Cork BHAA Janssen 5K 2025

10 Things I Think About The Janssen Cork BHAA 5K

1. In GPS we Trust, Everyone Else Needs a Jones Counter

I think that the Cork BHAA Little Island 5K route might be the most famous 5K route in Cork. It’s the one where everyone runs tremendous times, the one where the Stravalurkers who didn’t run the race think it’s short because they don’t like the times. The GPS watch must be trusted, never mind that it has been measured with a wheel, the GPS watch is always right. I was hoping the Stravalurkers were right I fancied a 5K PB, it’s been a while.

2. Late for the Late Start

I think that it was a great achievement to almost miss the start of a BHAA race that started fourteen minutes late. There was a very long queue for registration, very long, it went back into a part of the sports hall that I didn’t know existed. At 10am it looked like the race couldn’t start for at least another 30 minutes, so I decided to drive down to the finish with Rhona and Billy and jog back up to the start. As I was putting on my magic shoes Michael Herlihy offered to drive me up to the start as he said they were just about to start, fearing the speed of the Audi Etron more than missing the race I decided to jog up. Running past the eerily empty sports hall I feared that I was about to meet a wave of runners. Luckily, they were just after the “for god’s sake will ye push back” phase of the start so I was fine.

3. White Shorts

I think that it is too difficult to purchase coloured shorts. Irish people are very boring when it comes to colours. Shorts are grey or black, cars are grey or black, nothing else is allowed. Spanish races are very different, it is like a competition to see who can wear the most colourful costume. My contribution to the battle against the grey and black short brigade is white shorts, yes they look like GAA shorts but they’re not grey and not black. You can get them off Adidas, they’re retro apparently.

4. Tis Neither Good for Man nor Beast

I think that the real reason why the Cork BHAA Little Island 5K route produces so many tremendous times is the prevailing wind direction. The route runs from west to east so normally it has a strong tailwind component for about 70% of the race. Unluckily for us on Sunday we encountered the beast from the east meaning, 70% of the race was run into a block cold headwind. Not good for the PB chances.

5. Two Beasts

I think that the other runners in the race were very lucky that John Meade and I turned up for the race. Two brave men not afraid to run into the wind. The race quickly settled into a formation that would not change from start to finish except for the bit at the finish that actually is the most important bit of the race. John Meade and I up front, Aidan Noone in the quarterback position, flanked by Darren McCann, John Longan and Sean Twohig.

6. Three K Trouble

I think that I knew I was in trouble after three kilometres. Three kilometres in a five kilometre race is a crucial point, if you are in a group at three K you’ll probably be in the group at five K. The group of six was still a group of six. I tried everything I could to shed a few from the group, everything involved trying to run fast down the hill but every time we turned right at the bottom of the hill we were met with a wall of wind and John Meade brought everyone back together.

7. One to Go

I think that I knew what was going to happen with a kilometre to go. The fourth kilomtre marker at the top of the hill signified the start of the actual race. For the second time I tried my only tactic of running fast down the hill. Again John Meade neutralized the attack, unlike the first attack Aidan also followed John Meade so I went from first to third. Aidan had yet to feel a breeze at this stage having cleverly and patiently waited for myself and John Meade to tire ourselves out.

8. John Meade Fan Club

I think that Aidan is lucky that John Meade didn’t take inspiration from Martin Drake who was marshalling the turn for home. Martin is very clearly a John Meade fan and was vociferous in his support for John once we turned right with between 400 and 430m to go depending on whether you are going by GPS or measured course. John initiated the all too familiar John Meade sprint which is usually an insurmountable challenge for all but the best local elite Cork BHAA runners, unluckily for John he had Aidan Noone on his tail, a man who is borderline unbeatable in a sprint as John was about to find out.

