Directions...Cahir is located in the south of Tipperary, just off the M8 motorway from Cork to Dublin...
If you are coming from the motorway, follow all the signs for Cahir. This will take you into the centre of the town and this T-junction shown below. Cahir Castle is about 300m to your left but you need to turn right here and drive up the hill. The start line is outside Morrisons Garage which you will see on the left.
Course......The 4 mile race takes in a loop to the south and west of the town...
The race starts outside Morrisons Garage. Almost immediately, you're taking a right...
You turn onto a flat road which after the next bend opens up into a long straight which takes you south of the town.
Ar about 0.6 miles, the roads takes a dip but this is followed by a sharp climb of some 250 metres...
The hill itself is about 500 metres long but you turn off to the right half way up, about the 0.9 mile mark...
Once you turn off, you are onto a quieter road which continues to climb but a much gentler rate. You pass the 1 mile mark around here...
The road soon levels off and at about 1.2 miles, the Galtee Mountains come into view...
At 1.4 miles, you come to the next junction and you take a right onto an even quieter road...
All the while, you are actually gaining height but you'd hardly notice as the incline is very gentle. You pass the 2 mile mark around here...
The narrow road continues past some remote country cottages...
...then through some sharp bends...
...before coming to a T-junction around the 2.4 mile mark...
For the next mile or so, the course changes completely as you run inside the hard shoulder of what used to be the old Cork Dublin road. With the advent of the new motorway, the traffic on this road is much reduced.
This section of road is practically flat and you pass the 3 mile mark near this sign here. In the distance, you can see that the road rises slightly...
It starts around the 3.2 mile mark and lasts for about 300m until you turn off right...
From the junction at 3.4 miles, you enter the outskirts of the town almost immediately. From there, it's all downhill to the finish line which is very close to the start. The view below shows the finish line in the distance just beyond the garage...
Overall......A reasonably fast course. Two modest hills but only 200-300 metres long. Lots of reasonably flat sections. Very fast finish.
