Welcome
Welcome to the
official website of Ballycotton Running Promotions - the people who
have been putting this Cork seaside village on the running map for
almost 30 years..We
are a
voluntary group, small in number but big in commitment, whose sole aim
is to promote and assist running events.Our most famous race is the
Ballycotton '10' - an annual ten mile road race first run in March
1978.Ballycotton Running Promotions also host the Ballycotton Summer
Series (four 5-milers held from May to August), as well as a number of
smaller events in the locality.Assistance is provided to other race
promoters, eg. the provision of a results service and course
measuring.We also have an up-to-date knowledge of what's happening on
the
running scene as a whole - you could say we have our finger on the
pulse of Irish Running! For further information about Ballycotton
Running Promotions,
please contact us by
email - we look
forward to hearing from you.
The Ballycotton '10' has its
own range of T-shirts and Sweatshirts which carry the race logo, and
even a song has been written about it! That summer five mile race where
it all began has now evolved into a four-race Series in the surrounding
villages, the races taking place on the fourth Thursdays of May, June,
July and August.Around 250 runners take part in each race and the
Summer Series is now also an integral part of the Irish running
scene.All the events are promoted by an enthusiastic voluntary body,
which go by the collected title of 'Ballycotton Running Promotions. If
your interest is in running the beautiful and sometimes challenging
roads of Ballycotton and the surroundings areas, get in touch. Or, even
better, as the slogan of our associate sponsor used to say - 'Just
Do It'.
How It All Started........................
IN THE
BEGINNING…It was an August evening in
1977 that the first ever organised road race in modern times took place
in Ballycotton. A five mile event, it was won by Ray Treacy, now Head
Coach at Providence College and brother of John, Olympic Marathon
Silver-Medalist from 1984 and twice winner of the World Cross Country
title.The following March, a ten mile race took place in Ballycotton.
31 runners (all men) took part with Richard Crowley the winner in
50:22. The rest, as they say, is history. The next year, 82 runners
were led home by Pat Hooper in 49:12, with Mary Dempsey the inaugural
women's winner in 68:47. In 1980, six months before the first Dublin
Marathon, numbers had increased to over 150, considered a huge field
for a road race at the time.With the advent of the Irish 'running boom'
heralded by that Dublin Marathon, races and participants in Ireland
mushroomed. Ballycotton's numbers increased in tandem, reaching a
record 848 finishers in 1984. For the remainder of the 80s, the figures
competing in Ballycotton hovered around 650-750 as a lot of other races
in the country fell into decline or ceased to exist.
The 1990s saw the Ballycotton '10' enter a new era. One thousand
finishers was reached for the first time in 1993 and due to the
unprecedented interest in the race, a limit had to be imposed for
safety and logistical reasons.This limit was set at 1500 in 1999, which
was reached in mid-January.Nowadays, the numbers are capped around the
3,000 mark which is achieved by accepting the first 2,500 plus club
members or those who have competed in one of the Summer 5-Mile races.
Allowing for 'no-shows', this means that around 2,000 will run on the
day which is the absolute maximum number that can be catered for.Many
famous names have run in Ballycotton, with the current course records
held by British internationals Gary Staines (47:00) and Marian Sutton
(55:28). The in-dept standards have also been of the highest caliber,
with 200 runners finishing under the hour back in 1993. For the 21st
anniversary celebrations in 1998 the President of Ireland, Mary
McAleese,attended and watched her husband Martin compete.
First Cancellation
Due to the foot-and-mouth scare of 2001, for the first time in its history the race had to be postponed from March to June. However, ample compensation was provided when, on a beautiful summer's day, the event was graced by Ireland's greatest-ever athlete Sonia O'Sullivan who won the women's race in 55:37.Why do so many people want to run this race in an out-of-the-way Irish village?
Reason ?
It's hard to pinpoint any one reason.There is a comprehensive prize list, a special souvenir mug for all finishers along with free mailing of both pre-race package and post-race results. There's also an atmosphere that is unique to the event, which pertains over the entire weekend and results in many visitors vowing to return again.
Ranking
In February 1999 the UK edition of Runner's World ranked the race second only to the London Marathon in these islands, giving it a status and hype which also had a lot to do with its popularity. The race is also unique in that it has had an association with Nike (as overall sponsor and now associate sponsor) for over 20 years, and this also has been a huge factor in the success of the event.