Liverpool Marathon 2013

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Comments

  • If it made such great money for so little work, I'd be staging one.
  • Nick: If it was such easy cash why don't you get your grammar sorted, send out the leaflets and get a race organised ? Must be easy I guess.......I can't wait.

  • When I'm not on my phone I'll post a more detailed response, but when we came in 2011 the waterfront was heaving and we struggled to get food, how can they say they're not going to benefit



    Alan thank u for all ur hard work we did first year and I did the fab four run, I have made friends thru ur marathon that 2 years on I'm still friends with and for that I thank u, xxx
  • Like to add my bit as I ran the 2011 Marathon,which was a well organised event,fantastic support from the people of the City and fellow runners

    I am gutted as I was looking at entering again,the reception we had coming out of the Tunnel would be worth the entry fee alone ..image

    Thanks for the memories Alan,will see you at the Liverpool Half in March image

  • Are you talking about the Sonae plant?  It never re-opened properly after the last of several fires and safety scares, and was closed by its owners.  It wasn't closed by 10,000 complaints as you suggest.

     

  • So, never mind the side issues what about the real important stuff. What alternative Marathons are there for that weekend.

  • It does appear Nick is a huge fan of Liverpool, a race organising expert as well as being a local industry guru. Sort out the literacy and you'd be dangerous......

  • What's with the swiping at people's literacy? I though this was an internet forum, not an GCSE English class. Grow up for heavens sake Cidermonkey(apparently names have capital letters)
  • and this from the council's own website (Dalestreetnews) about the 2012 marathon

    '

    The second RunLiverpool Marathon is proving a big hit with runners from as far afield as Australia and Brazil! Interest in the event from beyond Merseyside has been increasing over the last six months with many countries and continents being represented.

    Scandinavia is the most popular region outside the U.K. and closer to home the race is popular with runners from the North Midlands and East Yorkshire. 73% of entrants are from outside the Merseyside area proving once again the popularity of Liverpool and the city region as a tourist destination.'

    I suppose this years could be ' Great opportunity to visit Liverpool. There is nothing going on and the roads will be empty'

  • Nick Brown - I take exception to your simple approach to maths and would advise the event isn't a goldmine. As you have no idea as the ACTUAL costs then I can't see how you can make such a casual comment. This isn't about money generated by the event.

    The event was estimated to have generated a £1.4 million economic benefit to the city in 2011 but seemingly it wasn't spent in the right areas.

    The impact of extended road closures on the Liverpool waterfront and the perceived negative commercial effect on waterfront businesses is why it has been cancelled. I was asked to consider a reversal of the course (finishing on the Wirral side) and I don't consider that to be in the best interests of the event in the long term. It merely moves the problem of inconvenience for Liverpool roads users and their access to waterfront businesses.

    I believe the course in it's current form to be the best for RUNNER'S and I'm convinced that finishing on the Wirral side is neither practical nor acceptable to the local residents of Wirral or Wirral Borough Council.

  • If you all have some time to spare go onto run britain and download the race organisers pack and just look at the hoops myself and Alan have to jump through to put events on for runners. And for evey hoop there is a cost and with health and safety today the cost is greater. I dont know Alan on a personnel level but if he is like me he will have bought enough medals ect to cover 3500 people just incase they all show up. I was part of the preston guild team and just for traffic management cost just over 10.000 and road closures cost a fortune so yes if you put events on open roads you can make money but on closed roads not so unless you get the masses turn out. I will put money on it that next year the liverpool marathon will be called The Great Liverpool Marathon under the great run banner. Foster will have seen that it attracted 3500 runners and with the great run data base he cant loose just look at the manchester 10k.
  • This was my first marathon last year and I have no idea of the costs involved but didn't have any issue with the entry fee before the race and even less so after (if that makes sense).

    The race was impeccably organised from start to finish and the quality of the medal and tee shirt more than merited the effort I had made to earn them! image

    Add to this the buzz I got hearing the Batala drums coming through the ground as I approached the exit of the Queensway Tunnel or looking up and seeing the Liverbirds to bring me home through the last mile (and I'm not even a scouser) and l I'd struggle to think of £50 that has bought me better value or greater satisfaction.

    As for the locals, they're support and encouragement wassimply phenomonal. From the scouse twang cheering my name all the way round, to the guy who was blasting out a certain Spencer Davies Group track from his living room window on the approach to Sefton Park. 

    Then to round things off there were the three young lads who upon spotting the medal around my neck as I hobbled to the car park, stopped to shake my hand and congratulate me.

    Again I have no idea of the  factors that may (or may not) come into play when a council makes a decision like this but it strikes me that they have allowed to slip through their fingers a fantastic event that had the potential to become one of the great marathons in Europe and perhaps more significantly a fantastic advertsment for their City and the people who live there.

