Numbers......There was a record 965 finishers this year in Charleville. The chart below shows how the numbers have progressed over the years....from 446 in 2011 to 965 in 2016.
As I have said before on the blog, any event that is holding their own at the moment is doing very well in light of all the races to choose from. As you can see, not only is Charleville holding its own but it's getting even more popular.
Not only that but it was also going head to head with two other half-marathons on over the weekend in Kilkenny. The Medieval Half-Marathon got 127 and the JJ Reddy Half got 222 and both of these would have taken some of the runners from Tipperary and Waterford.
Breakdown......This is the breakdown of times for the 2016 Charleville Half-Marathon in five minute blocks.
This is pretty close to the usual shape for a half-marathon which tends to have a flat peak. As men are usually faster than women, they would account for the peak around 1:40 while women are responsible for the peak around 1:55.
Gender Ratio......Women accounted for 36.3% of the field.
Are the top times dropping???.......Someone left this comment after the results post...
"It's a shame to see the standard for the elite women's race drop this year. The winner "Lee" had an easy run "1:19:47" to win the race, a poor performance by elite standard's. Maria McCambridge ran 1:13 in 2012, 1:12 in 2014, 1:13 in 2015! The standard has dropped by at least 6 minutes for the elite women's this year, why?"
First off...another chart!! :o)
a) The first one on the left shows the winning times for the first man in Charleville over the years. It hasn't changed a whole lot and it's usually about 66 mins.
b) There are prizes for the first 8 so I had a look at the times for the 8th man over the years to see if the top runners were getting slower. The important thing to remember here is that the overall numbers for the race have been increasing over the years. This hasn't made a huge change to the top 8 times however. The fastest field for the top 8 men was back in 2014.
c) So what about the women? Lizzie Lee's winning time in 2016 was over six minutes slower than last year but Lizzie also ran a 2:39 marathon in Rio just 5 weeks ago and would be still recovering from it. But it still raises the question of where were all the other fast women at the business end of the race?
d) The time for the 8th woman just reinforces the fact that the very fast women were mostly missing. For example, in 2012 there were 635 finishers in total and the first 8 women were under 1h 25m. This year in 2016, there were 965 finishers overall and the 8th woman was over 1h 30m.
As for why there was a drop in the top women compared to the top men??? One reason could be that the top women are spread out over more races? Looking at the results of other races in Cork and Munster, I suspect that there are just fewer women running fast times now compared even to just a few years back.
Any suggestions?
Addendum : As well as people leaving comments, some send them by e-mail. One person mentioned the following points...
1) The World Championships are coming up in London in 2017 and some of the top women in the country may well be targetting the 2:38 qualificiation time in the Berlin Marathon next weekend.
2) The Dublin Half-Marathon is also coming up and a lot of people will run that instead of Charleville. As fast as Charlevile is, it is also way down the country for a lot of the top runners.
3) He also made the point that at the end of the day, every race is just that...a race. The winning times reflect what it took to win the race rather than what someone might be capable of.
8 comments:
It was exactly five weeks since Lizzie's Marathon in Rio and she's just getting back into running. Not only that but she developed a bad blister during the race due to an adverse camber which made her slow down as she didn't know what was wrong with her foot.
There is a tendency in Irish sport these days to be hypercritical of performances without people taking account of the circumstances, or even knowing them. We've just had an Olympic year and that colours who will be trying for what. Very much so.
Runners who compete too much get crocked. Before the Olympics the European Half Marathon championship was on and L was criticised for not competing. There she was, uninjured in good form before the Olympics. What would you do? If you look at the results of that you will see that Gold and Bronze medal winners failed to finish in Ladies' Marathon in Rio. If that doesn't tell you something, then you ain't listening! The other point is that some very good runners in this Half Marathon weren't in top condition either. Top condition all year round means lower peaks. This is well known to sport scientists. A classic case is Robert Heffernan. He's the master of peaking. He's not in peak form all year, or anything like it.
The other big event coming up is THE marathon. Berlin. Good girls will be going in that so that's affecting the field.
When Maria came down and set a fab record, that is exactly what her target was.
Next weekends Dublin half marathon will give a good indication if there is an overall drop in womens standard. Also Maria Mccambridge was way ahead of all other female competitors when she ran so her not running has a big impact on results. Lastly many of the top female runners may be taking some time off running after the European championships and Olympics and I dont mean just those runners who were selected to run for Ireland but also those runners who were trying to get (but not succeeding) selected.
There is a ageing field also, that looks to be more pronounced towards the front of races and even more so in the womens. Stats would be interesting if you had the time! 6 of the top 8 women are O40. There looks to be a lot of people taking up running later in life but very few coming through from underage.
We need more 'fast' women
Have to agree with the earlier comment that the quality of the ladies races are certainly falling as are the mens I'd you look back. But I believe the ladies has fallen much further.
A look at the recent 10 mile race of the first 5 ladies not one was senior and in the St likes 5km only one of the first 3 ladies was a senior.
The other two were one lady over 45 who came second in that grade in New York marathon and another who is the best in these islands by far in her age group.
I've been thinking about this. A lot of it has to do with the Olympics, and to a lesser extent the World Championships. To illustrate.
Lizzie ran Berlin Marathon in 2013 in 2:38:08 and came 9th. She ran it again in 2015, a pre-Olympic year and did 2:32:51, a 5min 17sec improvement and came 17th. So, in a pre-Olympic year everyone is running. This carries over into club running without a doubt. Many runners run themselves into the ground by competing in everything, and that's their prerogative, but it must be remembered that racing can destroy form. You can maintain top form for maybe 6 weeks.
Addendum : As well as people leaving comments, some send them by e-mail. One person mentioned the following points...
1) The World Championships are coming up in London in 2017 and some of the top women in the country may well be targetting the 2:38 qualificiation time in the Berlin Marathon next weekend.
2) The Dublin Half-Marathon is also coming up and a lot of people will run that instead of Charleville. As fast as Charlevile is, it is also way down the country for a lot of the top runners.
3) He also made the point that at the end of the day, every race is just that...a race. The winning times reflect what it took to win the race rather than what someone might be capable of.
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