The 26th North West 10k will be formally launched this week by 2022 race winner Mark Greenan of Letterkenny AC.
The 26th North West 10k will take place on the Bank Holiday Monday, May 1st in Letterkenny
Further details of the event will be announced this Monday evening in the Mount Errigal Hotel at 7pm, where Chairperson Neil Martin will also reveal the benefiting charities.
A total of €66,000 was raised last year with the three benefitting charities receiving €22,000 each. The overall total raised since the Northwest 10k started in 1997 is now €903,000 euros, benefitting 26 charities organisations.
Online entries are now being taken for May’s charity event by going to northwest10k.com where runners and walkers will find all the information required.
Northwest 10k Chairperson Neil Martin said he is looking forward to naming the benefitting charities at Monday night’s launch. Work for the 2023 event began before Christmas when expressions of interest were sought from charities in Donegal. “We interviewed the charities that expressed an interest some weeks ago and outlined the volume of work that would be required. It is a big undertaking and it takes a lot of volunteers to make it a successful fundraiser for any charity” Mr Martin said.
He also expressed his appreciation to the five sponsors: DonegalDaily.com, Brian McCormick Interpsports, Century Cinemas, the Mount Errigal Hotel and the Value Centre.
Mr Martin also acknowledged the work done annually by the Gardai under the direction of Sergeant Eunan Walsh who worked closely with the 10k Traffic and Route Management members Neily McDaid and Brendan McDaid. “It takes a big team to run the event on the day so we have chief stewards and they need over 60 marshals to cover the route. The Gardai’s expertise is vital to ensuring the safe running of the 10k. Every year we acknowledge the public and residents of Letterkenny for their continued support, despite some inconvenience during the day and this is much appreciated. We also have all the other sponsors who are listed on the sponsor cards who we want to thank again. Our committee does great work and shows great commitment to the North West 10k every year” Mr Martin said.
The North West 10k Charity Run & Walk moved to a new date for the event last year.
The popular event is now taking place on the May Bank Holiday Monday with an 11 a.m. start. That’s a change from the traditional Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon start of 2 p.m. The decision was taken primarily on health and safety grounds. The 2021 charity event was a virtual event due to Covid and the 2020 run and walk did not go ahead at all due to the pandemic. However, a review of the previous couple of years found that a huge increase in vehicular traffic on the Sunday was posing additional risks to managing the race safely for runners and walkers.
North West 10k Chairperson Neil Martin said that an analysis of running the event on the Bank Holiday Monday morning was carried out and clearly showed a lot less traffic on the routes around the town used by the organisers. “We had the first test of moving to the Bank Holiday Monday and it went well last year so we’re sticking with that. We will do a further review as we always do and see what the feedback is then regarding the change of day,” Mr Martin concluded.
