St. Coca's AC 5KM Road Race 2022

This is a set of photographs taken at the St. Coca's AC 5KM Road Race 2022 which was held in Kilcock, Co. Kildare, Ireland at 20:00 on Friday 25th June 2022. This long established road race is widely regarded as one of the fastest and best organised road races of its kind in Leinster. The race follows a left handed course around a well known local walking route around Laragh and in the closing kilometer runs parallel to the Royal Canal into the finish at the railway station in the town having started at the primary school close to the St. Coca's running track. In fact for several hundred meters after the 4KM marker towards the finish the course runs parallel with the railway, canal and the R148 between Kilcock and Maynooth. Over the last 10 to 15 years Kilcock has undergone very extensive and development particularly in housing. While these changes have taken place the race route has almost remained untouched by this. There were around 500 finishers of the race. The race was organised last year (2021) within the permitted public health guidelines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. This seen a maximum entry of 200 runners. It is a great relief to all involved that this road race has returned to the normality of the past.

The members of St. Coca's AC and the many volunteers from the local community must be given great praise for organising another fantastic night of racing for runners, joggers, and walkers. The 5KM course is very flat with the exception of short incline up a motorway overpass and makes its way along narrow country lanes sheltered on either side by hedgerows. These roads offer a great contrast from the urban population of Kilcock which has grown as a satellite town of the greater Dublin area. The warm summer evening made for an enjoyable night for everyone with a large crowd gathering at the finish to cheer on participants. Refreshments and prize awards were held in the Gaelscoil near to both the race start and close to the St. Coca's running track. Running clubs and groups from all over Leinster and beyond were represented in the race tonight.
Electronic Chip Timing and Event Management was provided by MyRunResults.

The full set of photographs from 2022 are available on our Flickr Photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72177720300072355 The photographs from the 2019 event are at www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157709291701642