Preview of the East Cork AC 3km Road Race - Tuesday 18th of December (7:30pm).

It's hard to believe that this will be number 4 of 7 in the East Cork 3k series. Only 3 more after this and we'll be in mid-February and the evenings will really be starting to get longer.
By the way, the forecast for Tuesday is for it to be dry but very cold. Don't forget the hats and gloves for the warm-up / warm down.

Intro...The 4th race of 7 in the East Cork AC 3k series takes place in Midleton on Tuesday, the 18th of Dec at 7:30 pm. It is open to all club and non-club athletes. If you do 5 out of the 7 races in the series, you will recieve a special T-Shirt.

Directions...See the image on the left. The circle shown at the top is the roundabout that is on the Midleton Bypass.So, if you are coming from Cork, you need to take the 3rd exit and take the road South towards Whitegate. Almost immediately, you will pass a SHELL garage on the right. What you are looking for then is the 2nd turn right. The 1st one is a housing estate. Take the 2nd one and it will bring you down onto the 'Dark Road' which ends in a T-junction. Registration will be near here.

Course description...The course is basically 3 laps of a 1 km course. See the map...the start point, the 1km, 2km and finish points are shown. It can be a bit crowded at the start but it thins out after about 500 metres. By the way, you need to be carefull when you join the main road (bottom right hand corner on map). Even though you are running inside the hard shoulder, it is narrow at this point and it is easy to end up out on the main road.Overall, the course is pretty flat. There is a short little uphill section when you join the main road (bottom right on map) but otherwise there's nothing.

Reasons to do it...
a) It's a good speed session and should help you improve your breathing, fitness levels and speed.
b) Good excuse to get in a run on a dark Winter evening!!
c) It is a very good way to test your fitness level. As the course is identical every 3 weeks, you can see how your training is going. For example, if you are training for the Ballycotton 10 in March, then you should see your times improve by the time of the last one in February.

Additional info...
a) Entry fee is €3
b) If you are still not sure of where it is, then try this link and zoom in and out to get your bearings.
c) If you did this race last year then you might be interested in the following. I have put together a chart showing the finishing times for everyone in alphabethical order. The link is HERE.
d) Last year, 240 runners took part in the series with 11 people doing all 7 races. I'd expect the numbers this year to be up a good bit.
e) You can see the results from the 1st race in the series at this link...http://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2007/10/results-of-1st-east-cork-3km-winter.html
The results of the 2nd race can be seen at this link...http://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2007/11/east-cork-ac-3km-winter-series-race-2.html
The results of the 3rd race can be seen at this link...http://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2007/11/results-of-east-cork-3km-road-race-no-3.html
f) Don't forget to wear a reflective bib/vest, it's compulsory!!
and finally
g) And this is in large letters because it's important!

Please remember that the race organisers depend on the goodwill of local residents so that this race can be held here. There was an incident at the 2nd race which did a lot of damage to this goodwill. Remember when parking not to cause an obstruction and don't do anything that would cause an offence to them.