Race Directors Connemarathon report

Thank you to all of you who posted comments on our forum pre and post race this year.

One thing that keeps cropping up though, is how our race compares to others. I have run 50 marathons all over the world with various organisation structures and I can confidently say that the Connemarathon is unique. Put it this way - London can learn from New York, Dublin can learn from Berlin, Vienna can learn from Paris and your local 10K can learn from another 10K. The Connemarathon throws a unique organisational challenge each year due to it's remote location, and we can only learn from the previous years experience to improve. And improve we do and improve we will continue to do.

I would ask everyone to take a step back and think about the logistical operation that this race requires. I am very lucky to have a very tight knit team around me to make sure things are planned to the smallest detail. Things that many people wouldn't consider at all. Here are some examples...

Wouldn't you think we would have closed the road
We have been working with Galway County Council and the Gardai for several years on various aspects of the race. We always apply for a full road closure and our application is always considered. We are applying again and will continue to apply for a road closure.

Traffic on the route
The Gardai were fantastic this year. They set up a temporary road closure for all traffic travelling onto the last 4 miles of the course. This meant a one way system was put into operation. Unfortunately spectators had already driven onto the course and parked along this stretch of road. The majority of traffic problems was caused by spectators ignoring well published instructions, driving onto the course, and when the person they were supporting passed it seemed they jumped into the car and headed for the already crowded finish area. Next year any car parked along the Maam Valley will be removed. Spectators must use the Park and Ride buses provided. Local traffic was minimal as there were warning signs in place for the two weeks before the event.

Planning for Bad Weather - Risk of hypothermia in Leenane
We had 1,000 space blankets in Leenane and a further 1,000 at Maam Cross. They were not needed. We held the buses back at the Marathon race start area so participants could stay on the bus up to 5 mins before race time. All Clifden half marathoners were held on buses at Lough Inagh so they wouldn't be left in Leenane too long. A lot of consideration was put into this area given the weather forecasts.

Medical support on the route
We had 20 medical personel on the course in 5 ambulances, one medic car, a medic motorbike, a GP at the finish line in a dedicated Medical Tent at Maam Cross. There is always lot of consideration put into the medical planning of the event.

T-Shirt Design
There was quite a bit of talk about changing the colour and design of our finishers t-shirts on our forum last year and the overwhelming concensis was that if we changed - I'd be shot. I am the Creative Directror of one of the biggest Graphic Design and Marketing agencies in Ireland so the decision to keep the Tee shirt design was not based on cost. These tee shirts are recognisable when people wear them in other Marathons all over the world and as such are a key part in the excitement buildup to the event .

Cutting oranges as people arrived at the tent
The guy cutting the oranges was actually a medical student who was standing back monitoring the crowd in the Marquee and while he was watching what was going on he decided to set up a second orange stand and proceeded to cut oranges there and then. He knew that 20 people had already cut 1,000 oranges into 8,000 segments which was placed at the end of the line but took the initiative to set up this second stand to try to move things along quicker. Good decision.

Place toilets beyond the church in Leenane
This is impossible - Leenane is a tiny village with narrow roads leading in to it - we put the toilets in the only area available where it was safe for participants and traffic. We have chosen this route for its spectacular scenary. Leenane is such a beautiful place. We could make life very easy and call it the Clifden Marathon but it wouldn't be the Connemara Marathon then.

Why mention that nobody was there for a fast time and they should take their time going over the bridge.
The bridge collapsed in Leenane last year and has not yet been rebuilt - for safety reasons I advised particiapnts to take their time going over the bridge as we were aware that it was quite narrow, and a little slippy. Those people who were focused on their time had positioned themselves closer to the front. It is no coincidence that from a photograph of the start line the top 8 finishers were visible on the start line. I ran London this year and had to walk a stretch before mile one.

The Start time was questioned
The Half Marathon started exactly 3 hours after the Ultra which started at exactly 9.00am and one and a half hours after the Full Marathon which started at exactly 10.30am. The Half Marathon started with a countdown while walking the elites up to the actual start line at EXACTLY 12.00 with a loud hooter. I stood at the start line and shouted to everyone as they passed that this was the actual start. We walked everyone up to the actual startline to try to spread the field so the bottle neck at the bridge would be reduced. This was very effective. Still a bottle neck but not as bad as it could have been.

The Start area was questioned
We cannot start the half marathon on the Clifden road because the Ultra Marathon and a Full Marathon are passing along this road. What makes the Connemarathon famous is it's location - this means we have to compromise and we won't have wide city streets for the start areas but it's worth it - isn't it?

Chip timing
We employed Red Tag Timing to do two simple tasks - get us a result as quickly as possible and alleviate the need to corral people at the finish line. They delivered on both of these and did a very good job. We did not decide to use chip timing to get a chip to finish time. We employed them to get a gun to finish time. We published a result by 2pm on Monday 7th April. Considering that we have six different races run at the same time this was a good result and we have already awarded Red Tag the contract to time the event for 2009.

Chip pick-up
Someone suggested that we decided to have a chip pick up to get money from the hotels? The Marriott in Galway and Station House in Clifden allowed us to use their facilities Free of Charge - they certainly would not want to pay us to disrupt their beautiful hotel foyers and were very patient with us. Chip Pick-up cost us a lot of money and if it wasn't for the generosity of the volunteers who manned the Pick Up points it would have cost a lot more. We operated this aspect of the event for two reasons. Firstly the chips are too expensive to risk losing in the post. And secondly and more importantly, as we are a sell out event, people will do anything to get in. A man using a woman's number causes us untold headaches when getting our results out. Also transferring numbers can be a major medical danger too. So chip pick up with ID solves a lot of this but not all (see above again). Next year we are going to colour code male and female numbers in our quest to stamp out the shemales in our race.

So ther you have it.
Roll on 2009.