Results of the Charleville Half-Marathon...Sun 23rd Sept 2012

A record 635 runners took part in this years Charleville Half-Marathon, a jump of 40% on the figure of 455 for 2011. Considering that this is only the second year of this race, that's an impressive number for a race in North Cork.

Organisation wise, it was as good as any other race. Good points picked out were.....
1) Good start area with a corridor for runners to get access to the back. This stops slower runners who were late clogging up the front.
2) Straight open road for the first 600 metres which allowed the field to thin out.
3) Plenty of stewards out along the course to slow traffic down.
4) Great spread afterwards....no queues for tea or food.
5) Results were reasonably fast.

It had the feel of a typical short club road race except of course it was a Half-Marathon. The only issue of concern though was the traffic on the road between Charleville and Kilmallock. The road wasn't closed and cars were trying to pass on a road that was half full of runners. When the field was bunched, the traffic had no choice but to slow down but I wonder what it like for those on their own at the back of the field? Even at the pace I was doing which was around 7:40 per mile, we had to run in single file at one stage to get past a backlog of cars. The course between the church in Kilmallock and the main road was a complete contrast........nice quiet country road with no traffic......probably the nicest part of the course. If the race number continue to grow, the traffic issue on the main road is something that might need to be addressed.

Overall though, a good race. I've done a few Half-Marathons this year and it's as good as any of them. Considering it's proximity to both Cork City and Limerick City, the race certainly has potential for bigger numbers.

Update......Results????.......7:30pm
Q. If you click on the link below, you will find your times with split times included. Now the thing is, if you started your watch when you crossed the mat at the start line and stopped it when you crossed the finish line, your watch time should match your chip time.
Except mine doesn't....my watch says my time was 1:39:52 but according to the results, my chip time is 1:39:32, some 20 seconds faster!
I checked with two other people and they also started and stopped their watches crossing the mats. They were both 15 seconds too fast in the results.

Did anyone get a similar result???

The full results can be seen HERE

Photos........
1) Gearoid O'Laoi has a gallery of photos HERE