Regeneron’s Great Limerick Run is taking place this May Bank Holiday weekend as part of the Riverfest celebrations.
Limerick’s annual Riverfest is celebrating 22 years of history this year. The Great Limerick Run is one of Riverfest’s biggest events, where runners can participate in a six-mile, half-marathon, marathon relay, or full marathon race.
Two young women from County Limerick, Emma Wade (24) and Ruby O’Connell (19) of Ballybricken are making there race day debut this weekend, .
They expressed excitement to be participating in the race,“next week we are doing the Great Limerick Run for the first time.”
“We want to do this to set ourselves a challenge and have some fun,” says Ruby.
The running duo have been running 7km every evening, training consistently since January.
The run will take place on Sunday, 3 May. Over 16,000 participants took part in the run last year, making it a record-breaking year for the event. This trend continues with Regeneron announcing that the six-mile race has sold out as of Monday, 20 April .
All three races start in Pery Square and go through the heart of Limerick, ending on O’Connell street.
Riverfest offers several family friendly events across the weekend, including a Kids Fun Run which takes place the day before the major races. This event is held in the UL Arena and covers distances of 1-2km.
The festival hosts over 50 events across the weekend. Last year’s festival had more than 140,000 attendees.
Second year nursing student at University of Limerick Kate Foley says she’s looking forward to the festivities.
“I’ll probably go to the fireworks, I love going to the fireworks. I’ll go the bands that play in the middle of Arthur’s Quay as well.”
Kate also highlighted the cultural and community importance of Riverfest.
“I like that it brings everyone in Limerick together. It’s an excuse for everyone to meet up and families to get together. It’s a celebration of our culture.”