The Great Ireland Run was held in the Phoenix Park in Dublin on Sunday the 16th of April 2023 with roughly 1800 runners taking park. It also doubled up as the Athletics Ireland National 10km Championships.
On the day, the runners were sent the wrong way at a road junction and ended up running about 8.4kms instead of the intended 10kms.
Athletics Ireland issued this statement afterwards...
National 10k Statement: Athletics Ireland and the event organiser Dublin City Harriers wish to apologise to all participants for the unforeseen circumstances that led to today’s Great Ireland Run (incorporating the national 10k championship) being less than the specified distance.
Athletics Ireland will continue to engage with the race organisers on the matter and will update national 10k championship participants when further information becomes available
This was widely reported in the national media as well as on the BBC and large running websites like Runners World UK. All of the media reports just carry the statement and don't really explain what went wrong.
There has also been a lot of speculation about what went wrong with people incorrectly blaming the lead Garda bike or the front runners.
In this post, I'll examine what happened and put forward the case that the fundamental problem wasn't 'human error' but the poor design of the race course by the organisers.
On the route map above, note the Yellow dots. Runners were supposed to do a 3km loop before starting a much larger loop around the park. This Yellow 3km loop is the key as there was an obvious requirement for the start area to be clear by the time the front runners came around again.
First of all, let's look at what happened.
The map above on the left shows the correct course. The Yellow arrows show the initial 3km loop. At about 2.3kms, the runners should turn right onto the start/finish road and at the end of this road (Furze Road), they would turn left and start a larger loop in Red arrows. At about 7.8kms, they would carry straight on (purple arrows) and do part of the initial loop in reverse. They would approach the finish line from the West.
The map above on the right shows what actually happened. The first 2kms is fine as per the Yellow arrows. At 2.3kms, the leaders were directed straight on instead of turning to the right. They were now essentially doing the course in reverse (see Green arrows). The runners were then directed so that they then approached the finish line from the East. However, the diverted course still wasn't long enough and was about 1.6kms short of the full 10km distance.
Some runners complained afterwards about the fact that the finishing strait was blocked by people that had already finished. The key reason for this was that all of the baggage and other facilities were now on the wrong side of the finish line.
The 3.4k Loop... Whatever about the wrong route, the key thing to examine is the 3km loop as this is where the problem was.
This is the sequence of events as they were planned to happen as per the Great Ireland Run website. Note that the first wave starts at 10:00 and the 3rd wave starts 6-minutes later.
Timeline... Let's look at a timeline of events and how they likely played out.
10:00 - The first wave of sub 36 min and elite runners start. If we assume the fastest runners are going to finish around the 30 minute mark then that's a pace of 3 mins per km.
10:01 - Looking at the start line video, it took about 40 seconds for the first wave to clear the start line. That allowed about 2m 20s for the 2nd wave to move up to the start line. The front of the 2nd wave will have moved up to the start line quick enough but it will take a while before this trickles back to the rear of the 2nd wave. I suspect those at the back of the 2nd wave (50-55min runners) may not have moved much by the time the race starts for them at 10:03. In effect, the 2nd wave is now slightly stretched out rather than compact.
10:03 - The leading group in the first wave reach the 1km mark. The 2nd wave starts. Considering that the 2nd wave is probably slightly stretched out and this wave is running slower, I'd expect it might take say 90 seconds for them to clear the start line. That now leaves just 90 seconds for the 3rd wave to move up to the start line and this will be even more stretched out.
10:06 - The first wave reaches the 2km mark and is now just 300m from turning right onto the road where the race is starting. The 3rd wave starts and could take two minutes to clear the start line.
10:07 - At this stage, the front runners of the 1st wave arrive at the Chesterfield Avenue / Furze Road junction. They are supposed to turn right as shown as per the photo above. This route is blocked by small Yellow cones and the runners are told to keep going straight ahead instead. Everyone else follows them and in effect, everyone does most of the 10k course in reverse and end up running about 8.6kms instead of 10km.
