10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The County Senior XC

1. Who's Fault Was It

I think that when something doesn’t go as planned it’s always important to find out who’s fault it was. It was probably Mark Walsh’s fault that North Cork won the county senior. Although it’s probably my fault too for not beating Michael Herlihy like I’d planned.

2. Badness

I think that two weeks is just about enough time to recover after a marathon. I had badness in my legs up until at least Thursday. It was subtle badness, the sort that reminds you its there when you wake up in the morning with sore legs despite doing very little, it seemed to be almost completely cured by an 8 mile run on Saturday morning.

3. Where are my Spikes

I think that the environmentalists would not be happy with the number of new spikes on display. It’s not because the spikes don’t last it’s just that after the last cross country race of the year everyone forgets to clean them, throws them into a bag and forgets about them for at least 9 months. My tip is to stop at the car wash at the way home, put in a Euro, and power wash your spikes back to new. It really works.

4. Put Down Your Vaporflys

I think I was a little surprised that there was not a single Vaporfly on display, especially after Kipchoge in Vienna, you’d think there’d be at least one fool. Conor and Mark had spikes that looked like Vaporfly spikes but disappointingly they were just regular non cheating spikes.

5. Labels for Numbers

I think that the county senior cross country is the only race that uses labels for numbers. The problem with the labels is that they don’t really stick as they’re just regular labels. It’s even more of a problem when Donal Coffey takes your number by mistake and sticks it onto his singlet. Thankfully when you run as many races as I do there are always at least three safety pins somewhere in the car.

6. Six is the Limit

I think that we had to run two many laps. Six laps is the absolute maximum that the brain can cope with. We had seven, one small and 6 long. It’s a lot of laps, it feels like it’ll never end. I even looked at my watch at one stage, not because I wanted to know what pace I was going but to see how long could possibly be left.

7. Start

I think the startline was very intimidating, everyone on the line was a good runner. You’d almost be worried that you might end up coming last, especially when you have come last before. That’s why I made sure to go off good and fast because at least then you get some confidence that the marathon badness is gone.

8. The First Small Lap

I think that Tim, Sean and Ryan were at a different level to everyone else. I couldn't even stay with them for a few hundred metres. They were gone, it would have been nice if they'd been a little more cagey as I'd planned on using them to get a big gap on Michael and Conor. I never even got a gap on Conor he seems to have learned how to run cross country.

9. Not Mike Again

I think I’ll never get the better of Michael. It’s a repeating pattern at this stage. I go off hard, get a big gap after about four laps then like some sort of preprogrammed monster he tracks me down relentlessly before dispatching me with a lap to go. I think he really enjoys showing how useless I am.

10. The Curious Incident of Mark and the Number of Laps

I think that those extra laps cost us the team title. Poor Mark got the number of laps wrong. In fairness it was a little confusing when the guy with the mic said there was two laps to go when there were three left. At the end of what was actually the second last lap I saw Mark up ahead sprinting past Mikey and Paul Moloney, then he tried to turn into the finishing straight only to find it taped off. He tried to burst through the tape like a dog trying to get through a patio door but it was hopeless. He tried to get going again but that was the end of Mark and the end of our team title. It’s almost grounds for a rerun, almost.