..or to be accurate, having a nightmare of a white Christmas.
After last year's bad weather, I really had hoped that it was a once-in-a-lifetime bad weather event. But as we can see, it's back again. So what's our plan?
The bottom line is that we want to give the race every chance to go ahead.
It takes a lot of effort to put it together, so we'd rather do it just the once. We plan to leave it as late as possible before we make any decision to postpone the race. In 2004, Athenry was covered in a blanket of snow on Christmas day, and the thoughts of a race going ahead 24 hours later seemed completely unrealistic. Fast-forward to the St Stephens day, and the whole country had warmed up a few degrees, and we had no issues whatsoever.
Last year, I watched weather forecasts like a hawk, and it looked like we would have a thaw in time for the race. We waited and we waited but it never came, so we pulled the plug at 8:30 am on St Stephens day.
It looks that that is exactly how we will progress this year. The met.ie 5 day forecast [at the time of writing] suggests the thaw will arrive in time. The Accuweather.co.uk site suggests the same. Let's hope they're right.
We are having a course inspection at 3pm on Christmas Day. If there is NO chance of the race going ahead, we will postpone the race then. If there is ANY chance of the race happening, we proceed as planned, and we will do a further inspection at 8am on St Stephen's day morning.
If we do postpone, we will update this website straight away, and send texts and emails to all registered participants.
IF we do postpone, our refixed date will be Bank Holiday Monday 3rd January, 11:00am.
Alan Burke
Race Director
Looks like the Gods will
Looks like the Gods will smile on you this year - Met Éireann forecasts a thaw on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
It's looking good!
Hopefully if the race is
Hopefully if the race is acancelled it will be cancelled by Xmas EVe or Xmas Day. Last year it was left too late. Met Eireann seem to be looking at a thaw in the second half of Xmas Day. Too late for the race to go ahead on Stephen's Day as there is too much snow and ice to be melted
Hope it goes ahead flying
Hope it goes ahead flying back to UK on the 29th so wont be around for Jan :(
This race should be called
This race should be called off. The thaw is meant to set in second half of Christmas day. If it was takng place in a city fair enough but out on them country roads not a chance the roads will be safe enough. A lot of work has been put in for the race but safety comes first.
Safety will not be compromised
Anybody who has even paid scant attention to the accuracy of weather forecasts over the last month will realise they have been frequently wrong.
As mentioned in the post above we will have a course inspection on Christmas day, and at that stage we will be postpone if we are sure we have to.
An extraordinary amount of work is put in to putting this race together, and while there is still a chance the race will go ahead, we will proceed on this basis.
That's a ridiculous thing to
That's a ridiculous thing to say a full 6 days before the race. How on earth can you are anyone else know what the roads will be like 6 days from now?! Maybe Anonymous does - but which Anonymous is that then? :)
Race
I do hope the race goes ahead,i need a race fix quick.feck off snow.
Weather forecast
Lots of work put in at this stage so I'll say a prayer to Saint Medard for ye. Best of luck.
http://www.culturalcatholic.com/SaintMedard.htm
Paudie
Mallow AC
It's not a ridiculous thing
It's not a ridiculous thing to say. The race will not go ahead it's awful road conditions. The 3rd of January maybe. Lessons should have been learned from last year like a 2pm start time.
Just look outside your
Just look outside your window!! No way a thaw on Christmas day will get rid of all this snow and underlying ice.
I understand that it takes a huge effort to organise such a fantastic race but just bite the bullet and go with the new date. People will understand that this unprecedented weather and that it is completely out of your control.
No one can feel aggrieved when sufficient time is given. However making a call on the morning of the race will not allow people to make the necessary travel arrangements.