Races in Cork on Sunday 11th March 2012..

There are two races in Cork this weekend.

1) The Munster Novice and Senior Road Championship will be held at Ballyanley in Iniscarra. Both men and women will race over the same 4 mile circuit. The Womens Race starts at 1pm, the Mens Race to follow at ~1:30pm. This race is inter club only.

 Directions......From Cork City.....Take the right at the end of the Straight Road /Carrigrohane Straight. Cross the bridge over the Lee and go past the Angler's Rest pub (Shown as A above). If you are coming out via the Ballincollig Bypass, follow the signs for Kanturk / Blarney and you'll arrive at the same spot. At the junction just after the Angler's Rest, take the Right past the Garage. Stay on this road (R579) for several kms, go past the junction and Church in Cloghroe and look for the turn off left at Blair's Pub about 2 kms later.

From north Cork....Go through Blarney..keep going straight...through Tower and at the T junction in Cloghroe, turn right. Turn off right at Blairs pub.

From Coachford....Once you pass the resevoir for the Inniscarra dam, take the next left R622 signposted for Blarney. Then left at the next T-junction and then look out for the turn off left at Blairs Pub.

Course Description...This is a hilly 4 mile course. You can forget about fast times, there are too many hills for that. However, despite the hills, the course is run on nice quiet country roads and it's a nice spot for a race. The race itself starts down the road from the GAA grounds. Initially, you run downhill but soon, you turn off left and then there is a nasty drag uphill. Soon it eases off and then you are running on nice quiet roads. Around the 2 mile mark, you come to the small village of Berrings. You turn left here at the church and you have another uphill section. After that, you're on flat or downhill sections. Just in case you thought you were getting off lightly, the 3rd hill of note comes at the finish. In the last few hundred metres, you drop downhill and then you have to run about 200m up to the finish line which is just outside the GAA grounds.

I have put a map of the course up on the MapMyRun website in case you want to check out other ways to get there. The link is http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/ireland/cork/1129301821

2) The Cork BHAA have a 5k race in Mahon at 11am. Sign in at the local community centre...€5 reg/€8 non-reg. The race is on a narrow public walkway so it might get a bit congested in places. Otherwise, it's flat except for the pedestrian bridge over the South Ring Road.