First running of Rock and Road Half Marathon

THE inaugural Kinvara Rock and Road Half Marathon and 10km Road Race takes place on Saturday, March 5 in the South Galway village.

This will be the first running of the event so organisers are urging people to take part in “what promises to be a great event for walkers, joggers and runners of all levels”.
“Over the last couple of years there has been a big increase in the number of people out running and Kinvara now has its own annual road race.
“The course will take you past some glorious scenery and is quite flat, which will appeal to beginners who are taking on a new distance and more experienced runners looking to post a competitive time for a 10km or half-marathon distance. This will also be a great event for anyone training for other longer races later in the year,” said Conor Madden of organisers, Dolmen Sports.
“Our events focus on the location they are set in. Kinvara is so picturesque and so close to the edge of the Burren so it seemed perfect for this event. Runners often don’t like hills but if you want them to get up into the mountains you have to find a way so we had our colleague Chris Deacon come out and run it and he chose the routes in the end,” Mr Madden continued.
The organisers are expecting between 200 and 300 participants in the event’s first year, a target they believe they will hit.
“It is hard to know the precise figures because it is the first year. We want North Clare and South Galway to be on the map in terms of running events and this is a good event to get that going.
“We would be looking for 200 to 300 participants this year and to raise that year on year, up to around 1,000 eventually. This is a unique event. There is no event like this in South Galway. Athenry have the very successful Fields of Athenry after Christmas and Craughwell have an event later on in March but there are loads of people out running in the winter and we wanted to put something on the map on this particular weekend.
“There is a race on in Ballycotton the same day but that is usually full and closed by the time you get to the event so we don’t feel that will impact on our events. This is ideal for people in Gort, Ennis, Clare’s coastal towns, Limerick, Galway and even as far as Mayo. Those hoping to take part in the Connemarathon, they should be doing half marathons six or eight weeks out from it so the timing is also perfect for them,” Mr Madden pointed out.
All For Animals is the charity partner for the Kinvara Rock and Road events. It is a non-profit organisation acting as an umbrella fundraising project working with 12 regional animal welfare groups, including Clare Animal Welfare.
“We look forward to welcoming walkers, joggers and runners of all fitness levels to the start line,” Conor concluded.
Anyone who would like to register can do so on www.rockandroad.ie.