Follow up on the Womens Mini-Marathon...Sun 27th Sept 2009
No doubt there was another huge turnout for this charity walk/run which took place in dry weather conditions. From a runners point of view, I hear that there was no provision yet again this year to let the fast runners get to the front and let them start ahead of the walkers. Last year, people had to climb over barriers to try and get into position for a fast start.

Q.....Were you there? What did you think of the start? As a road race? The overall event?

Click on the Comment link below and give your opinion...

Looking at the comments already posted, it would seem that it was similar to last year....

Photos and Results....... (Updated 5th Oct 2009)
If there are any photos, I'll put the links up here if I get them.

1) There is a gallery of almost 600 photos up on the Eagle AC website.

2) There is a seperate gallery of 239 photos HERE.

As regards results....for the last 2 years, they have a supplement in the Evening Echo later in the week with a list of all participants. They only give the finishing positions and times for the top 100 women.

Preview of the 'Evening Echo Ladies Mini Marathon'...Sun 27th Sept (1pm)
This is essentially a 3.8 mile charity walk/run with a road race at the front of it. If you intend to race it then you need to get to the start early! There are somewhere in the region of 10,000 women taking part and going on previous years, the organisers aren't too worried about whether the faster runners can get to the front or not.

Course...The start of this race is on the Centre Park Road.

Mile 0-1....The first mile or so is very flat with only a slight uphill around the 0.8 mile mark as the road joins the Marina. This should be a very fast mile as long as you stay clear of the mass of runners/joggers/walkers/prams....etc.
Mile 1-2.....Dead flat along the Marina. Probably the most scenic part of the run. Again, it should be a very fast mile. If you have started too fast, this is about where you should find out. Pace yourself for the first 2, you can pick it up over the last 2 if you have gone too slow.
Mile 2-3....This section includes the only real hill. There is a nasty pull from the 2 mile mark up to St.Michael's church, a distance of about 300 metres. You are going to lose some time here. After that, it's reasonably flat with a slight fall downhill into Beaumount about the 2.7 mile mark. Then past the AIB bank and Post office and take a sharp right down Maryville Road. Around the 3 mile mark, there is a very steep downhill section. By far, the hardest mile.
Mile 3-3.8....After the initial downhill section, the remainder of the mile is flat with the finish on the Monaghan Road, near Kennedy Park.

Click on the map above for a closer look. If you are not sure what part of the city the map shows above, click on this LINK

Video Clip......Finish of the Ladies Marathon Race in Chicago, 2007......
No doubt there are a good few of you tapering down at the moment getting ready for the Dublin Marathon on the 27th. With this in mind, it seemed a good time to put up this video clip from the finish of the Ladies race in the 2007 Chicago Marathon. This however is no ordinary finish as you will see. As long as the race isn't over, there is always hope ;o)

Enjoy.........



(....with thanks to Tadhg Lynch and Siobhan Murphy of Eagle AC for the tip off on this one)

Comments....???
"Don't think it is on youtube, but there was an even closer finish to the 2006 Dublin City Marathon for first Irish woman. Pauline Curley was clearly ahead, but picked up a bad injury with about a mile to go. She hobbled [literally] on but was reeled in about 10 yards from the line by Belfast's Jill Shannon.............AlanJoesphBurke"

Results of the 'Cork Evening Echo' Womens Mini Marathon 4 Mile Road Race/Fun Run...Sun 28th Sep 2008
First of all, the full results will be published in next Saturdays Evening Echo on the 4th of October. Last year, the results were pretty poor in that they only published the finishing times for the first 10. Let's hope that they provide a more complete results service this year.

I have put the results for the top 100 finishers up on a website. Just click on the zoom and use your mouse and drag the results around to see your time.

I had hoped to try out a new camera and get a few photos of this race. However, when I tried the camera this morning, it was dead! The battery was completely flat :o(
So, it was back to the old trusty 2 megapixel camera and maybe it was just as well because some of the shots came out pretty good.

The first set of photos are at the 1 mile mark. After that, I made my way over to Monaghan Road through the thousands of walkers coming towards me! It was a bit like that Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds' ;o) All I could hear was the murmur of thousands of women talking away as they walked past.

By the time I got to Monaghan Road, I had just missed the front runners but managed to catch a few hundred as they made their way towards the finishing line. As soon as I had one memory card full, I made my way towards the 3 mile mark, changed the card and took a few more shots there. Even at that stage, the crowds had not thinned out. It really is an amazing event and it's great to see so many taking part. Judging by the number of special charity T-shirts, a huge amount of money must have been collected. Well done to everyone who took part.



As for any ban on MP3 players, forget it! If this was a BHAA event, MP3 players would be way down their list of worries. I saw one person running with her dog on a lead and 2 others running while talking on their mobile phones!! ...and yes, running!!....not walking. See below. Maybe it's true, women ARE better at multi-tasking ;o)


Photos...I have put up 200 on the following website. You can zoom in slightly if you want to have a closer look.

John Quigley of Eagle AC has 470 shots up on the Eagle website from the corner near the 3 mile mark.

Note.........for anyone interested, there is a Ladies Mini-Marathon (7kms) in Limerick next Sunday, the 5th of October (same day as the Cork to Cobh race). For more information, go to the Running in Munster website.

Comments...
"Well done on those shots...some good photo's there. Just enquiring if there will be many races coming up during the winter around the 6 mile mark. Been out of running injured since July and am ready to get back into it...........Sandy"
"Hi Sandy, thanks for the comment. In answer to your question, there are two more 4 mile road races coming up in November. One is on the Marina on the 2nd and the other one is near Inniscarra on the 23rd. I have a road race calendar on the right hand side of this page which I try and keep updated for what is happening for the next 2 months. I also notice that the website is getting a lot of traffic from Google as people are looking for information on the mini-marathon. So for those of you visiting this website for the first time, there is a very active road race scene here in Cork and anyone can enter these races, mainly on the day of the event. Check the dates on the race calendar and check back here for more info............John Desmond"

Entries for the Cork Ladies Mini-Marathon 4 mile race...

This event which attracts thousands of walkers and runners takes place on Sunday, the 28th of September at 1pm. However, the closing date for online entries is next Friday, the 19th of September. The link for the online form is http://www.corkminimarathon.com/entry.asp

You can also post in your entry but it might be a bit late at this stage. Last year, they had a special office near Debenhams where you could enter but there is no mention of it this year on their website.

For any ladies not doing the Cork to Cobh race, you might be also interested in the Limerick Ladies Mini-Marathon (7km) on the 5th of October. More details on the Running in Munster site.

In the meantime, here is a little video clip from a ladies mini 'Mini-Marathon' in Australia.

Enjoy ;o)