The most recent website to have their gallery powered by RacePix.com is that of central Dublin's Liffey Valley AC. Although this time we didn't stop with just the gallery. RacePix.com took full responsibility for the redesign of the site, adding in a host of new features including a recent news section, upcoming races, past race results, and the gallery (of course!). The goal was to create a site that could be fully maintained by anyone, especially those who have no prior website editing experience,  who is comfortable sending emails and using simple word processors.  

It was very important to Liffey Valley that their old photos, results, news and reports from previous years would not be lost and could be easily added to the site. This was taken care of and a simple search engine was added to allow members to browse through old results and news by both date and text search. This way members can search the news for all articles and results that their own name appears in.

If your club or race would like their website gallery to be powered for free by RacePix.com then simply Contact Darren for more details. Other clubs that have taken advantage of this offer include Sportsworld Terenure, Gowran AC, Donore Harriers, and Waterford AC.

About Liffey Valley AC

LVAC are located in Islandbridge near the War Memorial Gardens and are open to new athletes of all standards, both Men and Women. All training sessions take place in the nearby Phoenix Park with lots of trails and routes conducive to distance running and excellent for training. Organised training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm and Sunday at 10 am. Advice on training and racing is available from qualified NCTC coaches with experience up to International and Olympic Level.

The club can offer an excellent training environment whether you are a beginner or of international level, with a great club spirit and camaraderie that is unique to Liffey Valley. If you are interested in distance running and want to join a group who can offer organized training and racing facilities with top class advice to help your running why not come along to one of Liffey Valley’s sessions? Below are the scheduled training times:

All Year
Tuesday & Thursday 7pm Islandbridge
Sunday 10am Islandbridge

May - July Track Racing Season
Thursday 7.30pm ALSAA Dublin Airport

Website – http://www.liffeyvalleyac.com
Gallery Powered By RacePix.com

With the recent unscheduled break in racing about the place you'd be excused for thinking that RacePix.com was being as productive as Noel Dempsey.... Instead of being out taking photos at races, filtering photos and searching for photos, development over drive started here. Over the past while it had been noted that more and more people were arriving on RacePix.com looking for information about up and coming races. As we only featured photos of races that had already taken place their search proved fruitless. But thanks to that snow break all that has changed and RacePix.com now features a comprehensive race calendar. 

I've started populating the calendar with races from around Ireland. At the time of writing this I've added about 40 races between now and the start of May. Race directors are free to add the details about their races to the calendar. Race are not limited to Ireland only - if you have a race you want to promote then why not stick it up on the calendar? Each race can add details about the course, how to enter, links to online entry, to entry forms, contact details and once the race has taken place links to results can be added. 

If anyone has any suggestions for future additions to the site then holler this way. A few people have already been in touch with their ideas and everything is being taken on board. 

***IMPORTANT UPDATE***
Like many races throughout the country the Tom Brennan New Year's day race scheduled in the Phoenix Park has had to be called off due to the weather conditions and in the interest of safety for runners.

Further information from Nick Davis 01-837 8814 / 087 228 6913

** END UPDATE**

The 6th running of the Tom Brennan Memorial run takes place in the Phoenix Park on Friday 1st Jan 2010

Online Registration now open for all runners.

The route will be the same as last year's race, on an accurately measured, traffic free course entirely within the Phoenix Park.

There will be a t-shirt for the first 300 people registered. Prizes are available for the first 3 men and women, along with prizes for age categories and teams.

The race starts at 1pm. There are no changing facilities. Therefore, please arrive ready to run. Bags can be left at the owner's risk.

When: Friday January 1st 2010
Time: 1pm
Where: The Furze Road, Phoenix Park
Cost: €15 online or €20 on the day (online entry closes Dec 23rd) -

Prizes:
First Three Men and Women
First Three Men’s and Women’s Teams (3 to score)
First Veteran Men and Women 0/35, 40, 45, 50

Details:
- T-shirts to first 300 registrants
- Online registration closes Dec 23rd
- Entries on the day will be taken up to 60 minutes before race start
- Race numbers should be picked up on the day up to 60 minutes before race start
- Team declaration on the day

Results & Photos
Results will be available on the Liffey Valley AC website shortly after the finish of the race. Photographic coverage will be provided by RacePix.com

The ever popular GOAL Mile family event is taking place around the country this Christmas.GOAL Miles were held at 72 locations throughout the country last year, generating over €370,000 for the poorest of the poor. I'd encourage everyone to try get out for a quick mile over Christmas and support this worthy cause.

