Leinster Novice & Masters Road Race

asimonov

Our club is hosting this race again this year, details from leinster athletics website as follows:

The Leinster Novice and Master's Road Race will be held at 1pm on Monday 3rd May in Gowran Co. Kilkenny.


Novice and Master's Women 3k will be held as one race. Novice Men 5k and Master's Men 5k will be held as two separate races.
Women's Race - 1pm
Novice Men - 1.20pm
Master's Men - 1.45pm
Entries taken on the day - Individual entry €5, club team €15 and county team €20

Further information from Carmel Kelly on carmel.kelly [at] hotmail.com

surfjunky

thanks asimonov, any more info you have would be great: is the course flat or hilly? Multipe loops or one large loop? Will showers be available, is there somewhere in Gowran to get my pre-race coffee? Looking forward to it anyway.

asimonov

No probs...

The race has since been confirmed as 6k for guys and 3k for women. The course is 4 laps of a loop on country roads. It has a steady rise on one side and fall on the other, but nothing too harsh until you've done it 3 times.

its the same course as last year, the results pdf is here
http://www.athleticsleinster.com/images/results/results040509.pdf

There's a great gourmet food shop "glasrai and goodies" in Gowran that does coffee that will be open before, and there will be tea etc afterwards in the "the hall" - but i don't think there's showers.

registration is from 12.

Daithi BC

surfjunky wrote: »

thanks asimonov, any more info you have would be great: is the course flat or hilly? Multipe loops or one large loop? Will showers be available, is there somewhere in Gowran to get my pre-race coffee? Looking forward to it anyway.

I did this race last year. No showers afterwards, but a very good spread of tea and food. The whole day was very well organised.

As for the course: it's 4 1500m laps. Each lap starts off with a pretty steep downhill for maybe 500 metres, then a short flat section, then into what I would call a pretty severe uphill for 500-600 metres, then a gentle downhill to the end of the lap. It's a good testing championship course!

surfjunky

@asimonov & Daithi BC thanks for all the info, really useful.

asimonov

I ran the novice's race yesterday.

Great weather and a good crowd meant it was an enjoyable event, the standard was definitely up on last year with the top four coming in under 20 minutes.



A couple of the dublin clubs were involved this year as well with rathfarnham winning the novice club prize.

Results here http://www.athleticsleinster.com/images/results/results030510.pdf

The €5 included entry, an accurate course (6.06k on the garmin), a race number, 4 safety pins, a personalised timing service, water, tea & a selection of USA biscuits.

Daithi BC

asimonov wrote: »

Great weather and a good crowd meant it was an enjoyable event, the standard was definitely up on last year with the top four coming in under 20 minutes.

Big difference alright! I came fifth last year. With the same time I'd have been 16th yesterday.

asimonov

Daithi BC wrote: »

Big difference alright! I came fifth last year. With the same time I'd have been 16th yesterday.

i know, savage improvement. I gained about 80" on last year and only moved up 5 places.

Clum

I improved my time by 31 seconds and finished two places further back than last year.

It's a great race though. I like the course. The downhill start makes for a fast pace and it's testing enough with the climb on each lap. Being a four lap route it's good for spectators too.

Picking up a couple of team medals added to the feel good factor of course.

surfjunky

Great race alright, first time doing it. Lovely village, good course, fast pace, nice weather.

Daithi BC

I think it's a good testing course for a championship race. You do have to think a bit on your way round as to how much effort you want to put in on the various up and downhill sections, and that makes it all the more interesting.

And there's a good feed afterwards