Average marathon times in Ireland in 2023

Average marathon times in Ireland in 2023

This report is a follow-up article after the report published by Marathon Coach Online on the average marathon times in Ireland in 2022. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the marathons that took place in Ireland in 2023, the average finishing times for men and women and the factors that influenced the performance of the runners.

Marathons in Ireland in 2023

There were 18 marathons in Ireland in 2023, covering various locations, terrains, and seasons. The table below summarizes the main information about each marathon, including the date, location, distance, elevation, and number of participants.

Date	Marathon	Location	Elevation	Participants	Size
18 March	Tralee Marathon	Tralee, Co Kerry	250 m	112	0%
4 March	Kinvara Rock’n’Road	Kinvara	230 m	114	0%
25 March	Roscommon Marathon	Roscommon	350 m	53	0%
1 April	Wesport marathon	Wesport	400 m	160	1%
23 April	Connemara Marathon	Connemara, Co Galway	250 m	422	2%
30 April	Great Limerick Run	Limerick City	150 m	806	3%
30 April	Belfast Marathon	Belfast	250 m	3,345	13%
20 May	Lap of the Gap Marathon	Laragh, Wicklow	750 m	142	1%
4 June	Cork City Marathon	Cork City	300 m	1,746	7%
27 May	Clare Burren Marathon Challenge	Ballyvaughan, Co Clare	500 m	200	1%
10 June	Portumna Forest Marathon	Portumna	100 m	74	0%
17 June	Waterford Viking Marathon	Waterford City	200 m	358	1%
27 August	Longford Marathon	Longford Town	150 m	199	1%
2 September	Dingle Marathon	Dingle, Co Kerry	350 m	670	3%
16 September	Kilkenny medieval marathon	Kilkenny	250 m	137	1%
7 October	Galway Bay Run	Galway City	100 m	421	2%
29 October	Irish Life Dublin Marathon	Dublin City	250 m	16,413	64%
25 November	Clonakilty waterfront Marathon	Clonakilty	300 m	222	1%

The total number of marathon runners in Ireland in 2023 was 25,594, which was a 16% increase from the previous year (22,000). 7,454 Women (29%) and and 18,119 men (71%) ran a marathon in Ireland in 2023 . The most popular marathon was the Irish Life Dublin Marathon, which sold out months ago and had a capacity of 22,500 entries, but only 16,413 runners finished the race. The least popular marathon was the Roscommon Marathon, which had only 53 participants.

Average finishing times for men and women

The average marathon finishing time in Ireland in 2023 was:

4:14′

It was a slight improvement from the previous year (4:16′).

The average finishing time for women was 4:36′, and for men was 4:05′.

Fastest Irish marathon runners

In fact, the fastest Irish runners did not compete only in Ireland in 2023:
– Fionnuala MCCORMACK ran in 2:26’19” in Valencia, Spain.
– Stephen SCULLION ran 2:11’51” in Dublin.

In the women fastest marathon runners, we find 2 athletes from Galway City Harriers:

Place	Competitor	Marathon time
1	Fionnuala MCCORMACK	02:26:19
2	Ann-Marie MCGLYNN	02:34:13
3	Aoife COOKE	02:36:50
4	Gladys GANIEL	02:37:08
5	Grace LYNCH	02:41:20
6	Sorcha LOUGHNANE	02:45:31
7	Isobel OAKES	02:46:32
8	Rachel BIRT	02:48:08
9	Kate PURCELL	02:51:05
10	Emma FUREY	02:51:49
11	Alicia HUDELSON	02:52:13
12	Maebh BRANNIGAN	02:53:53
13	Jan CORCORAN	02:54:53
14	Fiona MCQUILLAN	02:56:02
15	Neasa DE BURCA	02:56:10

The top Irish marathon runners :

Place	Competitor	Marathon time
1	Stephen SCULLION	02:11:51
2	Ryan CREECH	02:13:03
3	Ryan FORSYTH	02:14:43
4	Hiko Tonosa HASO	02:15:01
5	Conor DUFFY	02:17:51
6	Martin HOARE	02:18:57
7	William MAUNSELL	02:19:50
8	Sean DOYLE	02:20:58
9	Sergiu CIOBANU	02:23:09
10	Sean RENFER	02:23:10
11	Michael FOX	02:24:59
12	Gary O’HANLON	02:26:33
13	Timothy O’DONOGHUE	02:26:51
14	Kyle DOHERTY	02:22:59

Fastest marathon ran in Ireland

If we look only at the marathon ran in Ireland, we have the top 10 finishers :

Position	Name	Club	Category	Chip Time	Marathon
1	Amente Sorome Negash		FS	02:26:21	Dublin
2	Joan Kipyatich		FS	02:27:02	Dublin
3	Genet Abdurkadir		FS	02:27:48	Dublin
4	Peninah Jerop		FS	02:29:04	Dublin
5	Ann-Marie Mc Glynn	LETTERKENNY A.C.	F40	02:34:11	Dublin
6	Hanane Qallouj		FS	02:34:32	Dublin
7	Hawi Megersa		FS	02:35:58	Dublin
8	Gladys Ganiel	NORTH BELFAST HARRIERS	F45	02:37:06	Dublin
9	Shewaye WOLDEMESKEL		FS	02:37:20	Belfast
10	Gladys GANIEL	North Belfast Harriers	F45	02:41:20	Belfast
21	Maebh Brannigan	GALWAY CITY HARRIERS A.C.	FS	02:53:51	Dublin

