The 2026 AXA Raheny 5 is returning to it’s roots.
After working with all stake holders, the 2026 AXA Raheny 5 includes the James Larkin Road or the seafront as known to locals.
The Start/Finish area on All Saint’s Park remains with the official start now taking place on All Saints Road heading to Watermill Road and turning left at Manor House.
The race turns left onto All Saints drive down Wades Avenue to a right hand turn onto All Saints Road and continues onto the Howth Road.
From the Howth Road runners turn onto Sybhil Hill, past St. Pauls and left onto Mount Prospect avenue all the way to the seafront before turning back up Watermill road and then onto All Saints Road, onto Wades Avenue and the traditional finish on All Saints Park.
For the second year in a row, World Athletics has deemed the AXA Raheny 5 a “World Athletics Label Road Race”. As part of the Bronze Label status, World Ranking points will be available to podium placed athletes at the 2025 AXA Raheny 5 on Sunday.
“It’s really good news on the double ahead of the 2026 event” said AXA Raheny 5 race director Dave Hooper. “We had planned to return to James Larkin Road and as close as possible to original course in 2026. We had been working with stakeholders in the last two-years to achieve this.
“The impact of Storm Eowyn in 2025, brought this forward with a very late change. However, now we are delighted to return to our roots.”
“Achieving World Athletics Label Road Race Status is a brilliant endorsement of all the work done by the Raheny 5 organising committee” added Hooper. “We now take our place as the leading five mile road race in the country, having met the high standards for elite athletes, event management, traffic management and runner enjoyment sought for by World Athletics”.
“We look forward to the best Irish distance runners performing in Raheny on the last Sunday in January and achieving all important world ranking points.
