Results and Review of the Cork BHAA 'Cork to Cobh' 15 mile Road Race - Sun 30th Sept (Updated Thurs 4th Oct 11:30 am)

Results - Looks like they got about 600 finishers his year which is up by about 100 on last year.

You can see the results by clicking HERE.

Photos -

1) There are a few photos up on the Eagle AC website. Here is the LINK.

2) Richard Cuddy was near Glounthaune on Sunday with his 4 year old daughter taking some shots. He put 54 of them up on a photo web site. The link is HERE. Some of the shots were taken by Ms. Cuddy so they are from a lower perspective ;o) Thanks to Richard for the info on these.

3) There are some photos now on the Cork BHAA website as well. The link is HERE.

Reviews -
My own review...
Weather...Well the weather conditions were very good. Nice and mild and the headwind was not too strong. In fairness, it could have been an awful lot worse. So, 10 out of 10 for the weather.
Organization...Full credit to the Cork BHAA for putting on a great race. I heard that they got about 600 entries which is huge when you consider that last year, they got 497 and the year before, it was 418. I could see from the level of traffic coming to this blog over the last 2 weeks that there was a lot of interest in this race with people looking for info on entries and for details of the course.
The BHAA did a great job in dealing with the huge numbers...bag service was very swift, plenty of stewards, plenty of water stops and very good refreshments at the scout hall. Plus the T-shirt and all for €15!
Course...As expected, pretty flat with a few small drags. The term 'safety in numbers' really applies here as there so many of us, the traffic had to slow down. I'm not so sure I'd fancy running at the back of the race though with all that traffic. The only slight critism I would have though would be the mile markers or lack of them. They were painted on the road but they were pretty easy to miss. It wasn't too bad later on when the crowd had thinned out but they were easy to miss early on. The 4 mile mark was the first one that I saw.
My own race...I had very little training done for this. The longest run I had done since the Cork Marathon was 8.3 miles although I had done a lot of hillwalking in September so I thought this would help me which it turns out, it did. My original plan was to treat it as a 5 mile road race with a 10 mile warm-up! In the end, that plan went out the window. I found myself running comfortably through the 4 mile mark at 28:47 (7' 12" per mile). I kept with a group until the 8 mile mark (about 56:56.....7' 07" per mile). At that stage, I felt very good so I knew that I could do the full 15 miles ok. I picked up the pace then to try and break the 7 min per mile barrier and the rest of the race went fine. Crossed the line in 1 hr 42m and 47 seconds. I did the first half of the race in about 53' 22" (7'07"/mile) and the 2nd half in 49' 25" (6' 32"/mile). Looking back on it, I probably should have gone off a bit faster but to be honest, I was just glad to be part of the race.

By the way, I'm pretty sure that the last time I did this race was way back in 1996! I have no doubt that if it wasn't for the Cork Marathon last June, I probably would not have done the Cork to Cobh race this year. The Cork Marathon and Relay has really put new life into the local running scene.

And finally...After the race, I went up to the scout hall, got changed, had a cuppa and some goodies, talked to a few lads and then went back down into the town. To get home, I walked back towards the car ferry and people were still coming in! I have to say, full credit to them. They had been running for an awful lot longer than I had and just goes to show the committment and effort they had put in. Well done!
(...thanks to Derek O'Keeffe for all of the photos)

Your opinion...So, how did your own race go? What did you think of the race? Organization? Course? Leave a comment or e-mail me (my address is shown on the right) and I'll post the comments here.

Your Comments...

"Hi john, just read your piece, well done to you, that was a very good time,also just to say well done for the info on the blog for this race it was great to have the updates on the weather which i agree was excellent on the day really enjoyed the run 1.57.44 my time not bad for me considering the recent half marathon took me 1.54.04 again well done to the bhaa very well organised but the need for the mile marker's need to be addressed the first one i saw was the 7 mile one. Next stop for me is Galway next saturday for the Galway Bay 10 after that i need time out. this was my 18th race since june keep up the good work on the blog, the best site for race info. Regards John Dunphy "

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"Fantastic day. You have to hand it to the BHAA. I have raced many races this year and the BHAA are the best organised of the lot. Better organised than the Cork half marathon despite the bigger crowds. No problem in seeing the finish line here!!Did it in 1.35 and reasonably happy with that."...Anyonymous

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"Well done to all involved.it could not have been organised better.The start went off very smoothly and even though there was traffic on the road i hardly noticed it because of the stewarding.The goody bag,sandwiches and craic afterwards were great and the weather was ideal.As for my run 1hr 59mins,which was very pleasing as it was only my second race after a 6month injury lay off. Pity there is no run (other than marathon) in October.Does anyone know of a run in october locally??Anyway well done again to all the volunteers on the day who made it such a success."...Terry H. (Terry..there is a 3km night race series starting soon. Hope to post details about it here next week...John D.)

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"I hava a blister the size of a tomato on the ball of my foot and another the size and shape of a baked bean on the tip of my big toe....I cant walk on it. But it was good fun. Well organised and I'll do it again!!! "...Anyonymous.

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" I'd just like to echo the above comments and the original blog in congratulating the Cork BHAA on a superbly-organised event, the whole thing seemed to go very smoothly. I did it in 1hr 53 mins 30ish secs. I was happy enough, but I fell into my usual trap of starting too quickly, the last two and a half miles were agony! Lovely weather conditions, and a nice, scenic route (relatively flat with a great downhill finish!). All in all, a good day, well done to all involved and hopefully I'll be back for it in 2008"... (Ronan H)