Waterford Viking Marathon takes centre stage this Sunday

All roads lead to Ireland's oldest city on Sunday morning next (June 26th) as the eagerly awaited Waterford Viking Marathon returns for the first time since 2019.

Last year saw a virtual event take place due to the pandemic but it's all systems go for this weekend with the full, half and quarter events all taking place on what's set to be a great occasion. It'll all get underway from the mall at 9 am where WLR will be broadcasting live.

Over two thousand runners are set to descend on the Deise for what will be the tenth running (pardon the pun!) of the event and Joe Cawley (Race Director) told WLR Sport that it's a great feeling; "We're delighted to be back, we were all fed up and sick of Covid so this is our first event back since and it's great to be back. As everybody knows when your organising events like that, it's all in the planning and there's an awful lot of planning after going ahead on this".

New Route for this year's event

Following a review of the route at committee level, it's been decided the 2022 Marathon will both start AND finish in the City. It's hoped that this will add to the excitement for runners and spectators alike. Joe Cawley who featured on last Monday's "On The Ball" outlined the new route "There's going to be a small loop around town before we come down the mall again and out the Quay, over the two bridges and onto the Greenway. Then up off the Greenway at Carriganore over the Kilmeaden Road, back down at Killers there in Woodstown, the half marathon turns back then and the full marathon heads out towards Carroll's Cross, turns around and comes back in and heads back into town to a fantastic finish outside the Waterford brewery on Grattan Quay".

There will be a friendly welcome for everyone in our wonderful city on June 26th 🎉@wlrfm #wvm #wvm2022 #marathon #Waterford pic.twitter.com/VkFtmyKx4B

— Waterford V Marathon (@WVMarathon) June 13, 2022

Traffic

It will be busy in and around the city at the start of the race which will see the walkers and wheelchair participants off at 8:30am, while the runners get underway at 9am where Mayor Joe Kelly will get proceedings underway. "There will be a number of roads closed" said Joe Cawley. "There will be rolling closures around town between 9 and 10 o' clock but basically the marathon will be out of town by 10am". The public are advised to respect the runners on right and to obey the large volume of stewards and Gardaí that will be on duty for this huge event, let's make it a great day for Waterford!

Massive Team Effort

Joe Cawley also paid tribute to the massive team effort at committee level that's gone into the preparation of the race and all that goes with it; "These events don't happen overnight, we've volunteers out there that have given up their Sunday time, I'd like to thank them. I'd also encourage people to the finish, it's the first time we've finished in town, people have been crying out for it to finish in town and this year is the year that we got to finish in town".

It promises to be a great setting with wonderful scenery throughout the route as well. Don't forget we will be live from the city on Sunday morning to bring you all the race build-up as the runners head off, plenty of coverage throughout the day as well and we'll have reaction on Monday evening's "On The Ball" from 6:10pm. Good luck to all the participants and event organisers!