Feedback from the Fields of Athenry 10k

When you’re on the inside it can be hard to get a feel for how something went. A die-hard football supporter will often support a game from the stands only to watch it again on the box that evening and see a totally different side to it. Caught up in the excitement of the moment our supporter may miss the overall picture and only when she sees it again from 10,000 feet that evening does she notice that there were two teams on the pitch.

On St. Stephen’s Day our event starts before 7am. The first job of the day is to place the kilometre markers out on the course and to erect directional signs all around the town. From that point forward the momentum builds and it’s non-stop action as people arrive to register, cars are parked, the marshals are stationed, the race starts, finishing times and positions are gathered, results compiled and finally prizes are dished out. Then there’s a collective sigh of relief, a cup-of tea and the big clean-up starts. By 4pm it’s over and we head for home pretty shattered. Oh yeah, how did the race go?

In the mad rush that is race organisation, the race often passes you by! Who won? How did it go? Did anybody break a record? Did we lose anybody? Don’t ask the organisers they were too busy to notice.

Was there a good atmosphere at the start?

…not sure I was entering late registrations into the laptop.

Did the water station work out?

… don’t know, sure that was miles away.

Did the showers work?

… didn’t have time to try them out!!!

So this year we decided to find out. We randomly selected seventy-five people from throughout the field – sprinters to hobblers – and asked them to complete a questionnaire. Within a few days we had enough responses to see a clear picture of how people’s day went. The phrase ‘a runner-centric race’ is often bandied about giving the impression that everything is for the runner and the runner is at the centre of everything. Well now at least we have some idea of what the runner, walker and crawler felt.

Clearly, there was a high level of general satisfaction with the event and most people had a good day out. However we now have a few things to work on for next year – toilet and shower facilities; directions to the start; a better PA system and so on. We are not saying that everything will be in place for 26th of December ’07 but we will do our best. On a very limited budget and with hundreds of people all wanting to pee in the space of fifteen minutes, it won’t be easy – but we’ll try.

Wanna’ see what people said? Just open the attached word document (click on the link below called '06FoA_Feedback.doc'). When you're finished use the 'back' button on your browser to return to this page.

Thanks very much to all those who responded. If you received a questionnaire and haven’t replied yet then please do so. We value your opinion.

Please come along next December and see if we’ve improved.