This 5 mile road race is organised by Midleton Athletic Club and is usually held at the start of May every year.
Please note that race HQ in 2016 is at the Market Green Shopping Centre.
Directions and Instructions...see the map of Midleton below..
If you are coming from the direction of Cork City, the best way to get to the Market Green Shopping Centre is to take the first exit on the N25 for Midleton...
Straight through the next junction...
At the very small roundabout outside the Midleton Park Hotel, turn left...
The race HQ is actually inside in the foyer area of the Market Green Shopping Centre. There is plenty of parking outside.
The start line is about 0.6kms / 0.4 miles from the Shopping Centre. After the race, it's 1.2kms / 0.75 miles back to the race HQ.
The course......The race route is a loop mostly in the countryside to the south-west of the town...
The race starts on O'Dwyers road near the entrance to a small retail / industrial park...
There is a slight downhill slope as you head south...
......and pass underneath the N25 Cork to Waterford road.
At about o.35 miles, you turn right onto a quiet narrow private road. You pass the finish line near the start of this...
The road is reasonably flat and narrow and the field will still be fairly bunched at this stage. At 0.8 miles, you exit this road...
...and almost immediately, run onto a roundabout and then the first left...
This area is now a built up residential area and you pass the 1 mile mark along this road....a very fast first mile.
Soon, you leave the houses behind and the route become more rural as it climbs very gradually. You pass the two mile mark near this sharp bend below...
The road continues to climb slightly and then you take the left around the 2.2 mile mark...
As you can see from the photo above, you soon have to resume the gradual uphill climb but it peaks pretty soon around the 2.4 mile mark. From there, the road falls away...
At 2.7 miles, you turn left onto a narrow road...
From here, the road rises slightly and falls slightly until you reach roughly 3.1 miles when the road really begins to drop away revealing a view of the Owenacurra River as it enters Cork Harbour....
At the bottom of the hill around 3.4 miles, you cross the causeway near the coastline as you pass an old fortified house in ruins on the left....
On the far side, the road climbs back up again...easily the toughest part of the course. The hill lasts for about 400 metres.
At about 3.7 miles, the road levels off and then you reach the top of a long straight downhill section. The photo below shows the road around the 4 mile mark and you can see the road stretching away into the distance...
This last mile is by far the fastest mile of the race. If you have kept something in reserve then it should pay dividends here. At about 4.6 miles, you reach the bottom of the hill and the long straight stretch and you you turn right back onto the private road...
From there, it's a flat run into the finish.
Overall......A 5 mile course on mostly rural roads. One testing hill around the 3.5 mile mark which is about 400m long. The other hills are very modest. Very fast finish. It would be considered a reasonably fast course and this is reflected in the times posted every year. It's proximity to Cork City makes this a popular race.
