Ten and a half months before the starting gun is fired all 20,000 entries for the 2019 KBC Dublin Marathon have already sold out.

The 40th running of the event, set for Sunday October 27th, sold out some six months in advance of this year’s event, the ever increasing demand once again reflecting the growth in marathon running as a mass participation sport. The 40th anniversary of the race clearly added to the attraction too.

The limit of 20,000 race entries was set three years ago, the maximum the course can allow under its current guise, although there is clearly room for further growth.

It was three years ago when the event was moved from its traditional Bank Holiday Monday to the Sunday, which race director Jim Aughney says directly contributed to the first sell-out of runners in 2016, a 30 per cent increase on 2015.

A statement from the Dublin marathon organisers this morning said they were “delighted” to confirm the 2019 event has now sold out. A lot of people however will like be left disappointed at the speed with which the event sold out if they were considering the 2019 event.

The event started in 1980 with 2,100 runners. This year’s race will also mark the first of the new three-year sponsorship with KBC Bank.

There will however be entries still available for the countdown series of races: The first of the race series will kick off with the South Dublin 10K in July, followed by the long running Frank Duffy 10 Mile set for Fingal in September, with the Dublin Half Marathon returning to the Phoenix Park in September.

The grand finale in the series is the Dublin Marathon, which will also be Athletics Ireland’s National Championships. The 2018 event saw several leading Irish finishers, Lizzie Lee third overall in the women’s race, with Mick Clohissey an excellent sixth overall in the men’s race.