Race Report on the Corkbeg 4n… July 3rd 2014…..by Denis Looney

This 4 mile road race promoted by East Cork AC was held in and around the village of Whitegate in East Cork. The last time I ran it, the race was a 5 mile event over a different course. It’s a pretty low key affair with 120 to 130 runners with 8 Eagle AC members at this year’s event. Race HQ was the National school in Whitegate and as is typical with John Walshe and East Cork AC, entry was smooth and at €5 very good value. There was ample parking in the area.

The race start was about 800 metres from race HQ, of which 500 metres was up a fairly steep hill. This used to be part of mile 1 in one of the older 5 mile versions of the race. The weather was cloudy and relatively cool. Pretty good racing conditions.

The course itself runs in an anticlockwise direction in the hills behind Whitegate village. It is also a net downhill (see profile below). The course is run on open roads. With the exception of the last mile, most of them were out in the country with little traffic and not many white lines up the middle :o)

Mile 1 started with a climb for about 400 metres then falls away gently. You turned left after 1200 metres. At the 1 mile mark you climbed again and then it was downhill to 1.5 miles with a long uphill drag to the next left turn in Upper Aghada just before mile 2. From there it was downhill to a sharp left turn on the outskirts of Whitegate and a climb past the 3 mile mark. Then it was downhill to an even sharper right hand turn and then running downhill to Whitegate itself. A quick right and left and we were on the seafront running along the main road. There was a green in the village and a decent crowd cheering us on. From here there was under 800 metres of flat running, turn left off the main road, then left again into a small housing estate and onto the finish by the playground. These last 2 bends had quite a bit of gravel on the inside but didn’t cause any problems.

Afterwards Enable Ireland had a fund raising barbeque on the village green (thus the earlier crowds) where for a small donation we got a decent feed. In typical East Cork AC fashion, John Walshe was handing out full printed results by 9.15 with the prize giving concluded by 9.45.

Pat Twomey, Elaine Guinane, Paul Cotter & Denis Looney

14 24:27 COTTER, Paul Eagle AC M 06:06.6
18 24:59 O’CONNOR, Pat Eagle AC M45 06:14.6
28 25:54 MCCARTHY, Tim Eagle AC M 06:28.4
31 26:02 LOONEY, Denis Eagle AC M45 06:30.4
37 26:47 MANNING, Sandra Eagle AC F 06:41.6 …4th woman
42 27:08 TWOMEY, Pat Eagle AC M55 06:46.9
46 27:31 GUINANE, Elaine Eagle AC F35 06:52.6…1st F35
100 32:48 LOONEY, Bernadette Eagle AC F45 08:11.9 …2nd F45

The full results can be seen HERE