Preview of the Rising Sun 'Straight Mile' road race - Sun 17th May (7pm)

There are 2 races on this weekend. The main one in Munster is the John Treacy 10 mile Classic in Villierstown, West Waterford at 12:30pm on Sunday, the 17th of May. More information about this race on the Running in Munster website.

The other race is the Rising Sun race near Ballinhassig. This is one of the more unusual races on the local race calendar in that it is only 1 mile in lenght and it is dead straight. As for the location, I would descibe as being in the middle of nowhere!! It's a really quiet area, very little traffic, good road surface and surrounded by fields...in fact, an ideal spot for a race! ;o) I often run along sections of this road as part of my long training runs and I have rarely seen any traffic there.

Directions...
Probably the easiest way to get there from Cork is to take the main road for Kinsale over the Airport Hill. After Five Mile Bridge, take the 2nd right. Keep going straight and you'll get there.

Registration...
All the registration, results, etc take place at the finishing line of the race. There is no venue available so entries will be taken at Jimmy Murray's car. The race is purely a fun run but they will be giving out some prizes and some spots. The minimum entry fee is €5 and all entry fees go to the Lavanagh Centre. The race runs from east to west and there is an overall fall of ground from the start to the finish.

Course...
You sign on near the finish and run 1 mile up to the start point. The course is initially downhill and then flat. If you want to have a closer look or get your bearings, I have put the course up on the MapMyRun website.

There is a flyer for the race HERE.

Overall.......it's not a serious race but it can be interesting if you want to test yourself and see how fast you can run a mile in. In terms of fast courses, they don't get any better.