Sunday, May 26, 2013

Ballyhoura Limerick Road Race Series...June to Sept 2013

It's easy to take the running boom for granted now but looking back a few years, the number of road races in Co.Limerick was much lower than some of the other counties in Munster. In 2011, the Ballyhoura Active Series was established by Ballyhoura Failte with the aim of promoting physical activity and  tourism in the Ballyhoura Region, while, at the same time hoping that the events will be a positive social occasions for local communities.

Following the success of the 2011 and 2012 series in promoting road races in the Ballyhoura region,  this year it has been split into two new series...the Ballyhoura Limerick Road Races Series and the Ballyhoura Cork Road Race Series. That's 14 races in total for this year i.e. 7 in each one, up from the total of 9 for 2011 and 11 for 2012.


Ballyhoura Limerick Road Race Series...
1) Angelsbourough 10km road race - Friday 28th of June 8pm...contact Marian Kelly (086)1569875 or  Paddy.kelly0@gmail.com
2) Dromcollogher Festival 4 mile road race - Monday 8th July at 8pm,West Limerick A.C...contact Gene Noonan (087)7568503 or gene_noonan@yahoo.com
3) Kilteely Festival  7km road race - Friday 26th July at 8pm...contact Larry O Grady (086)8604099 or lcogrady@eircom.net
4) Kilmeedy 5 mile road race - Friday August 2nd...West  Limerick A.C...contact Joe Healy  (087)2422940 or geraldinehealy254@gmail.com
5) Pallasgrean  10k Paddy Ryan and Eddie Murphy memorial race - Friday August 16th at 8pm...contact Joanne Beary (086)1659774 Joannebeary@gmail.com or Ger O Connell (086)2148675 germoconnell@gmail.com
6) Galbally Mooreabbey Milers A.C. 5 mile road race - Saturday August 24th at 7pm...contact Tom blackburn (087) 6994976  tomblackburn1@gmail.com or AnneCoughlan (087)2234081 annecoughlann@eircom.net
7) Emly 13km road  race - Friday Sept 6th  at 7pm...Larry Joy (086)1512562  or larryJoy@eircom.net


As you can see from the map above, the events are within easy reach of people in Limerick City and County as well as those in the surrounding counties.

All races will have their courses measured accurately by Jones Counter and all have an Athletics Ireland licence. Post race refreshments will also be provided at all events.

Anyone completing 5 of the 7 races in the series will receive a special tech top. 

For the duration of the race series, all of the information such as race flyers, directions, course previews will be available here as well of course, all of the results.

In some of the other counties in Munster like Waterford and Tipperary, race series have a hugely positive impact on race numbers. The Ballyhoura Series is still in it's infancy but it's already showing  results. If you are in Limerick then it would be great if you could support the local series in your own county. As this series grows, it will hopefully raise the standard, profile and number of road races in the region.

Details about the Ballyhoura Cork Series can be found on the Running in Cork site. Most are obviously in North Cork but the one to note there is the Charleville International Half-Marahton in September, the flagship event of the series.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pity that they diluted this series. Looking at Cork series there is 5 weeks between first and second races and then we have three races in 15 days. The Ballyhoura series has been very well ran since it began but I think that all races here will see a drop in numbers this year.

Sean