Preview of the Cork BHAA 'Army/Navy' 5 Mile Road Race...Wed 19th Aug 2009
The first thing to note about this race is the start time........7:30pm! Most of the summer evening races in Cork start at 8pm but with the evenings closing in, they tend to start that bit earlier in August.

Getting there....Just get to Ringaskiddy, drive straight through and when the road is about to end, take the left towards the Naval base. Once you get to the base, there will be Navy personnel directing you to the parking area. The registration is usually in the Sports Hall on the base. Just join the correct queue.......€5 for registered runners and €7 for non-registered.

Course details...The start and finish points are in the Naval base itself. The course goes back over the bridges towards Ringaskiddy and on to the 1 mile mark.....most of it reasonably level with a slight pull over the bridges. Around the 1.5 mile mark, you take a sharp left and climb 500 m up a steep hill. This is by far the hardest part of the race as the hill is long enough and steep enough to leave you out of breath if you push too hard. Then you take a right onto a quite backroad above Ringakiddy and on to the 2 mile mark. This road rises and falls a bit until you join the main road again that was part of the Novartis 5k route. From here, you run downhill past the 3 mile mark into Ringaskiddy and then the last 2 miles are pretty flat until you finish back inside the Naval base. The only hill along the last mile is the bit over the bridges again.

Overall......a pretty reasonable course with just one bad hill. Depending on the weather, the numbers for this race may be well over 400. So with the big numbers entering and the fact the race starts at 7:30pm, you need to keep an eye on the time.