Is there an increase in the number of people running in Cork??

Last week, I updated the running event calendar on the site and after it, I just had a quick look at the number of pageviews it was getting. 

Comparing February 2023 to February 2022, the number of pageviews of the running calendar was up just over 21%. The number of pageviews for the blog overall was up just under 17%.

Now, there's always going to be some variability but I think that's enough of a jump to suggest something is going on.

If we look at some recent races then we see the Carrigaline 5-mile up 17% this year and the Cork BHAA MTU 5k was up 6%. Again, there is going to be some variability especially with the weather but the trend does seem to be up.

I don't think we'll get back to say 2014 when some of the race numbers were higher but will we get back to the numbers back in 2019 before the pandemic?

Obviously a lot of people stopped running or going to running events due to the pandemic lockdowns but is there a trickle of them coming back?

Are they new runners? People starting off for the first time?

I wonder if it's the same in Dublin or the rest of the country?