This is the 3rd race of 4 in the Ballycotton Summer Series and is always held on the 4th Thursday of July at 8pm.
Location...The village of Churchtown South is located about 4 miles to the west of Ballycotton in East Cork.
Directions...From Cork, take the usual route to Ballycotton (R629...shown above in Orange). When you get to the crossroads in the centre of Cloyne...
.......the main road (R629) takes a 90 degree left. You need to take the turn off which is straight ahead past the old round tower. Just stay on this road. At one stage, you will come to what appears like a fork but you will see that the main road is to the left. Keep on the main route and you will end up in Churchtown South. Once you get there, follow the stewards instructions regarding parking.
Course map...
Course...It is essentially two laps of a 2.5 mile course.
The race starts about 200m from the Community Hall on a narrow road...
The first mile is largely flat with some downhill running. The second mile is pretty flat. From the 2 mile mark, you have the only real hill on the course...
It really isn't that much of a hill in that it's gradual and the total ascent is about 10 metres at most over about 600 metres. Once you reach the church, it's flat and soon, you run past the start line again and repeat the loop. Second time around when you reach the point shown in the photo above, you'll have about 800m to go.
This is the view of the last 100m once you pass the church. The finish line is at the road junction ahead..
Overall.......When you run the course, you would think that it should be a fast course as there seems to be very few hills. However, while there are no obvious steep hills like Ballyandreen or Shanagarry, the fact you have to run that one hill twice seems to have same net effect. For my money, it is as tough a course as either of the first two in the series.
