Location.....Race HQ is 15 miles / 24 kms south-east of Limerick City
Directions.......The easiest way to get there is to drive as far as New Pallasgreen on the N24 Limerick to Tipperary road and turn off......(signposted for Cappamore and Doon at the Red Deer pub). The race organisers should have signs here as well. Just keep driving straight ahead.
This is a more detailed map below. The crossroads marked 'A' in red is...
1.3 miles / 2k from Cappamore
2.55 miles / 4k from Doon
3.75 miles / 6k from New Pallas Green
The race HQ is 4.8 miles / 7.7k from New Pallas Green on the N24 Limerick - Tipperary road. As you can see from the map above, once you turn off in New Pallas Green, you just keep driving straight.
This is the view as you of the crossroads (Point A in Red) on the Cappamore - Doon road (R505) as you drive from New Pallas Green.
Eventually, you come to the Bilboa AC grounds...(note the finish line mark!)
Course......The race course can essentially be broken up into two halves with the first section being flat and the second section having hills.
Course profile....
Course description.....The start line is about 250 metres away from the sports grounds. The first 3.5 miles or so are very flat and should be very fast. There are a number of drags in the section between roughly 3.5 miles to roughly the 5.4 mile mark which is the highest point on the course. After that, it's downhill to the finish.
In more detail....The start of the race about 250m from the club house...
The race goes past the race HQ and stay right at the junction as you head south-west...
At 0.7 miles, you cross a small bridge...
Bridge over Bilboa River with nice quiet country roads...
At 1.2 miles, you turn right at the crossroads and onto the R505 Cappamore - Doon road...
Once around the corner, there is a short climb which about 300m long but after that, there are plenty of straight sections which are flat or slightly downhill.
Just after the 2 mile mark, you reach the outskirts of Cappamore..
At 2.4 miles, you turn right at the crossroads in Cappamore...
...and head north-east...
The next section of road is more or less flat and dead straight. At 3.3 miles, the first real hill appears...
At 3.9 miles, you turn right at the crossroads...
The road now is reasonably flat until the next short climb around 4.2 miles...
It only lasts about 200m or so and at about 4.3 miles, the gradient becomes gentler again...
The next section is still pretty easy until around 4.7 miles when there road narrows as it crosses over a stream....
....and then begins a long climb. Initially it's steep but soon changes to a more gradual climb.
At 5.5 mile2, you reach the highest point of the course where you turn right at the crossroads...
From here, the last 0.7 miles / 1k to the finish line is very fast as it's all downhill...
The finish line is outside the race headquarters...
