An impressive field of 354 runners turned out for the 'Paddy Flanagan Memorial' Waterford to Tramore 7.5 mile road race on Saturday, the 9th of May. Looking through the results, it was obvious that a big turnout by the 2 main clubs in Waterford helped to swell the numbers.
It's worth having a quick look at the numbers for previous years to show how good this year was.
2006...221
2007...235...an increase of 6%
2008...257...an increase of 9%
2009...354...an increase of 38% !!
Why such a big increase in 2009???
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Race Report from Donal O'Donoughue...
The 40th annual "Paddy Flanagan" Waterford to Tramore road race took place on Saturday evening, the 9th of May.
This was also Race #3 in the Ger Wyley Sports Summer Series.
It's one of those point-to-point races, rather than a circuit, so people had to make their own arrangement for the return leg. The original plan was to drive to Tramore, tog-out, and get the Bus to Waterford. At the last minute, I decided, as I hadn't done this race before, better not to leave anything to chance, and go direct to Waterford, and worry about the return trip later ;-)
Registration was upstairs in the Dunmore Room, Tower Hotel in Waterford. A filled-in entry form was required. There were separate desks for pre-registered, and those registering on the day. Entry EUR 10 for adults, and 5 for juniors.
This was a Chip timing race. However in this case, the CHIP was a DAG-System large plastic sheet with wire loop & chip stapled to the rear of the bib.
The weather was pretty much ideal on the day, being bright, lukewarm, dry, with only the slightest of breeze near the start.
The start was supposed to be outside the Waterford City Hall, where people duly assembled. However some confusion arose, and people were asked to move off the road, to let traffic pass. A Garda jeep moved in front, and the pack began to move forward slowly. Things then became a little uncertain, and people kept asking "Has the race started?” The Waterford AC car with loudspeakers mounted on the roof then came alongside, and announced "Sorry about this folks, this wasn't in the script!"
So we felt a little reassured, however we appeared to continue to advance at a quick walking space for several hundreds metres, until we can gone past Deevy's Motor & Marine Accessories, in Parnell St. Again like Butlerstown 10k, I didn't hear a start gun, people just started running.i.e. If I had a personal stopwatch, I had no hope of Timing myself. However people seemed to take all this in good humour.
Thankfully, there were no steep hills involved.
The route was fully supervised at all junctions, by Gardai and Club traffic marshals. Runners were instructed to keep to run on the left side at all times. In any case, there were no sharp bends to the right, where one could have gained any significant advantage by crossing the road.
There was minor drama about 1 mile out, for the 7min/mile runners, where an Ambulance had to cross the runner’s path, and go the wrong way around a roundabout.
After about perhaps 2 miles, the road widened, and there was a decent hard-shoulder, where traffic could pass in both directions.
There were mile markers at each mile.
At about 4 miles, there was a water station outside Steinberg Fireplaces.
What had started out as a quiet road seems to get busier as we approached Tramore. I presumed this was friends and family of those running, going to Tramore to collect their running friends.
The race ended just outside the Bus Eireann depot. At the finish line, runners had to run through a wire frame, which recorded the Chip times, and gave a reassuring "beep" as you passed through.
Note: This frame would probably allow one person to pass through at a time, which was quite reasonable for the numbers, and the distance involved.
There was a water bottle for all at end, and people were asked to place their bibs/chips inside a box.If the chips were valuable, it may have been better if they organized somebody to actually remove these from people, before leaving the finish line, as people may simply have not seen the sign & box. If you didn't hand it in, please do so at the next race.
It was still quite bright, but getting cool at the finish. Afterwards, there were showers, refreshments and prize-giving at Tramore GAA, which one would have passed at final roundabout, perhaps a mile before the finish line. There were teas, coffees, sandwiches, various large and small cookies.
Now, getting home ??? I had printed the Bus Eireann route 630 timetable, before leaving home. I left the GAA club, with 2 others. It was late, getting cold, very dark and we were in an unfamiliar town. However we spotted, and managed to flag-down the bus, just in the nick of time, and were back in Waterford in no time at all. Those reflective Ron Hill gloves and running bib have a use after all ;-)
The mens winner was Sandis Bralitis, West Waterford AC 38.45
The ladies winner was Pauline Lambe, Tullamore AC 44.08, setting a new course record!
Results are online at :-
http://www.westwaterfordathletics.org/WaterfordtoTramore2009.pdf http://www.waterfordac.com/pages/Results0809/waterford_to_tramore_race_2009.htm
(As John Dunphy has pointed out, many of the Club's names have been omitted, which is disappointing, especially as an entry form was required, and the race is part of a series)
A good write-up is also available at :-
http://www.westwaterfordathletics.org/content/view/336/19/
This was a good race, and I highly recommend it, but do keep in mind the logistics of getting home afterwards.
The next race in the Ger Wyley Sports Summer Series is the Touraneena 5K, which will be held in three weeks time, on the Bank Holiday Monday, June 1st at 19:30.
Note: Unfortunately, this clashes somewhat with the Cork City Marathon, but if one is only involved in a relay section, one could do both!.......Donal O'Donoghue
