Streets of Portlaoise 5k, 17/03/2011

Daithi BC

Portlaoise Athletic Club are holding their annual Streets of Portlaoise 5k on 17 March 2011. This year, the event is sponsored by Tony Brown of Property Properly.

The course this year will start at the Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise and will take in 3.5 laps of the town. This course has only one short climb and the rest is downhill or flat, so expect fast times!

Juveniles: This year we are adding a 1k race for the over 6's. The emphasis on this one is fun,with the added bonus of a medal for the 1st 100 to finish.

Walkers: The walkers will be starting as part of the main event (This is due to feedback from past events)

Race HQ is at the Heritage Hotel, and there will be free changing area, showers and refreshments afterwards.

Prizes: 1st 4 men and women
1st 3 junior men and women
Vet Categories 1st man 0/40, 45 and 50.
Vet Categories 1st women 0/35, 40 and 45.

Cost: €15 (on the day entry only). Registration at the Heritage Hotel between 9am and 10:30am. Race starts at 11am.

Team prizes 1st and 2nd team in both male and female race (4 to score)

We will have T-Shirts for the First 250 to register on the day and medals for the 1st 100 juveniles in the dash.

You can find more details and contact the Race Director from the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188114134543876&index=1, and you don't need to be a facebook member to view it.

Hope to see you there!

elvis jones

Go to hear i missed it last year with injury !

Defo going to do it.

lfp

Nice one. What route is the lap??? Out towards mountmellick from the Heritage or back into town and down mainstreet or Council offices or Mountrath road????? Nice idea to have laps, should create a bit of atmsophere.

Glad to hear it's a flat course, I did this (slowly and in pain) a few years ago and it had a big hill at the start, I think it was out and back past Lewis Opel on the Mountrath road. Was in bits after the early steep hill :eek:.

Would a 3.5 lap race create a lot of potential lapping though???

Daithi BC

lfp wrote: »

Glad to hear it's a flat course, I did this (slowly and in pain) a few years ago and it had a big hill at the start, I think it was out and back past Lewis Opel on the Mountrath road. Was in bits after the early steep hill :eek:.

I did it that year myself, and like you, was in bits after the first km. At least the last 800m were all downhill!

The route this year should be a lot kinder. The loop is down to Shaws on main street and then back up to the Heritage, with the finish at Shaws. Should make for good spectating and support. There will be a certain amount of lapping of walkers and some runners, but it shouldn't cause any problems.

10 Toe Runner

Looking forward to giving this a go.

With over 3 laps, will going down main street not get fairly congested at times...it is a bit narrow in places? Is there a limit to the amount of entrants?

lfp

That's a great route, it'll be a bit of a drag up the hill past the CBS, but we can't expect a course to be flat and downhill only:D.....

Finishing at shaws makes for a downhill finish - which is always a great way to conclude a race.

Races tend to string out quickly enough. If there's anything over 500m of running before you get to main street I'd say there'll be more than enough space for all concerned.

Might be worth mentioning at the start of the race for the benefit of the less gifted in the field (myself included) to be aware of fast runners coming past on laps 3 (or even 2) and just give them the racing line.

scargill

hope to do it - enjoyed it last year as it was my first ever race!
recovering from injury so see how I am on the day.

like above posters I do wonder about people being lapped?

Daithi BC

I was talking to the race director this morning. He said that there would be a certain amount of lapping (particularly of walkers), but that he reckoned the course was wide enough to cope with the numbers he was expecting.

Jimmymac1

THE COURSE IS AS FOLLOWS:Starting at the Gym entrance of the Heritage Hotel and heading down to the railway station,around to Coote Street,up to the top Square and down Main Street to Shaws corner,turn left down by the schools to the Company hairdressers,left again and up Tower Hill,turn right back to the start,the course will be 3.5 laps and will finish outside the Kingfisher restaurant.We also have a short dash for the kids starting before the main event.

scargill

Jimmymac1 wrote: »

We also have a short dash for the kids starting before the main event.

good idea!

Jimmymac1

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portlaoise-athletic-club/277359706021?ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=188114134543876

marchino

Looking foward to this one.
Should be a good atmosphere!

what time is the kids dash and over what distance!??

Jimmymac1

Hi Marchino,This year the kids dash is starting outside Spagos at the heritage and is going up to the top square ,down the main street and finishing outside the kingfisher,starting at 11 and it should take no more than 7 or 8 mins max, kids must be over 6 yrs and we have club medals for the first 100 finishers,looking forward to seeing you there.

marchino

cheers mate.

PDCAT

Will there be Km markers for this run. How does this work if it is laps of the town.

Jimmymac1

Hi pdcat, The kms will be marked on the ground.Its self explanatory really,each time you run a km you will see it marked on the ground.I think i understand your query,you will pass the 4k mark on each lap but they will be run in sequence 1,2,3,4,5.,straight forward enough.:)

Daithi BC

That sounds ok to me. It's like the 10 miler in the Irish Runner series in the Phoenix Park - you pass the 7 and 8 mile markers on the first lap as well as the second.

PDCAT

Cheers lads for the info. Haven't ran too many races before and never done laps. Just wanted to make sure, there were no surprises for me on the day. Done this run last year (my first ever race) and really enjoyed it. Hoping for more of the same.

Thanks Again.

marchino

quality field for this today.
1st three were, michael mulhare, brian maher and sergui ciobanu.
i ran 16.32 and finished 18th!

joe_dunne

I had a go at this yesterday and I have to agree, the times of the winners were v impressive.

I myself was trying to go about 28 mins but went off like a rocket at the start and had to drag myself around the rest of the race. Maybe next year.

Joe
Bujinkan Portlaoise

voodoodoll1654

I ran this race too but didn't hang around afterwards. Are the official results available online yet? Had a look at the Portaloise AC page, but no joy.

It was an enjoyable race but I mis-judged my pacing. Thought the race was finishing at three laps so I was dying for the last 2/3rds lap! Haven't done any running training since the Dublin marathon last year, only been doing swimming and cycling this year, so I'm delighted with my sub-20.

Daithi BC

Results are now up at:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=tVWg1rANR2wXut1KwEeFVlg&hl=en#