9. Swamped

I think that I would normally be able to hold onto some level of contact with a John Meade finishing kick. Sunday was different, once John and Aidan had separated themselves from the group of six I was left in third. I didn’t stay third for long as coming onto the finishing straight Darren McCann flew around the outside of me in a pair of what looked like Adidas Adios Pro 4s, I tried to sprint but my sprint isn’t very sprinty so it wasn’t long until I saw John Longan and Sean Twohig fly by leaving me to jog home 10 seconds and six places behind Aidan.

10. Suspicious Fast

I think that having run the Cork BHAA Little Island 5K route there is something about the course that makes it fast. Despite the headwind and tactical race the times were tremendously fast. I don’t think it is short as I have carefully reviewed the GPS data and it is clear that the GPS is cutting the corners so reading shorter than the route that we actually run. I think it is fast because of magic shoes, a course that lends itself to the formation of groups and being ever so slightly downhill, add a westerly wind and it’s very tremendously fast. Anyway I don’t really understand the obsession with 5K road times, who cares what time you ran, it’s much more important who beats who and Aidan Noone beat us all very badly especially John Meade.

Dungarvan 10 Mile 2025

10 Things I Think About The Dungarvan 10 Mile 2025

1. Sometime that I used to Run

I think that I’m beginning to understand what it’s like to get properly old. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to beat my 10 mile time from 2023 so I need to find new things to focus on to make racing interesting. Luckily Dungarvan provided other things to focus on as nearly everyone was running it. I decided to focus on beating Tadhg and fending off a resurgent Michael McMahon.

2. Fear of Carparks

I think that Irish people in cars are magnetically attracted to parking on grass, or even better a grassy kerb or most preferably of all a grassy kerb outside someone’s house. It is great to know this because no matter what time you arrive into Dungarvan on race day you can sail through the town and park in a lovely tarmac car park less than 400m from the start. Aidan who came with me was very impressed with my knowledge.

3. Dashboard Warning Light

I think that no matter how many terrible stress fractures and injuries I get I will never be able to resist ignoring the signs of a potential terrible injury. I probably shouldn’t have run Seville Half never mind Dungarvan as I’ve been suffering with sticky outside of calf syndrome where one part of the calf attaches itself onto the other and won’t come free. It’s not in any physio books so it is a new injury. If it was a warning light on a car it would probably be yellow so I just press the reset button for the race and drive on which will probably only work for so long.

4. Ballycotton 10 Style Field

I think that the field for this years Dungarvan 10 was the strongest deepest 10 mile field I have seen since the days of the Ballycotton 10 in non-magic shoes. Everyone from Cork, Waterford, Tipperary and a few invaders from Dublin turned up. Looking around I was thinking top 20 would be a great achievement. Tadhg asked me to drag him around to 53 minutes which made me want to beat him and put him back in his box even more.

5. This is Mad

I think that the start of the race was very mad. It went off more like a 10k than a 10 miler. Fearghal and Sean Doyle were gone gone, like properly gone with a few stragglers thinking about following. I was left miles back in a huge group of heavily trained or highly talented runners. I made up a bit of ground on the downhill before the one mile mark but was quickly passed out again as we went around the GSK roundabout and ran downhill towards the slippery U turn. I looked at my brand-new watch with AMOLED display which clearly showed that we were all going way too fast, so I let the group go and waited for the inevitable lull in proceedings to occur.

6. This is Grand

I think that it is very helpful to have run a race a good few times as it inevitably plays out the same way each time. Once the huge group reached the U turn with the slippery surface the pace dropped nicely, I used the downhill to catch back up to Tadhg and Michael McMahon who were my main targets for beating. Once I found them, I sat in and waited for the wind to start between miles 3 and 5 which seems to always be the case at this time of year in Dungarvan.

7. Tadhg’s Back

I think that Tadhg is very similar to Viv. He would love to beat me, it is very important to him. He is also similar to Viv in that he doesn’t seem to know what to do when he gets to the front of a group. I nearly had to jump up on his back to avoid crashing into him after four miles as when he found himself at the front of the group, he just stopped running. I don’t like tactical running as we are all way too useless to be using tactics so after the near terrible collision, I just ran near the front of any group to stay out of trouble.

