Lap of the Gap
Marathon
A classic cycling loop, run clockwise. You leave the monastic city at the Upper Lake, and the road starts climbing almost immediately.
Through Laragh and onto the Military Road. Sheltered, wooded, deceptively runnable. Hold something back: the Glenmacnass pull begins before you feel ready for it.
The waterfall drops away behind you and the trees stop. Ten kilometres beside exposed blanket bog to the Sally Gap, the highest point on the course. Wind here is a factor in most years.
Fast descent past the Guinness Lake in its corrie. It is the photograph everyone takes home, and the section where quads are quietly spent.
Drummin and Oldbridge: narrow lanes, hedges, short sharp rises with no rhythm to them. The race is decided here. Then the drop into Laragh and the finish.
Course map
42.2 km · 800 m
Kilometre markers, water stations, toilets and parking are marked along the route.
View the interactive route