Director Healy pleased with minor moves to improve mini success
Tuesday June 02 2009
After completing his first year as race director of the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon, Pat Healy was a happy man.
“We made a few improvements. For instance, we made a better attempt to segregate the walkers from the joggers after watching videos of last year’s race. We could see that we had a big problem with congestion at one corner, so we have tried our best to improve that,” said Healy.
“We also moved the DJ stage a bit at the start and a few other minor things. The basics of the race don’t change much – they are tried and tested.”
One innovation this year was the charity village, a series of large tents located on Merrion Street opposite Leinster House.
“We had seen it at other races,” said Frank Slevin, one of the race founders and the former race director who remains a consultant to the organising committee.
“It’s a meet, greet and treat area. The women on charity teams can come and collect their numbers here and afterwards, return to the tent and get a drink and let everyone know how they’ve got on.
“It’s a great idea and we think it will grow in years to come.”
By 5pm yesterday, the start area, organised by Richard Slevin, was already dismantled and the cars were back on the roads. For the organisers, however, there would be only a brief break before a debriefing on everything that happened this year.
Then the planning for next year’s 28th race will begin!