The RacePix.com mission this Christmas is to get as many photos as possible from various GOAL Mile locations. The more locations the better - Hopefully we'll have a collection of photos from around the country (and beyond) so we can see exactly how each place is celebrating Christmas. If you're out and about at one then take the camera, get a photo of the family and others taking part and post it here on facebook. I expect to get out to either of my local locations - I'm smack in the middle of Tallaght and UCD so I'll decide which one I'll be turning up at that morning.

View Goal Locations

The first GOAL mile, which was the brainchild of former GOAL chairperson and international athlete, Noel Carroll, took place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin in 1982. The following year it transferred to Belfield and has been there ever since, becoming an integral part of Christmas for the many families who take up the baton to help those less fortunate than themselves.

My latest copy of Irish Runner is filled with races over Christmas. It seems you can't escape from them. My local club, Liffey Valley AC, are hosting one on New Years day. Hopefully come 1 o'clock on the 1st of January I'll be in a fit state to cover the 5km in a respectable time. Sure what better way is there to run off the chocolates (mmmm roses!) and turkey from the past week?

The race takes place in the Phoenix Park, at the Furze Road, on Friday the 1st of January at 1pm. The first 300 registered get a free T-shirt. More details on the race and online booking is available on liffeyvalleyac.com.

Other races around the country this Christmas:
5 Dec - Jingle Bells Fun Run - Phoenix Park, Dublin - www
12 Dec - Aware 10km - Phoenix Park, Dublin - www
13 Dec - Cork BHAA Simon Charity Run - www
25 Dec - Goal Mile - Nationwide - www
26 Dec - Paddy Hyland Memorial 10km -  Claremont Stadium, Navan
26 Dec - The Bull Run 10km - Clontarf, Dublin
26 Dec - Dick Copithorne Memorial 4mile - Belgooly, Cork
26 Dec - Dungarvan GAA Charity Fun Run - Dungarvan
26 Dec - Wicklow 5km - CANCELLED
26 Dec - Fields of Athenry 10km - Galway - www
26 Dec - Tony O'Connell 4 mile - Clonmel
26 Dec - Green castle 5 mile - Greencastle, Antrim - www
26 Dec - Tinryland Turkey Trot Handicap - Carlow
26 Dec - Finnn Valley 5k - Donegal - www
27 Dec - Westport 5k - Mayo
28 Dec - Newcastle AC Christmas Cracker
1 Jan - Tom Brennan 5k - Phoenix Park, Dublin - www
 

Ok, so the page itself isn't new but the feature on the page is....

I've created a brand spanking new race calendar for the fan page which can be viewed here. The page contains both recent and upcoming races. If there's photos from a race on RacePix365.com then it'll appear in the recent races section - providing the race was recent of course. The upcoming races contains a list of races around Ireland, that can be searched by date and county. Each race links to a facebook event with details about the race. From there you can see who's going to the race, add yourself to the list, post comments on the race, invite friends and more. The great thing about this is that these race events don't have to be created by us. Anyone can create the event on facebook and simply post a link to it on the fanpage wall. Once the race has been verified it'll appear on the calendar.

Promote your race with a facebook event on the RacePix365.com fanpage....

For everyone out there who doesn't say "365" when talking about the site, this one is for you...

RacePix365.com now answers to RacePix.com!

Shorter and snappier. I gotta say, I like it. Never fear though, the 365 name will not disappear or stop working. If you've got the website or any pages from RacePix365.com saved in your favourites or bookmarks they'll still behave the same as always.

I hope everyone is training hard in these dark evenings. There's plenty of races coming up over the Christmas period - so keep up the good work.

