Excitement building in Cork for The Echo Women's Mini Marathon

With just over one week to go, excitement is building ahead of The Echo Women’s Mini Marathon 2025.

Now in its 44th year, the event, hosted by Cork Athletics, takes place on Sunday, September 21.

One of the most popular sporting and social events on the Cork city calendar, the event raises an estimated €1.5m for local, national and international charities annually.

Mary Corcoran, editor of WoW! in The Echo, said: “Every year thousands of women from right across Cork take part in The Echo Women’s Mini Marathon and in doing so, support a host of charities close to their hearts.

“We’re counting down the days to this year’s event and can’t wait to see everyone at the start line on Sunday, September 21.”

The Echo Women’s Mini Marathon is the largest event of its kind in Munster, and this year returns to its traditional route, including the larger part of the Marina, which was closed for the 2023 and 2024 events.

Covering 6k (3.73 miles), the event will kick off at 1pm on Centre Park Road, a change from Kennedy Quay the last couple of years, with runners lining up immediately behind the start line, followed by walkers and then the buggy walkers.

The wheelchair participants will start at 12:45pm, 15 minutes ahead of the main field.

Ken Smyth, from Cork Athletics, said that The Echo Women’s Mini Marathon is a showpiece event in the annual calendar.

“We have put a lot of work in. We actually had our first meeting in November last year for this year’s race. But preparations have been going well. This event is very important for Cork Athletics and it is very important for the charities as well.

“This started out as an athletics event over 40 years ago and if you weren’t into road running or an athlete, you had no business going to it. 

"Now over 40 years later, it has morphed into something completely different. We’d expect on September 21 to have a couple of hundred really good athletes. We’d have hundreds more club athletes.”

Last year, organisers created a special charity meeting point, where participants from various groups could meet on the morning of the race and where charities could showcase their activities.

They have now confirmed that they plan to host a charity meeting point again this year at the Marina Market from 10.30am on the morning of the race.

The Echo, which has been involved with the mini marathon since its inception, is equally proud of this great event.

Online registration for this year’s event is open right up until Saturday September 20 at 6pm.

To register, see www.echolive.ie/minimarathon/