Ballintotis 4 Mile 2024

10 Things I Think About The Ballintotis 4 Mile

1. Ballintotising

I think that it has been too long since I last raced Ballintotis. For a multiude of reasons I haven’t raced it since 2017 when I ran 22:00 in a pair of Brooks Ghosts which according to the validated Michael Herlihy magic shoe calculator is equivalent to 20:48. Amazingly and shockingly this was John Meade’s first ever time Ballintotising, the alure of a potential county champion medal was probably too much to resist for him.

2. Good Parking Comes to Those That are Late

I think that the parking for the race was amazing. Tim kindly drove us down and also provided Billy minding services, we were slightly later than most people who seemed to arrive at 5:30pm for the 8.00pm start. We arrived at 7.30pm and were awarded with the best car park just before the turn into the finish only 500m from the hall.

3. Les Amis de Ballintotis

I think that the roads in Ballintotis should be preserved like they preserve the cobblestones in Paris Roubaix. They are proper roads for road racing, they have everything one could want in a road race surface, a nice camber, filled in potholes, dust, mud, soft verges. It’s a proper test of strength and agility, none of that smooth black tarmac stuff.

4. Elite Level Organisation

I think that Ballintotis could handle a world road race championships. The organisation is elite level. They could definitely achieve a gold label event. Everything worked, over 1000 runners in a small village the size of Anglesboro should not be possible but somehow it all hums along perfectly. The start line should be a mess but instead it’s probably the least stressful start of any race.

5. Sun Safety

I think that it was nice for the rain to finally stop. It was becoming silly how cold, wet and windy all the races had become. Apparently, it is always sunny for Ballintotis. It was so sunny that the sun was almost dangerous for the first mile. The first half a mile was terribly fast and slightly uphill. Once we turned right after the hall we hit the sun, perhaps due to having not seen the sun in six months it was hard to see the lumps and bumps on the road so I had to pick up my knees to make sure I didn’t trip and end up getting trampled by 1000 runners.

6. Chariots of Fire

I think that for a small race in the countryside there was an atmosphere like a big city marathon. They even had music at most of the mile markers. Chariots of Fire gave a little boost around two miles. At that point I was at the front of a big group of people that I wanted to beat. A foreign athlete Brian Murphy was helping me at the front with the likes of John Meade hiding behind waiting to pounce once the line was in sight.

7. Tarmac

I think that it is a terrible shame that they put smooth tarmac at the left turn between two and three miles. I would love to have seen how bad the road was for Cork County Council to have spent money on the road. These old style roads should be preserved only for running and should only be repaired using tar and chippings to preserve the character of the race.

8. Three Miles

I think that I was very surprised to be still ahead of John Meade at three miles. I had pushed the first two miles at an effort that was probably unsuitable for my moderately old man legs. To my surprise when we got to the three mile mark I had only the foreign athlete Brian Murphy for company. I could see Aidan Noone and Mark Walsh just up ahead so I began to think less of John Meade and more of catching my Leevale colleagues.

9. Talking Tactics

I think that I could probably have run a faster time if it wasn’t for the tactical running of John Meade. I had been running honestly and with full effort until we turned left onto the N25 by the lake. Then in the corner of my left I eye saw the all too familiar sight of John Meade rolling level. I thought he might keep the pace honest but instead he decided to slow down so we all bunched up leaving the foreign athlete Brian Murphy to escape up the road. It took James Hayes bombing past us on the outside at twice the speed for John Meade to be triggered into action just before we turned into the finishing straight.

10. Championship Sprint

I think that the finish of the race is wonderful. The last 500m of the race once we turned off the N25 was like a bunch sprint in the Tour De France except it was for the Cork County Championships and it was in Ballintotis and not on the Champs Elysees. Once I hit the 400m mark on the road I launched a hopeless effort at catching John Meade and Aidan Noone but succeeded only in being passed by James McCarthy in sight of the line. No shame in that I suppose. Great fun at a great race.

PHOTO: Graham miekle

Cork BHAA PWC 5K

10 Things I Think About The Cork BHAA PWC 5k

1. Training Season

I think it’s great to have the midweek races back. They are a great excuse for not having to do a training session. I don’t particularly like training sessions, everyone else seems to love them, there are even podcasts dedicated to people talking about their training sessions in great detail. I wish that more people in Cork would do training sessions instead of races so that I could win BHAA races.

