At the start of September, I had a post up about how the blog was gradually coming out of hibernation as the restrictions were beginning to ease. This is an update for mid-November.
As you can see from the image above, the traffic to the blog has continued to grow as the various races and 5k parkruns got going again. In October of 2021, the site got just over 76,000 pageviews for the month.
On Facebook, the numbers are up as well. After the Eyeries 5 mile race, the race director Mark Gallagher sent me a photo of the first three women in the race.
I posted this on the Running in Cork Facebook page and as of this morning, it had reached over 20,000 people.
The thing about 'pageviews' is that one person coming back to the site day and day will generate a lot of pageviews. The Facebook figure is a bit more specific as each one is an account.
It just seems funny that a photo for a race with 174 finishers should reach more than 100 times that number on Facebook.
It obviously helps that the Running in Cork Facebook page has over 17,000 followers to start up and the increased rate of posting has woken up the Facebook algorithm a bit and reminded them about the page.
Calendar update... I did a big trawl last week and I updated the race calendar, see HERE
It certainly isn't choc a block with races but a lot of the major 10-mile & half-marathon races have put up notices for races well into the second half of 2022.
Overall... The race scene does seem to have gone off the boil a bit and this can be seen in some of the lower numbers at some races of late. It's almost as if a lot of people have got out of the habit of attending races or might have different interests now.
There was a time about a decade ago when you could do as many races as you liked in a week... €5 here, €7 there. Now it has become an expensive pastime at €15-€20 per race and people are more likely to pick and choose which ones they do.
I do get the overall impression that the race scene is gradually changing and the lockdown just accelerated that change. The various club races are getting more expensive while the number of free weekly 5k parkruns are on the increase.
We'll have to wait and see what happens but I suspect some of the smaller club races may feel the pinch in the next year or two.
5 comments:
Very interesting content, Thanks for all the postings, it keeps me going throughout the Covid doom and gloom.
Great running blog John. Very informative and regularly updated. No surprise it gets so many views.
I enjoy visiting the blog. I think cost is quite a big thing in the racing. I don't think parkrun in of itself is much of a threat to the road racing or cross country scenes as it has a less competitive feeling and many stronger club runners do not take part but it does perhaps demonstrate that things can be done on a shoestring for no fee or a nominal fee.
One of my go to sites every day. Not on facebook and not a member of a running club, so I totally rely on this site for up coming races.
I wonder if cost is high because of need to use online entry and also need to keep numbers in line with restrictions. I can only hope cost will go down when numbers arent capped, and also that numbers may increase when registering on the day is allowed again.
Anyway, thanks for all your work John
Superb John, I Love Checking In Here Especially Now Even More With The Demise Of The Irish Runner Magazine
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