Image

Unfortunately we've had to cancel our race once more. Foremost in our minds is the safety of our runners and the organising committee. The course is still very icy today and there is no significant thaw forecast between now and tomorrow. We have provisionally rescheduled the race for Sunday the 24th January at 01:30pm, weather and permitting issues allowing.  Given the amount of ice of the roads around Athenry today and the lack of any improvement in the conditions it seems prudent to cancel at this stage in order to minimise any inconvenience for both organisers and participants.

As soon as we know more about the arrangements for the re-fixed race we'll post them here.

We hope to issue a text message later today giving information on this cancellation to all entrants who provided a contact number at the time of registration.

Bear with us. We're determined to stage this race at the soonest safe opportunity.

A small number of entries will be available on the day on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you cannot make this date you can defer your entry to next years event by emailing [email protected] before Jan 20th.



If you had requested a deferral, but can now make the 24th, email [email protected] before Jan 20th and we'll put you back in.

Roni

14 years 2 months ago

Hello!
Due to family committments I had cancelled my entry for 03rd January but with the provisionally rescheduled date of 24th I would love to have my entry reinstated. Is this possible or do you feel the need to scream??? If I could have the opportunity to put faces to the names on such a brill website and earn a woolly hat I would be grateful, or if I am out of luck then that`s ok too. Good luck

I've updated the page as you were typing this comment! Just email again, and we'll get you back in.

Anonymous

14 years 2 months ago

In reply to by alanburke

Better to be safe than sorry! Hope it finally goes ahead on 24th. Well done for all the updates and texts to keep us in the picture. Here's to third time lucky!

nealhiggins

14 years 2 months ago

shame cant make the 24th either! good luck with the race and sorry i had to request a refund! maybe next year, neal.

Zatopek

14 years 2 months ago

Disappointing - but once again, the right decision.

We'll get there yet, before Easter I'd say!

Sean Broderick

14 years 2 months ago

Very disappointed with the initial handling of the cancellation for the race on St. Stephens Day. The race should have been cancelled on Christmas Eve and allowed people to enjoy their Christmas day properly. A text message at 8.30am on the morning of the 26th is not much good to someone travelling down from Dublin for an 11am gun time! 2 of my friends were in this situation and they had to decide the previous night not to travel. Waiting for the promised "thaw" by forecasters was not very realistic considering roads all around the county were frozen stiff all throughout Christmas Day!

The organizers should have taken a leaf out of the Liffey Valley AC members who cancelled their Tom Brennan 5k 2 days prior to their New Years Day race.

As you can see I am a little irked by the behaviour of the race organizers and I wanted to voice my opinion among the compliments on the "brave decision" made by organizers a mere 2.5hrs before race start! Ridiculous!

 Hi Sean,

Cancelling a race of any size is not an easy decision to make, and especially one of our size. It could be seen as "a brave decision" because it means inconviniencing a lot of people who make this race part of their Christmas plans, and means the organisers have a whole heap of work to do to get everything in place again.

We were fully aware that we might have to cancel the race, and indicated this is in emails to registered entrants and on the website. We also made it clear we would make a decision early on the morning, and update the website immediately. Our timing company offered to send out cancellation texts, and we took them up on this offer.

Hindsight is 20-20 vision. We now know that the roads were not suitable, but the promise of a thaw was very real on met.ie and on other websites. We can only take that advice at face value. The air temperature did rise, a thaw did start but the ground temperature never really went above 0 so no thaw took effect.

In a similar situation [in 2004, if I remember correctly] the whole country was covered in fresh snow on Christmas day, and it looked like the race could not proceed. fast forward 24 hours and there was barely a speck of snow in the fields.

Lets hope for better weather on the 24th.

Mick Rice

14 years 2 months ago

Sean,

            I can understand your frustration and I'm sorry you're not happy with the way things were handled. Having said that, from where I sit, we did the best we could. In the relatively short history of our race, we've only had frozen roads on the morning of the event once before and they cleared in plenty of time to race on that occasion. Another year, in 2004, we had heavy snow on Christmas day and I remember running the GOAL mile in Galway that year on a track coverred in snow. Thankfully, the roads were perfect the following day and we raced without a hitch. It's a big decision to make to cancel or defer such a large race and it's not a decision we took lightly to be honest. It's a judgement call and we did our best to get it right. We wanted to give the event the best possible chance of going ahead and to balance that with minimising any inconvenience to our entrants. When we did cancel, we offered a refund, deferment or a rearranged race to everyone who had signed up which I think was all we could do in the circumstances.

We all learn from experiences like this and no doubt our collective experience as race organisers will benefit from what happened to us this time. I'd also like to say 'thanks' for the honest feedback - its genuinely appreciated,

Mick Rice.

     

Bob Reilly

14 years 2 months ago

To Organisers of 10K,

First of all can I thank all the committee for all of their work throughout the year.

Normally I would stay quite on such topics, however I had to express my support for the organisers of the 10K. I think it is important that people put forward a constructive opinion in relation to the desision that was made, however I cant accept somebody openly critising the desision that was made by a group of 'committed volounteers'. Yes in hindsight the race probably should have been cancelled earlier, but most of the runners would be of local or nearby origin, therfore travel time would not have been a great concern. I sympathise with the 2 people attemting to travel from Dublin, but in fairness that was their desision to travel!
Again I thank the committee for attempting to run the race. It would have been much easier, on yourselves to cancel , but you were trying to faciltate the 'race hungry locals'.
Well done.

Anonymous

14 years 2 months ago

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers that year after year take time out from their families at christmas to organise this event. Thought they handled the cancellations and notifications very well and not sure they can be blamed for the weather! Its a really enjoyable race and as a galwayman living in the south of the country I try and make an effort to make it home for this. Actually couldn't make it on 4th so glad for prolonged cold! see you on 24th

Sean Broderick

14 years 2 months ago

To Bob,

In no way shape or form did I question the commitment of the volunteers. Their dedication to the growth of athletics in Galway/Connaught is second to none. Furthermore Athenry AC is without doubt one of the top athletic clubs in the country.
I have been involved in large race organization before and I understand the work involved. I was part of the volunteer group for the euro xc in Santry. I appreciate the comments of both Mick and Alan but I do stand by my opinion that the race should have been postponed earlier.

The committees handling of the Jan 3rd postponement was top notch!

Sean Broderick

Sean,

...if the Euro XCs had been on Stephen's Day, let's just say, would you have been happy to cancel them 24 hours ahead of time just in case there wasn't the necessary thaw to allow them take place unimpeded etc?

Did you run in Athenry in 2004?  Our opinions/hopes for the race were very much coloured by what happened that year not by what happened in the few weeks just gone, which are pretty much unprecedented over the last 30 years!

James.