Donegal Half Marathon Committee Chairman, Myles Sweeney, says he’s overwhelmed at the level of interest in this year’s event which takes place on Sunday, August 25th in Letterkenny.
“We’ve been attracting between 400 and 500 in recent years, but this year it looks like the final entry could be close to 600 which is fantastic,” the chairman commented.
“It’s ten years since we first staged the Donegal Half Marathon and it’s extremely satisfying to see that the event is now firmly established as one of the key races on the grand prix series,” he added.
Myles has been involved with the Donegal Half Marathon since it was founded in 2014 through his role as Donegal Sports Partnership Coordinator.
“Initially the idea was mooted by the late Dessie Larkin who wanted to bring back the marathon to Letterkenny, given the history of the marathon back in the seventies locally. We also had Danny McDaid competing in Olympic events and international races at that time. I assured Dessie that I would provide any support that was needed from Donegal Sports Partnership. My objective would always have been to try to grow the participation side and using the event to do that. Between that and the high-performance participants, we managed to pull things together.
“Danny McDaid, Brendan McDaid and Eunan Kelly came on board. Donegal County Council came in behind us as well with DFI support. We looked for a number of sponsors and it grew year on year after that. We’ve been fortunate in that we teamed up with the Kernan Group in 2019 and they have been the main sponsor since. The help and support we get from our main sponsor is crucial to the success of the Donegal Half Marathon. We also get great support from Donegal County Council, Optum and Century Cinemas,” Myles said.
Myles believed the marathon and half marathons would be catalysts to get long distance going again in Donegal ten years ago.
“From a Sports Partnership’s point of view in terms of growing participation it has achieved its aim. It has become a great participation event – we have a lot of recreational runners who use the event as a challenge and to try and get healthier and fitter. It has changed the lives of people participating. We also have the children’s event which we started five years ago. It’s a fun and family event where the children complete a one-kilometre dash where they run almost a full lap of the track and finishing at the same finish line that the half marathon participants finish. That creates a nice buzz around the centre, and we also have Letterkenny CDP helping with other activities. It’s gone from being a real elite event to being a community sports event. Century Cinema’s sponsor this part of the day and it’s all good fun.”
The challenge for the organising committee has been to maintain the family-event ethos around the Donegal Half Marathon, according to the chairman.
“It’s an event that anybody and everybody can participate in. Making sure that it doesn’t become too elitist is something we are always conscious of. Getting the culture right was important, as was getting good support. There’s also a good base of support from the clubs in the county and that is a massive help, too,” he commented.
“Donegal Sports Partnership is very much about collaborating. We’re not a top-down organisation. We try to partner and collaborate with other organisations, be that in the community sector or the sports sector. Sometimes it’s both. So, an event like this that has the community ethos and brings all the partners together that creates a community event is what we are always keen to be a part of.
“We have an excellent committee as well. We are very much directed by the experience of Danny McDaid and Brendan McDaid, but ultimately everybody’s ideas are taken on board. Everyone is doing their best to create a good event that creates that community feel. On race day we also have help from the Donegal Volunteer Service who do such great work. Without volunteers we simply couldn’t run the event.”
To enter, follow the link: https://eventmaster.ie/event/9qPqhw5HWJ
To access the QR code, visit: https://eventmaster.ie/event/9qPqhw5HWJ/qrcode
