Introducing a Neater RacePix.com

Over the past few days RacePix.com has released a number of changes to the look and feel of the website. It may appear that not much has changed  when you first look at the home page, it has only changed from

To

But looking further in a lot has gone on. The developments include new buttons and fonts, better picture presentation, improved layouts with more spacing and a mobile-friendly responsive design.

Being kind, RacePix.com functioned if you really, really wanted to find them elusive marathon photos on your mobile phone. I can only imagine in the days after the race, people sitting at work, legs aching, scrolling through thousands upon thousands of photos and cursing me for never having considered this situation. Well, now I have and I give you the mobile friendly RacePix.com!

The new layout isn't only mobile friendly but tablet friendly too. No matter what device you decide to use when looking for race photos RacePix.com should now have you covered.

Clutter Clear Out

Another welcome addition to RacePix.com is extra space. On the previous layout there was a lot of wasted real estate. Now on every page there is more room to see what’s really important on a given page. The benefits of this can really be seen on the Race Calendar and if you’re looking for information on future races.

Photographers.

It isn’t so long since the Photographer Portal was introduced to existing contributors. This section affects how photos from third party services are pushed to the RacePix.com. Up until now most photos were tagged with unique code and RacePix.com searched to find these photos around the web. This led to issues as sometimes a typo in a tag meant that the photo couldn't be found by RacePix.com searches. Now a photographer can simply login to RacePix.com and link their photos from Facebook, Flickr, Zenfolio, Google Picasa (and more to come) to Galleries on RacePix.com.
New features are in the pipe line to be introduced to this portal to give photographers more insight and control over their photos on RacePix.com.

Feedback

As RacePix.com is targeted at photographers and race participants I value the feedback and ideas to the services offered from both. Please feel free to drop me a mail about any issues you have using RacePix.com. I've also opened up a forum where users can suggest new ideas or improvements to RacePix.com and vote on ideas submitted by others. I'll continuously monitor this and try my best to implement the most popular. Check out the ideas of fellow RacePix.com users.

Darren

RacePix on the Road: Belfast Marathon Photos

I like this time of year – the time where I get to combine my photo taking at races with weekend breaks away. First up – Northern Ireland and the Belfast City Marathon. This one I properly milked as the race falls on the May bank holiday weekend which meant I got to spend extra time taking in the sights of Belfast and surrounds. Some good learning was done about the Titanic and more importantly some good food was eaten in some fine Belfast eateries.

All the relaxing didn’t stop me from making it to the start line before 9 to see the crowds gather in front of City Hall

Thousands, upon thousands start the Belfast Marathon, Relay and 9 Mile Walk

After checking out of the hotel I made tracks towards the 24 mile mark just in time to see the leaders cruise by, not a bother in the world to them!

RacePix in Action at the side of the road.

Find photos from the Belfast Marathon 2013 on RacePix.

To keep up with the travels of RacePix on the Road follow RacePix on Instagram.

Next stop Cork…

That Awkward Moment...

... when you hand your camera to someone and they take a better picture than you!

It has come up before and I hoped it wouldn’t happen again. Before it was handing the camera to RacePix’s Mum while I took part in the Dunboyne 4 mile road race. While I raced she pointed the camera and clicked and clicked. One of her photos that day ended up in a local newspaper!

This time I was taking photos at the Great Ireland Run. RacePix’s Wife was at the sidelines, offering support to the masses going by. As I can’t multi camera after a while I asked her to take a few photos with my phone so that I could possibly stick one or two up on my twitter account. The result...

Photo Copyright RacePix's Wife!

For more live RacePix.com race photos follow us on Instagram

Irish Running Tweets of The Week #2

In the latest edition of Irish Tweets of the Week we look at the AAI Road Relays as they happened, the announcement of Athletics Ireland newest Endurance Coach, results that were tweeted from around Ireland and upcoming races.

