Dublin Marathon to enjoy a record number of runners this year - Athletics news
Marathon races are increasingly becoming one of the favourite sports of common people around the globe. Perhaps, that is the reason that not only spectators of the sport are increasing rapidly, but so are the participants that actually take time out for
training and strive for prevailing in it.
The reason for this phenomenon are multifaceted, which, broadly, can be divided into two categories. The first one is about physical or health gains, while the second one is about the lucrative monetary rewards associated to the sport.
As far as health gains are concerned, of course they are also very much there in other games, but not everyone feels at ease about attaining the technical acumen of the other games. When it comes to running a marathon, people feel that provided with a training
session spanning over a few weeks, they can build the stamina which is needed to get to the end of the race. If we attach monetary rewards to running marathon races, the interest of people in them increases further.
A depiction of the phenomenon of an increased interest of people in marathon races surfaced when the organisers of the Dublin Marathon Race series revealed an increase in the number of runners who had opted for participating in the run. The race, which observed
its tenth edition this year, had got over 6,300 runners lining-up for the title of the first three parts of the event.
Known as the National Lottery Dublin Marathon, since 2002, when the race was first initiated, this is the highest number of entries that it will enjoy. The reason for such a huge increase in the number of runners is not only that the track for the race is
pretty small (5 mile long), but also because it involves a significant amount of monetary rewards in it.
The field for the race, which was comprised of all level runners, also witnessed some big names for the event. Among athletes lining-up for the event, there were runners like Sergio Ciobanu, Alan McCormack, Greg Roberts, Lizzie Lee, Gladys Ganiel O’Neill
and Breege Connoly.
Such an encouraging response from runners not only gives a reason to organisers of such events to opt for organising such healthy activities, but also creates a thrilling and competitive environment for spectators. Perhaps, that was the reason that while
commenting upon the response of runners in the Dublin race, Jim Aughney, the director of the race, said, “We’re thrilled with the entry for the National Lottery Irish Runner 5 Mile Race this year, we’re more than 500 plus entries up on last year and it’s record
entry for us. We’ve already received a healthy level of entries for the subsequent races in the series so hopefully we can expect a strong field for both also.”
The response which was cherished by Aughney was also observed by other organisers around the world, and the biggest proof of this fact is that now marathon running and other road racing events are even being observed in regions where they had never had a
strong liking in the past. This is quite encouraging as these are exactly the results that the international athletics body is striving to achieve.
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