Record numbers take part in Waterford Viking Marathon event

The Waterford Viking Marathon event was held this year on Sunday the 21st of June 2026 on what was a lovely sunny day.

The number of finishers in each event were...
Marathon - 600
Half-Marathon - 1727
Quarter-Marathon - 1487
Disability Friendly Run - 46
Relay - 26 (13 teams of 2)

That gives a grand total of 3886 participants which was a record number.

Full results... https://my.raceresult.com/402206/results

You can see from the chart that there was strong growth in the half-marathon. Entries for the various races closed around late May so it's not like it was sold out months in advance.

Real numbers... The real number of participants however is about 25% less than the claimed number.

Here are a few extracts from media sources...

Organisers on Facebook... " Join 5,000+ participants on Sunday 21st June and experience the atmosphere of Ireland's biggest running festival."

Waterford & Star News... "On the longest day of the year, Waterford basked in the heat and an atmosphere of celebration, achievement and community spirit at the weekend as a record-breaking 5,200 participants took part in the largest WLR Waterford Viking Marathon in the event’s history."

WLRFM... "The 2026 WLR Waterford Viking Marathon took place this morning with 5200 competitors from 33 countries taking part in this years event."

Irish Independent... "Over 5,200 athletes bring streets of Waterford city alive in largest ever Viking Marathon"

It's likely that they are just requoting the numbers in a press release. The 5200 number may refer to the number of people that entered the event? Were there 25% no-shows on the day?

There seems to be a trend of overstating the numbers taking part. The same happened in the Cork marathon event where they were claiming over 12,000 but the number of finishers never broke 10,000.

Record numbers for the Waterford Viking Marathon event - 22nd June 2025

The annual Waterford Viking Marathon was held this year on Sunday 22nd of June 2025 with over 3300 participants across the three events on offer... the full, half and quarter marathon.

Results HERE

The chart above shows the numbers since the event started in 2012.

The inaugural year of 2012 saw a record number of over 800 finishers for the full marathon as many runners were inspired to do the first marathon in the city. With that box ticked, the numbers dropped back to to about 400-500 per year. 

In 2018, the full marathon was cancelled due to the heat.

Post pandemic, the numbers have been recovering and the 531 finishers in 2025 was the second highest ever.

The Half-Marathon numbers have varied over the years but 2024 and 2025 were both new records.

Cork, Limerick and Waterford all have a shorter event which seems to be increasingly popular. Cork has a 10k, Limerick has a 6-mile and Waterford has a Quarter-Marathon.

The Quarter-Marathon this year had over 1400 finishers and has just overtaken the half to be the most popular event.

The chart above shows the total number of finishers from all events added together. This shows the extraordinary growth in the last few years.

Record numbers take part in Waterford Viking Marathon event - 23rd June 2024

The 2024 edition of the Waterford Viking Marathon event was held on Sunday 23rd of June and as can be seen from the chart above, there were a record number of finishers this year. The 2756 finishers this year is about 3% up on the previous highest mark back in 2017.

The event is made up of three separate races... a) A full 42.2km marathon b) A 21.1km half-marathon and c) A 10.5km quarter marathon.

The early editions of this marathon had a relay event which never really took off. The Quarter event was introduced in 2014 and that proved to be much more popular.

Let's look at a breakdown and history of each event...

Marathon... The high water mark for the full marathon was back in the inaugural year of 2012. There was no doubt quite a buzz at the time as it was a new marathon and many people in Waterford and surrounding areas probably wanted to do a marathon in their home town.

After the first year, the novelty wore off and it settled at a figure of about 400 finishers per year. At this time, the full marathon took in large parts of the city as well as traveling south to the seaside town of Tramore and back again.

In 2018, the full marathon was cancelled due to a heatwave. It took a drop in 2019 and after 2022, the numbers have been recovering since the pandemic. In 2024, it's back up to about the 400 mark again although it's hard to see much growth for the full as June is a bad time of year to be running a full marathon due to the heat.

Greenway... One of the changes to the full course over the years is that the full marathon is now mostly on the Greenway instead of going around the city.

The map above shows the route for 2024 and roughly 80% of the full marathon route is out and back on the Greenway.

Is this a good or bad thing? On one hand, it's flat, safe and free from traffic. From an organisers point of view, there are no problems with traffic and road junctions. On the other hand, some runners might find it quite boring to just run out a path, turn around a cone and back the same path again. 