AAI Announces new Endurance Coach

Athletics: Jones set for AAI coach job independent.ie/sport/other-sp…”
— John Maye (@JohnPMaye) April 5, 2013

Reading: "Chris Jones Named as Athletics Ireland National Endurance Coach"( twitthis.com/zd4r9r )
— Feidhlim Kelly (@FeidhlimKelly) April 5, 2013

High Performance Director Chris Jones departs for a new role. We wish him the best of luck for the future. triathlonireland.com/index.php?id=1…
— Triathlon Ireland (@tri_ireland) April 5, 2013

Results

Results from 2013 Senior Road Race in Athletics Wexford. wexfordathletics.com/clubs/all-club…
— Athletics Wexford (@WexfordAthletic) April 7, 2013

Meath Athletics: Mullaghmeen Hill Run 2013 meathathletics.blogspot.com/2013/04/mullag…
— Ciaran Tobin (@tobtrim) April 7, 2013

Results of the Cork BHAA UCC 10k road race...Sun 7th Apr 2013 dlvr.it/3Bp83G
— Cork Running (@corkrunning) April 7, 2013

AAI Road Relays

Raheny and Athlone Ready for National Relay Championships athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=313…
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) April 3, 2013

DSD win the senior women's title after a thrilling sprint finish with Raheny 2nd and Crusaders in 3rd #nationalroadrelays
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) April 7, 2013

Last lap neck and neck. C'mon Cillian! #nationalroadrelays twitter.com/brianhc/status…
— BHC (@brianhc) April 7, 2013

Sligo AC storm to victory in the senior men's race ahead of Raheny and Clonliffe in 3rd #nationalroadrelays
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) April 7, 2013

New Issue of Irish Runner

Happy days .. look what's out this weekend in the shops!! @gociaran on front cover plus all the latest in #running twitter.com/IrishRunnerMag…
— Irish Runner Mag. (@IrishRunnerMag) April 5, 2013

Upcoming Races

Come out and support this years Great Pink Run on Sat 31st August at 10h00 in Pheonix Park greatpinkrun.ie twitter.com/GreatPinkRun/s…
— Great Pink Run (@GreatPinkRun) April 5, 2013

Only 100 days to showtime!! mortongames.ie/only-100-days-…
— Morton Games (@MortonGames) April 7, 2013

To be included in future Irish Running Tweets of the week simply follow @RacePixCom and tweet us the following message "Include Me #IrishRunningTweetsOfTheWeek".

Follow @RacePixCom

Irish Running Tweets of the Week

This week features results from Wexford and Omagh, the funding controversy and news from Cork.

To be included in future Irish Running Tweets of the week simply follow @RacePixCom and tweet us the following message "Include Me #IrishRunningTweetsOfTheWeek".

Follow @RacePixCom

County Senior Road Race 2013 in Athletics Wexford. wexfordathletics.com/clubs/all-club…

— Athletics Wexford (@WexfordAthletic) March 31, 2013

Sophie competes at the All Irelands kilmoreathletics.com/2013/03/25/sop…

— Kilmore AC (@kilmoreac) March 25, 2013

Scullion & McGlynn win Omagh HM - Summary and Results now available at: nirunning.co.uk/news @scullionxc @eightlanenews @prefontaine375

— Ryan Maxwell (@NiRunning) March 30, 2013

Derval O’Rourke ‘disappointed’ by grants cut. more smart work there lads jrnl.ie/850144 @irishathletics

— thomas chamney (@madrasaysrelax) March 31, 2013

For anyone who missed it, here's the podcast to my radio interview on Shannonside Sportsbeat show last night shannonside.ie/sport/olympian…

— Colin Griffin (@colingriffin) March 26, 2013

Griffin will not compete after funding snub - Leitrim Sport - Leitrim Observer: leitrimobserver.ie/sport/leitrim-… #disgrace

— kevin english (@kevinenglish) March 28, 2013

Mardyke track to be renamed 'The Sonia O'Sullivan Track'... dlvr.it/38q8NB

— Cork Running (@corkrunning) March 30, 2013

New Photographer Portal

Facebook, Google, Flickr and Zenfolio all welcome.

April 2013 is a massive month for RacePix.com. Finally, Phase 1 of the new Photographer Portal is now live.  This signals the start of an easier way for photographers to contribute their photos to RacePix.com and from more sources than before. Photos sourced on Facebook, Flickr, Zenfolio and Picasa can now all be shared on RacePix.com

Up until now photographer’s had to tag photos a specific way on their own website to get them to appear on RacePix.com. While this worked well for many years it had drawbacks. The first being that the number of sources was restricted to those that allowed photographers to tag their photos in a way that the RacePix.com searches could find them. Typos and privacy settings on third party website that users weren’t aware of also meant that photos that the photographers wanted to appear on RacePix.com couldn’t.