2. Evening Preparation

I think that it takes a while to get back into the flow of an evening race. An evening race is a lot harder to prepare for than a morning race especially for the belly. I basically ate toast for the day to keep the belly happy. Then I had to take a beetroot shot for the first time in the evening which is more unpleasant than in the morning.

3. Some Turnout

I think that there must have been nearly 1000 people at the race. It was a very big crowd for a small 5k on a dank, wet and windy evening in early April. It is great to see that so many people have discovered how great running races is. The BHAA people registering 1000 people in one hour is impressive work.

4. The Fear

I think that it is interesting that no matter how often I race I am always scared at the start. When I got to the start line at Kennedy Park, I found a terrible number of good runners, Denis Hegarty, Aidan Noone, James Hayes and Adamh who I jogged over to the start with. At least I’ll be able to beat Peter Hanrahan I thought.

5. He Gone

I think that Denis Hegarty is a very good strategist. It is an excellent strategy to just run away from everyone at such a pace that no one will even think about trying to follow you, Mark Hanrahan used to do this to great effect. Before we got to the Live at the Marquee junction after about a kilometer Denis had the race won with second and third place being all that was left for decision.

6. Cork No Track Club

I think that being able beat all of the Cork No Track Club athletes would guarantee at least a few BHAA road race victories. They may have no track, but they have some good athletes. Tonight, they sent James Hayes, I knew he was probably going to run away from me over the last mile like Anthony and Barry normally do but it was nice to be able to stay with him for a while.

7. It’s The Athletes Responsibility to Know the Course

I think that if I learned anything from last year it was that you could potentially become a national champion over 10k by knowing the course when everyone else doesn’t. Because of that race I now study the race route in great detail before the race so that I can win if there is any confusion. The bit around SuperValu Pairc Ui Caoimh seemed to cause James Hayes great confusion. James Hayes is a nice man so I told him where the course went and we were all fine.

8. The Monster

I think that Billy is a very good judge of characters. He has always called Peter Hanrahan the monster ever since they first met in The Edge when Billy was about two. As we came back onto Center Park Road for the final mile I was horrified to see Peter cruising along with perfect form looking completely untroubled in his Swiss engineered On Cloudboom Echo shoes which no one else wears. I knew that we were all doomed if Peter was in touch within sight of the line so I tried briefly to push the pace to get rid of him. It did nothing, this monster was undroppable.

9. That Point

I think that races are very annoying. The worst part of any race is that point when the group you are with gradually eases away and there is nothing that you can do about it. It is terrible and doesn’t seem fair at the time as you are trying very hard. As we passed the Marina Market it was still a group of five, first James Hayes slowly increased the pace, followed by Aidan. Then to my horror Peter followed Aidan and I was left briefly left with Adhamh before he too gradually distanced me. There was nothing I could do except run home as fast as I could and try and get under 16 minutes which I didn’t.

10. Zero Carbon

I think that the BHAA races are very green races. The Green Party would have been very happy with me tonight. Tim gave me a lift into the race, the race number had already been used at least once if not twice and I gave it back afterwards, even the safety pins had been used before. Then to make it even greener I ran home as my warm down as I hadn’t reached the acceptable amount of running for the day which is currently 10 miles. There are benefits to not being good enough to win prizes, it’s probably green not to win prizes too.

pHOTO: gRAHAM meikle

Kinsale Regatta 5 Mile 2022

10 Things I Think About The Kinsale 5 Mile

1. Operation Quieten Viv

I think that it is a disgrace that Viv is making a show of all the very young runners like me. He’s only running 15:30 for 5k in magic shoes and winning by miles which is a desperate standard. When I found out that he was running Kinsale I had to go to see if I could quieten him.

2. Magic Roads

I think that Kinsale is very hard to get to. The roads don’t make any sense. There isn’t really any road to Kinsale just lots of roads that meet at deadly crossroads where you could easily be killed on your way to the race.

3. Toolbox

I think that there are very few things left in the toolbox for getting better at running. I could try training properly but then it would be really boring and I’d have to tell people that I’m training for a sub 2:30 marathon the whole time and never ever run a race for fear of missing a session. Instead I bought a pair of Asics Metaspeed Sky+. I was going to wear them as I thought they might be magic but I was terrified of being beaten by Jeremy if I didn’t have magic shoes so I didn’t.

