Jump in numbers for the Waterford Half-Marathon but was the course short??? - 30th Nov 2024

The annual Waterford Half-Marathon organised by Waterford AC was held on Saturday 30th Nov 2024 on what turned out to be a windy, misty but mild morning. This is in marked contract to last year which was bitterly cold.

Numbers... There was a total of 2162 finishers this year, a jump of just over 22%. This makes it the 9th largest half-marathon in Ireland for 2024 and it's certainly the largest half in the south-east.

It's also worth noting that it is far bigger than the Viking Half-Marathon which takes place in late June every year. Not sure why?

Why the big jump this year? In 2023, the organisers didn't open the entries until the start of 3rd of October, just two months before race day on . A lot of people had been wondering if the race was going ahead at all and by the time the entries opened, many people had made other plans. Even by the end of November 2023, they were still taking entries.

The end result was a 6.7% drop in numbers from 2022.

For the 2024 race, thing couldn't have been more different. The club opened entries on the 6th of December 2023, just 3 days after the 2023 race. There was no doubt about the 2024 race going ahead and people had most  of 2024 to enter. It sold out on the 12th of November and the jump in numbers can be seen in the chart above. It was in fact the 4th highest ever in terms of numbers for this event.

Results...

Top 5 men & women
1 Ryan CREECH 1:06:59 2616 M MS Leevale A.C.
2 Stephen CASHIN 1:08:23 290 M MS Clonliffe Harriers A.C.
3 Tomas FITZPATRICK 1:10:58 2673 M M40 Tallaght A.C.
4 Dermot GORMAN 1:13:00 862 M M40 Carrick-on-Suir A.C.
5 David POWER 1:13:13 2150 M M40 Rathfarnham W.S.A.F. A.C.
1 Fiona KEHOE 1:23:29 1140 F F40 Kilmore A.C.
2 Emma FUREY 1:23:29 812 F FS St. L. O'Toole A.C.
3 Catherine MURPHY 1:23:44 1693 F F45 Eagle A.C.
4 Adele WALSH 1:24:00 2511 F F45 St. Senans A.C.
5 Sabina WILLIAMS 1:24:41 2577 F F40 Croghan A.C.

Full results HERE

Was the course short??? ... At least three different people told me that the course was short. One said that they got 12.95 miles on their GPS watch for the course rather than just over 13.1 miles. They felt that the course was about 320 metres too short.

It's worth noting that there was an out and back section on the course as well as some obstructions from evergreen trees in places which can play havoc with GPS. Still though, there is still a valid concern about how accurate the course was.

Waterford AC had this route map online for the 2024 race...

You'll notice that there is a reasonable out and back section. I pass this point while I was cycling from the race start to Dungarvan and I took this photo by chance...

The photo shows the start of the out and back section. Was the error here? Was it somewhere else?

It seems to have the only glitch on what was a good event.