Preview of the Cork BHAA 'Stryker' 4 Mile Road Race - Wed 2nd July (8pm)

This 4 mile road race takes place in the East Cork town of Carrigtwohill at 8pm on Wednesday, the 2nd of July. Registration is in the Community Hall near the Eastern end of the town. If you are travelling from Cork, you have a choice of 2 slips roads to take for Carrigtwohill off the main N25 road as shown above. You can see exactly where the Community Hall is by clicking HERE and using the +/- buttons to zoom in and out. Try changing the 'View' to Satellite or Map to see if it makes it any clearer.

As per normal at BHAA races, there will be 2 queues in the hall. One for registered runners (€5 entry) and one for non-registered runners (€7). The start point for the race is about 400 metres away, up a small side road outside the local church.

The course...From the start outside the local church, you head along a straight stretch of road away from centre of the town. It is a section where you need to be careful as the field is still very bunched. However, by the time you get to the railway bridge, the field should have begun to thin. There is a sharp little incline at this bridge but once you are over it, it flattens out as you turn off left at the next road junction. Now the road begins to climb slowly until you turn off left and head West to the 1 mile mark. A tough enough start. The 2nd mile involves plenty of flat running with some downhill running also as you lose the height you gained earlier. After the 2 mile mark, you turn left onto a long straight. Up a slight incline at the end and out onto the old main road. You are then running inside the hard shoulder past where the old Youghal Carpets plant used to be onto the 3 mile mark. For the last mile, you carry on towards the small roundabout and back into the town. There is a slight climb before the finish but nothing too serious. The finish line is a short distance away from the Community Hall.

I have a copy of the route up on the MapMyRun website if anyone wants to check it out or get their bearings.

Overall...A reasonably flat fast course with no major hills as such. Last year, they got 319 entries on what was a dull dreary evening. This year, the weather forecast is for fine weather and I'd expect they will get in excess of 350 entries. It might be as well to get there early.