4. Strategy

I think that I had a good strategy for the race. I had analysed Viv’s previous races where he had won easily, actually there was only one but he won easily. In that race he was allowed run slowly from the start and then pick it up for the last mile and destroy everyone. I figured it would be a good idea to make it as hard as possible from the start in the hope that he would be wrecked by the time he got to the last mile. Jeremy agreed that was a good plan and agreed to cooperate.

5. 4:56

I think that my plan would have been easier to execute if Gavin O’Rourke hadn’t shown up. While it made taking the race out at what I would call hard easier as we had someone to follow it also made me realise how terribly slow my version of hard is, even with a 4:56 mile Gavin was miles up the road. I was stuck with Jeremy and a hopefully suffering Viv.

6. 4:54

I think that the second mile of this race is completely mad. It is incredibly downhill, well there is one section that is almost vertical. I am exceptional at falling down hills so as soon as we got to this section I went for it. I managed to shed Jeremy but somehow Viv stuck to me like one of those limpets on a rock. We went so fast down the fall that we nearly caught up to Gavin.

7. Davide Rebellin

I think that the third mile of this race was incredible. It was horrible to come off the hill and suddenly meet gravity again. It felt like I was crawling along which I probably was. Viv came up beside me and then promptly danced off away from me. Gavin was a nice bit up the road but Viv continued to prance up to him effortlessly like one of those fellas from the early 2000s in the Tour De France.

8. Hometown Hero

I think that Jeremy was very happy to beat me badly in this race. The last time I saw him this happy was eating his Knickerbocker Glory the night before the Berlin Marathon. He was very clever and hung back on the crazy downhill and let me destroy myself trying to get rid of Viv. Then he caught me on the flat near the three mile mark and then dispatched me on the little hill on the way back into the town. At least it took a PB for him to beat me. It’s definitely a PB course for downhill PBs.

9. Cars into the Gap

I think that just letting Jeremy run away from me on the way back to Kinsale was a bit weak. Those first two miles destroyed my legs, I’m not able for that leg speed. Once Jeremy was gone I was mainly concerned about Fergus who I knew was thinking about beating Jeremy. I was able to relax when they started letting cars into the gap behind me. I knew this meant I was safe in 4th, my third consecutive 4th, my third consecutive race with no prize.

10. Outdoor Dining

I think that the finish of the race is pretty unique. All races should finish in the middle of town where people are sitting outside eating their Michelin Bib Gourmand dinners. When I got to the finish I expected Gavin to have sat behind Viv and kicked by in the last 400. But no Viv had dropped Gavin with a 4:50 last mile and won. I wonder did the outdoor diners realise that they were watching one of the best masters athletes in the world putting on an exhibition. An amazing performance.

San Silvestre Chiclanera 2021

10 Things I Think About the San Silvestre Chiclanera ~5.5k

1. Loading Bay

I think that parking in Spain is the hardest part of driving in Spain. You have two choices, ridiculous underground car parks and on street parking which will result in your car being scratched. As I expected Chiclana was not designed for cars, with about as many parking spaces as American tourists. I eventually found a curiously empty spot so left the car there while I got the dorsal for the race. When I got back to the car there were two lottery stall people giving out to me pointing at the loading bay sign so I had to go and find another spot, thankfully someone pulled out of a lovely spot just in front of a playground for Billy to continue his “El Diablo” terrorizing of Spanish playgrounds. .

2. Imperdibles

I think that the safety pins for this race were the most carefully packed safety pins ever. They were so well packed I didn’t know what they were. The four safety pins were wrapped in a tiny package with the race logo printed on it. It must have taken someone days to do.

3. Meta

I think that the start of the Chiclana race was particularly unsuitable for someone of my size especially when racing Spaniards with a significant size advantage. It started on a steep uphill with a left hand turn at the top. As normal in Spain everyone was wearing masks at the start so for the first 100m you had to sprint uphill with a mask on. This was particularly horrible. I started very badly and had to use a few of the Spaniards as leverage to get going up the hill. I don’t think that they were used to my starting technique.

4. Tranquillo

I think that I was very glad to see that once we got to the top of the hill the guys at the front stalled the pace while they took off their masks. It was still fast but not the complete madness in Malaga. I decided that I wouldn’t make the same mistake as in Malaga so I sat at the back of a big group of about 20, this was a mistake as this was a different style of race.

5. Fermín Cacho

I think that all Spanish runners must train as 1500m runners when they are young. It must be something to do with Fermin Cacho. In nearly every race I have run in Spain the first 1500m of the race is the hardest. They are exceptionally good for that first mile. It is amazing how far back you can be in a Spanish race after a mile and still end up in the top 3.

