Location...The town of Dungarvan is located in West Waterford and is within easy access of Cork and Waterford City.
Race HQ is the local sports centre which is in the south of the town by the waters edge...
Directions...If you are coming from the Cork direction on the main N25 road, you will need to turn right at the first roundabout at the entrance to the town. As you drive through Dungarvan, you will see a church on the right.....
Take the right just after the church and the Sports Centre is just down this road...
Please note that unless you arrive early, parking in this area may be full. There are plenty of other areas to park in the town.
Distances...Sports Hall to Start Line...700m, Finish Line to Sports Hall...1.5 kms
Course...The Dungarvan 10 mile road race has a reputation of being a fast course. If your target is trying out for a PB then this is the one to run. The route takes in a small loop through the town before leaving Dungarvan to take in a bigger loop in the countryside.
The start point is approximately 700m from the Sports Centre. The road here is wide and there is plenty of space. Please note that your time starts with the gun. Even with 1000+ runners taking part, there are no major delays getting going.
The start of the race is near the loop around the town....
As you can see from the image below, you keep running straight.....take in a short loop.....and then run downhill and re-join the main road and turn right.
Past the start line...downhill to the 1 mile mark....and then on towards the roundabout at the entrance to the town, you take a left and out the main road to the south....
The course here is very fast. You will be running inside the hard shoulder with the road being flat before going gradually downhill......then it's time to turn off right and past the 2 mile mark ...
Now you are onto a quiet narrow country road and the road rises again gently...
Near the top of this hill, you come to the junction shown below. First time around, this will be around 2.4 miles and you carry straight on and slightly downhill...
At 2.5 miles, you come to a junction where you turn right. (On the old pre 2015 course, you carried on straight here)...
Along this straight and flat section of road, you pass the finish line. At about 2.8 miles, you turn left onto the N25...
You're on this section for about 400m and you pass through the 3 mile mark along the way...
At about 3.1 miles, it's straight through the roundabout and take the 2nd left...
.....and then it's onto a reasonably flat road as you leave the town...
The next mile or so is reasonably flat. There are a few very small drags but certainly nothing worth noting. Not long after the 5 mile mark, you reach the most westerly point as the course takes a sharp left. As you approach the corner, you will see other faster runners at the other side of the field...
This narrow section is reasonably flat at first but rises as you approach the next junction where you turn right...
Just around the corner, you soon pass the 6 mile mark. This is followed by a gentle uphill section.....
Nothing too serious but coming at 6 miles, it can have an impact. Eventually, the road flattens out and this is followed by a steep downhill section...
At the end of the hill, you cross a small bridge over the River Brickey and take a sharp left...
The road now follows the river so it's dead flat............(well, slightly downhill but nothing that you would notice ;o)
It's like this for about 1.3 miles as you pass the 7 and 8 mile mark along the way. At around 8.1 miles, you rejoin the main N25 (pic above) and you run inside the hard shoulder as you head back towards Dungarvan. Initially the road is flat but soon begins to climb. It never gets too serious but coming at 8.2 miles, it can have a huge impact if you are tired. This is arguably the hardest part of the course.
At about 8.9 miles, you turn off left onto a smaller road. This is where you turned off earlier in the race but coming from the opposite direction...
Soon, you pass the 9 mile mark as you climb the gentle hill and when you get to the junction near the highest point, you turn right. From here, it's about half a mile to the finish and downhill to the main road....
Left once you reach the main road...
You are now back on familiar ground as you are on the same section of road that you were running on earlier coming out of the town. Stay left at the next roundabout and at this stage, you are getting very close to the finish....
Just after the roundabout, you'll see the sign for the turn off to the left...
Once you turn left, it's only a short run of about 100 metres to the finish.
At the finish line, there will be a timing mat which will record your time as you cross it. The sports hall is 1.5 kms from the finish.
Overall......A reasonably fast 10 mile course. The hill of any real significance comes between about 8.3 miles and 9.3 miles. It's modest enough as it's just under 20 metres of ascent and it's spread out over a mile. Very well organised and certainly one of the best road races in Munster.
