The organisers of the Dublin City Half Marathon are considering ways of making the event “bigger and better” for next year, including the introduction of a lottery-based entry system to cope with demand.
Just under 12,000 runners started Sunday’s inaugural staging of the event, a figure that’s considered an exceptional take-up from the 12,500 race entries which sold out in 90 minutes in January. Other big city half marathons can have a race day fall off around 20 per cent.
Organised by the same team behind the Dublin Marathon in October, Sunday’s event also had the full partnership and support of Dublin City Council, further cementing its date in the capital’s sporting calendar.
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Such was the sprint to gain a starting place, the online registration system crashed several times after entries went on sale at 12pm on January 8th. At times the waiting queue exceeded 22,000, although that it does not necessarily mean that volume of individuals were trying to gain an entry.
In his 29 years as Dublin Marathon race director, Jim Aughney has seen these sort of entry issues before, for better and for worse. When he took over as the marathon race director in 1997 there were 3,123 finishers. Within three years he’d helped double that with 7,156 finishing in 2000.
By 2019, the Dublin Marathon race entry was capped at 22,500, and with the demand for entries still fast outpacing the supply, the lottery-based entry system was introduced in 2020.
“There is absolutely the potential to grow the half marathon,” says Aughney, also the race director for Sunday’s event. “Like, we sold out the 12,500 entries in 90 minutes. And at least as many again were looking to get in. A lot of people were disappointed that they couldn’t get a starting place, but we’d put that capacity on ourselves.”
On the potential for a lottery system for entries, Aughney added: “We’ll absolutely consider all options in terms of the entry next year, including a lottery system. We said we’d review the process when the initial entries sold out in 90 minutes, and the lottery system is one way of helping to address that.”
Aughney will consider all the options before a decision is taken in the coming weeks.
“We’ll see do we go for a bigger footprint next year. But that’s for the next couple of weeks. We’ll fully digest how Sunday went first, and take in some feedback too.
“The plan for this year was also to keep it among the home-based runners, but if we’re looking at some of the super half marathons, I think over time we will have to introduce that international element, including for the elite runners.
“But we just don’t know yet how the event might change for 2026. The big thing for 2025 was to try to get it across the line first, and then see can we make it bigger and better for next year. But Sunday couldn’t have gone any better, really.”
Staged under brilliant blue skies too, in all there were 11,837 official finishers on Sunday, with 11,815 of those finishing within three-and-a-half hours. The first 116 finishers all broke 80 minutes with Killian Mooney from Dundrum South-Dublin the first man home in 65:40.
“It’s a slightly different profile to say the runners in the Dublin Marathon, many in the 20s and early 30s,” says Aughney. “And we actually expected that high uptake on the day, again going on the profile of the people who entered, in terms of age and home county and that.
“Part of the early feedback from the runners at the finish is that the support out on the course was also phenomenal, which is great to see. It was certainly an iconic start on O’Connell Street, and we’re delighted with the finish too, turning at the Five Lamps and then the long, straight run in to the finish on Guild Street.
“Unfortunately they were was a bit of a headwind coming down the Clontarf seafront back towards the finish, there was nothing we could do about that. But everything else about the route is looking good.”
The expectation is the same course will remain in place for 2026, with only minor adjustments, if any, being considered. The event also differed from the Dublin Half Marathon, staged in September as part of the marathon countdown series of races, and staged entirely within the Phoenix Park. That event, which also sells out, is essentially aimed at those runners taking on the full 26.2-mile distance the following month.
The Dublin City Half Marathon is considered a far more approachable distance for runners, with the potential to grow even bigger than the marathon itself. This year’s event also allowed for the transfer of entry to another runner, if desired, from February 21st to March 9th, which helped with the high race-day take up.
Sunday’s race also started in three waves – at 8.30am, 8.45am and 9am – and the addition of a fourth starting wave is another way to increase the race entry for next year.
