Cork125

Preview of the Ballymacoda 4 mile road race...

Race HQ for this race is Fr.O'Neill's Sports Field near Ballymacoda.

Directions......
From Youghal.......take the left onto the R633 for Ballymacoda. After 3.25 miles, you cross over a small river and at 3.75 miles, you see the turn off right for the GAA grounds.

From Cork City / Midleton.....Take the turn off in Castlemartyr and head south towards Ladysbridge. From there, take the left and the R633 for Ballymacoda. At 3.3 miles, you drive through a small crossroads and at 3.5 miles at the next crossroads, take the left for the GAA grounds.

Left before the thatched pub in Ladysbridge

Fr.O'Neills Sports Field

Course.........The 4 mile course is to the north-west of the GAA grounds on quiet country roads.

Description...The start line is just a few hundred metres from the GAA pitch...

The photo above of the start shows what the roads are like...narrow and quiet. The photo below shows the first left at 1.5 miles...

...and the second left at 2.8 miles...

The third left at 3.6 miles....

This is the last few hundred metres of the finishing straight...

...and the finish line at the GAA grounds.

Overall........This part of East Cork is pretty flat and the 4 mile course reflects that. Looking at the Ordnance Survey map of the area, the course undulates above and below the 10 metre contour over the whole four miles so there are no serious climbs. The course is made up of mostly long straight sections and the roads are pretty narrow. As race courses go, this one looks pretty fast.

Cork124

Preview of the Ballinacurra 4 mile road race...

This 4 mile race takes place about 2 miles to the south-east of the town of Midleton in East Cork (see map below).

Getting there.......From Midleton, take the R629 road for Cloyne. As you make your way around Ballinacurra, you come to two sharp corners. On the second one, you turn off left for the Ballinacurra GAA grounds.

The entrance to the GAA grounds is about a mile from Ballinacurra. Look for it on the right.

Course....The 4 mile course is in the shape of a sauce pan! :o) The start line is just a few hundred metres from the GAA grounds.

Course profile...There are a few small drags but nothing really worth talking about. As courses go, it's pretty reasonable.

Course description.... The race is on some nice quiet country roads to the south-east of Midleton. Other than individual houses, it is mostly on narrow roads with fields on either side.

Here are some of the road junctions which give an idea of what the course looks like...

After about 400m, you come to the first road junction which is a crossroads. You go straight ahead here and you'll be back here again at the 3.4 mile mark.

Around the 1.1 mile mark, you turn right onto a narrow country road...

At 1.9 miles, this is the T-junction where you turn right...

At 2.6 miles, you turn right onto a narrow and quiet road....

At the next junction at 3.4 miles, you're back to the junction where you were earlier and you turn left for home.

Overall.....A reasonable 4 mile course. A few smallish drags but nothing serious. Nice quiet country roads.

Cork121

Preview of the Garryvoe 5k...

Location...Garryvoe is located in East Cork

Directions.....Coming from Cork City, there is a choice of two routes. Normally the easiest way to get there is probably to drive on the N25 as far as Castlemartyr and then head south via Ladysbridge. There are often traffic bottlenecks in Castlemartyr so going via Cloyne and Shanagarry might be the best option.

Route......This is the 5km route to the north of Garryvoe. It is held on part of the Shanagarry 5 mile race course which runners might be familiar with.

Profile.....The course starts off pretty flat, has a tough 800m section in the middle which is followed by a lot of downhill running.

Course description........The Garryvoe 5k race starts and finishes near the Garry Hotel next to the strand.

At the first T-junction, runners turn right. As you can see from the arrows, this is also the last sharp bend for the finish.

The course then runs past some holiday homes as it follows the coast. At about 600m, it turns sharply inland and at about 800m or half a mile, you leave the mobile homes behind. This is the view...narrow country country and reasonably flat.

The road rises gradually but is very gentle until the one mile (1.6km) mark...a very fast opening mile.

After the 1mile mark, the road gets gradually steeper. At about 1.8kms, you begin the start of an 800m section which is the hardest part of the course.

At 1.3 miles / 2kms, you turn left at a t-junction and then continue uphill...

At about 1.5 miles / 2.4kms, you reach the highest part of the course which is about 55 metres above sea level. From here, there is a great view of Ballycotton Bay and the lighthouse.

The second half of this course is extremely fast.

It starts with a short downhill section followed by a short rise. This is followed immediately by another downhill section to the crossroads near the 2 mile / 3.1km mark.

Many of you may be familiar with this crossroads as it's at the top of the long climb out of Garrvoe in the Shanagarry 5 mile road race. In the Garryvow 5k race, you turn left here and down that hill.

This long downhill section is a gradual descent and this results in very fast running. It's not like a steep downhill where you spend a lot of your time braking and trying to slow down.

The finish is back near the start line in Garryvoe, close to sea level.

Overall.......Nice quiet country roads. Flat start, tough 800m section in the middle with a long fast downhill finish.

Cork114

Preview of the Mount Uniacke 5km race...

Location....A lot of runners may not have heard of Mount Uniacke but it's relatively easy to get to. It is located approx 3 miles to the north of the town of Killeagh in East Cork.