Stay classy,

Darren

There I was sipping my coffee, flicking through the Dublin marathon edition of Irish Runner when the words "RacePix365.com" jumped out at me. What a surprise. A snippet about site in the running shorts, lovely stuff. Talk about making my Friday... well that and the fact that it was Friday made my Friday.

Besides a snippet on the RacePix365.com this edition features loads on the Dublin marathon, recovering from it and refocusing for the next goals. Theres also articles on the winner of the Dublin Half, Brian Maher and Euro XC hopefuls Mary Cullen, Mark Christie and Mark Kenneally.

You can pick up a copy from your local newsagents or online on the Athletics Association of Ireland's website.

In all the excitement of last week some fairly big news slipped under the raydar. What do you mean what excitement?! Honestly....

On Tuesday last I got notified that RacePix365.com was nominated in not one, but two categories in the annual Golden Spider Irish Internet Awards.

Firstly we're in the Best New Indigenous Website category along with seven other Irish websites that launched in the past 12 months. Then there's a nomination in our niche category - Best Sports & Leisure Website. The RacePix365.com really has caught the imagination in the past year and I'm really proud of both of these nominations. It's great that the hard work of all those that have been adding pictures and helping RacePix365.com grow to one of the  (if not the) largest Athletics sites in Ireland has been recognised.

Now all that is needed is to dust down the tux and have a look over that Oscar speech I was writing a few weeks back...

Five thousand eight hundred and ten. That's the total number of photos that are currently displaying on RacePix365.com five days after the marathon. I'm totally  stunned by the number of pictures that people have uploaded. These range from people who were out cheering their loved ones, and decided to grab a few photos of the atmosphere around them, to amatuer sports photographers. Without all of them the buzz on the site over the past few days would never have happened. So a huge thank you from this guy.

I hope those of you that took part have been feeling the benefits of a few days rest and the legs are now getting back to normal. The comments on the site and general feedback has been amazing - it's days like the last few that is the reason why I set up the site and I'm delighted that everyone is enjoying it. Please keep the comments coming on the site - those who have given up their time to share their photos with everyone really do appreciate it.

Best of luck with your recovery and I look forward to seeing you all at future races.

Darren

Not one as is in "we're number one", but one as in 365 days old. Wahey! On October 23rd 2008, racepix365.com met the public for the first time. V1 of RacePix365 was thrown together in a 2 day scramble to be up and ready for the Dublin marathon. A good friend of mine provided me with a design template for the site once I'd got it functioning correctly and it was good to launch.

In those 365 days 27,199 photos have been shared by users at 97 races around Ireland. I really do mean around Ireland as well - there's pictures from races in every province, 16 different counties in total. Different clubs and county boards have come on board to supply pictures from their races and use RacePix365 to power their own website galleries.

Word of mouth has been spreading about the website, and visits have grown from a mere 396 people during the first full month (November 08) to 11,000+ last month. October looks like beating that again. Thankfully with the numbers coming looking for photos there's been people there behind the lens snapping away, increasing the chances of visitors finding them photos. Some of the main contributors to the site over the year include David Bradshaw, Lindie Naughton, Robin Phillips, Peter Mooney and Daniel Kowalczyk (who also gave me a Polish lesson!). Thanks to them and all the others who've helped the site grow to what it is during it's debut year.

While I'm at my Oscar type speech I 'll add in a few more thank yous to people who've helped during the year. Cliona Foley of the Indo for giving the site a plug back when it was first starting to grow, Clare McCoy of Northern Ireland Athletics for featuring all their photos on the site, Sportsworld Terenure for being the first club to use RacePix365 to power their gallery and... oh, uhm... there's bound to be other people, so I'll just finish with - "Thanks"

With the Dublin City Marathon fast approaching RacePix365.com have teamed up with Maximuscle to help give you the very best sports nutrition support for your running needs.

Maximuscle are offering all RacePix365.com users €6 off all online orders, over €35, before 30th October 2009. To avail of this offer simply follow this link to Maximuslce and enter the following discount code when making your order.

• Code - MAXILAUNCH5

Recognised as the leading sports nutrition brand in both the UK and Ireland, sports men and women can achieve their fitness and endurance goals with the vital support of Maximuscle's sports food products and extensive education.

