Updated at 3.30pm
PARTICIPANTS IN THIS morning’s Dublin Half Marathon have criticised the organisers for what they said was a lack of proper organisation and traffic management.
People have reported being trapped leaving the site of the half marathon – which is being held this year at at Newbridge House in Donabate in north county Dublin.
Organisers have apologised for the delay and said a traffic plan had been in place.
One driver told TheJournal.ie he had been stuck in heavy traffic in a car park with many other drivers and had moved just three spaces in 65 minutes.
Other contestants took to social media to vent their frustration with the event, which was dogged from the start with traffic issues.
“Worst organised event I’ve ever been to,” said one runner.
Barely made the start, as did so many others. Leaving car park even worse.
“Back to the drawing board for the organisers,” said another runner,
Poorly organised, simple things including the race start were a mess
As well as traffic issues leaving and arriving, runners pointed towards a lack of water stops along the route and other organisational issues.
Marathon delayed
The marathon was due to kick off this morning at 9am.
However, heavy delays on the M1 meant the start was delayed until 10am.
Cars were backed up all along the M1 at Lissenhall.
Numerous people who had planned to run in the half-marathon shared images of the traffic on social media, with some turning around and criticising the organisers.
The organisers of the half marathon apologised for the delays and said a full traffic management review would take place.
They also promised entrants who could not take part today with a free entry to a race next year.
“We would like to apologise to all runners affected by the delay. We know that all those who took part today would have put in an immense amount of time and effort into preparing for this race,” race director Jim Aughney said in a statement.
We are aware that some entrants missed out in partaking due to the traffic issues and we will be offering anyone impacted in this way a free entry into a race of their choice in next year’s SSE Airtricity Dublin Race Series.
“This was the first year running the event at this location. We had a full and comprehensive traffic management plan in place. It is clear however that there were shortcomings. We will now conduct a full and thorough review with all key stakeholders,” Aughney added.
Fingal County Council also apologised to everyone affected and said it would take part in the review.
The half marathon got underway at 10am and was won by Ethiopian Bereket Gebreslase with a time of 1.06:52.
Maria McCambridge won the women’s race in a time of 1.22:25.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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