Event organisers of the new Dublin City Half Marathon say not in their “wildest dreams” did they expect to sell out all 12,500 places in under two hours.
Entries for the March 30th event, which is being organised by Dublin Marathon in conjunction with Dublin City Council, went on sale at 12pm on Wednesday with all race numbers snapped up before 2pm.
However, hundreds of hopeful entrants were left disappointed at missing out as the online registration system suffered repeated glitches, users encountering validation errors, the server appearing to crash on occasions and often sending purchasers back to the very start of the process.
“We are aware that some users experienced problems. Our office has sent screenshots of any errors we received to Event Master to see if they can figure out why those errors came about,” said race director Jim Aughney. “We will review the process fully and consider options for 2026.”
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For those left without a race number there will be another opportunity to get an entry as a transfer of places will be permitted, at a cost of €5, between February 21st to March 9th.
Such was the demand for entries the waiting queue exceeded 22,000 at times on Wednesday afternoon – though it does not necessarily mean that volume of individuals were trying to gain entry to the race.
[ Dublin City Half Marathon: 12,500 entries sell out in under two hoursOpens in new window ]
“Same people could have had three sessions open on their phones and laptops, so while we know the demand was huge we don’t know what those numbers actually mean until the data is examined,” added Aughney.
Either way, it is clear that several thousand more entries could have been sold. The race will start on O’Connell Street at 8.30am with the proposed northside route taking in Ballybough, Whitehall, Killester, Howth Road, Raheny, St Anne’s Park, Clontarf, Fairview Park and Seville Place.
The €68 entry fee – which includes a finisher’s T-shirt, medal and postage of race number – also generated debate on Wednesday. The total cost for many runners was €74.42 because of a €4.42 handling fee plus a €2 Athletics Ireland Licence charge for non-club members.
Aughney said the price point was reached as the cost of running the event will be “north of €1 million”. “And just like with the marathon, any excess funds from entries will go back into the event as hopefully this will continue to grow over time,” he added.
The capital’s more traditional 13.1-mile race – the Dublin Half Marathon in the Phoenix Park, which is part of the official Dublin Marathon Series – will again take place in September. Entries for that race will open on February 19th.
The achievement of selling out the new Dublin City Half Marathon in a matter of hours demonstrates the huge appetite for such events.
“Not in our wildest dreams did we think it would sell out in just over an hour or so,” said Aughney. “If we sold all the entries by the time the event came around in March we thought we’d be doing really well.
“So, this is clearly a huge statement from the running community in Ireland. We believed in the event but the level of interest was phenomenal and it kind of took us by surprise.
“We looked at the trend across Europe and the half marathon seems to be the sweet spot distance now that people are aiming for – most of the other bigger cities have half marathons roughly six months out from their major marathon.
“Thankfully Dublin City Council supported us and the running community responded in huge numbers.”
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