ran out of water we will have clear plastic cups as well as the bottled water for 2015.

Post event- We are investigating the cost of throwing on a spread of tea/ coffee, biscuits for after the race so there’s always room for improvement and we will always take on board people’s suggestions for due consideration.

Measurements: There were some comments about the course length; we have looked into this and after consultation with other event directors we will have all courses measured for next years event. This of course will be fully registered and measured with a Jones counter.

James Cleary (R) of the Maritime Hotel presenting a cheque for €3000 to the Bantry Hospice

3) In the previous interview, you mentioned that the Bay Run would raise funds for Bantry Hospice. I understand that a donation was made recently. Can you give me some details of that?...........Yes we were very pleased to be able to donate €3,000 to the hospice- see picture attached with Chairman Damien Moloney Bantry Hospice Receiving our cheque. It was a testament to all runners that took part and helped us raise valuable money for the Bantry Hospice but not only that; other charities benefited as well, Bru Colmbanus received cheques for various amounts all raised from runners on the Half Marathon & The Bay10Km; the Donal Walsh Live Life Foundation received donations and many more benefited from our events.

4) You also mentioned that you would publish a profit and loss account for the race so as to show where the funds are going. Can you show this?..........Absolutely - I’ve attached the P&L for the event year 1, the sole aim of the Bay Run events is to be as transparent as possible and hopefully people will recognise this gesture. Many other events throughout the country should provide a P&L for their events so people can see where the charity goes after covering the costs to run the events.

5) Now that the 2015 Bay Run Half-Marathon is just over 6 months away, what are your plans for it? Any big changes?..........Yes John, we announced our first ever Bay Marathon last month and we have 30 entries already so its going to be great to have Bantry’s first ever Marathon; there is a really good atmosphere around the town about the first marathon and it will allow us to raise more money for the Hospice thus providing a very good platform for other charities to benefit from people taking up the marathon challenge and helping their own charity that might be personal to them. I'd like to especially thank our sponsors Rowa Pharm., PowerBar, Red FM, O’Keeffe’s SuperValu Bantry and of course The Maritime Hotel & Leisure Club Maritime. Without their support the event wouldn’t exist.

Pleasure chatting with you as always John.