Enter the Photographer Portal and simplicity to make things easier…

Now all a photographer has to do to get their photos to appear on RacePix.com is register with RacePix.com and synchronise their photos with RacePix.com. Already Registered? Then login to the portal.

Other features available for photographers include statistics such as Top Photo, Total Views, View this week and when their last photo was added. More instructions on how a photographer can add their photos from each of the available sources are available in the "How it Works" section of RacePix.com.

Tagging is about to become a thing of the past

While tagging won't be cut off just yet, we're envisaging it being largely removed by the end of June 2013.

Keep your eyes on the site over coming weeks and months for new features, big and small.

Holidays Are Coming!

It's that time of year again. Christmas and road racing tend to go hand in hand in Ireland. Surely only May can have more races per days of the month than December?

Last weekend things kicked off with the Jingle Bells 5km race in the Phoenix Park. Much like the first time you hear a "Fairy tale in New York" on the radio, the Jingle Bells 5km really does indicate that Christmas is just around the corner! The races up front were won by Paul Robinson  and Linda Byrne in cracking times, 14.18 and 15:55 respectively, but we can be sure that on such a perfect day that PBs were set throughout the field of 1,200 athletes.

In Dublin the Christmas themed races continue this weekend, the 8th December, with the Aware 10km taking place, again in the Phoenix Park. On the 16th Clonliffe Harriers will have their second annual "Christmas Cracker 5km", starting at Morton Stadium, Santry.

Over the days of Christmas the GOAL mile will be taking place nationwide. Be sure to check their website for information about your local event. Straight after Christmas the well established Fields of Athenry will give everyone a chance to run off the turkey on Stephen's Day.

What better way to start the New Year than by setting a marker in a 5km race. Liffey Valley AC provide the oppertunity in their annual Tom Brennan 5km race in the Phoenix Park. 

Dublin Road Races over Christmas

08 Dec - Aware 10km  - Phoenix Park
09 Dec - Santa Dash  10km - Bull Island
16 Dec - Clonliffe Christmas Cracker - Santry
01 Jan - Tom Brennan 5km - Phoenix Park

Galway Road Races over Christmas

26 Dec - Fields of Athenry 10km

Cork Marathon 2012 Photos

RoadTrip!!

The annual RacePix.com road trip to Cork is over now. Everything is done bar the uploading (which is well on course!).

Leaving in the lashings of rain on Sunday afternoon I made a last minute dash back inside to pick up my rain trousers. In the end the last dash should have been for the suncream and shades as the weather Gods well and truly played their part in what was a great event yet again. 

 Runners just after 3 miles...

 First Cork Man - Cillian O'Leary (4th Overall)

The Final 800m

All in all a craicing day... Expect RacePix to make the trip again next year!

