Dublin Marathon to offer transfer option for entries

A TRANSFER system, which will allow runners to officially pass their coveted entry in the sold out event on to someone else, is finally being introduced in the Irish Life Dublin Marathon.

More changes have been introduced for the 2023 event on October 29, including several initiatives designed to encourage more women to take part and also a new non-binary entry category.

With entries sold out so far in advance there is always a percentage of ‘no shows’ each year due to injury or unavailability.

Athletes can apply for a refund (in June) if they decide to pull out but previously they could not, officially, pass their ticket on to someone else, even though, anecdotally, this does happen.

There was a particularly high number of no-shows last year, exacerbated because so many entries dated back to 2019 before Covid saw the event postponed for two years.

But it was also the organisers’ concerns about health and safety, in particular their inability to identify some distressed runners who had unofficially taken up someone else’s entry, that has convinced them to introduce transfers.

A new rule will also allow any pregnant or post-partum woman who is unable to run in 2023 to defer her place to one of the following three years.

Women who take part in this year’s official Half-Marathon on September 23 will also get preferential early entry to the ticket lottery for next year’s marathon.

Race Director Jim Aughney revealed that, despite a male/female ratio of 50:50 in the first races of the Irish Life Race Series, that split is down to just 30% female for the marathon itself.

He also explained why they’re introducing a new non-binary entry, which will have its own category prize.

“During our discussions with the clubs, particularly Dublin Frontrunners (an LGBTQ club), a number of people said they hadn’t run the event in the past because non-binary wasn’t included.

“When we got that feedback from runners it was something we needed to add,” Aughney said. “It won’t be available until August of this year because we’re waiting for the refunds and the transfer window to finish before reopening the database again.

But introducing a finish tape for the non-binary category looks unlikely because of the logistics involved.

“If you have someone finishing in 3 hours 15 minutes we have 179 people finishing per minute at that rate. There’s no way that you can jump out in front of one person there to hold out a tape so we explained that to them and they understand,” he added.

This year’s official starter will be Olympic silver medallist John Treacy, to mark his victory in Dublin in 1993 in 2:14:40.

Defending champions Courtney McGuire and Martin Hoare are planning to defend their surprise titles. Clonmel AC’s McGuire (23) was not only Irish women’s champion in 2022 but third woman overall in 2:32 on her debut over 26 miles and she is targeting 2:30 and Olympic qualification this time.

Hoare, an accountant from Maynooth, also keeps his weekly mileage quite low (no more than 75 miles) and does most of his training running to and from work, a 28-mile round trip.

“I live in Celbridge and work in Ballsbridge. It’s about 14 miles so I might do that two or three days a week and every so often I try to race the train along the Grand Canal,” he revealed.

While the 2023 Dublin Marathon is sold out, there are still places available in the Irish Life Dublin Race Series which includes a 5 mile, 10km, 10 mile and half marathon distance. Entries are open on IrishLifeDublinMarathon.ie.