Hello!
Due to family committments I had cancelled my entry for 03rd January but with the provisionally rescheduled date of 24th I would love to have my entry reinstated. Is this possible or do you feel the need to scream??? If I could have the opportunity to put faces to the names on such a brill website and earn a woolly hat I would be grateful, or if I am out of luck then that`s ok too. Good luck

shame cant make the 24th either! good luck with the race and sorry i had to request a refund! maybe next year, neal.

Disappointing - but once again, the right decision.

We'll get there yet, before Easter I'd say!

Very disappointed with the initial handling of the cancellation for the race on St. Stephens Day. The race should have been cancelled on Christmas Eve and allowed people to enjoy their Christmas day properly. A text message at 8.30am on the morning of the 26th is not much good to someone travelling down from Dublin for an 11am gun time! 2 of my friends were in this situation and they had to decide the previous night not to travel. Waiting for the promised "thaw" by forecasters was not very realistic considering roads all around the county were frozen stiff all throughout Christmas Day!

The organizers should have taken a leaf out of the Liffey Valley AC members who cancelled their Tom Brennan 5k 2 days prior to their New Years Day race.

As you can see I am a little irked by the behaviour of the race organizers and I wanted to voice my opinion among the compliments on the "brave decision" made by organizers a mere 2.5hrs before race start! Ridiculous!

Sean,

            I can understand your frustration and I'm sorry you're not happy with the way things were handled. Having said that, from where I sit, we did the best we could. In the relatively short history of our race, we've only had frozen roads on the morning of the event once before and they cleared in plenty of time to race on that occasion. Another year, in 2004, we had heavy snow on Christmas day and I remember running the GOAL mile in Galway that year on a track coverred in snow. Thankfully, the roads were perfect the following day and we raced without a hitch. It's a big decision to make to cancel or defer such a large race and it's not a decision we took lightly to be honest. It's a judgement call and we did our best to get it right. We wanted to give the event the best possible chance of going ahead and to balance that with minimising any inconvenience to our entrants. When we did cancel, we offered a refund, deferment or a rearranged race to everyone who had signed up which I think was all we could do in the circumstances.

We all learn from experiences like this and no doubt our collective experience as race organisers will benefit from what happened to us this time. I'd also like to say 'thanks' for the honest feedback - its genuinely appreciated,

Mick Rice.

To Organisers of 10K,

First of all can I thank all the committee for all of their work throughout the year.

Normally I would stay quite on such topics, however I had to express my support for the organisers of the 10K. I think it is important that people put forward a constructive opinion in relation to the desision that was made, however I cant accept somebody openly critising the desision that was made by a group of 'committed volounteers'. Yes in hindsight the race probably should have been cancelled earlier, but most of the runners would be of local or nearby origin, therfore travel time would not have been a great concern. I sympathise with the 2 people attemting to travel from Dublin, but in fairness that was their desision to travel!
Again I thank the committee for attempting to run the race. It would have been much easier, on yourselves to cancel , but you were trying to faciltate the 'race hungry locals'.
Well done.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers that year after year take time out from their families at christmas to organise this event. Thought they handled the cancellations and notifications very well and not sure they can be blamed for the weather! Its a really enjoyable race and as a galwayman living in the south of the country I try and make an effort to make it home for this. Actually couldn't make it on 4th so glad for prolonged cold! see you on 24th

To Bob,

In no way shape or form did I question the commitment of the volunteers. Their dedication to the growth of athletics in Galway/Connaught is second to none. Furthermore Athenry AC is without doubt one of the top athletic clubs in the country.
I have been involved in large race organization before and I understand the work involved. I was part of the volunteer group for the euro xc in Santry. I appreciate the comments of both Mick and Alan but I do stand by my opinion that the race should have been postponed earlier.

The committees handling of the Jan 3rd postponement was top notch!

Sean Broderick