A total of 320 runners turned out for Cork BHAA Gas Networks 5 mile race on Sat 14th Apr 2018 and unusually for a BHAA race, it was held on a Saturday evening. Comparing it to the other Gas Network races over the years, this one is the second lowest turnout ever and just 4 more than the inaugural race back in 2012.
Another unusual feature was the lack of faster women in the race. The first woman was in 98th place overall where as normally it would be around the 20 to 30 mark or at least it used to be. It seems that as times goes by, the number of faster women on the race circuit seems to be dropping off. Not sure why.
1 Alan O'Brien M-1 00:25:49 McCarthy Insurance Group
2 Colin Merritt 0/45B M-2 00:25:57 Army
3 Barry Donovan M-3 00:26:07 Kerry Group
98 Marie Kissane 0/35H F-1 00:35:04 Eli Lilly
120 Olga O'Sullivan 0/40I F-2 00:36:38 Dell-EMC
127 Rachael O'Callaghan 0/40I F-3 00:37:03 Cork Shops
The full results are HERE
Bar the weather and time, it could have been that its a 5 miler now and not a 5K. 5K's always draw a big crowd as you get many couch to 5K people plus a 5K in the marina is always a race to do to get a PB. I and I'm sure others typically use the marina 5K's as a fitness test or gauge as there's then another 5K later in the year down there. Having Emer Casey and the Karen Fenton either side of it possibly didn't help either.
ReplyDeleteMost women lead very busy lives these days and try to juggle work & raising families. There's very little time left to be doing big mileage in training - hence the lack of fast race times. Just not worth it as big mileage makes one feel exhausted all the time - big sacrifices needed for fast times.
ReplyDeleteRef the lack of fast women : That's true, you make a very valid point. There is a big difference between training just to stay fit and the level of training required to be fast.
ReplyDelete