Thursday, April 9, 2009

Clare...Preview of the Kilnaboy 10 mile road race - Sun 12th Apr 2009

The 4th and final race of the John Buckley Sports Munster Ten-Mile Spring Classics Series takes place in Kilnaboy, Co.Clare next Sunday, the 12th of April at 2pm.

Getting there....
A major issue next Sunday is the fact that there is a major rugby match in Limerick city with Munster playing Ospreys. This match in Thomond Park starts at 1pm and traffic in Limerick is likely to be very bad as a result.
Kerry - If you are coming from Kerry, it probably makes more sense to use the Tarbert car ferry rather than going through Limerick. If you car pool and split the costs then the price may be reasonable.
Tipperary - Coming from the East, avoid the city and cross the Shannon at O'Briens Bridge or Killaloe and head towards Ennis via Broadford.
Cork & Waterford - Unless you are prepared to drive around, the best option is probably to leave early on Sunday morning and miss the bottleneck from 11am onwards.

Where is it?.....
If you are not sure of where Kilnaboy is, have a look at this link. As you can see, it just to the north-west of Corofin which in turn is about 15 kms to the north-west of Ennis.

Entries......
It costs €15 to enter this race. Included in the price is special 25th anniversary T-shirt. If you have completed the first 3 races in the series (Mallow, Dungarvan & Ballycotton) then you should collect your series t-shirt as well.

Course.....
The start is just a few hundred metres back down the road towards the R476 road. The race then runs past the sign-on point and then onto narrow quiet roads. Around the 4 mile road, you join the R460 road to Corofin. Although the road is wider, it's still pretty quiet. Then it's through Corofin and you can expect to run into some traffic here that will be stopped or moving slowly. For the last 2 miles of the race, the road rises and falls slowly until there is a bit of pull all of the ways up to the finish.
Overall, it's a route on quiet roads on the edge of the Burren. While there are no big hills, there are plenty of small pulls and dips probably making this the slowest of the four 10 mile courses.
Munster Ten-Mile Spring Classics Series...
A total of 245 runners have completed the first 3 races in the series. You can find their times and positions HERE.

Additional info...

The route can be seen also up on the MapMyRun website.
A race flyer and entry form can be found HERE.

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