Waterford007

Preview of the Ballymacarbry 5 mile road race...

Location...Ballymacarbry is located on the R671/672 road between Clonmel and Dungarvan.

Directions........
From Dungarvan, take the R672 Clonmel road.
From East Cork, branch off N25 at Kinsalebeg, take the R671 road through Clashmore.
From Clonmel, take the R671 south.


Entries taken at the local community hall which is easily the largest building in the village. It's about 250m from the Hall to Dooceys Bar where refreshments are available after the race before the presentation of prizes.

 Ballymacarbry Community Centre....Entries, changing and showers here

Dooceys Bar on the sharp bend coming into Ballymacarbry...prize giving here

Course...

Course profile...

The start and finish of the race is up the small road at the bend in the road near Doocey's Bar

The start line is a few hundred metres out the side road, facing away from Dooceys Bar....

You run east along the Nire Valley towards the Comeragh Mountains on a road that rises gradually, roughly parallel to the River Nier... 

At about 0.9 miles out, you pass a small bridge on the left. For now, you continue straight on but you will cross over this bridge on your return at about 3.9 miles...

 Past the 1 mile mark...

 ...and the 2 mile mark with the road gradually climbing all of the time...

At about 2.4 miles, you turn left as you leave the road behind and cross over the river on a small bridge...

Then you run through a private garden, and head back west on a forest track in the Knockalisheen Woods. There is a bit of a climbing along this section and you exit the woods around the 3.6 mile mark...

From here, there is a rapid descent to the bridge that you passed by earlier...

 Across the bridge...right.......and then the start of a final mile is a gradual downhill section...

800m to go...

Past the point where the race started and onto the finish line...

As you can see from the photo above, the main road is about 200m from the finish line.

Tipperary011

Preview of the Clonmel 4 km road race...

Location...

Directions........The 4k loop is located at the east side of Clonmel town...

Race entries and the start/finish points are at Brothers of Charity car park, Silversprings, on the L3218 St.Patrick's Road, near the Moangarrif Roundabout....

The race itself is two laps of the N24 road, Davis Road, St Patrick's Road, mostly on the footpath/hard-shoulder, with all right-hand turns. A few slight rises and falls, but nothing difficult.

Course map...

Course description...The race starts outside the Brothers of Charity...

 
After 100 metres or so, you turn right on the hard shoulder of the bypass as you stay on the right hand side of the road by the hard shoulder...

At 500 metres, you come to the Moangarriff Roundabout where you turn right...

....and on to a long straight road.

At 1.2 kms, there is a slight rise ahead at St.Patrick's Cemetery...

This is followed by a slight dip and then you turn right onto a narrow road at 1.5 kms...

...and then right again....

From the junction, there is a slight rise...

....and then it's more or less dead flat as you head back on this quiet residential road...

... to start line outside the Brothers of Charity. One loop is 2 kms so you'll be doing two complete loops to do the full 4 kms.

Overall...A fast 4 km course which is ideal for beginners starting off or for more seasoned runners who want a speed session.

Tipperary004

Preview of the Annerville 10 km road race...

This 10 km road race is organised on an annual basis by Clonmel Athletic Club. Located in South Tipperary, it's within easy access of a lot of runners from the surrounding counties. It is 11 miles / 17 kms from the M8 Cork to Dublin motorway.

The two part map below shows where everything is...

Directions...Coming from Cork / Limierck / M8 motorway..If you are coming from the west, you follow the signs for Waterford (N24) and take the relief road that goes around to the north of the town. Go through the Cashel roundabout and keep going east. As you approach the next roundabout, you'll see a sign showing Fethard to the left and Town Centre to the right....

Follow the signs for the town centre and take the 3rd exit on the Fethard Road Roundabout...

The road narrows as you cross a bridge over the railway line and then almost immediately, you take a left onto Thomas St...

Just keep following this road and soon, it changes to Dillon St. Eventually, you come to a road junction straight across from Clonmel Vocational School (behind the trees!) which is the race HQ...

Parking is available 300m away. Left at the junction and then straight away, a right...

The Suirside car park is about one hundred metres up this road on the left...

Directions coming from Waterford / Kilkenny.....If you are approaching from the east on the N24, stay left at the first roundabout and follow the signs for Town Centre and Clonmel.


You then drive through the next roundabout, past the Lidl store, past Dunnes Stores, through the roundabout at the Showgrounds Shopping Centre.........i.e. keep going straight. As as you begin to enter a more built up area with older style buildings, you turn left at the Clonmel Veterinary Clinic...

 

As per the earlier photo, parking is available up the road about 100m on the left.

Directions from Dungarvan......If you are approaching Clonmel on the R671 from the south-east, you will come to the Dungarvan Roundabout...

The town is signposted to the left but it's easier to stay south of the town and carry straight on.

Keep going until you come to the next roundabout and take a left there...

You cross over a bridge and about 50 metres further on, you'll see the entrance to the car park on the right.

The race course itself......

The race starts just outside the vocational school...

After 300m, you pass the Showgrounds Shopping Centre...

At about 800m, you pass the local Lidl store on Davis Road. As you can see, the course is dead flat and stays like this for at least the next 1.5 miles.

After 0.7 miles, you go through another roundabout...

...and then another one at 1.3 miles...

At the next roundabout at around 1.9 miles, you turn right...

Now the course changes completely as you leave the traffic behind and run on quiet roads. The sign below near the two mile mark shows whats ahead...

....and it's the first 'hill' ;o) .....a humpback bridge over the River Suir....

From the middle of Sir Thomas's Bridge, there is a great view of the surrounding countryside. You can just make out the next bridge ahead...

Devine's bridge is only about 200m beyond the first one. You turn right here and head back in towards the town.

Along this section, you come across the first of two real hills along the course. The road climbs gradually, flattens out and then climbs again...

At about 3.6 miles, the road flattens out and pretty soon, the gradual descent begins...

At about 4.3 miles, the road begin to level out as you reach the roundabout near the Loreto Convent...

The road then continues a gradual descent as you reach two sharp bends around the 4.7 mile mark at Edel Quinn Park....

......with Bernie Macs Pub on the second bend, a usual spot for a water station.

 After this, the second real climb begins at 4.8 miles.......

.......and lasts until the Dungarvan Roundabout at 5.3 miles where you turn right...

As you head back in towards the town, the road drops gently before rising again as you cross over  Workshop Bridge at 5.5 miles...

At 5.7 miles, you turn right at the next junction and you can see the long finishing straight ahead. In the distance, you can see the spire of St.Mary's Church which is just beyond the 6 mile mark.

Nearly there......St.Mary's Church just after the 6 mile mark with the finish line in sight...

........and finally, the finish at the iconic West Gate...

From the finish line, it's only a few hundred metres back to Race HQ.

Overall......A reasonable course with two hilly sections. Plenty of flat and fast sections as well....especially the run in towards the finish line. A race with a bit of everything....town and country......flat and hilly. Expect a reasonable time.

Race HQ