2024 Marathon turning point

I think visitors to a city marathon might expect a route to go around the city rather than out and back on a Greenway. I recently had a look at the route for the Edinburgh marathon and it seemed to be much the same i.e. Start in the city centre and then get the runners onto an out and back section of Greenway. 

The reality is that the numbers at many city marathons don't justify all the road closures and as more Greenways are developed, I can see more marathon routes getting pushed onto them. Is it only a matter of time before the Cork or Dublin marathon is like this?

Half-Marathon... Back to the numbers. After the inaugural year, the half-marathon has proved to be the most popular event. The number of finishers for the half in 2024 just barely exceeded the number back in 2017.

As half-marathons in Ireland go, just over 1200 finishers in the half is pretty good.

Quarter-Marathon... The Quarter event was introduced in 2014 and the number of finishers has been roughly a few hundred below the numbers for the half over the years. In 2023 and 2024 however, the numbers for the Quarter have been getting close to the numbers for the half.

In 2024, there were a record 1134 finishers in the Quarter Marathon, a jump of 17% on the previous record set in 2017. Considering that more people can run a Quarter marathon than a Half marathon, it wouldn't be any great surprise if the Quarter eventually becomes the most popular race in the future.

In conclusion... The 2024 edition of the Waterford Viking Marathon seems to have gone off well as the finisher numbers suggest. I was around the start line on Parnell Street where runners were gathering on what is a nice wide road. The finishing line by contrast was on a narrow road as shown above closer to the Greenway.

It probably shows how a lot of other marathons and races are likely to go in the future i.e. start in the city centre early on a Sunday morning on a wide road when things are quiet and finish somewhere else in the city so it causes as least disruption as possible. 

Looking forward, I suspect that the numbers for the full marathon will struggle to grow beyond 400 but there seems to be plenty of growth potential for the Half and the Quarter. It seems likely that the Greenway will remain a feature of the courses for for good and it will then depend on individual runners if this type of course appeals to them or not.

2024 results... https://my.raceresult.com/294110/results

Full marathon in Waterford cancelled due to hot weather

The organisers of the Viking Waterford Marathon have decided to cancel the full 26.2 mile marathon on Saturday due to the current spell of hot weather. The forecast is for temperatures of about 24 degrees at noon with 20 deg expected at the start.

Those who had entered the full are being given an option of doing the 13.1 mile half-marathon instead, deferring it to next year or getting a refund.

Roughly 400 runners complete the Viking Marathon every year.

Irish runner sets Guinness World Record dressed as a bottle in Waterford Marathon...

Back in early June, I had a post up about Terry Brady who had run the Cork City Half-Marathon dressed as a bottle. This was part of his preparation for the Waterford Viking Marathon which was held last Saturday the 27th of June 2015.

Terry Brady in the Cork Half-Marathon in early June

This is Terry's story in his own words from the previous post.....3 years ago I took up running and have been giving a new lease of life. My biggest personal achievement to date is running a 2:59 marathon in Berlin in 2014 (only 2% of people who line up achieve this).

My godchild, 1 yr old Theo was born profoundly deaf. His Mother (from Clonakility  has built a FB & internet page so people can follow his progress (http://www.theoshope4sound.org). Theo is just 1 yr old and was born with a very rare form of deafness due to his auditory nerves fusing. He has a completely silent world. There are only a handful of specialist surgeons worldwide who are able to implant a tiny device into the actual brain stem where hearing is processed. An ABI (auditory brain stem implant ) will at a minimum give him Environmental Noises but with lots of therapy and hard work maybe even speech. It is estimated that with the cost of surgery, follow ups will be 100,000 EUR which is self-funded. 

Could Ireland Have a Marathon World record holder??

This leads me into what I aim to do: This is to break the Guinness world record for running a marathon dressed as a bottle during the Waterford Viking Marathon on June 27th 2015. Last year Buxton Water supported Paul Simons record breaking attempt in the London Marathon. Many fundraising costume wearing runners normal languish mid pack or to the tail end of a field. I aim to be right up in the top 5-10% of finishers. The current record is 3:31 and I aim to run quicker.

Well, not only did Terry break the record but he smashed it by an amazing 15 minutes finishing in a chip time of 3:16:58. After going through the half way mark in 69th place, Terry ran a negative split in finish 40th overall.

Q & A with Terry......