At the eastern end of Killeagh on the N25 road, there is a turn off at the bend of the road. See below...the road for Mount Uniacke is between the Thatch Pub and the local church. Mount Uniacke is 3 miles / 5kms up this road.

Mount Uniacke is tiny and consists of just a few buildings, two of which are pubs. As you can see below, when you enter Mount Uniacke from Killeagh, the race HQ is on the left.

This is the view as you enter Mount Uniacke. The finish line is outside the front of Hickey's Pub while the race HQ is behind the pub.

Another view...there is an open area behind the pub which will have a marquee as race HQ.

Course map...The race starts about 400m from Mount Uniacke. You then run back into Mount Uniacke and so a clockwise loop. You pass the start line again before going to to finish outside the pub in Mount Uniacke.

Profile.....This is the profile of the course. Not completely flat but nothing too serious either.

Course description....The race starts about 400m south-east of Mount Uniacke on the most direct road to Youghal. As you can see, it's reasonably flat and narrow.

At about 300m, you join the road from Killeagh to the left. As you can see, Mount Uniacke is straight ahead.

Important point! Note that the finish line is just around the corner on the left so be prepared for that at the end. For now, it's about 0.25miles and you stay right.

Staying right at the Y-junction with the hand pump.

The turn off for Inch is just up ahead to the right, roughly the 0.35 mile mark.

Once you turn off right, you have a gradual climbs up to the highest point of the course. This is the view around the half mile (800m) mark....quiet road with a gradual rise. From Mount Uniacke, the ascent is about 30m or 100ft.

At about 0.7 miles, you hit the highest point of the course and it's downhill straight away. This should be a very fast section.

One of the notable features on the race route is Inch National School. This is the view as you pass the the 1 mile mark with the school just ahead.

At about 1.1 miles just after you pass the school, the road veers to the right...

...and almost straight away, you turn right again onto a narrow country road. The village of Inch with its church and community centre is down the steep hill to the left. Ideally the race would have been held there but there are just too many steep hills.

This next section has a few bends at the start but has some nice long straight parts as well which are by and large gradually downhill.

Just after the 2 mile mark, you come to the Mount Uniacke to Youghal road and here you turn reight for home...

This is another view of it. This is the lowest part of the course and the road has been mostly downhill to get here and from here on, it's a gradual climb. It's one mile from here to the finish.

 The last mile starts pretty easy but it has a steep section from 2.4 to 2.6 miles. After that, it's past the start line, past the Killeagh road junction and onto the finish. Again, remember that it's just around the corner.

Overall......A reasonable 5k course with some hills. Nice quiet country roads with little traffic. Just north of Killeagh so easy to access.

Cork098

Preview of the East Ferry 5 mile road race...

Location.....The race HQ is at the local national school in Saleen just to the south of Midleton in East Cork.

Directions......Getting there is very easy. From the roundabout on the bypass to the south of Midleton, follow the directions for Whitegate. After 2.7 miles, you will see Saleen National School on the left. This is the HQ for the race.

Course.....The start line for the race is just over a mile from the school. The finish line is just over 600m from there.

Profile....The course follows the waters edge and is mostly flat. The small peaks on the profile below are due to mapping errors. The only hill is around 4.6 miles.

Course description....The race starts about 100m west of Bawnard Cross on a quiet road.

Most of the first mile is either flat or a very gradual downhill....a fast start to a race.

This is the view out over the water around 0.3 miles...

...with the odd house scattered along the route. View at 0.5 miles...

As you can see from the photo above, the nature of the course changes slightly in that it goes from open countryside to a road by the waters edge covered by trees.

At about 1.2 miles, you approach the corner where the course turns to the south...

This is the view heading south at 1.6 miles with Great Island on the far side. The road along here is essentially flat. As you can see, there is a sharp rise of ground on the left and the mapping software picks up some of this as a hill in the route in error.

After the 2 mile mark, you come to Murphs Pub at East Ferry. Now a quiet spot but once the location of a boat ferry that would take people across to Great Island and Cobh where people would board the liners for America...

At 2.5 miles, you pass the picturesque little church of the Holy Trinity in the town land of Garranekinnfeake looking out over the water....

At 2.8 miles, the course turns to the east as you head for Saleen....

Around the corner, the view changes as you look across the outer harbour to Rostellan and Whitegate...

All the while, the road remains pretty flat and level...

As you get near the 4 mile mark, you start heading in towards Salen Creek with Rostellan Woods on the far side. On the distant bank, you might make out a bright object which just so happens to be the top of the Rostellan Dolmen. Built thousands of years ago on what was probably the shoreline, it is now submerged at high tide.

At 4.6 miles, you reach the start of the first and only real hill on the course...

The rise in elevation is about 20 metres and the climb is about 300 metres long. It's not a huge hill but it's a climb all the same. It will feel a lot harder after running on the flat since the start.

At about 4.75 miles, you come to the top of the climb just after a road junction. Almost straight away, the road drops away again for a very fast last 400m run into Saleen...

The race finishes near the church in Saleen...

Overall......A real gem of a course. Lovely scenic route on quiet roads. Mostly flat with just one hill. Should produce some fast times.