World Half Marathon Festival 2024

We are resending our mail from earlier in the week below, and have a couple of important additions that we will include in italics at the top of this email. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

ROUTE CHANGE: A small section of the loop has been under water for over a week now, and despite our best efforts, we have had to move to Plan B for the route tomorrow. The good news is the revised route takes out a couple of the rolling hills on the back of the course! All races now start from the gantry at the finish line

• Marathon: Start Time now 9:15am. Route is a 300m "out and back" followed by 11 x 3.78km laps
• Half Marathons: Starts 9:30, 12:30, 2:15: 2.2k "short lap" followed by 5 x 3.78km laps

**We ran alongside the measurer today who used his Jones counter to correctly measure the route. One GPS had the loop at 3.87km, the other at 3.71...so please dont pay too much attention to what distance is on your GPS at the end of the race. The course has been measured correctly using a bike & Jones counter.**

The Barrier at the park will be up from 8:30am tomorrow until 1:30pm. Outside of these times you will need to pay €5 to get in. Please carpool where possible, and park as tight as you can in the car park to utilise the space. 

St Johns Ambulance will be on site for the duration tomorrow, and we will have "moving marshals" on bikes covering the course. All junctions will have signs with an arrow where to go, but the new loop is simply a left turn followed by another left turn about 2.5km later! A lead bike will bring you around on your first lap. 

There will be a water station at the second left turn that brings you back towards the finish gantry. We ask that you either dispose of your bottle before the finish or you hold it until you come around again. There is a 400m straight that has bins so please use them. We have a zero tolerance litter policy and you'll be asked to leave the course if we see you littering.

Lastly, we will have water and  a muffin for all finishers. These, along with your finisher medal, will be available from our Van at the finish line. There is a cafe on site 50m from the finish where you can purchase tea, coffee and snacks if you wish.

For those doing the 9:30am half marathon, we'd ask that you leave the venue once you have finished and warmed down, to free up parking space for those running in the afternoon.

UPDATED 09-01-24

Thank you for registering for Saturdays event, we very much look forward to welcoming you to Donadea in Co. Kildare for what we hope will be a fun day of running.

**Note we will send this email again on Friday with confirmed times for when the barrier into the carpark will be up**

Please read the following information carefully ahead of the event. If we havent answered your questions below, our default answer is "Come to the van by the finish line on Saturday morning and we'll get you sorted!"

If your race number has not arrived by Friday evening, don't worry, we'll have spare numbers available on the day (see default answer above!).

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PARTICPANTS TAB HERE TO VIEW THE CURRENT START LIST AND TO CHECK WHAT RACE YOU ARE IN. https://www.popupraces.ie/race/world-half-marathon-festival-2024/

Start Times:

• FULL MARATHON: 9am
• HALF 1: 09:30am
• HALF 2: 12:30pm
• HALF 3: 2:15pm

• We ask that you arrive no earlier than 35 minutes before your race starts.
• CARPOOL CARPOOL CARPOOL CARPOOL!! We are requesting that you carpool where possible. Parking is limited on Saturday.
• If you ordered a race top, it can be collected at the tent by the finish line at any stage during the day on Saturday.
• All races are completely full, and we cannot accomadate any further changes at this time.
• The Venue is Donadea Forest Park
• From the carpark, you are walking past the new toilets and down towards the Castle, where you will see our Van & Tent as well as portaloos.
• There will be 10 portaloos on site for the event. We will keep them stocked with loo roll, but we ask that you take personal responsibilty to keep them useable throughout the event!
• There is no bag drop, so belongings should be left in your car and are left at your own risk
• As it is a public park, we want to keep it as clean as possible. With that in mind, we will have a "WATER ZONE" in operation, where you can grab a bottle and drink it over a 400m stretch before discarding of it. This means you will have the opportunity to take water on every 5km. You can also carry your own water if you wish.
• Anybody seen littering in the forest will be immediately disqualified and asked to step off the course.
• On completion of the race, you will be given your medal, a delicious muffin and a bottle of water
• The RACE MC will be on site to help get you around with his fun music & commentary, and Sweaty Snaps will be the official photographers on the day.
• As we advise every year, don't pay too much attention to your GPS which could have you running anything between 20km & 22km depending on the brand! The course has been officially measured and is accurate.
• We will not have pacers, however for anyone in the 2:15pm race, we will have 1 90min pacer.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday. And we thank you for your support.

• Refunds: Refunds can be requested and will be processed up to the end of November 2023. From December 1st onwards, refunds will not be given.
• Deferrals: We will not be offering deferrals this year.
• Number transfers: Because of the Refunds / Deferrals policy above, we will do our best to facilitate number transfers up to the latest possible date. This can be done on www.eventmaster.ie through the manage my booking portal. You login to your Eventmaster account, select the ticket for the WHM and edit it to the details of the new person who will be running in your place. If you are unsure how to do this, email office@popupraces.ie and we will assist you.
• Race Transfers: At this point, it is highly unlikely we will be able to move anyone to the 9:30am Half or the 9am full. If anyone from these races needs to move to the later race, we will facilitate this. We will email you on race week to advise how this process works.
• Tech Tops: The order for the the race top will go into the factory on November 20th. You can add a top to your booking through Manage My Booking on Eventmaster by logging in, clicking on the event ticket, and selecting "Add Purchase".  If you are unsure how to do this, email office@popupraces.ie and we will assist you.