Location....The town of Cobh is located 15 miles / 24kms from Cork City by road. There is also a rail link between Cork and Cobh which takes about 24 minutes.
The race HQ for the event is at the local Community College.
Course.......The 5km course starts at a high point of the town near Cobh Community College. It finishes near sea level.
Course Description.....The race starts near the Community College on a wide section of road. Initially, it's flat but soon starts to go downhill...
After about 100m, the road drops rapidly and at about 300m, you reach a roundabout (Point A on map) where you turn and come back up the road to the start line again.
After you pass the start line at about , the road stays pretty level but at about 1.1kms, you begin a very fast downhill section (marked as B on the map)...
This mostly straight downhill section is about 400m in length. At the end, you reach a T-junction (point C on map) where you turn right into an uphill section. After a long downhill section, this may feel especially hard.
Up past the local community centre and 150m later, you turn left (point D on map)....
...but you still need to keep climbing gradually for another 150m.
At point E on the course map, you finish the climbing and you begin a very long and fast descent which lasts for about 800m.
After the corner (E on map), the road descends gradually...
...but by the time you reach the end, it really begins to take off. Left at the T-junction (F on map) and rapidly downhill...
At point G on the map which is about the 2.2km mark, the descent becomes a bit more gradual but very fast all the same...
At the very end of this long downhill stretch, you drop suddenly to a T-junction (point H on map) and turn right uphill....
The climb is steep at first but soon turns into a more gentle ascent. From the low point by the old church, it lasts for about 200m.
As the road levels out, you are now around the 3km mark with some great views out over the outer harbour.
At about 3.6kms, you turn left at the crossroads (point i on map) and then left again....
From here, you begin a very gradual downhill section as you head back towards the centre of Cobh...
The road levels out...past the railway station...up a slight incline and then a downhill all the way to the finish line...
Overall........A fast 5km course with plenty of ups and downs. Even though it starts at a high point in the town and finishes near sea level, the short climbs cancel out a lot of this advantage. It is still though a fast course. Nice views out over the harbour.