Thanks to Richard Peyton for this great photo montage with the top 10 ladies in Dublin Marathon 2023:

For the male, the fastest marathon runners ran in Dublin:

Position	Name	Club	Category	Chip Time	Marathon
1	Kemal Husen		MS	02:06:50	Dublin
2	Geofrey Kusuro		MS	02:10:44	Dublin
3	Stephen Scullion	CLONLIFFE HARRIERS A.C.	MS	02:11:51	Dublin
4	Kimal Brimin Kipruto		MS	02:11:54	Dublin
5	Asefa Bekele		MS	02:11:56	Dublin
6	Fikre Workneh		M35	02:14:01	Dublin
7	Ryan Creech	LEEVALE A.C.	MS	02:14:07	Dublin
8	Ryan Forsyth	NEWCASTLE & DISTRICT A.C.	MS	02:14:42	Dublin
9	Arne Agten		MS	02:19:23	Dublin
10	William Maunsell	CLONMEL A.C.	M35	02:19:49	Dublin
294	Louis Coyne	GALWAY CITY HARRIERS A.C.	M40	02:47:47	Dublin

The Galway City Harriers team 2023 :

Galway City Harriers marathon runners

In 2023, the athletes of the Galway City Harriers club ran internationally and in Ireland. The average time for the GCH athletes was 3:26′ in 2023 (3:43′ for Women and 3:16′ for Men).

We had the following results :

Analyse by time

Looking at the women results (7,454 women), only 0.6% finished an Irish marathon sub 3hours. The results are very similar than the 2022 results.

Time	number of women runner	percentage
sub 2h30	4	0.05%
sub 3h00	45	0.60%
sub 3h30	444	6%
sub 4h00	1,893	25%
sub 4h30	3,793	51%
sub 5h00	5,467	73%
sub 5h30	6,456	87%
sub 6h00	6,971	94%

For men (18,119 men), 6% finished the marathon sub 3hours in Ireland.

Time	number of male runner	percentage
sub 2h30	43	0.24%
sub 3h00	1,086	6%
sub 3h30	4,137	23%
sub 4h00	9,362	52%
sub 4h30	13,364	74%
sub 5h00	16,008	88%
sub 5h30	17,168	95%
sub 6h00	17,739	99%

It may be easier to visualyse the finishing times on this chart:

Analysis by Age group

This analysis is very interesting for older runners like me and is looking at the times by age group. Starting with the women :

Category	min	average	MAX	nr of finisher
FS	02:26:21	04:35:35	08:38:42	2,017
F35	02:55:16	04:28:14	07:28:39	946
F40	02:34:11	04:28:16	07:50:35	1,502
F45	02:37:06	04:33:10	07:43:16	1,397
F50	03:09:30	04:42:55	07:49:41	855
F55	03:11:24	04:52:45	07:43:17	453
F60	03:08:21	05:11:07	08:23:23	181
F65	03:34:05	05:34:35	07:45:33	48
F70	03:37:37	06:06:31	07:50:44	27
F75	05:53:47	06:17:33	06:29:19	4
F80	06:26:29	06:26:29	06:26:29	1

Looking now at the results by age group, men results in 2023 were :

Category	min	average	MAX	nr of finisher
MS	02:06:50	04:08:29	07:59:30	5,334
M35	02:14:01	03:58:11	07:19:53	3,026
M40	02:19:56	03:57:30	08:03:01	3,242
M45	02:26:31	04:00:10	07:31:45	2,856
M50	02:29:01	04:10:55	07:22:46	1,815
M55	02:45:46	04:22:11	07:49:40	1,041
M60	02:52:29	04:32:01	07:17:03	437
M65	02:54:59	04:46:22	07:43:37	170
M70	03:08:49	05:19:46	08:05:28	72
M75	04:06:04	05:50:27	08:05:24	18
M80	04:57:32	06:36:27	07:30:52	7

My own 2023 marathon

In 2023, I came back to race half-marathons and one marathon, in Limerick. I struggled after 30km but was happy to race again sub 3 hours. I ran this marathon in 2h51’38”. With this result I placed in the top 3% in Limerick :
– It was the 458th time overall in Ireland in 2023 (top 2%)
– 2h51’38” was the 440th male time (top 3%)
– It was the 70th time in the M45 category (top 3%)

Fastest marathon worldwide

In the world the fastest Marathon runners in 2023 were :

Women 2023 top list

2:11:53	Tigist Assefa (ETH)	Berlin	24 September
2:13:44	Sifan Hassan (NED)	Chicago	8 October
2:15:37	Ruth Chepngetich (KEN)	Chicago	8 October
2:15:51	Worknesh Degefa (ETH)	Valencia	3 December
2:16:22	Almaz Ayana (ETH)	Valencia	3 December

Men 2023 top list

2:00:35	Kelvin Kiptum (KEN)	Chicago	8 October
2:01:48	Sisay Lemma (ETH)	Valencia	3 December
2:02:42	Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)	Berlin	24 September
2:03:11	Alexander Mutiso Munyao (KEN)	Valencia	3 December
2:03:13	Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich (KEN)	Berlin	24 September

More details from World Athletics on their article.

Conclusion

If you want to improve your marathon performance, run your first marathon or change your training plan, contact me and I can prepare your dedicated training plan.

What was your marathon time in 2023, was it faster than my 2h51’38”? Was it faster than the average marathon time in Ireland (4h14′)?

I will train for a faster marathon in 2024, I hope to see you on the finih line…