It seems to have been so badly organised that the half-marathon course ended up being half a mile short. The 10k was also found to be short of the required distance.
With only one laptop to handle registrations, the race started about 50 minutes late and because of the lack of a PA system, some runners didn't even know the race had started and it left without them!
One participant commented...."On the day, about 100 runners missed the start of the race. The race started about 45 or 50 minutes late and a number of runners were left behind because there was no PA system to let them know the race had started."
The story has been doing the rounds on the main media sources in Northern Ireland so a lot of people must have complained.
The event was organised by a commercial company hoping to make a quick buck without obviously having any experience of such events. The event Facebook page was also deleted just after the event.
There might be a lesson in there for events closer to home. There are loads of new events popping up.
It's worth checking who is organising them and if they have any experience before you part with your money.
More info....
Belfast Telegraph
BBC Northern Ireland
Update...The organiser is now claiming that the event was sabotaged....as you do when it's a half a mile short. Update HERE
4 comments:
Thankfully almost all the Cork races which I have participated in have been great. Some had minor faults but these were nothing to write home about.
Triathlon run legs typically seem to be a little shorter than the stated distance however after a swim and cycle I don't think that anybody minds. :-)
I feel sorry for those in Belfast especially those trying for a PB.
My experience is that races organised by clubs are better events than those run commercially which often seem to cut corners. Run the kingdom races in Kerry come to mind - Tralee marathon earlier this year was a bit of a shambles in the organisation
Don't have to travel quite as far as Belfast for "farcical" and "shambolic" race distances. The (now 3 year old) Waterford Viking marathon in it's first year measured the course too long, last year the course was too short (by at least 500m) and this year some of the leading runners ended up taking the wrong route (and thus ended up running greater than 26.2 miles)due to lack of stewarding.
This event not to be confused the the annual Waterford AC half marathon run every December which is a truly excellent event.
Anything with words like 'Titanic' or 'Viking' in the name are to be avoided I feel.
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