Tipperary005

Preview of the Poulmucka 8 km road race.....

Directions.......Poulmucka is located about 5 miles to the north-west of Clonmel in S.Tipperary.

From the N24 road running from Cahir to Clonmel, look for the turn off for Newinn and Cashel (R687)...

Turn off 2.2 miles from the roundabout on the western side of Clonmel

Poulmucka is located on the R687, about 2.4 miles from the junction above.

The village itself is no more than a pub and a few houses...

Course Preview....The 8 km route takes in a triangular loop to the north-west of Poulmucka...

There are also some hills along the route with the most serious climb around 2.5 miles / 4 kms...

The race start at the entrance to Poulmucka, about 150 metres from the crossroads in the village...

Once you enter Poulmucka, you pass where the race will finish and you begin a short climb of about 300m...

At the top of the climb...about 0.3 miles, the road drops away very gradually...

The road stays relatively flat as you pass the road junction at 0.5 miles. This is the start of the loop to the north-west...

At 0.7 miles, you start another climb but this time, it lasts for about 400 metres and it's tougher than the previous one...

You pass the summit of the hill around the 1 mile mark, a tough enough opening mile. On the other side, there is a long descent which should be very fast...

The road begins to level off but it's fast all the way to the 2 mile mark...a very fast mile.

At Whitelands Cross at 2.2 miles, you leave the R687 and turn off right on to a quiet country road. This is the lowest part of the course...

Initially, the road begins to climb very gradually as you approach two sharp bends...

...but at 2.5 miles, you can see the climb ahead....

The worst part of the climb comes early on but becomes a lot more gradual as you approach the 3 mile mark...

Just after this, you turn right at the next road junction. The road is still narrow and drops slightly. At 3.3 miles, the road rises ahead again but it's a pretty modest climb...

At about 3.5 miles, the road levels off and stays more or less flat for most of the next 800 metres...

After 4 miles, the course drops away slightly...

At 4.5 miles, you reach the junction with the R687 and the end of the loop...

From here, there is a very slight climb before the rapid descent to the finish line outside Moloney's Bar in Poulmucka...

Overall......An undulating 8 km course in the countryside of Co.Tipperary. A mixture of slow and fast miles on mostly quiet country roads. The hills are reasonably modest so you should be able to still post a good time.