Enter now!
April 10th 2011
Maam Cross, Co Galway
Not long until April 10th!
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The organisation was faultless, from the baggage buses, to the fantastic aid stations(those kids worked HARD), to the t shirts and medals. All utterly, utterly wonderful (the scenery was quite nice too-tee hee).
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Ray and team, Thanks for a fantastic event once again on Sunday. The organisation was super once again and you even managed to arrange the first real sunny day of the year for us!
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Those hills are tough but the pain was worth it. Thanks for a great day yesterday, sore but happy today. All went well and was well organized by you. See you all again next year.
Event History
From strength to strength
Since its inaugural International run, 6 years ago, The Connemara International Marathon has rapidly gone from strength to strength growing from an initial 72 entries in 2001 to over 3,500 in April 2008.
A further analysis of the 2007 visitors shows that over 1,000 travelled to the event from outside Ireland and 90% from outside County Galway. This influx meant a very substantial contribution to the tourism economy of the area, over what is usually an off-season week-end.
The idea of developing a marathon event through Connemara came from Ray O’Connor of Galway, a marathon runner who has successfully completed the New York, Chicago, London, Edinborough, and Dublin marathons. He identified a growing niche-market among runners and walkers interested in running and walking through pristine West of Ireland / Gaeltacht countryside as an alternative to the usual marathon routes through major city streets. The word spread rapidly when the Irish Times published this striking photograph of Eileen Donoghure and Bridget Anne Walsh taking part in the 2002 event. Online marketing and a growing Connemarathon Community worldwide has helped make the Connemarathon one of the most talked about races in Europe.
