This weekend’s fourth annual Affidea Rock ‘n’ Roll Dublin Half Marathon has come close to doubling its participation numbers from last year’s race, according to race organizers. The event will see more than 13,000 runners take part, compared to the 7,168 entrants that crossed last year’s finish line. “One of our goals this year was to also increase the local participation,” said Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series VP of Global Events Stacey Campbell, who attributes part of the growth to a local PR campaign. The Rock ‘n’ Run Idol competition encouraged local runners to submit personal stories on their goals and motivations for running. After around 15,000 votes were cast, the winner, along with a guest, won a trip to attend the series’ Las Vegas event in November. “The local market really loved that story,” Campbell said. “It helped us a lot to just constantly be in the media here.” While Campbell thinks the contest helped boost local participation numbers, the race demographic still remains a close 50-50 split between local and int’l participants, something Campbell says has remained fairly consistent over the years. “We obviously grew the numbers this year,” she said. “We just have more people in both [demographics]. … Percentage-wise it has pretty much stayed the same, which is interesting and also a good thing.” Campbell said the popularity of the series’ Liverpool race, which took place in May, also provided a boost to the Dublin event, with more than 2,000 participants signing up for both events this year. “There’s a huge crossover between those two events,” Campbell said. Sunday''s race will be its first with new title sponsor Affidea. The European medical service provider signed a three-year deal with the Rock 'n' Roll-branded event earlier this year, making the company the first-ever to hold naming rights to the race. Financial details about the partnership were not made public.
