Cork City Marathon Ever ran a Relay..? EnduranceSource

Having run the Dublin City Marathon last year, my cousins in Cork convinced me at the last minute to join them in a relay of this years’ Cork Marathon. Never having run a relay before in my life, I thought this might be a great opportunity to see Cork and have a bit of fun at the same time.

The Cork Marathon course, is one which unsurprisingly has more hills then Dublin and follows a loop around the City. The layout allows runners to see the best of Cork as they run through the City’s winding streets and along the scenic banks of the river Lee.

The morning of the event the sky was completely clear and it looked like we were in for good weather, although I’m sure those completing the entire event were hoping for a cool breeze and a bit of cloud cover. Our relay team had 4 members and the breakdown of the run was that the first runner would start the race and do the first 5.2 miles. Once they reached the first changeover point I was then to take the relay band, (just a regular rubber bracelet) and run the next 9.3 miles to the changeover point. The third member of our team would then take the relay bracelet for the second last stretch for 5.4 miles, until the final relay member would take the bracelet the last 6.2 miles to the finish line!

As the ages of our team ranged from 25 to 52 years old, we reckoned that shooting for a 3:30hr finish would be a fair target for a good day out. About 45 minutes before the race start I hopped onto one of the free buses provided outside City Hall (You can’t fight it you know) and made my way to my relay point which was at the Silver Springs Hotel. The bus was packed with all types of participants; from one lady who was walking the Marathon as part of a team of six, to serious athletes with serious target times to hit.

I jumped off the bus at my relay point and had a quick look to see how the relay process might work. As mentioned, this was all new to me but it just took a couple of minutes to figure out. The relay points were divided and each lamppost had a sign on it with designated numbers ie: 1500 – 1550 and the next one would be 1550 – 1600 etc.. This meant that all a runner had to theoretically do, was stand at the lamppost corresponding to their competition number and then wait for their relay mate to appear! I took my position and ended up having a chat with a lad who had taken part in Tri-Athy that Friday (2 days before), and was rearing to hit the road and get a good time. By all accounts Athy was a huge success and he was looking to carry on that momentum down here in Cork.

The race had started about 10 minutes before so we all stood around and stretched at our lampposts while having a laugh with whoever you happened to be next to. As I waited I picked up on a conversation 2 girls in normal clothes were having next to me. As it turned out, somebody had decided that morning that they no longer wanted to do the relay and had just not shown up! The result was that his sister was sent down to try and find the person he had agreed to relay with and tell them the bad news that they would have to run his section as well as their own. Ouch! I would NOT like to be that runner. Finally we saw Garda (police) bikes fly by us and within a couple of minutes the first runners were tearing down the road past us. The elites were seriously fast, clocking miles faster over a marathon than most people could hope to get in a 10k! The crowd cheered as the motor bikes, cameras and runner roared past. Something told me this was probably the closest i’d ever come to being at the lead of a marathon!

About 10 minutes the seriously fit amateurs began to appear, those who were in relay teams arrived at their numbered posts and handed the tag to their team mates. The excitement was building as we all knew our time to run was only minutes away. All of us strained our eyes scrutinising the scores of runners going past, just to be sure we didn’t miss our partners. One guy who had just arrived at our relay point and was drenched in sweat began to call out “Eoin!” but no response. He walked up and down the relay point shouting out the name but to no avail. One of the Marathon volunteers then grabbed a mega-phone and began to help him out. “We are looking for an Eoin X.. Race Number xyz, Eoin your team mate is here!”, but still no Eoin appeared. You had to really feel for this guy, he had obviously broke his heart to do his portion of the relay in the fastest possible time and here he was with nobody to pass the band onto. His efforts were just being eaten up by the clock.

As much as we felt for this guy we all had to keep an eye out for our own race partners in case we missed them. At this stage we had all moved from the side of the curb onto the hard shoulder of the road, in the hope of seeing around each other at the approaching runners. Finally and bang on our target time, my relay partner approached looking tired but happy. He handed me the race band, patted me on the back and off I went to do my 9.3 mile section!

There was a brilliant buzz amongst the runners and we ran down the dual carriageway and towards the Jack Lynch tunnel (a Tunnel that runs for about ½ a mile under the river Lee). As we approached the tunnel there was a slight incline before the descent into the mouth of the underground road. A deep drumming beat resonated off the retaining walls and up to where we were on the descent. It sounded like the drums of a jungle tribe! Down we ran, out of the sunlight and into the Jack Lynch Tunnel. The drumming got louder and all the runners became more bunched up as we were confined by the structures walls. The banter was great and as you looked around their was the surreal scene of hundreds of runners together in the packed and dim space, huge fans turning above our heads. The echo of our foot falls rang off the walls and the drumming which was getting louder. Somebody shouted out “ogi ogi ogi!” and everyone shouted back “oi oi oi!”. After a little while we began to climb up again and could see daylight from the exit. Right next to it was a group of bongo players bashing out a fast drumming song.

At this stage the weather was getting hot (for Ireland) and had reached about 20c. There was a long climb out of the tunnel, at which point we were back on the Dual Carriageway (South Ring road) and making our way around Mahon point and in toward Balinlock. Here there was a water station handing out bottles of water. Some people only took a swig and dropped the bottles, but I figured that with the sun the way it was there was no harm in hanging onto the bottle for a couple more miles. I checked my watch and ‘guess-timated’ that I was on the 7:30 a mile pace I was looking for. The course wound through the suburbs with only a few hills, before we rejoined the river Lee and ran down towards Blackrock. This is a leafy area which sits on the banks of the Lee and has one long winding climb. Looking around, there were some very tired legs on the hill and a few people who looked like they could have done with keeping their water with them. We continued up the climb until finally the course flattened out again.

The course then turned alongside Cork Marina and we ran by the water and under the shade of leafy trees. About then, I fell into pace with a guy around my own age. This was his first Marathon and he was doing the full event. He had been training for about 9 months and had used his decision to quit smoking as the motivation to get out there and rack up miles on the rainy evenings. Previously when I’ve taken part in events I haven’t really had the chance to talk much to people, as I am usually just worried about getting the best possible time. But because this was a relay event, I was much more relaxed and found that most people were more than happy for a distraction from the run. In fact, I go so far as to nickname the Cork Marathon – “The friendly Marathon”, as the atmosphere and craic was brilliant!

As we came onto Centre park Road I was on the final 2 mile stretch of my section, and decided it was the right time to open up my stride a bit more and try and work my overall time down as much as possible. I wished my new friend the best of luck and began to push a bit harder. As I ran I was so happy that this was my final 2 miles and that I didn’t have to complete another 10 or 15!

I kept pushing on up the road watching my heart rate climb, from where I had been keeping it. Then at the point where I was sure the relay changeover would be, I discovered I had about another mile to go! (So much for ‘guesstimation’”). My heart rate continued to climbing until I finally turned a corner and discovered the relay changeover just ahead. Slowing down a bit I looked for my competition number on a lamppost, and there as planned was my relay partner. I handed him the band, patted him on the back and off he went! I was finished!!
Having never done a relay event before, I have to say that I would highly recommend it. You really have a great time as you get to experience the buzz and excitement of Marathon day, as well as get in a great run. The Cork City Marathon was extremely well organised and I would definitely give it the thumbs up to anyone who might be considering it!