The Adare 10k road race is organised by West Limerick AC and is held in February every year.
Location.....Adare is located on the N21 from Limerick to Rathkeale.
Everything is centrally located in the heart of Adare. There is a car park about 100m from the small roundabout in the centre of the village. Race HQ is at Adare Village Hall. This about 200m from the parking area and the start/finish area is about 500m from the hall.
This is the iconic Adare Community Hall which runners register on the morning of the race. Post race refreshments will also be here.
This is a map of the course which takes in a loop to the west of Adare...
Course description.......The race starts about 500m from the race HQ on a flat and straight section of road.
After 300m, you come to the small roundabout where you turn right...
Adare Village Hall is located on a fork in the road. Here, you take a right....
After a series of one off houses, you're into the countryside proper pretty soon.
At about 1.4 miles / 2.3kms, you cross over the now defunct railway line from Limerick to Foynes which closed in 2001. This point is just 12 miles from Limerick City by the old rail route.
Along this next section, there is a small drag. The thing about the course is that there are no big hills as such. The difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points on the course is only about 15 metres so any hills you do come across as pretty short.
At 2.4 miles / 3.8 miles, you turn right at a small crossroads...
At 2.4 miles / 4kms, you pass Shountrade National School...
At about 3.7 miles / 6kms, you come to possibly what is the hardest part of the course. There is a short pull up to the T-junction shown below and this is followed by another climb. As before though, it's reasonably short and you've plenty of downhill after it.
At 4.1 miles / 6.6 kms, you come to a fork in the road where you take the right and onto a long straight section as you head back towards Adare.
At about the 6 mile / 9.6km mark, you cross over the old railway again which is now 11 miles from Limerick.
After one more bend, it straight and flat all the way to the finish line which is near where you started.
Overall.......Nice 10k course on quiet country roads to the west of Adare. Some pulls but they're short enough. A very popular race with a long tradition that attracts a lot more than the usual 10k race. Expect to run a reasonably fast 10k time.
