Ciobanu and McCann return to Cork 2012

Cork City Marathon

The 2012 Cork City Marathon is taking place this Monday, 4 June. Long regarded as the ‘marathon for everyone’, race organisers are expecting thousands of participants to take to the starting line and compete in the full marathon, half marathon and relay event this June Bank Holiday weekend.

The start time for the marathon and team relay is 9am on St Patrick’s Street.  The half marathon will start on the Ringmahon Road at 11am.  The fastest runners will be appearing on the North Mall, Pope’s Quay and Camden Quay from 11.15am, with the remaining athletes filtering through until approximately 4pm. The finish line is on St Patrick St, with the leading runners expected to cross the line from 11.20am.

As an Olympic year, race organisers are expecting many top international athletes to compete in this year’s marathon in the hopes of posting an Olympic-standard time. Local interest comes in the form of Rob Heffernan, who will be competing as part of Team Ireland at this year’s Olympic games. Rob will be participating in the relay event, along with his coaching team.

This year will also be the first time that both the men’s and women’s defending champions – Sergiu Ciobanu and Angela McCann – will return to defend their titles.

Tom Corkery who ran the first ever Cork City Marathon in 1982 is back to Cork match his original time of 3 hours and 49 minutes and to raise money for The Forgotten Irish, a charity that looks after Irish emigrants who have hit on hard times and need support both financially and socially.

The 2012 Cork City Marathon is one of just 19 races that stand in the way of UK athlete Steve Edwards achieving an incredible world record.  In 1988, Steve dreamed of becoming the first person in the world to run 500 official marathon races in under 3 hours and 30 minutes each and targeted his 50th birthday in November 2012 as a deadline. If successful, Steve’s achievement will equate with, on average, a three hour 15 minute marathon every 16 days for 24 years or, to put it another way, 13,100 miles at a pace of seven minutes and 30 seconds a mile!

There are some further ones-to-watch in the team relay, including RTÉ broadcaster Jacqui Hurley who, along with her family and friends, will compete in the team relay in memory of Jacqui’s brother Séan who died tragically last year. Mayfield Action on Suicide is entering a team of 100 in the relay, while the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Terry Shannon, will be joined by a team of fellow councillors to tackle the team relay course.

Finally, watch out for RTÉ fitness expert and Cork City Marathon Race Ambassador Karl Henry, best known for his role on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation, who will be competing in the full marathon.