Preview of the Shanagarry Christmas 5km Road Race - Sun 23rd Dec (12 noon)

This race is usually a pretty low key event with only about 60 runners taking part. There are no big prizes or anything like that, it's just a very simple 5k race which is usually held every year on the weekend just before Christmas day. I have to admit that it is probably one of my favourite races in the year. I'm not sure why....maybe it's the small field, the quiet country roads, the scenic area, the tradition of it being a Christmas run or maybe it's just a combination of all of these.

Location...The race starts and finishes in the village of Shanagarry in East Cork. If you are not sure of where that it, it is on the road between Midleton and Ballycotton. See the top map. Cloyne and Ballycotton are shown for reference.

Course...See map below. You start in Shanagarry, just outside the Church (or just next to the finish line in the 5 mile race if you know where that is). You run back towards Cork, passing the garage and the road junction and after a pretty flat 1 km, you take a left. You are now onto real quiet country roads until you re-join the road to Ballycotton at about the 2.5 mile mark. Then it's left, back into Shanagarry, right past the garage and the 3 mile mark and the finish is in the little dip just outside the GAA club. Overall, the course is reasonably flat and there are no real hills to speak of.

If you want to have a closer look at the course, I have put the course up on the MapMyRun website. See HERE.

By the way, the forecast for Sunday is that it will be dry and mild with a strong Southery wind.