Most popular Half-Marathon races in Ireland in 2024

I had a recent post about the top 10-mile races in Ireland in 2024 up on the blog. In this post, we'll look at the most popular half-marathons in Ireland in 2024.

During the year, I've been tracking all of the half-marathon races in Ireland and I think I've got most if not all of them. As far as I can tell, there were just over 90 half-marathon events in Ireland in 2024.

The most popular half-marathon in the country is the Dublin Half which was held in late September. No doubt a lot of people were using this as part of their training for the Dublin Marathon at the end of October.

It's probably no great surprise that Dublin is at number one considering the population of the capital and the huge pool of runners in Dublin and the surrounding counties. This would also explain why the two editions of the Clontarf Half in July and November come in at numbers 6 and 4 on the list.

Belfast as the second largest city in Ireland also comes in second place in terms of half marathon numbers.

The Cork City Half-Marathon on the June Bank Holiday weekend was in third place and just 24 finishers ahead of Clontarf.

The Great Limerick Run Half-Marathon did very well and was just over 200 runners shy of the Cork numbers despite being a smaller city.

The Waterford Half in November was in 9th place and significantly ahead of the Waterford Viking Half in June which was in 20th place.

Some of the races on the list have their numbers limited for various reasons. One such event is the Dingle Half at number 10. This one sells out about 10 months ahead of the race and would no doubt get many more runners if they could accommodate them.

The Charleville Half-Marathon got a boost from hosting the National Half-Marathon Championships in 2024 and came in at number 13. The question now is will they manage to hold onto those numbers in 2025 as the half-marathon championships move up to Tullamore?

Tullamore which is at 22 got a boost from hosting the 2023 championships and managed to hang onto the gains in 2024.

Other 'local' half-marathons of interest were... The Run Kilarney Half was at 23 and just outside the top 20 with the sister Run Kilkee Half in Co Clare at 27. The inaugural Youghal Half finished in a credible 29th place. The Waterford Greenway Half is another one that has to limit the numbers and comes in at number 31. The Border Half in Limerick was number 34 and Clonmel comes in at number 37.

In the bottom half, we have the Stone Mad Half in Blarney at 44 and the Tralee and the Surf n Turf in positions 47 and 48. The new Skibbereen Half is at 53.

Back in the Kingdom, we have Tralee at 47, Kerryhead at 51, Gap of Dunloe at 55, Valentia at 56 and Ballybunion at 74.

Beyond this and you're into events with fewer than 100 finishers.

Looking at the overall list, there are more than double the number of half-marathon events compared to 10-mile races and it remains one of the most popular distances and targets for runners.

The Top 20 Marathons in Europe by size...

Back on the 11th of April, I had a post up about the Dublin City Marathon and how they were cutting the top prizes and elite field as a result of not being able to find a sponsor.

Afterwards, it got me thinking about just how big is the Dublin City Marathon really? How big is it in comparison to say the other European Marathons?

The answer for me was a real suprise in that the Dublin Marathon is in fact the seventh largest in Europe. Just to put Dublin into context, it is on an island off the north-west of Europe and the immediate catchment area are those living on the island itself. Otherwise, anyone else taking part has to travel to Dublin by air or sea. Taken as a whole, the population of the island of Ireland is about 6.4 million making it only the 17th largest when compared to other countries in the European Union.

These were the top 20 Marathons in Europe in 2012 by size...

Looking at the list above, there are many other Marathons in major cities around Europe which are smaller than Dublin. Some of those not shown are.....Athens (6,376), Munich (6,084), Vienna (5,892), Prague (5,624), Helsinki (4,261), Budapest (3,585), Zurich (3,046).

The list of the top 50 European Marathons by size in 2012 can be seen HERE

It's obvious that Dublin punches way above it's weight. Going on the figures above, Dublin's 'natural' level might be down around the 6,000 mark. Instead it's almost double that. Why??

Obviously a lot of it is due to a lot of hard work over the years building up the 'brand'. Things like going to expos at other Marathons overseas and advertising the event. Some will argue that it's because of the presence of elite fields with East African athletes posting times down around the 2:10 mark which suggests in turn that it is a fast course thereby encouraging more people to come. Personally, I don't believe that argument. I think overseas visitors are much more likely to come because of cultural reasons...i.e. because it's in Ireland and all they associate with that.

Whatever the reason is, being one of the top 10 Marathons in Europe is a major selling point. Yet when I looked at the Dublin website this morning, I could see no obvious mention of how popular the Marathon was. There is no mention of it being one of the top ten European Marathons. Their 'general info' page doesn't exactly impress either with just a few lines of text.

Surely being the 7th most popular Marathon in Europe is something that the Dublin Marathon organisers should be shouting about? After all, that fact alone will catch a lot of peoples attention and attract even more. In terms of sponsorship, are the Irish tourist board even aware that Dublin is the seventh largest?.....and that it is something unique and not something that can be taken for granted? Is it not worth supporting the Dublin Marathon to help keep it in the top 10? There are no shortage of Marathons on the continent with many cities trying to attract those extra visitors. I'm sure that there are a lot of tourist boards supporting those other Marathons that would gladly take it's place.

Thoughts???