Counting down to Ballycotton...
Welcome to the Ballycotton Week Special on the blog. This week, I'll concentrate on the the big race in Ballycotton and nothing else.

First of all, a disclaimer...!!
Don't forget that this is NOT the official Balycotton website. I may have plenty of info about the race but you should always check the official website for the most up to date information. It's....http://www.ballycottonrunning.com/

I hear that they are doing a bit of a revamp on their site at the moment and that it should be ready soon.

Event Programme...
Anyone who is doing the Ballycotton 10 should have recieved their race number in the post by now. Along with the race number, the Event Programme booklet was also enclosed. If you have any questions about the race, you should read the Frequently Asked Questions section on page 4 first.

So what's new...??
Well, this year, they have banned all iPods and MP3 players due to insurance reasons. In addition, thanks to a suggestion from Rich who left a comment on this blog, they are going to have a special area for parking bicycles. This is an good option for anyone who wants to get away quickly after the race or avoid the queue's for the buses. Someone else asked here about the bus meeting the train from Dublin...that info is in the FAQ as well.

Some statistics...
Denis Sheehan of Mallow AC sent me the following stats regarding this years entry...
The following is the breakdown by category of the Ballycotton entrants
Cat / Male / Female / Total
Junior 22 5 27
Senior 1251 570 1821
O35- n/a 175 175
O40- 324 136 460
O45- 201 87 288
O50- 130 38 168
O55- 69 10 79
O60- 33 8 41
O65- 18 3 21
O70- 4 0 4
O75- 3 0 3
Total- 2055 1032 3087

Thanks for the info Denis. Now you can see how many people you are competing against in your age category ;o)
The one interesting fact that these stats show up for me is that Women now make up one third of all entrants!! Surely that was not the case 10 or 20 years ago? I am hoping to do some checking on the numbers regarding this after Ballycotton and we'll see what the results are like.

Another snippet of news is that 7 out of the original 31 runners who took part in the first race back in 1978 will be running this year!

Training...
In a word, STOP! Whatever your fitness was like last Sunday, that's it. You're not going to get any better in the last week. You CAN however make yourself too tired for Sunday. Go for a few short easy runs this week and conserve your energy.

Car Parking and Pooling...
The thing about Ballycotton is that it is a bit of a cul-de-sac and it can a real headache getting all the runners and spectators into this small area and back out again. This year, they have 6 cars parks to cope with the numbers. The fewer cars that turn up, the easier it will be. Perhaps you might consider car pooling? Do you know someone you could share a car with? Consider it...

By the way, is there anyone stuck for a lift down to Ballycotton on Sunday? Maybe you would like to carpool with someone? Send me an e-mail with your details or leave a comment and I'll put the request up here.

On Tuesday, I'll cover the car parks and access in more detail. Until then...