Dublin City Half Marathon — May 3
- Seán Tobin and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill won the Dublin City Council Dublin City Half Marathon on Sunday, May 3, as about 13,000 runners crossed Dublin. - Tobin ran 63:11 and Nic Dhomhnaill 71:25, with both marks reported as new course records on the race’s second running. - The race shifted from March to the May bank holiday this year, bringing bigger citywide closures and a more manageable weekend slot.
Road race news can sound like civic boilerplate — closures, diversions, support zones, all that. But the real story in Dublin on Sunday, May 3, was that the city’s half marathon has started to look like a serious fixture, not a one-off novelty. The second Dublin City Council Dublin City Half Marathon drew about 13,000 runners, started on O’Connell Street at 8:30 a.m., and produced course-record wins for Seán Tobin and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill. That matters because this event is still new, and new mass races do not automatically become part of a city’s calendar. ### What happened on the roads? The race covered the standard 21.1 km half-marathon distance, heading out through Dublin’s northside before finishing on Guild Street in the north-east inner city. Organizers had billed it as a sold-out event, and the city put a full traffic plan around Howth Road, Fairview, Malahide Road, and the Samuel Beckett Bridge. Pedestrian access stayed open, but for drivers and bus users this was a real city-shaping event for the morning and early afternoon. ### Who actually won it? Tobin of Clonmel AC took the men’s race in 63 minutes 11 seconds. Nic Dhomhnaill of West Limerick AC took the women’s race in 71 minutes 25 seconds — though one local report listed 1:11:24, basically a one-second discrepancy that shows up sometimes in early race coverage. The important part is that both were first home, and multiple reports say both times reset the course records. ### Why do the records matter? Because this was only the race’s second edition. In a brand-new event, a fast winning time tells you whether elite runners are taking it seriously and whether the course can produce strong performances. Tobin’s 63:11 was described as a course record, and Nic Dhomhnaill’s winning jump, not a marginal trim. It gives the race instant credibility. ### Why was the city so disrupted? Basically, because a half marathon is long enough to spread across a huge chunk of a city, but compact enough that organizers want it on central roads people actually recognize. Dublin’s plan closed “various locations