8. Tailwind Time

I think that the section between 5 miles and 8 miles in Dungarvan is one of my favourite sections of road to run. It is probably because it is slightly downhill, is nearly always run with a tailwind and has a nice windy smooth road surface. I thought I was doing great as I was flying along catching Shane Collins and Tony Forristal until suddenly at seven miles I was passed at what seemed like twice the speed by a group containing Kris Liepins and Niamh Allen. It was an unfollowable group but at least it didn’t contain Tadhg, Michael McMahon or Viv.

9. The Two Barrys

I think that the last two miles of Dungarvan are horrendous. Mile 9 is utterly awful, a hill with a gradient that only impacts tall, elegant runners like myself. To make it worse you can see miles ahead. Mile 9 was a bad mile. I was fooled into thinking I was catching Barry Twohig when in fact I was not and was about to be passed out by the other Barry, Barry Donovan who stormed by on a mission.

10. What Number Did You Do?

I think that I did well to finish 22nd. That last little hill up to the finish is very stressful for someone like me who can’t run up hills, so I focused on staying in reasonable proximity to Tony Forristal which worked well in fending off the vicious dual attack of Tadhg and Michael McMahon. Once across the line I was delighted that ignoring the dashboard warning light had not led to an inability to walk or jog which is very important. I collected my nicely coloured Nike T-shirt, told Sergiu and Sean Doyle where to get Vaporfly 1s and walked/jogged back to the nice car park with Aidan. It looks like Dungarvan is becoming the 10 mile race, you can see why, it’s like the Valencia Marathon of 10 mile races.

Seville Half Marathon 2025

10 Things I Think About The Seville Half Marathon 2025

1. Escaping Éowyn

I think that Ryanair have a great can do attitude. Only Ryanair will get you to Seville no matter the weather. Going to bed Thursday night I was pretty sure that a flight to Seville scheduled to take off in the midst of a red weather warning was both unwise and unlikely. Luckily there was some winter fat in the Ryanair schedule so the only impact of the storm was a welcome lie in and a three hour delay in departure.

2. Unsevillean Weather

I think that I was probably overdue some rain in Spain. Seville to me means blue skies, no wind and air so light it makes running almost effortless. Unfortunately on this occasion Seville resembled Cork on a soft damp day in May. Wet, humid, almost warm and a little windy.

3. Sub Elite Cajón Rojo

I think I’d be better off if I had never experienced what it is like to be in the elite start. Somehow the last time I did the Seville Half they gave me an elite number so I didn’t have to queue up with everyone else. This time I had to make do with the first corral of sub 1:20 runners along with my great enemy, friend and rival John Meade who was terribly disappointed when I told him that he hadn’t a hope in the M45 category because of Reyes Estevez who has run 2:16 for the marathon at 48.

4. In the Trenches

I think that the only issue with having to line up with the masses is that you have to experience what it is like to stand huddled nervously for about 15 minutes with mainly other men. It is mildly unpleasant but would make you appreciate that you were born in 1986 rather than 1886. I will never understand why so many people have to sprint the first 400m of a 21 kilometer race. The pushing and shoving is totally unnecessary, at least the roads are good and wide so it only lasts for a minute or too before normality is resumed.

5. Woman + Man = Pacemaker

I think that the great thing about big city half marathons is that there are always pacemakers to run with. They aren’t actually advertised easily identifiable pacemakers but if you see a woman running side by side with a man in the same shoes and uniform you know that you have a professional steady pace to follow for the entire race. It took me about 3k to find my Asics pace group which was moving along at a relatively metronomic 3:25 per kilometer. I got myself comfortable and tried to turn off my brain which is very difficult if not impossible.

