Athletics Ireland release entry list for the National Half-Marahton in Dublin next Sunday...

The National Half Marathon Championships will take place in conjunction with the Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon in Dublin next Sunday, the 2nd of August. From the thousands present, roughly 740 club runners will be taking part.

The entry list for the National Championships can be seen http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/other/National_Half_Marathon_Entry_List.pdf

Just like the Great Ireland Run and the National 10k Championships last April, there are relatively few entries from Cork and Munster.

For example based on the latest Athletics Ireland membership stats, 13.3% of all adult members of clubs in Ireland are from Cork. Despite that, they only represent 3.2% of the National Half-Marathon Championship entries.

There are probably a number of reasons for this. An obvious one is that the there are plenty of other races closer to home without having to travel to Dublin. I suspect another reason however may be the cost. It's one thing to travel to Dublin for say the Marathon in October, going to the Expo the day beforehand and having to stay some place overnight. I'm not so sure a lot of people would bother for a half-marathon.

Considering Dublin is only about two and a half hours by road from Dublin, it might be more attractive if the race numbers could be posted out instead of having the expense of going up on Saturday to an Expo?

Lizzie Lee from Cork features on Competitor website.....The Rock n Roll Half-Marathon Series are organised by the Competitor Group. They have an article on Lizzie Lee from Cork up now on their website.