As you can see from this post above from Twitter, the lead Garda bike and lead runner had intended to turn right but were directed straight ahead.
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Alternate Timeline: Let's play out a sequence of events based on if the runners had turned right and stayed on the correct route.
10:07 - Front runners of the 1st wave turn right at the 2.3km junction. Half of the 3rd wave have now passed the start line.
10:08 - Front runners of the 1st wave are now 300m or so from the start line. The last of the 3rd wave runners leave the start line.
10:09 - Front runners of the 1st wave reach the 3km mark and having completed the loop, cross the start line again. The rear of the 3rd wave who are running probably slower than 7:00/km pace are now just 100-150m up the road.
10:10 - Front runners of the 1st wave reach 3.3kms and plough straight into the back of the 3rd wave. The road will be blocked for the next 200m.
My initial assessment... Based on what I think would have happened, the front runners would have ploughed into the back of the field regardless of whether everyone followed the correct course. i.e. the fundamental problem was with the course and the organisers, not with some individual standing at some junction.
This is important as the liability then rests with the organisers for not designing a proper route.
So what happened back at that 2.3km junction???... I can see two likely scenarios.
A) The race stewards or 'race marshals' as they like to call them in Dublin didn't know the course and failed to direct the lead motorbike and runners right and onto Furze Road and the correct course.
OR
B) Seeing that the Furze Road was full of runners waiting to start and that the road was blocked, someone made a decision to send the race straight ahead and down Chesterfield Avenue instead seeing it was the lesser of two evils.
Serious Questions about the organisers... If the course and planned sequence of events was hopelessly naive, then that raises questions about who organised the race.
Organising a 10km race with 2000 or so participants would be a challenging task for even the most experienced athletics club with lots of road racing experience and a large membership.
The organising club for the Great Ireland Run was Dublin City Harriers AC. I don't know anything about the club so I went looking.
According to Athletics Ireland's own membership stats, Dublin City Harriers AC had just 39 adult members at the end of February. So my first question is...
Q1. Does a club with just 39 adult members have the resources to hold a major 10k race with 2000 participants?
You'll notice that the club also has a lot more 'senior' (21-34 year old) members than 'masters' (35 year old and above). This is the exact opposite to most athletic clubs with a large membership of road runners.
When I did a search online, it seems that Dublin City Harriers is primarily a track and field athletics club and this would tie in with the larger 'senior' membership. That then brings me to my second question...
Q2. Does an athletics club that is primarily involved in track and field events have any experience of holding a major road race?
I don't know the club so I don't have an answer but it seems very odd that a track and field club is organising a major road race.
We don't see athletic clubs that are mainly involved in road races trying to organise major track races but then again, there's no money to be made in that. That brings me to my third and final question...
Q3. For Dublin City Harriers AC and Athletics Ireland, is it really just all about the money at the end of the day?
No point skirting the issue. I think a lot of people will come to the conclusion that it's all about the money at the end of the day and the National 10k Championship is secondary. It's all about putting on a commercial race and trying to milk as much money as possible from what they see as 'recreational runners'.
In conclusion... I've laid out what I think happened and show that there were some serious issue with this race regardless of whether runners took the right route on the day or not. Looking at this race from here in Cork, I can see from the race route and planned timeline that there were serious problems that were likely to occur. Anyone experienced race organiser should have spotted these potential issues.
I think the course with the initial 3km loop and planned sequence of three wave starts was flawed and that the organisers and Athletics Ireland are liable. The event should be held again at a later date for the same participants with the option of a refund.
Athletics Ireland are quite happy to take the money for their new 'One-Day Licence' and they should be liable as well when a road championship isn't properly organised.
I think in reality they are likely to go to ground, brazen it out and hope it's forgotten about. Cash cows tend to have a short memory.
Credit: Thanks to Donal Coakley and his blog post which helped no end in piecing together what transpired on the day.
