Entry closed for 2012!
April 1st 2012
Maam Cross, Co Galway
Not long until April 1st!
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I know the organisation of the event requires a huge amount of work and preparation so thank you again. It was really appreciated by myself and my friends who all had a really great day.
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Thanks for a great day on Sunday, really enjoyable and very well organized. Overall the organisers did one hell of a job in organising this great event and as far as I'm concerned it was a fantastic day and I'll definitely be back.
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I wish to congratulate Ray and all the team on the organisation of such a wonderful event. I enjoyed the marathon very much. Thanks a million. It was the most beautiful race I have ever run in my life. The landscape and the weather were so nice !!!!
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.
