Preview of the Ardmore 5 mile road race...
Location...Ardmore is located in West Waterford just off the N25 Cork to Dungarvan road and is within easy easy to runners in both counties. Look for the signposts for the R673 road to Ardmore.
Entries will be taken at the local GAA grounds which is just north of Ardmore. See map below...
Note that the GAA grounds are about 800m from the finish line and 0.7 miles or 1km from the start line. Leave plenty of time to park, enter and to run to the start.
The course is basically one and a half loops of a triangular course. You start on a quiet country road at the northern end of the course. From here, you run back in towards Ardmore and then do a small loop around the village.
As a course, it has a number of small hills. The steepest one is part of the small loop around Ardmore itself but it's pretty short. The other hills can be considered as 'short pulls' rather than anything too serious. You should expect to set a reasonable time.
Refreshments and prizes afterwards at the An Tobar bar. Location in map above..photo below..
Photos...
The start is on a narrow straight section of country road...3.6 miles second time around...
At 0.35 miles, you turn right at the crossroads and the start of some downhill running...This is the 4 mile mark second time around...
At 0.7 miles, you pass the GAA grounds...4.4 miles on the second lap...
At 1.3 miles, you enter the centre of the village of Ardmore. First time around, you turn left and complete a small loop around the village and come back down the hill shown below. For the second lap, the finish line is just around the corner.
At 1.4 miles, you pass An Tobar Bar, the main sponsor of the race. From here, you turn right onto the waterfront...
After about 150 metres on the waterfront, you turn right and start a very steep hill...
Fortunately, the gradient eases off the further up the road you go. It levels off around 1.7 miles and then you turn right at the church...
...and make the very rapid but short descent back down to the crossroads you were at earlier where you turn left...
From here, it's only a 100 metres or so to the 2 mile mark...which is near the finish line...and then you start the gradual climb out of Ardmore.
It starts gradually but gets steeper later. At 3.1 miles, you turn right...
A climb of just over 20 metres or about 70 ft over a distance of about a mile. From here, it's pretty flat to the 3.6 mile mark and the start of the second lap.
Overall...Despite the hills, it's still a relatively fast course. The steep hill in the loop around the village is pretty short while the long hill out of Ardmore is fairly gradual.