All the photos from the Cork Marathon, Half Marathon and Relay

Bandon Half Marathon Photos and Results

Results

Half Marathon Senior Men

1. Kevin Wilmot (Bandon AC) 1:14:26
2. John Meade (St Finbars AC) 1:15:11
3. Eamonn O'Donovan (Bandon AC) 1:16:50

Half Marathon Senior Women

1. Carmel Crowley (Bandon AC) 1:25:12
2. Ann Marie Holland 1:26:03
3. Maura Regan (Eagle AC) 1:32:59

Full Results

10km Results Senior Men

1. Cathal O'Donnabhain (St Finbars) 34:06
2. Timothy Twomey (Leevale AC) 34:24
3. Michael Dullea 34:51

10km Results Senior Women

1. Catherine Keohane (Leevale) 43:21
2. Noreen Crowley 43:45
3. Denise Twohig (St Finbars) 44:04

Full Results

Photos

Bandon Half Marathon Photos

Dundalk Half Marathon Photos and Results

Results

Male Senior Half Marathon

1. Gary O' Hanlon 1:09:54

2. Karl Kildea 1:14:12

3. Don Travers 1:14:40

Women Senior Half Marathon

1. Aoife Parrella 1:32:19

2. Orla Gormley 1:33:49

3. Freda Comeiskey  1:35:19

Full Half Marathon Results

Photos

Dundalk Half Marathon and 10km Photos

Katie Taylor Endorses Terenure 5 Mile

Despite her busy schedule leading up to the London Olympics this summer, Katie Taylor recently took time out to meet some other special Olympians, - members of the Special Olympic South Dublin Sports Club.
It was all part of her enthusiastic endorsement of the Terenure 5 mile run on Sunday May 13th. which aims to raise €10,000 for Special Olympics (Eastern region).
The run, organised by Sportsworld Running Club, is on a 5 mile flat course around Terenure, Fortfield and Templeogue. Race organiser Trevor Lloyd says this is an ideal warm up for those entering the mini marathon being held just 3 weeks later. The race was formally launched last month by Lucinda Creighton, Minister for European Affairs who was one of the early entrants in the race.
With €5 of the entry fee going direct to Special Olympics and the 1st 1000 entrants being guaranteed a high quality technical tee shirt, a big turn-out is expected. Those wishing to have an enjoyable run while helping athletes less fortunate than most of us can register by logging on at www.terenure5mile.com

Google Picasa User? RacePix.com Welcomes You!

In the past I may have told a little white lie. I’d been saying that RacePix.com was able to search for photos from Google Picasa. I knew I “could” make it search for photos from Google but as no one was posting photos from there to RacePix.com I never quite finished it. That was until I received an email last Thursday from someone telling me they’d photos from the marathon available on their Picasa account, what did they need to do to make them appear on RacePix.com? Time to get my finger out and get this search functionality working…

I can happily now let you know, without a word of a lie, that RacePix.com searches Google Picasa for photos from races!

If you have photos what do you need to do?

The Google search has a few more rules that have to implemented compared to Flickr.

• First and foremost you’ll have to get in touch with RacePix.com and let us know your Picasa username to enable us to search your galleries.


• For every race that you take photos of create a new gallery on Picasa


• Tag the photos inside them galleries with the tags racepixcom and the unique race tag for each race. The unique race tag can be found on either the race calendar page or the gallery page of each race.

That’s all there is to it. Once you implement them simple steps your photos will appear on RacePix.com. If you’ve any problems or questions simply send us a mail and we’ll be sure to help you out.

RacePix.com is 3! Results and Photos

On a blustery day in Maynooth, Tallaght AC’s Thomas Fitzpatrick sealed victory in 14.49, collecting the Time Bonus of €400 by winning in less than 15 minutes. Tommy Evans of Gowran AC and Raheny Shamrock’s Feidhlim Kelly completed the podium spots. In the women’s race, Mary Hanley of Na Fianna held on to beat Charlotte Kearney of Donadea AC and Karen O’Hanlon of Dunboyne, as the three women finished in quick succession.

Photos and Results can be found on http://www.racepix.com/is3. Over the next few days more photos from DKPhoto will be added to the gallery on RacePix so be sure to check back in.

Special Thanks To...

All friends and family who lent a hand.
Le Cheile AC for providing marshals on the day
The Business Houses Athletics Association for the use of their PA System, Clock and Jeep.
Peter Mooney and Family for getting photos from the race up pronto to the site.
You guys for taking part!

Prizes

Male
1st Thomas Fitzpatrick (Tallaght AC) 14.49
2nd Tommy Evans (Gowran AC) 15.19
3rd Feidhlim Kelly (Raheny Shamrocks) 15:52
Female
1st Mary Hanley (Na Fianna)
2nd Charlotte Kearney (Donadea Running Club)
3rd Karen O’Hanlon (Dunboyne AC)
Vet Winners
Men - Terry McConnon (Rathfarnham WSAF)
Women - Sandra Armstrong (Sportsworld Terenure)
Mixed Team
Rathfarnham WSAF

Final Race Day Instructions

RacePix.com is 3! 5km Fun Run and Race

The race date is almost here and I for one am starting to get excited! Below are all the instructions you should need for getting to NUI Maynooth, where to park, pick up your number etc.

If you've any friends or clubmates that would be interested in taking part we'll have registration available on the day and the online registration will remain open until 21:00 on Friday 21st October. http://www.racepix.com/is3.

Number Pick Up
You'll collect your race number and timing chip from the Sports Hall on the North Campus in NUI Maynooth from 9.30am to 10.45am. This is located on the North Campus and will be sign posted on the morning. The hall is located 5 minutes from the race start, so please give yourself plenty of time to get to the start.