If you run out of energy during a race or training session...
Maximuscle's Viper is the ultimate energy drink for use by all runners, amateur and professional alike. It will help prevent dehydration and sustains energy, helping you to maintain your best performance for longer. Viper includes Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs), which prevent the amino acid imbalances that could cause mental fatigue, leaving other sports drinks far behind.

If you want to recover faster between training sessions or after a race...
Maximuscle's Recovermax is possibly the most effective rehydration and recovery drink available. Its unique ratio of carbohydrate and protein helps restore body glycogen levels. Using Recovermax in conjuction with your regular training could bring you great benefits, including increased muscle power, increased work output and reduced muscle fatigue.

After the number of photos, comments, emails, visits to the site after this race I thought it needed its own wee blog post to recap on everything...

On the race...
First home out of the 8,000 people that took part was Kilkenny's Brian Maher in 67 minutes and 20 seconds. Brian's been a busy man over the past few weeks. Only a week beforehand was he caught by RacePix365.com winning the Lakeshore Striders 10km race. I'm always happy to find out that the people in the photos are finding the photos here... that's why the site was setup! It was a nice touch for Brian to stop by and leave a comment on the site, thanking the photographers for all their excellent work. Considering Brian has featured in at least five races on this site over the past few months it's good to know he knows where to go when looking for an action snap of himself! Following Brian home in the race were two friend's of RacePix365's - DSD's John Eves and Sportsworld's Paul O'Connell (who recently added a RacePix365.com gallery to Sportsworlds website).

Annette Kealy also had a clear victory in the women's race in a time of 78 minutes 29 seconds. Donna Mahon (who I know found her pictures here!) was second with Patrycja Wlodarczyk , one of our Polish fan's, in third place

On the photos...
Wow! What else can I say? I was absolutely blown away by the number of photos that appeared here after the race. Everytime I've checked to see how many pictures have been uploaded there's been more. The last count has it at an astounding 3,114 photos for the race. These photos were all shared by hobby photographers and athletics fans who wanted their photos to be viewed by the people who'd probably appreciate them the most, those that took part. More than half of the people who shared their photographs with the RacePix365.com community at the race were first time contributors. The numbers of photos shared by each person varied from just a few photos to hundreds of photos in some cases. Thanks again to all of you who contributed - hopefully we'll be seeing more of your shots appear here at future races.

On comments...
Another thing that made this race from my end was how well the new commenting feature went down. It got it's debut run here and plenty of you made use of it. I believe that by  letting the person who shared their photos know that you found the photo and appreciated their time and effort, taking and uploading the photos, will help to ensure they'll be back in the future with more photos, and possibly encourage others to share their photos.

On "what's next?"
I believe there's some race or other at the end of the month that a lot of our visitors this week are striving for. The exact details escape me at the moment!! I'm sure there'll be a camera or two out on the course.

For those of you not marathoning there's plenty of upcoming races that photos from will appear on RacePix365.com in the next few weeks. Off the top of my head I can think of the Simon Community Fun Run, the Rathfarnham 5km, Gerry Farnan XC and the next BHAA Cross Country. Enough to keep anyone busy you'll agree!

Stay Classy,
Darren

In the mini revamp of RacePix365.com I've added a Comment Functionality under every photo. This gives you the oppertunity to leave a little message to say thanks to the person who shared the photo with the RacePix365.com community. The site will only continue to grow with people sharing their photos. With new contributors popping up at every race, the simplest way to ensure that they submit their pictures again is to say thanks when you spot yourself.

Stay classy,
Darren

It seem's to be the thing to do at the moment so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and see what this twitter lark is all about. I decided to wait until I was convinced that I'd keep at it before coming out with a "hey everyone, come follow RacePix365 on twitter" post. I've dipped my toe in the twitter water and now I'm ready to make the plunge so...

Hey everyone, come follow RacePix365 on twitter. The RacePix365 twitter page is the fairly obvious url of http://www.twitter.com/racepix365 and if you're an existing twitterer you can contact me using @racepix365 from you twitting device of choice.