6. Inoperable Water

I think that it is amazing how much trouble water causes in races. The trouble in Seville was the bottles. The bottles were very unusual with a weird cap so hard to open that it would have been easier if the water was in Calpol bottles. Then to cap it all off the fella in front had a nasty habit of just dropping his bottle onto the ground without any consideration for the people behind. Luckily my agility and nimbleness of foot is at its peak it being cross country season.

7. Juan Meade

I think that I had a good fifty minutes of running without sight or sound of John Meade. I was expecting him to turn up at some stage as he had completed an impressively intense week of crash training the week before with nearly 30 miles at or below 6 minute mile pace which was two miles more than I had managed to do. As I passed the 13k marker I was convinced that I could hear him behind so without looking I said hello John Meade, to my surprise the man making the exact same foot and breathing sounds as John Meade was not John Meade but a Spanish runner of similar stature and stride. Phew I thought.

8. The Water Trick

I think that I should be better at resisting the spirit crushing tactics of John Meade. Three kilometers after my initial misdiagnosis of John Meade I was horrified to be greeted by actual John Meade just after the water station at the 10 mile mark. He could clearly see that I had managed to open the unopenable water bottle but being the astute racer that he is he offered me a drink from his bottle almost as if to say “you look terrible, here have my water which I don’t need as I am fine”. I declined the water and watched horrified as the St Finbarr’s singlet surged ahead making impossible inroads into the many groups scattered along the road by the unsevillean wind.

9. 100m, SOS

I think that there is no beating John Meade if he passes you late in a race. You are in big big trouble. It doesn’t matter who you are, if John Meade gets within a mile of the finish you are in trouble. I could see from his stride that he was delighted with himself having passed me out. I did my best to hold the gap but as we ran down Ryan Creech’s beloved cobblestone road past the giant mushroom the gap began to open to the length of at least six shops.

10. A Monk Swimming

I think that the last kilometre of the race was a little odd. It was like I was running in a race that I didn’t belong in. All of the men had been filtered out and I was left in a battle I didn’t want to fight with five women all but one of whom outsprinted me. Once across the line I said Well Done John Meade, collected my medal, before commencing a slow jog back to the apartment with the winner discussing the ridiculousness of going all the way to Seville to race only each other. Well Done John Meade.

County Masters XC 2025

10 Things I Think About The County Masters XC 2025

1. Lombardy to Lombardstown

I think that I must be the first man ever to run cross country in the regions of Lombardy and Lombardstown in the one week. I kind of couldn’t not run the County Masters XC after going all the way to Italy for a cross country race the week before plus it was a cross country race in a new field in Bweeng and I love running in new fields.

2. Snow Way

I think that I was very clever to do a session on Friday as a hedge against the race being cancelled because of the snow. On Friday evening it seemed almost certain that the race was not going ahead as a message in a Whatsapp group said it was “definitely not going ahead, don’t tell anyone.” I did 10 miles on Saturday morning waiting for the official announcement of the cancellation before seeing on Facebook, a source of great facts, that the snow was all gone and the XC was on again. Great.

3. Bweeng Mountain Dog

I think that the parking for the cross-country venue was amongst the best ever. It was directly across from the course in the driveway of someone’s house and a big friendly Burmese mountain dog came out to greet us. I parked up directly behind Tim O’Donoghue, possibly the actual best moderately old man cross country runner in Cork who I was thrilled to hear was not running.

4. The Beautiful Field

I think that the field in which the race was held is one of the best fields I have ever seen. If I was a farmer I would buy it immediately, it was free from rocks and showed no evidence of any snow or rain with high quality fencing. The high quality fencing reminded me how lucky I was that Barry Twohig was doing a long run rather than making my life miserable on the hills of Bweeng. The snow reminded me of how lucky I was that John Meade was snowboarding on the Galtees and not flying down the hills of Bweeng. The only thing that wasn’t great was the wind.