6. Fortress Chiclana

I think that it helped to be a local in this race. The streets in Chiclana were definitely designed to help defend the city from foreign vandals and vikings. After the initial stall in pace the guys at the front of the pack suddenly took off stretching out the group down the hill through the winding narrow streets. I was stuck at the back and because of all the twists and turns I missed the break.

7. Catch the Locals

I think that Spain is the only place where I catch people on hills. The first lap of the race took us back to the start where we had to run back up the hill again. I was in about 7th place trying to catch the locals that had escaped up the road. The minute we hit the hill four of them came back to me all of a sudden and I swept by them up into 3rd.

8. Random Distance

I think that not having any idea of the course or distance is a great way to get rid of the mental side of running. If you don’t know when the finish is all you can do is run as hard as you can for as long as you can. Chiclana was a 5.5k race which is a great distance free from any PB nonsense. At no point in the race had I any idea how close to the finish we were.

9. Pegasus

I think that I never caught as many people in a race as in Chiclana, once I had dispatched the locals on the uphill there were only two guys ahead. On the second longer lap out by the river I managed to catch one of them and get up to second place. I didn’t think there was anyone behind me because I couldn’t hear the sound of any magic shoes behind me. As we ran back through main street of the town I started to recognize the streets again so realized that we were near the finish. As soon as this thought entered my head a Spaniard in a pair of Pegasus danced out from behind me and outsprinted me for second. Third isn’t too bad I suppose. According to the guy in the Pegasus the guy who won the race is a Spanish champion junior triathlete like Chris Mintern and is unbeatable.

10. Chiclana

I think that the San Silvestre in Chiclana is the best of the San Silvestres in the area, Chipiona is pretty similar but I think I prefer Chiclana. The course in Chiclana is very excellent and the atmosphere was like a mountain stage of the Tour De France. Running through old narrow Spanish streets at 6pm on a warm sunny winters evening is so much fun. Unfortunately, because of the disease there was no podium so I didn’t get my prize for third so I’ll have to come back next year to try and win it, and maybe if I don’t win they can give me my prize from this year.

III San Silvestre Solidaria RCM Malaga 2021

10 Things I Think About The III San Silvestre Solidaria RCM Malaga ~10k 2021

1. A Wedding, a Christmas and a Flight

I think that running a race a few hours after getting off a plane is a bad idea. It is especially a bad idea the day after Christmas. It felt like all of the blood in my body was in my calves when I went to warm up. Flights do bad things to my legs, they swell up, sort of like a bag of crisps if you take it on the plane.

2. El Diablo

I think that Spain has the best playgrounds in the world. There are playgrounds everywhere, on every street corner, on a run you might pass 20 of them. There was an excellent playground beside the building where you collected the dorsals for the race. Billy had great fun chasing two Spanish children around, they called him El Diablo, I hope that If I get good at running they will call me El Diablo too.

3. Masks

I think that the Spanish are excellent at masks, very excellent, probably better than the Germans. You have to wear a mask outside if you aren’t running which is great because everyone feels safe from the runners so you don’t get any abuse or scowling. At the start of a race you have to wear a mask until a few 100m after the start. Taking off your mask while running full tilt and putting it on my upper arm is a skill I didn’t think I’d ever have to develop. If the strap of your mask breaks while doing this you don’t have to worry as at the finish they will give you a new mask. It is great.

4. Light Show

I think that there should be more races at night during the winter. I much prefer running in the evening as I am awake. The race started at 7pm which unlike in Ireland is only 30 minutes after sunset in Spain in December. This is one of the main reasons I like Spain in December, each day is about 2 hours brighter than Ireland.

5. Follow the Motorbike

I think that you don’t need to understand the language to understand what is said at the start of a race. The race director appeared at the start line with a motorbike helmet. I couldn’t understand a word but from his gesticulations I understood that we were to follow the motorbike and not the car.

6. Loco

I think that this might have been the fastest race start I have ever been involved in. It was completely mad. It was supposed to be a 10k but everyone took off like it was a 1500m race. I was about 30th after about a kilometer, when I looked back on Strava it was about 4:30 pace for the first kilometer so god knows what the 30 people ahead of me were doing. It wasn’t like they had any hope of maintaining this pace, it just appears to be the done thing in Spain regardless of ability.