1) As outlined in a previous post, you've been running for about 3 years and your PB for the marathon is 2:59 in Berlin in September of 2014. What are your best times for some of the other distances? Say Half-Marathon? 10 mile? 5k?
Terry......PB for 5k is 16:55 ran at Dublin graded meet in May. 10 mile is 59:13 at John Tracy Dungarvan last year and Half is 1:19:58 also last year in Bohermeen Meath  I do hope to lower the 10k & half times this year.

2) I see from your bottle outfit that you are sponsored by Orpens Cider. Was it hard to find a sponsor? Can you tell us about the sponsor and where are they based?
Terry....Yes very difficult, I spent 2 months writing over a 100 emails to various drinks company’s with little success. Orpens was one of a few companies to get back and show an interest. Matt from Orpens said my email hit a cord with him and he offered his support straight away .
Orpens are based in the Guinness Enterprise centre in Dublin 8. Its founders are Chris Hill and Matt Tindal and they were involved in the wine business and enjoying the business of selling famous wines from around the world. But they yearned of standing proudly behind an Irish product of similar pedigree and crafting. Both Matt and Chris share a family history of growing apple orchards, so it was a logical step to craft an Irish cider with all the pedigree of a great wine. This is how Orpens was born.

3) What is the bottle outfit made of? How much does it weigh?
Terry......The bottle is made from a foam called Zote and was made by a company called Modal & Prop (http://www.modelandprop.com) its weight 4kgs (does it really weigh that much). Anybody thinking of doing anything similar should contact these guys.

4)  When you ran 1:29 in the Cork City Half-Marathon, you had plastic wrapping on top of it? Was there a reason for that?
Terry........The cling film was for protection!! The forecast was for torrential rain so I wanted to try and protect it for the Marathon itself as much I could

5) What kind of problems do you encounter with the bottle costume? Rubbing? Friction? Heat? Visibility?
Terry......My first two outing’s in the bottle resulted in quite bad cuts on both quads. I got this sorted with some additional padding. Its bangs against my head a bit but I’m use to knocks from playing GAA in Cavan so wasn’t an issue. I can really only see straight ahead and cant hear very well with the constant movement around my head.

6) You ran the Cork Half in windy conditions. Does that impact on you when you are running in a costume?
Terry......The Cork half marathon was the toughest conditions I have ever ran in. I wasn’t  worried about a time so I still found it very enjoyable. In places I nearly came to a standstill when the wind caught it. I was also worried in parts that I has about to lose my head :o)

7) After running the Waterford Viking Marathon in 3:16, what do you think is the hardest thing about running in a bottle costume? What's the biggest difference to say just running in a singlet?
Terry.....The heat, I was very tempted to cut a hole in the neck of the bottle to act like a chimney (suggested by a club mate). I haven’t sweated as much since the morning of my Leaving Certificate

8) What kind of reaction did you get from the crowds in Cork and Waterford?
Terry........Cork was absolutely brilliant in fairness. The race past by in a flash. Waterford was very good also but the volume of supporters wouldn’t of been the same. Parts of the route didn’t have any support. But I had both Stephen & Mel for company the whole way round which helped massively.

Terry Brady running alongside the sea front in Tramore

9) What is the procedure for getting it ratified as a Guiness World Record? What conditions do you have to meet? Does the bottle costume have to be a certain size?
Terry......The bottle needed to get verified by Guinness world records prior to the event in order to ensure it meet all guidelines. I have to provide two race official signed statements. Two signed statements from the official timers who are precision timing. I recorded the whole race with the help of Stephen Connon who ran with me and will the help of Melaine Davis who cycled the whole way and also filmed and took pictures at each mile marker.

10)  How is the fundraising going? How do people donate?
Terry...The support we have received has been fantastic so far. Currently we have raised just over 11k EUR. This will help greatly with Theos operation but the operation and subsequent cost will be well over 100k EUR. If anybody has a few spare EUR they can find the donation page at the following. Theo is just 13 months old and hopefully has an amazing life ahead of him which  we believe will be enhanced by being able to hear his mammy, daddy and his big brothers voices.

http://ww.ifundraise.ie/theoshope4soundIRL

11)  What's next? Any more record plans?
Terry...Plan a wedding in Sept in clonakility, that will be the ultimate challenge :o)
I will definitely try to come up with something else if I can give further help to Theo’s parents Imelda & Stephen. Maybe a race off with the former record holder the Buxton bottle? :o)

Alice O'Leary...Theo’s Aunt and Terry's fiancée ran the half marathon as super women finishing in 1:58