There are 2 road races on this week. The EMC 5km race on Wednesday and the Corkbeg 5 mile race (see above) in East Cork on Thursday. Of the 2, the EMC will get a much bigger crowd with perhaps 200-300 attending. The Corkbeg race will probably be about 60-80?
Anyway, about the EMC race. The sign on is at the Eire Og GAA grounds in Killumney, Ovens. Race starts at 8pm.
Directions - If you coming from the City, take the Ballincollig bypass. At the end of the bypass, you pass the EMC plant on your left, the road narrows and you then need to take the next left. You will see a pub at this junction (I think it's the Ovens Bar or maybe 'Desmonds' (no relation ;o). About 800 metres later, you come to the village of Killumney with an old church straight ahead. Take the right here and the Eire Og grounds are on the right just up the road. There is usually plenty of parking inside the grounds.
Course - The course is basically a one and a half lap loop. The start is 1 mile from the GAA grounds so you can use this as part of your warm up. Just follow everyone else and head for the start which is on the N22 Cork to Macroom road. Ok, it's not the nicest of starts with the heavy traffic but as soon as the race starts, you are back on to quiet roads again after a few hundred metres. When you do the 2nd loop, you will be using the hard shoulder which is fine as the crowd will have thinned out by then.
2 points to note......
1) The only hill / drag is near the road junction, just before the 1 and 3 mile mark. This is shown on the map as the point on the bottom left corner (South-West)
2) When you re-join the N22 near the pub (top right corner), the hard shoulder is very narrow here for about 100-200 metres and you need to be careful.
For a closer look at the course, check out the map at http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/ireland/cork/559313385
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