Info on the 2010 Ballycotton 10 mile road race...

It's that time of year again when it's time to start thinking about the Ballycotton 10! The final date has just been announced........Sunday, the 21st of March 2010. For those of you used to the race, it's usually on early in March. However, because of a national cross country race on the 7th and a point to point meeting in Cloyne on the 14th, they had to opt for the later date. Now, you might ask.....what has a 'point to point' meeting in Cloyne got to do with a road race in Ballycotton??? Traffic management is a big part of the race as several thousand people descend on Ballycotton for the day. Having that many cars travelling through Cloyne on the main road into Ballycotton from Cork City would result in chaos. So, the 21st of March it is......... Still though, it will feel kind of strange doing the race so late in the month ;o)

Ballycotton 10........for those of you new to the local running scene.......the Ballycotton 10 mile road race is one of the biggest races locally and attracts runners from all over Ireland and the UK. Due to safety concerns, the numbers have to be limited to about 3,000 entries. Entries usually are taken in December and the demand is huge. About 2,300 actually take part on the day.

Entries........the 'terms and conditions' for entries to the 2010 race will be announced at the end of next week. I hope to have them here on Friday evening, the 23rd of October.

In previous years, they allowed a special 2 week window for club runners or anyone who had done one of the Ballycotton Summer series races (overseas entrants got around 4 weeks). For the rest, there was a quota of 2,500 entries. If the organisers were to follow the same format as before, then non-club/non-summer race entrants would have about 24 hours to get their entries in and even at that, it's starting to become a bit of a lottery.....i.e. Get the form on the Monday, post it on the Tuesday and hope it arrives by the Wednesday when the entries would probably close.

This year, we'll have to wait and see what they have decided.