    Alan, Thank you for your hard work and commitment, I hope in time you are able to re-discover your mojo and turn your talents to putting on another large scale marathon.

    Run Liverpool Marathon - Run it, Lived it, Loved it!

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  • Thats what is coming the great run team will have looked at this since day one.They dont care about character just how much they can make out of runners and yes they do have a gold mine not like alan who has to hope for numbers until the day just to cover the running costs and ballance the books trust me been there good luck alan in the future and just let me know if people would be up for a three day festival of running in the Northwest.
  • Nick,

     

    I know a lot about that Sonae plant though work. People were killed working there, there were numorous fires, at least one of them major in addition to the emissions they were spewing out. The problems were a wee bit more serious than you are letting on. Thats assuming you know the full story, if you don't fair enough but if you do then you are being a bit disingenuous with your version of events.

  • Nick - there are plenty of big businesses in the area.

    The old boss of Tesco Is from Liverpool - he seemed to do well.



    I don't see much difference in people round the country.

    It's too lazy to label a whole area with one name.
  • Nick - for your information I have had several approaches about corporate buy-outs over the last year or so and I have turned them all down. I don't do this for money. I never have. I've opted not to consider selling out because I believe in the integrity of the events and do not want them turned into monster races which just create revenue.

    I take great personal responsibility for what I deliver for runners in this city and that clearly extends to protecting the integrity of the marathon. There is a point where compromise after compromise becomes unacceptable and detrimental to the event.

  • I'm afraid I don't agree with you there Alan. The Liverpool Women's 10k was one of my favourite races until you took over and added a 5k and mini race. I felt it ruined it. you can say as much as you like that you do it because you want to get people out running but at the end of the day you are a business and in my experience business people are out to make money and there's nothing wrong with that but what you are not is the patron saint of running in Liverpool. I apologise in advance for my grammar!
  • Brilliant insight to what has been happening in Liverpool Nurse G. Our races here have survived so far but the same money grabbing people SEEM to be in charge. We just want a well organised race at a reasonable price but entry fees rise through the roof, hidden charges appear on the websites and every opportunity is taken to make more money at the expense of the runners. They take advantage of the one time runners who will bear the brunt but the real runners feel the pinch and are cheesed off.
  • Why don't you organise a race NLR?  The Laines 10k would be good. The winner could get a retro tomato shaped ketchup dispenser or some other Brighton-esque piece of tat. You could have a Vegetarian and a Vegan category. A Freddie Mercury Prize.

    It would go a long way to correcting the erroneous notion that yet-to-be-great-Brighton is populated by fey arty workshy  downsizers who sell their London homes to snap up a terrace under the viaduct and paint it a lovely pastel shade to let it out to a couple of graphic designers.  I've have been fighting against this stereotype for years, but believe me it still persists in the cobbled streets of  Liverpool, unfair as it manifestly is.

     

     

  • Hi Folks,

    Just thought I'd add my two penneth worth seeing as the discussion has shifted somewhat in direction. My expereince of running, which is not vast, but I would tentativley call myself a runner these day not a one off event person, is that good local runs are organised by local running clubs. They may vary in size and capacity but they can be broad in range. These events tend to be friendly, competitive and reasonably affordable. Once events reach a certain size they can no longer be run by clubs because clubs do not all have the time, resources or administrative ability to put on larger events. I do acknowledge clubs do put on fairly large events as well as smaller events and often do a great job but something like the Liverpool Marathon, if it is to be run well, is beyond most running clubs ability to organise. Most members of running clubs want to run, not fill out endlesss H&S forms, attend council meetings and keep forumites up to date with the latest news on their event. Big races need time, people and money to make them happen!

    You can say what you like about the way the races from RunLiverpool have been organised and what the motivation is behind them but what I have noticed is that for a 'buisness' RunLiverpool (As it was back in the day!) kept runners informed on forums, ran well organised events and kept the balance between big race feel and local involvement pretty well in my eyes. Indeed more so than certain 'Great' runs I could mention.

    As far as Alan being the patron saint of running in Liverpool NG, I don't think he ever claimed to be that and your comment is clearly presumptious.

    I just want the marathon in Liverpool back so that people can see what a great city it is.

  • The great thing about Brighton my dear puff is that people here don't generally give two f's what people think of them. My whole point is we runners don't really want any silly prizes or trophys named after Gay icons but just a simple well organised race at a reasonable price. Call us great or yet to be great or any gay homophobic stereotype you like. We don't give a f or care what you think. That's why I think Brighton is great in my humble opinion.
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