Location......The town of Fermoy in the North-East of Co.Cork is very easy to access with the M8 motorway passing just to the east.
Race HQ is located at Fermoy Community Youth Centre which is very easy to find. It's on Ashe Quay which is on the south bank of the River Blackwater in the centre of town.
The Youth Centre...
Course map...
Profile...As you can see from the profile below, the course is made up 3 sections....0 to 1km is flat, 1km to 2.5km is a gradual uphill and 2.5km to 5km is a gradual downhill.
Course description....The start and finish line is on Ashe Quay near the bridge. From the off, you run straight through the junction ahead...
...and follow the river Blackwater heading east. The road is dead flat.
You run through the next junction again and at 400m, the road turns to the right...
Just a hint of a rise as you turn right again at the next t-junction near the 600m mark and head back into the centre of the town...
You are now on the main shopping street of the town and it's dead flat...
At the junction between Patrick St and Pearse Square, you carry on straight ahead. You'll be returning from the opposite direction later and turning left...
Up to about the 1km mark, the course has been pretty flat. From about 1.1kms, the road begins to climb gradually as you pass the distinctive Bishop Murphy Memorial School on the left and Gaelscoil de Híde on the right...
Just after 1.3kms, the road turns to the left and continues uphill...
Just after 1.5kms, you come to a crossroads and the start of the loop in the course. For now, it's straight ahead as the climb begins to get a lot more gradual...
At about 2.2kms, you come to a turn off right just across from a Car Showroom & Garage...
As you can see below, there is a short climb after you turn right but it only lasts about 300m...
At the top of the climb, you come to a small roundabout where you turn right. As you can see, it's downhill from here...
The road is now a gradual downhill through a residential area and is really fast...
At about 3.4kms, you come to the end of the steep downhill running for now as you turn right at the t-junction...
This is the junction from another view....the going is a lot flatter from here...
Once you get to the 4km mark by Coláiste an Chraoibhin, the course begins to drop again making for a very fast last km.
At 4.3kms, you come to the end of the loop...
From there, it's left...back down the hill and left at the junction you passed earlier. Just before the bridge, you turn left with the finish line just around the corner.
Overall.....A 5k with two distinct halves. The first half is by far the slowest and it's worth keeping a bit in reserve for the second half which is really fast.