Twitter seems to be a great way of interacting with the RacePix365 users. Rather than just posting links to new galleries I'll be posting various bits and bobs about whats going on here at RacePix365, what races are coming up where, links to results, I may from time to time throw in bits about my own racing and training, answering questions. Basically throwing stuff most runners should find informative and useful.

 While I'm mentioning twitter I may as well remind our users of the RacePix365 facebook page as well. Another place where you can keep up to date with the goings on here.

To wrap things up - you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook or both. Ah, the internet, everywhere is covered.

http://www.twitter.com/racepix365
http://www.facebook.com/racepix365

For immediate release

RacePix365.com, the unique Irish website that combines photo sharing with athletics, this week celebrated the 20,000th photo uploaded to its galleries since the site’s launch less than a year ago. RacePix365’s photo galleries contain thousands of photos from races around Ireland, which are uploaded by enthusiastic hobby photographers and athletics fans across the country. The person honoured with sharing the 20,000th photo with RacePix365 this week was Polish photographer Daniel Kowalczyk. The photo was taken at the BHAA Pearl Izumi 10km race in Firhouse, Dublin on Saturday 12th September.  Like hundreds of other sidelines snappers around Ireland, Daniel uploads his photos to RacePix365.com to share them with fellow photography fans as well as with the athletes he snaps.

Since its launch, the RacePix365.com idea has been warmly received by race directors, clubs and athletics associations, all of whom are keen to have their race pictures appear online. When photos are submitted to RacePix365.com, the website can record the racing bib numbers of any runners in the pictures. Runners are able to search RacePix365 for the specific photographs in which they appear simply by entering their racing bib number – an easy and unique way for runners and photographers to share those captured moments.

2009 has seen the RacePix365.com community sharing photos from all kinds of Irish races - from local club races to mass participation races; cross country and mountain races to race meets such as the National Track and Field Championships in Santry.  The website’s founder Darren Spring is not surprised by the website’s instant popularity among runners and photographers: “I’m a keen runner and photographer myself, and I was inspired to start RacePix365.com because I wished such a resource existed for sharing race pictures.  I reckoned that if I did, others did, and it seems I was right.  The site is going from strength to strength and I’m receiving terrific feedback – those who use RacePix365 really value the unique service it provides.”

Any race directors that want to get involved and have their races appear on RacePix365.com can simply sign up at RacePix365.com and inform the site where they’ll be taking photographs.

For further information or images, please contact RacePix365.com founder Darren Spring at

hellohello@racepix365.com - 086 325 8328 - Unit 6 The Old Sawmills, Ballymount Rd, Dublin 12

Ends.

Irish Website RacePix365 Reaches 20,000.doc
Photo 20,000 Web Version
High Res Photo

Races up and down the country

Wednesday 2nd September 2009
BHAA Hibernian 1 Mile Track - Irishtown Stadium Dublin - Link

Thursday 3rd September 2009
Cork BHAA 'PTAA' 5 km road race (7.30pm) -  Togher, Cork City - Link

Friday 4th September 2009
Renmore Round the Houses 5k (7.30pm) - Renmore, Galway - Link
Michael Cahill 5 km (7.30pm) - Ballingarry, Tipperary - Link
Rusty Scanlon 6 mile (7pm) - Woodies Car Park, Kilkenny

Saturday 5th September 2009
Malahide Castle 5km (11am) - Malhide, Dublin - Link
Bunratty 10km Road Race (12pm) - Bunratty, Clare - Link
Cormac McAnallen Trust 10km (3pm) - Eglish, Tyrone - Link

Sunday 6th September 2009
AAI National Half Marathon Championships (12pm) - Stranolar, Donegal - Link
Laois Mini Marathon (12pm) - Portloaise, Laois - Link

Races appearing on this calendar of races does not mean that there will be photos from them appearing on RacePix365.com.
 

Sportsworld Terenure are the first club to embed the RacePix365.com technology into their own club website. By simply adding two lines of code to their website they can now display any picture of a Sportsworld member that is displayed on RacePix365.com.

Setting this up is free and easy. Simply contact RacePix365.com to get your account set up, add the unique two lines of code to your site and you're ready to go.

There are numerous advantages to embedding RacePix365.com into your own website.

