The Course

Introduction

Cork is a city of hills and valleys. Established on the low-lying islands around Washington Street and St Patrick's Street, the suburbs rise to fill the surrounding hills to the north and south. To the west, the Lee Valley provides some flat stretches, while to the east the harbour estuary also offers some flat relief.

As with all major city marathons, the challenge for the marathon course committee was to design a route that would maximise the runners’ experience while minimising the disruption to the public. We also wanted to make this truly a city marathon, by bringing the race to as much of the city as is possible, to give the people of Cork a public event they could engage with. There are a few immovable constraining factors: The options to the north of the River Lee are limited because of the steep hills. To the south, the potential course is restricted by the critical South Ring Road, which carries large amounts of traffic into or around the city centre. Despite these restrictions, the course committee designed a route that takes the runners north, east, south and west of the city centre.

For the first three years of the Cork marathon the course remained largely unchanged, apart from a few small modifications to address traffic issues. From the outset, however, we were aware that there was one particularly challenging section at about the 21-mile mark. Out west of the city centre, on the Model Farm Road just after Inchigaggin Bridge, there was a short but steep uphill that led to a long dragging hill. Levelling out for about half a mile, the terrain then dropped steeply to the flat of the Carrigrohane Road. For any runner who had built up a steady pace, this section was disruptive and gave them little time to re-establish the rhythm of their race before the finish line. The Carrigrohane Road is known locally as the Straight Road and it’s not called that for nothing! At its eastern end, the 65m-high County Hall is visible almost from the start. It tormented the runners as they struggled to regain their race rhythm, never seeming to get any closer.

These three undulating miles comprised the one section of the course that consistently drew criticism from our participants. The course committee has now found mileage on the eastern side of the course to allow us to remove this section and replace it with a flat three miles that have significantly levelled the profile of the course.

Course Description

The race begins and finishes on the city centre's main street, St Patrick's Street. It takes a single circuit of the city centre before heading north for the historic suburb of Blackpool. Returning along the northern quays of the River Lee, the runners pass the four-mile mark along the picturesque riverside scenery of the Lower Glanmire Road (N8). The first relay changeover is at about 5.2 miles, at the junction of the Tivoli Dual Carriageway. The race runs along the inbound carriageway before entering the Jack Lynch Tunnel. The 360m-tunnel beneath the River Lee links Dunkettle to Ringmahon, and the 2007 marathon was the first time that pedestrians had been allowed through it since shortly after it was opened in May 1999. Then, about 100,000 people walked through the tunnel over two days raising huge amounts of money for charity. This run through the Jack Lynch Tunnel brings the race into Mahon, via the South Ring Road (N25) and the Skehard Road.

After the relay changeover point on the Ringmahon Road, the race takes a right-hand turn onto Castle Road. Just short of Blackrock Castle, the new 2010 section of the course begins on the Lough Mahon waterfront walkway. This popular local amenity walk runs for a mile-and-a-half along the river estuary. It joins the Rochestown to Blackrock section of the Old Passage West Railway Line just after the 13.1-mile mark. Steep tree-lined embankments guide the runners along the line of the old railway, which re-joins the 2009 course at the Marina.

The race runs along Centre Park Road to the third relay changeover on Victoria Road. From here, it joins the city's South Link Road (N27) for a short distance to run into Turner's Cross. Through Ballyphehane, the Lough area and Glasheen, the race heads onto the Model Farm Road (R608) and the final relay changeover at Kenley. There’s a short steep downhill immediately after the changeover, but the final four miles of the route are almost perfectly flat. At Inchigaggin Bridge the route takes a righthand turn onto The Orchards (Inchigaggin Lane) and a right turn again onto The Carrigrohane Road (N22). At the start of the Western Road, this year’s race turns left and right again, bringing the runners onto Mardyke Walk, passing the University’s Mardyke Arena and FitzGerald’s Park. It rejoins the 2009 route at Mardyke Bridge, crosses Slí Cumann na mBan, onto the North Mall, along Pope’s Quay and Camden Quay, crossing over St Patrick’s Bridge to the wonderful finish on St Patrick’s Street.