MOKRUN announces plans for race in May 2007

[Kintyre Forum News]

Received the following statement from the committee of the Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and 10 k run announcing that they will be organising their excellent event again!

"Following a successful inaugural event last year when close to 300 runners and walkers took the the roads of the Campbeltown area, the second Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and 10k event will take place on Sunday May 27th 2007 starting from the Aquilibrium, Campbeltown. The organisers hope to attract a field of 500 competitors and, as last year, a number of other activities are being planned over the long weekend for competitors, their families and spectators to enjoy. For further details on the 2007 event and how to enter please visit our new website at www.mokrun.com "

A spokesperson for South Kintyre Sports Council added "We are absolutely delighted to hear that the Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and 10k is going ahead in May 2007. This event was certainly the highlight of the sporting calendar in 2006 and the feedback from the whole event was tremendous. The organising committee and the local community should be very proud of this event and the Sports Council would like to confirm their future support for these races in any we can"

For more information on MOKRUN please visit www.mokrun.com

[Sheik Yir Erse]

That's a shame, as this is now the same day as the Dunfermline Half Marathon, AND Edinburgh Marathon, which are two 'fair' sized event to compete against. Incidentally it's Edinburgh that's moved their date earlier by 2 weeks this year to take advantage of the bank holiday weekend. At last year's MOKrun I spoke to a couple of visitors who were using it as ideal training for Edinburgh, i.e. 2 weeks prior, and as an alternative to running the very busy Dunfermline Half.

Dunfermline has generally benefitted from the being 2 weeks prior to Edinburgh in the past, so will be interesting to see if it suffers this year being on the same day.

Personally I would think the weekend of 13th May would therefore be an ideal opportunity to attract people to the town. There will be thousands of people from all over Scotland (who are running Edinburgh) looking for a half marathon that weekend!

I know it's difficult to find an ideal time in the racing calendar (to prove the point I think the Glasgow Womans 10K is on 13th May 07!) just a shame Campeltown will be competing against 2 huge established events on that day.

Being entered for Edinburgh, I now can't run in the Wee Toon

[hoots the scoop]

Sheik

Is it not better to have it on a holiday weekend for people travelling?

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Oh don't get me wrong, I 100% agree that this is the best time to have it, in order to make it easier for people travelling.

My only concern is it appears that everyone else now thinks this way. It all really depends on what the race is trying to achieve? If it's principal aim is to get local people interested in running then that's fantastic. If you've never really been a runner before and you set your goal, decide you are going to run a half marathon or 10K, it *really* doesn't matter what day of the year it's on - that's all your focussed on.

If however the race is also trying to attract visitors to the town then it might make sense not to have it on the same day as 2 of Scotlands largest running events! That's the only point I was trying to make.

I loved the run last year, and would have said it was joint equal with the Glasgow Half Marathon in terms of atmosphere - just gutted I'm going to miss it this year

[4th gen Suthen']

you dont need to miss it

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Your right Suthen'. Unfortunately already agreed to run Edinburgh with a few mates, and their flying up to stay at mine, so might not be that popular.

Also there's the small matter of the non-refundable £50 entry fee for Edinburgh

[4th gen Suthen']

Oh well!! right enough...that's a shame though.

[Tom B]

That must be one helluva goody bag from the Edinburgh marathon...!

It certainly is unfortunate that both Edinburgh and Dunfermline have changed the weekend of their races to make them clash with MOKRUN. We did look at the first weekend of May as a potential alternate date, but that clashes with the other Edinburgh run, and the second weekend in May clashes with the Glasgow ladies 10k run ! - both potentially bigger detractors from our event. In the end we decided to stick with our established weekend. It is now too late to change that decision (even if we wanted to).

The purpose of MOKRUN is both the reasons that SYE points out - we've already had quite a few entries in from all around the country, so anticipating that we'll have a good turnout for both races.

Sorry you won't be able to make it SYE, hope to see you in 2008 !