• No more hassle resizing images and creating thumbnails
• Uploading and hosting large images not a problem
• Have more interaction with your club members by allowing any of them share their race images with your club
• Increase your web stats by adding more user generated content
• Your images can appear on both your own website and RacePix365.com with no website skills required
• Get a free profile on RacePix365.com, allowing a wider audience view your club's past and future races.

Sportsworld Terenure

Sportsworld Running Club was founded in 1983 and is based in Bushy Park, Terenure. Over the years it has developed into one of the biggest clubs in Ireland with a current membership of over 200 men and women. The clubhouse is located beside the tennis courts.

When does the club meet?
The club meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm in the clubhouse. There are weekend training sessions as well but they are usually confirmed at the week night sessions.

Is it suitable for beginners?
Sportsworld has members of all ages, and abilities. People competing at national level and people who just want to run to keep fit and for enjoyment. Although there are athletes competing in elite competitions there is no elitism. Everyone starts training together and usually do the same basic training session which is tapered for the training group into which a person falls.

Sportsworld Website
Sportsworld Photo Gallery

A new feature to RacePix365.com has just been added. A Comments Section is now available on all race galleries and on News articles. 

As all the photographers who post their pictures up here do so voluntarily I'm sure they'd appreciate a comment every now and again, just to let them know that the people in their photos actually found the photos. I generally get a few mails from users of the site saying to keep up the good work and so forth. Hopefully a public comment section will allow the photographers to get a few thank yous and all.

Keep racing and snapping,

Darren

Hey Troops!

The recent Irish Runner 5 Mile race proved to be a bit success for RacePix365.com. I received great feedback from those running in the race. All the pictures, over 1,400, were volunteered by people on the sidelines. What must be remembered is that RacePix365.com is not in any way tied in with the race series, or any race for that matter, and RacePix365.com is not the official race photographers for the race. With the site getting so popular and another big race around the corner, the Frank Duffy 10 mile in the Phoenix Park (Aug 15), I'm hoping as many people as possible will share their photos from the race. 

One of the main contributors to the site since its launch, David Bradshaw, who provided a huge amount of pictures for the 5 mile race, will be shedding the camera and sticking on the runners for the 10 miler. Likewise, I fancy a bit of a jaunt around the park that day and will also be leaving my camera at home. Therefore more than ever the site needs people to volunteer photos for that race. If you're taking part in the race or not you could be able to help those in the race find photos of themselves afterwards.

Anyone not taking part can help by getting out to the Phoenix Park on Saturday morning, the 15th August, and cheering on the 6,000 (SIX THOUSAND!?!) taking part, and taking a few photos while you're at it. You don't have to be a professional photographer to share your pictures - in the same way that races accept entrants of all abilities, RacePix365.com accepts photos of all quality. This can be proved by the first ever picture I took for the site at the Aware 10k in December 2008.

It doesn't matter if you can only upload one or two pictures from the race, they'll still be appreciated by the person who spots themselves in them.

For those of you taking part in the race you obviously can't be expected to take photos... Instead, your job will be to rope your loyal spectating family and friends into taking photos for you. If you have someone at the sidelines cheering you on, then hand them a camera and try and convince them to take a few shots while they're waiting for you to pass. As I said if they take one or many photos I'd love to have them displayed on the site.

What I mentioned above stands for all races around Ireland. There's photos on RacePix365.com from 70 races around the country so far in 2009. There are many more races on the calendar that there are no photos on here from. If anyone spots me running by them in the Frank Duffy 10 try your best and get a photo of me! If you ever spot me taking photos at a race give me a wave... that's if you're not too exhausted of course (I won't always position myself at the toughest part of the course like at the Irishrunner 5 mile!).

Keep on racing,
Darren

Please remember that the copyright of the photos belong to the photographer and under no circumstances can the photos be reproduced for commercial purposes without the photographer's permission.

The latest newsletter has been sent out and can be viewed online here. If you want didn't get this one and one like to receive them in the future then sign up atRacePix365.com. Don't worry we won't bombard your mail box with relentless mails and you can unsubscribe at any time.

- Darren

Is this news worthy?!

Anyway, expect to see what's going on at RacePix365.com here from now on.

- Darren