Directions to North Campus NUI Maynooth and Parking

Please note that there will be free parking on the North Campus of NUI Maynooth on the race day. Pay and Display is in operation on the south campus so we recommend using the North - especially considering it's closer to the Sports Hall.

• The distance to Maynooth from Dublin is 15 miles and takes approximately 30 minutes Leave Dublin City Centre, going west on the R111 and take the N4 (signposted The West)
• Continue straight on the M4. Leave motarway on the exit signposted Straffan, Naas, Maynooth, then at the roundabout take the 3rd exit: Road - R406(sign posted Maynooth)
• Continue straight to Maynooth village. At the traffic lights in the square turn left onto the R148 (signposted Dublin).
• Turn right at the traffic lights at the Roost. Follow the main road as it turns left out of the town. The North Campus is clearly signposted a few hundred metres along this road on your right.

Changing Facilities

Changing facilities and showers are available beside registration, about 5 minutes from the race start.

Baggage Drop

During the race bags can be left in the Sports hall. There will be members from the organisation team present in the hall at all times. All bags are left at the owners risk and we take no responsibility for the loss or damage to any personal belongings.

The Race

The race will start at 11am sharp. Please make sure you've given yourself enough time to get the start line from the Sports Hall. As the race is 3 laps we'd ask all runners to know how many they've done to make sure they do the full 5km.

We'd ask all entrants to be aware of fellow runners and if you are being lapped to please keep to the right hand side of the course.

Prizes

Prize are available for the first 3 men and women finishers, first team of 4 (teams must be comprised of at least one female), and first male and female veteran finishers (aged 40 and above). A Time Bonus (kindly sponsored by Springwools) of €400 is available to both first male and female finishers if they can finish in under 15:00 (Male) or 15:50 (Female).
Prize giving will take place 45 minutes after the first finisher in the Sports Hall.

After Race Refreshments

Everyone is invited to come back to the sports hall after the race for complementary refreshments. The more the merrier - there's a lot of biscuits and tea to get through!!

We'll also have one or two spot prizes to give away which will be take place during the refreshments.

Find the event on Facebook and invite your friends to come join the party!

XC Does It!

Cross Country, similar to the unwanted house guest, who over stays his welcome and uses all your toiletries, is back!

A few small meets have taken place in the last weekend of September, before we got our three day Summer, but the real mudfests begin in October...

The BHAA get their Winter show on the road in the grounds of Castleknock college on the 8th October. All the AAI Championships start pretty soon after that with county Novice races by and large taking place at the beginning of October. If there isn't enough oppertunities for you to get down and dirty in October the annual Gerry Farnan XC race will be taking place on the second last Sunday, the 23rd.

The following calendar includes a few highlights for y'all this winter. Feel free to mail me or add comments with any other races or regional championship dates that I didn't manage to find.

02 Oct 2011 - Dublin Novice - Phoenix park
02 Oct 2011 - Wicklow Novice xc - Rathdrum
08 Oct 2011 - BHAA Teachers - Castleknock
09 Oct 2011 - Cork Novice - Conna
16 Oct 2011 - Wicklow Intermediate - Roundwood
23 Oct 2011- Gerry Farnan / Masters Trials - Phoenix Park, Dublin.
23 Oct 2011- Munster Novice - Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare
30 Oct 2011- Leinster Novice - Belvedere House, Mullingar

06 Nov 2011 - Dublin Senior - Santry
06 Nov 2011 - Cork Senior - Bandon
13 Nov 2011- Leinster Intermediate - Adamstown, Wexford
13 Nov 2011 - Munster Intermediate
20 Nov 2011 - Dublin Intermediate - Tymon Park
20 Nov 2011 - Munster Masters
26 Nov 2011 - Bhaa NSRT/Smart - The Ward
27 Nov 2011- AAI Intercounty Championships - Sligo

11 Dec 2011- AAI Novice Championships - The Curragh, Co. Kildare

15 Jan 2012 - Dublin Masters
22 Jan 2012– Leinster Senior – St Senan’s, Co. Kilkenny – 12noon

Feb 2012 - National Intermediate
Feb 2012 - National Senior