Preview of the Cork BHAA 'FMC' 4 Mile Road Race - Sun 27th Jan 2008 (11:00am) (Updated Sat 26th)

The first road race in the Cork BHAA calendar takes place in Little Island next Sunday, the 27th of January at 11am. The registration point is the community centre which on the map above, is more or less exactly at the 1 mile mark.

Directions...
If you are coming out of the city, take the N25 East and turn off for Little Island. You then take the road into Little Island...going through the roundabout, past the garage and follow the road around to the right. The road now heads West again and follow it until you see the 1 mile sign on the road on the right. The community centre is here.

Alternative directions...
I recieved the following text in an e-mail from Donal O'Donoghue who lives in the area. He wrote...
"Given that Little Island has two entrances, and the Sports Complex is on the West side of the island, it would be better to enter Little Island, from the Tunnel roundabout. It's two miles shorter, for people coming from the City, and there's fewer turns, and less chance of getting lost.
Directions from the Tunnel Roundabout: Tunnel Management road is just to the left of the tunnel entrance, so one needs to be in the left-most lane, when approaching the tunnel. At the top of this short road there is a small roundabout.Take the exit marked "Little Island Ind Estate". Keep going for about one mile.You will pass Pfizer's, Henkel/Cognis, and Punch Industries (all on the left). You will see a small ruined castle and a mobile phone mast on the left. The Little Island Sports Complex is next.
The advantage of this route is that one will pass over both the Start and Finish lines, and one should have less difficulty finding that Start line, after registering.

Parking.....There is ample parking in front of, and behind the Sport Complex, so there is no need to park on the main road."

Thanks Donal

Course...
First a word of caution for new runners...you will need to run/jog 1 mile from the community centre back to the start line which is not too far from the Jack Lynch tunnel. The course is reasonably flat with no real hills. There are a few slight inclines but nothing worth talking about. As you can see from the map above, it really is a case of running along the main road in Little Island, a loop around an industrial estate and back the same way. One unique feature of the race is that near where the race loops around, you can see others in the race going the opposite direction...it's a bit like running a race and spectating at the same time!!

Overall...
It's not exactly the most scenic of routes but this race always seems to get a good turn out. It's almost as if most people use it as their first race of the year. Last year, they got 313 entrants and I'd guess that they will easily break the 300 mark again this year. The current weather forecast shows high pressure building for the weekend so the weather should be dry and settled.

Extra notes...
A lot of people probably won't be registered for this race so it might be very busy in the hall with people entering the race and getting registered for the year as well. Considering the numbers that will be there, it might be no harm to arrive early, join the correct queue and beat the rush.
If you want to have a closer look at the course, I have put it up on the MapMyRun website.
If you zoom in there and press the SATELLITE button, you will see an aerial photo of the course and you can see the Community hall with it's car park.