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.

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"

2008 Ballycotton 10 - Some results, some stats...

Womens Only Results...

This one is pretty cool. Michael Carey sent me an EXCEL file with the results sorted into different categories. From that , I generated a webpage and put it up on the net. All of the men have been removed and the results show only the 698 women that took part. A bit like the Ladies mini-Marathon except over 10 miles!!

The link is http://homepage.eircom.net/~corkrunning/Ballycotton10_Women_2008.htm

Ballycotton charity....
I hear that this years charity for the race, the Cork Cancer Research Centre, took in over €10,000 in sponsorship last Sunday with probably a lot more to come in the next few weeks (......thanks to John Quigley for the info on this one)

Stats...
Lets have a quick look at how many club finishers there were....

(Number) Club
(66) West Waterford AC, (52) Eagle AC, (47) Midleton AC
(36) Waterford AC, (35) St.Finbarr's AC, (26) Mallow AC, (19) Kilkenny City Harriers
(17) Clonmel AC Slaney Olympic AC , Sportsowrld RC , Youghal AC
(16) Mullingar Harriers
(15) East Cork AC, Grange-Fermoy AC, Raheny Shamrock AC
(14) Bandon AC, (13) Stragglers??
(12) Crusaders AC, Donore Harriers, Rathfarnham WSAF, Thurles Crokes AC
(11) Clonliffe Harriers, Leevale AC, (10) Sli Cualann AC
(9) Donoughmore AC, West Limerick AC
(8) Athenry AC , Ballincollig AC, Limerick AC, North Derbyshire RC , Rising Sun AC
(7) Dundrum AC, Gneeveguilla AC, Stainland Lions AC, West Muskerry AC, (6) Carraig na bhFear AC
(5) Bantry AC, Carrick-on-Suir AC, Dunboyne AC, Ennis Track Club, Gowran AC, Kilnaboy AC, Millstreet AC, Naas AC, Sliabh Buidhe Rovers AC, Stockport Harriers, Tulla AC
(4) Iveragh AC, Kilmurry-Ibrickane NC AC, Lucan Harriers, Salford Harriers, St.Abbans AC
(3) Ballymore-Cobh AC, Ballynonty AC, Belgooly AC, Dooneen AC, Duhallow AC, Moynalvey AC, Riverstick-Kinsale AC, UCC AC
(2) Clare River Harriers, Doheny AC, Dundrum South Dublin AC, Halifax Harriers, Keith AAC, Liffey Valley AC, Liverpool Harriers AC, Marian AC, Moycarkey Coolcoo AC, Nenagh Olympic AC, Riocht AC, St.Senans AC, Tallaght AC, Togher AC,
(1) Blarney-Inniscarra AC, CACE AC (Brussels), Cape Cod AC, Carberry Harriers, Civil Service Harriers, Clonakilty AC, Drogheda & Dist AC, East Antrim Harriers, Emerald AC, Epsom & Ewell Harriers, Fanahan McSweeney AC, Galway City Harriers, Hercules Wimbledon AC, Holmfirth Harriers, Laragh AC, Letterkenny AC, Mayo AC, Metro-St.Brigids AC, Newbridge AC, Olympic Harriers, Paderbonn AC, Phoenix AC, Ranalagh Harriers, Roscommon AC, Seapark AC, Serpentine RC, Skibbereen AC, South London Harriers, South O'Hanlon AC, St.Brendans AC, St.Catherines AC, St.Cronans AC, St.Johns AC, St.Johns AC Tralee, St.Marys AC, Stadium Runners, Star of Laune, Tinryland AC, Tralee Harriers AC, Tullamore Harriers, Westchester TC

(...with thanks to Michael Carey for sending me this information with the data sorted)