Preview of the Cork BHAA IPS/Garda 5 km road race - Sun 19th Sept 2010

The Cork BHAA IPS/Garda race has been usually held in Ringakiddy during the Summer months. This year however, it's a few months late and it will be held on a Sunday morning rather than a mid-week evening. The course will be the same as the John Buckley 5k route.

Registration...The event centre for this race is in the Lee Rowing Club building on the Marina. This is located just alongside the Pairc Ui Chaoimh GAA stadium. There is plenty of parking in the area....outside the club house, along the quayside or outside the GAA stadium. See map below. As with all of the Cork BHAA races, the number of entries will be high and there are likely to be BIG queues. Try and arrive early (10:00-10:20) and avoid the crush.


Remember, the race starts at 11am!


Cost...As usual for BHAA events, it is €5 for registered runners and €8 for non-registered. There will be 2 queues...just make sure you get into the correct one. Just a note for those of you new to the running scene, this race is open to anyone. Just join the non-registered queue and get your race number.

Course...This is probably the flatest and fastest 5 km course in Cork. The start is on the Centre Park Road, about half a mile from the club house. With so many people running, the start will probably be a bit squashed but the road is wide enough that the field will soon thin out. Just one word of warning here...a lot of heavy vehicles use this road and the surface is a bit rough in places. It's not so easy to see what is up ahead when the field is bunched.


So, from the start, you run towards the city centre, left at the roundabout and onto the Monaghan Road. The 1 mile mark is half way down this road. For the 2nd mile, you go left at the next juction, back onto the Centre Park Road, past the start point and on to the 2 mile mark. For the 3 mile, you just retrace your footsteps as you repeat the same route except at the end when you approach the Centre Park Road again, you turn right instead of left. Here, you enter a tunnel of Green foliage as the mature trees on both sides of the road block out the light. Along here, you pass the 3 mile mark and the finish is about 150 metres later.

Overall.....Dead flat and as fast a 5 km course as you can get. If you want to try for a personal best, this is the place to try for it.

If you want to have a closer look at the course or get your bearings, I have put the route up on the MapMyRun website.