Impact of the summer holiday season on parkrun numbers in Cork (2026)

In this post, we're going to look back at the numbers taking part in the 5k parkruns in Co Cork during the Spring, Summer & Autumn of 2026 and examine what impact holidays and tourism had.

To remove some of the 'noise' and variability from the data, I calculated the average numbers for each month from February to October 2026. The problem with weekly data is that it jumps all over the place and it makes it harder to see a trend.

I have also split the parkruns into three groups... a) The three parkruns in Cork City b) The satellite towns of Midleton, Mallow & Macroom and c) West Cork.

a) The three parkruns in Cork City... Ballincollig, Tramore Valley & Glen River.

I'm not sure what happened in March but it seemed to be the busiest month for both Ballincollig and Tramore Valley.

You'll notice that there is a definite dip in July which is probably the peak of the summer holiday season. The change is about 10% so it's not huge. The fact that both were down suggests that there is something there alright.

The Glen by contrast showed no dip and it increased by about 13% although it wouldn't take that many runners to show a big jump there.

b) The satellite towns of Midleton, Mallow & Macroom

Midleton saw a large jump in April when a lot of runners took part in the parkrun in memory of someone who had recently passed away. During July and August, there did seem to be a noticeable increase in numbers. July was up 19% on June.

Mallow and Macroom seem to be pretty steady and there seems to be a balance between locals going on holidays and visitors taking part.

c) West Cork

West Cork is a different story though and there is a clear sign of visitors causing a jump in numbers.

The numbers at Clonakilty seem reasonably steady except for July & August when the numbers jump about 40%.

The Castlehaven parkrun in Rineen Woods is the smallest parkrun in Co Cork and also the toughest! The big surge in numbers in August is more than double the figure for June.

Glengarriff shows a similar pattern although it's curious as to why it slowly declines from March to June as opposed to staying steady? Like the rest, there is a big jump in numbers in August.

The most dramatic change is on Bere Island with the August numbers jumping about 180% compared to the usual level in the Spring.

If you look at the charts at the top of the post then you can see that during the months of July and August, Bere Island is the 4th largest parkrun in Co Cork and the largest in West Cork.

Think about that for a monment. A 5k parkrun on an island off Castletownbere way down the Beara Peninsula and where most participants have to get a ferry is the fourth largest parkrun in Cork during July and August.

Is Triathlon under threat from Hyrox?

 

Most of you will have noticed that over the last year or two, there has been a huge surge of interest in HYROX in both Ireland and abroad. HYROX is an indoor fitness competition that combines running and functional strength training.

It was announced last week that Hyrox became a recognised discipline within World Triathlon which in turn could make it eligible for inclusion at the Olympics.

The sudden announcement hasn't gone down well with all of those involved in Triathlon. In a BBC interview, British triathlete Max Stapley said the following... "I was like, hold on a minute, what's this? We don't even get an early notification, we found out on Instagram. How does Hyrox grow triathlon? If anything they've killed triathlon. Sponsorships have reduced because there's no visibility on TV, you have to pay to watch us.

We are triathletes that do the short distance, which is the Olympic distance, and we've trained all our lives for it. There's no swimming, there's no biking, it's indoors. [Hyrox] has got nothing to do [with triathlon]. It seems like our sport's gone, 'no worries, come along, use our structure, use our access to the International Olympic Committee, and perhaps take our space'.

We've got an opportunity to win medals in Los Angeles [at the 2028 Olympics], but will we have it further down the track?"

The full article can be found on the BBC website HERE

Tony Higgins is the first person in Ireland to earn 1000 parkrun volunteer credits

Tony Higgins & Co at the inaugural parkrun in Carrigaline

Last weekend, Tony Higgins became the first person in Ireland to earn 1000 parkrun volunteer credits!

Not only has he volunteered 1000 times but he has also completed 437 5k parkruns at a total of 101 different events. His home parkrun is Tralee and he has completed 209 there.

Tony is the regional event  ambassador for Munster and helps in the setting up junior & 5km parkruns in the province. Tony who is originally from Cork, works in Kerry General Hospital.

When Tralee parkrun was getting ready to launch back in January 2015, his wife, Maeve said to event director... “I think Tony might enjoy volunteering – he’d like doing the results and taking the photos, but I can tell you he’ll never do a parkrun!” 😂😂

Parkrun Ireland have an article up on their website HERE

Major problem with Strava using too much mobile data

If you have an Android based mobile phone and you are using the Strava app on it to record exercise sessions, make sure to check how much data you are using.

Looking back on the sessions that I did at the start of October, a workout might use up something like 3 to 10 MB of mobile data which is not really an issue.

I can see that on the 22nd of October, a training session used up 2.18 GB which is 2180 MB! I did a cycle today (Sun 1st Nov 2026) and it used about 1.2 GB so it's still a current problem.

Needless to say, a lot of people are having problems with Strava causing users to exceed the data available on their mobile phone plans and incurring additional charges.

I'm not sure if Stava on Apple iPhones are having the same problem.

If you are using an Android device then check your data limits and be careful how you use Strava.