7. Roundabout

I think that I now understand why the roundabout in the Kipchoge 1:59 challenge was cambered. It is very hard to run completely around a roundabout at full tilt wearing magic shoes. The roundabout in Malaga was very small which made it even harder.

8. Who Blows up Least

I think that if I were to run this race again I would run the first kilometer a lot more conservatively and work my way through. It would have been far more fun. Instead I spent the next 8k passing Spaniards that had completely detonated. I had blown up too but not as badly. It was a very strange race. I was lucky it was only 5.8 miles and not the advertised 10k as I was in major trouble by the end.

9. The Disease

I think that the Next% disease is just as bad in Spain now as it is back home. It probably isn’t as contagious as the Irish version as it seems to have only infected the front of the field. Further back it is mainly Asics and Joma shoes. The disease is definitely as virulent in Spain as the times have improved significantly.

10. No Podium

I think it was a shame that the other disease that has impacted running meant that there would be no podium. I finished 3rd in the masculino category which would have normally resulted in a podium trip despite finishing 9th overall. I don’t understand how a podium could be considered a high-risk activity, but I suppose it was a case of give something up to appease the gods.

The North South Masters XC

10 Things I Think About The North South Masters XC

1. Don’t Forget to Bring the Singlet

I think that the most important part of the weekend was to remember to bring the Irish singlet. This was the whole point of the weekend, the green singlet. I really should have done one of those Instagram post with the singlet the night before the race, but I bought it off the internet, so it didn’t seem right.

2. King Billy

I think that it was a great idea to bring Billy to the race in Belfast. A cross country race is a great place for a toddler, toddlers love cross country races. They don’t actually watch the cross-country race but they enjoy the grass and attacking other children.

3. Old Man

I think that old men like me are not able for a long XC season, the tendons in my lower legs are really suffering. Physios on twitter tell you to load your muscles and tendons to cure the niggles while removing stress from your life. I think this is nonsense as my calves are completely overloaded from wearing spikes twice a week and I have a perfect level of stress. Physios need to learn about magic shoes, I plan on curing my niggles by going back racing in magic shoes running in a delusional and pain free state again.

4. Queen’s Farm

I think that the race was excellently organized. The race took place on the Queen’s University playing pitches which is like a hilly UCC Farm. There was one muddy section on the downhill part of the course which is the first mud I’ve seen on a XC course all year. The lap was a proper lap with tight ankle breaking turns and small little steep hills but still plenty of fast sections, it kind of suited me, it was great fun to run and went by too quickly. I wish it had of been 10 or 12k.

5. 1215 or 1230

I think that having any timetable for the race was great after having to guess the start of the Munster Senior. There was a little bit of confusion about the start time as one email said 1230 and on Facebook it said 1215.I went with the Facebook option which turned out to be more accurate. Two timetables is still better than none.

6. Aussie Team?

I think that the start of the race was my favourite part of the race. There were two pens at the start, one for the Irish team and one for the Northern Ireland team. It looked like a battle scene. Apparently according to Instagram at the start I looked like Morgan McDonald who is a tanned hairy Australian runner, I will take this as a compliment and a sign that I should keep the hair and keep using the fake tan.

7. The Old Man Mile

I think that the first lap of the race was very cagey, I suppose it was a master’s race but the start was very slow, it was sort of like the old man mile you have to start doing when you get over 30, I ended up leading, not because I wanted to but because no one else wanted to. I lead for about a kilometre before the Northern Irish lads and Toldo warmed up and tore off into the distance.

8. Keep Her Lit

I think that running in Northern Ireland is great. It is kind of like a race abroad as it sounds completely different during the race. It's not very different but it is different enough to be refreshing. The crowd seemed to be more encouraging than back home, they shout stuff like Keep her Lit that you see on t-shirts in St George’s Market.

9. Motivation

I think that it was very difficult to find a reason in the race. I didn’t really want to badly beat anyone in the race. The Northern Irish M35 lads were in a different league to me so I couldn’t race them and you couldn’t really hate fellas like Niall O’Riordan so I couldn’t motivate myself when he went past me. It was an odd race on that front. In the end I just tried to run as hard as I could which is an acceptable way of racing too.

10. M35<M40

I think that the problem with the M35 category is that it gets harder every year you get older. Then you reach the M40 category and it get inundated by the people who refuse to accept M35 as a category. Next year I would like to run against the English, Welsh and Scots too. I might as well take advantage while everyone else my age is afraid of being called a masters athlete it might be my only chance and its a great day out.