Cork City Marathon Route Changes - Sneak Preview

Condo131

Plans are at an advanced stage for the 2010 Cork City Marathon and it is proposed to eliminate some of the bits that participants found hard. Overall the course will be flatter ...and the dreaded section from the Tennis Village, on the Model Farm Road, to Nangles Nurseries and back to Inchigaggin will be gone!

Preview here

A preliminary course map will be posted when we have time.

Moycullen1

Thats great news. Only today I posted an update on the Spring Marathons Blogg promoting the Cork Marathon and encouraging people who intended doing it to add their names to the list to demonstrate how popular it is.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055722401&page=21

One thing I would be a little nervous about is the foot bridge. I know it is hard to get the optimum route while achieving the required distance but I cant help getting visions of a bottleneck particularly as the event grows in popularity and size. One way or the other I'll still be doing it. Its a great event.

ultraman1

Condo131 wrote: »

Plans are at an advanced stage for the 2010 Cork City Marathon and it is proposed to eliminate some of the bits that participants found hard. .

is it not supposed to be hard?:D

chinguetti

I think that the areas where you go up the hill at Togher at 15 miles and at the Lough at 17 miles were the really tough bits for me. I liked Blackrock section because of the shade from the blazing sun.

I know those pathways and have walked them a couple of times so they should be fine for the marathon. However i wouldn't like to try to pass anyone out on those sections.

robinph

ultraman1 wrote: »

is it not supposed to be hard?:D

It is hot though. No way I'm going to be doing a marathon at that time of year.

I will be hoping to do the relay again though. If we get the same team again then we should be able to break three hours, and hopefully there are more Brazillian cheerleaders at the finish again.

twowheelsonly

Strangely enough that's one of the changes I suggested to one of the organisers after the 2008 marathon!!
It's a grand smooth track and loads of people run and cycle there. It's narrow in places but as it goes from 10-13ish miles the field should be reasonably broken up and there should be plenty of room. Approx 2 miles is in the open all right but then you're going into majority shade for roughly 4 miles or so - from the Rochestown link to where the Victoria Road changeover usually is.
The lead car is going to have to become a lead bike though!!!

bewleys berry

personally i'm disappointed to hear they are slightly changing the route.. i have run the marathon for the past two years and think it's a great course... there are no what i would call real hills to speak of.....it's a good fair course (the drag back in along that long straight in the final 5or6miles is like a tramps heartbreak alright but sure it's all honest running).....

village runner

bewleys berry wrote: »

personally i'm disappointed to hear they are slightly changing the route.. i have run the marathon for the past two years and think it's a great course... there are no what i would call real hills to speak of.....it's a good fair course (the drag back in along that long straight in the final 5or6miles is like a tramps heartbreak alright but sure it's all honest running).....

I thought the 2nd half was harder ??
Going by your second half in 2008 it must be. Lol.............

bewleys berry

yeah the second half must be up a mountain, cos i saw two snails and a tortoise creeping past me in 2008:p

seriously though... i wouldn't call the route tough at all......if u have the work done it's a course u can get a time on ...

Condo131

Moycullen1 wrote: »

One thing I would be a little nervous about is the foot bridge.

The footbridge isn't as wide as I'd like it to be, and I've raised a number of issues that need to be addressed. However this section is regularly used for 5k races, with about 300-400 competitors, coming at about 2.5 Miles, so congestion shouldn't be a problem. The bridge will now be somewhere around the 12/13 mile mark.

chinguetti wrote: »

I think that the areas where you go up the hill at Togher at 15 miles and at the Lough at 17 miles were the really tough bits for me. I liked Blackrock section because of the shade from the blazing sun.

I know those pathways and have walked them a couple of times so they should be fine for the marathon. However i wouldn't like to try to pass anyone out on those sections.

The hill at 15 miles is the slip road up from the South Link. I'm afraid it's still there. The loop around the Lough is gone - too many people taking short-cuts!

"Shade from the blazing sun"?? I (very unexpectedly) roasted along that section last year (in the relay) I fully expected to be cooled along by the river. wrt passing, see previous comment above.

twowheelsonly wrote: »

The lead car is going to have to become a lead bike though!!!

twowheelsonly?? You volunteering? Yeah, I think so. Either motorbikes or push bikes.

bewleys berry wrote: »

seriously though... i wouldn't call the route tough at all......if u have the work done it's a course u can get a time on ...

The Model Farm Road section just came at a location that people were beginning to find the going tough and the lack of spectators on the Straight Road didn't help. Overall the toughest section was over the 4th relay leg, from Victoria Road to Model Farm Road, where some of the greatest rises occurred. Yes it is a relatively good course and it's just got a bit flatter.

...if only the met people can keep the temperature down a little bit in 2010....not quite as low as at present though!!:D

tisnotover

sometimes train on the old railway line and usually have trouble with my forerunner on it (losing signal, false pacing), due to surrounding trees. another obvious place is through tunnel

remember to have in your head or on some band your targetted mile splits, don't rely on the watch!

Gringo78

tisnotover wrote: »

sometimes train on the old railway line and usually have trouble with my forerunner on it (losing signal, false pacing), due to surrounding trees. another obvious place is through tunnel

remember to have in your head or on some band your targetted mile splits, don't rely on the watch!

train there a lot and have to say don't remember having had any trouble with the GPS signal.

Glad to see a lot of the straight road gone....the lack of spectators on that sectiion when you are at your lowest is a big drawback. I remember getting a big lift when i got to the end of teh straight road coming up to the footbridge and big groups of spectators again...it makes a huge difference.

Don't know if I'll get to run it this year...wedding in germany that weekend but may be able to make it back on the sunday evening. Would hate to miss it.

RoyMcC

Thanks Condo, good to see organisers trying to improve their races year on year. These tweaks look good on the whole.

On the question of the shortest possible route (SPR) I think a lot of people naturally tend to keep to the left out of habit, even on closed roads. Are you going to leave the blue line there for us this year?

eliwallach

RoyMcC wrote: »

On the question of the shortest possible route (SPR) I think a lot of people naturally tend to keep to the left out of habit, even on closed roads.

I have first-hand experience of Condo gliding along the SPR in the Blarney Half Marathon. He was cutting yards off each section of raod.
I followed him.
Most didn't.

Condo131

RoyMcC wrote: »

Are you going to leave the blue line there for us this year?

Yeah, just download the colour photos and bring then with you!
Or.... better still ...just follow me in the relay! After all Golden Eagles (geriatrics and all) will want to maintain their record against Boards AC!!!

eliwallach

Condo131 wrote: »

...just follow me in the relay! After all Golden Eagles (geriatrics and all) will want to maintain their record against Boards AC!!!

There's an early season call-to-arms if ever I saw one.
Right, Robinph, Orobhsa & Woddle your only target for the season is June 7th :rolleyes:.