10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Raheny 5

1. Not Short

I think that the course wasn’t short. Have I made that clear? It wasn’t short. Not a short course, the Garmins and Strava showing 4.7, 4.8 4.9, and 5.1 are all wrong. It wasn’t short, not short, is that clear Michael. Not short. We all ran that fast. It wasn’t short, definitely.

2. Taper

I think that so long as the course wasn’t short that I got my taper perfect. I only ran 7 miles on Saturday, this was very hard because it was kind of a nice day and I like running at least 10 because 10 miles isn’t lazy. 7 miles is lazy.

3. Sleep

I think that 3pm is the perfect time for a road race. It’s no coincidence that football matches start at 3pm, it’s because it’s perfect. You can sleep in until 10 have rice cakes, lots of coffee and then have a nice empty stomach for the race. Morning races should be illegal.

4. Boxes

I think that the warm up is the worst part of any race. After driving all the way to Dublin for 5 miles you kind of feel like you have to run outside of your normal 27-28 minute time box. It’s not like a cross country race where nobody will know if you give up after two and half miles and jog home except yourself.

5. Penguins

I think that I was better off waiting in the pen for 10 minutes before the start rather than jogging up and down with the elites. It was too cold to be standing around in an ill fitting Leevale singlet, even jogging didn’t make it warm. It was very cozy standing in the pen, very tolerable, almost warm. The penguins are right.

6. Short Legs Good, Long Legs Bad

I think that the worst part of the race is the start. It’s very stressful for big lumps like me. I’m not very good at accelerating in crowds because my legs are too long and I’m very awkward. I like big open spaces where I can be awkward. After 100m there were lots of short legged people ahead of me. I wish I had shorter legs so that I could run faster at the start.

7. Street Furniture

I think that there are too many speed bumps in Raheny. Speed bumps like the smooth ones in Cork are normally only slightly annoying but the speed bumps in Raheny had potholes in them which made them horrible. Thankfully I was wearing my trusty Brooks Ghosts so my ankles didn’t break.

8. Familiar Faces

I think that I should have beaten Niall O Riordan. I know that he was shocked and horrified to see me at two miles because he told me. I tried to beat him but I couldn’t. I kind of got scared because I’m not supposed to beat him. I’ll try again next time, I like horrifying people, I want to be a “He beat me”.

9. Beep

I think it was a good idea not to look at the watch for the whole race. It’s better just to try and keep up with the person in front of you. It also helped that the mile markers were invisible. It’s kind of odd to have no idea of how long is left. You can kind of tell by the beeps of people’s watches, although the weirdos who set them up in kilometers make this unreliable. I’m pretty sure Niall’s watch was in miles, it felt like a mile per beep.

10. Big Fish Big Pond

I think it’s better to be a big fish in a big pond. I do love a podium in Spain but it’s also nice to run some-bit fast and finish nowhere. After all running is all about times and boxes, I think. It wasn’t short either, definitely 5 miles.