5. Intermediate + Masters

I think that it was great that the intermediate and masters races were combined together. This was key to my race tactics as I needed someone to take the race out hard as masters races always go off sensibly. I was delighted to see Naoise from Bandon tear off at the start as it gave me a target to chase down the first hill. I knew that Michael Herlihy and Nick O’Donoghue would hate this, so I went absolutely mad down the hill and then again the second time we went down it before heading out into the great field to begin the first of four long laps and big big hills.

6. Col de la Bweeng

I think I had major problems with the big big hill at the far side of the beautiful great field. Luckily everyone had similar problems with the big big hill. It was about 400m long, 15 to 20% gradient with a headwind, vicious. The first time up the hill I thought I was in big trouble as Naoise effortlessly reduced the gap I had opened down the hill I was fully expecting this pattern to repeat for the next four laps but luckily when I ran hard across the top of the hill and down the hill back into the main beautiful field Naoise didn’t follow.

7. Lovely Shorts

I think that it was great how many supporters were out on the course. It was a very picturesque setting for the race with the even hillier fields in the background still speckled with the last remaining few bits of snow. I must have added to the scenery as I received compliments on the course about how lovely my shorts were, more useful were the shouts about the distance back to my main rival Nick O’Donoghue who seemed to go from 20m to 80m behind depending on whether we had recently gone uphill or downhill.

8. Nick and Mike

I think that you couldn’t find too tougher moderately and properly old men than Nick O’Donoghue and Michael Herlihy to race on a course like the great beautiful field in Bweeng. I spent the full four laps terrified that they were going to catch me. I wasn’t particularly worried about Nick catching me as he is a perfectly pleasant man, on the other hand I was terrified that Michael Herlihy was only playing with me like a cat plays with a mouse and was going to initiate full terminator mode on the last lap, plough up the last hill and laugh at me as he waltzed past like he has done so many times over the 15 years of defeats I’ve had to put up with.

9. Bad Beating of Michael Herlihy

I think that I will never tire of beating Michael Herlihy in races. It is only great because I have spent nearly 15 years being absolutely destroyed by him in nearly every session and race so to finally get to beat him is excellent, tremendous and wonderful. It should serve as a lesson to younger athletes that you should never give up on beating people just because they seem impossible to beat, just get more bitter and angry, then use that anger and bitterness to fuel tremendous victories in the County Masters.

10. Ranking Points

I think that it is a great pity that there are no world ranking points for winning the County Masters. Coming into the race I was ranked 299th in the world cross country rankings, which is probably the highest ranking ever for a Cork moderately old man. It is a shame really because the show put on by Bweeng in the fantastic field with picturesque backdrop was up there with any World Athletics Gold Label event. Perhaps we could have Kenyans and Ethiopians running the hills of Bweeng, they’d probably love it even more than I did.

Campaccio XC 2025

10 Things I Think About The 68th Campaccio XC 2025

1. Italian Races

I think that Italy might be my favourite place not in Ireland for doing races. They really do races excellently. Everything is wonderful, the registration is cheap, €12 for an international cross-country race, the courses are imaginative, and the races are packed with elite athletes and lots of “sub elite” Italian fellas like me who like running. They even have squirrel dragons as race mascots.

2. Capital of Cross Country

I think that Legnano might have the two best cross country races in the world. It is a very small place to have both the Cinque Mulini and the Campaccio races. We stayed at the same hotel as we did for Cinque Mulini, Hotel Poli because it was excellent and near the squirrel park for Billy. All of the elite athletes also stay in the hotel so you get to see how they get treated and how early they leave for the race, 12:30 for a 2:30 start which is approximately an hour earlier than me.

3. Irish Weather in Italy

I think that it was great for the race to be held in conditions so wet and cold that it was almost like being in Ireland. The only thing that was missing from an Irish race was wind, there was absolutely no wind, but the thick continuous wet rain that we get at home was there along with 4 to 5 degree temperatures. Perfect for cross country and slowing down the track runners.

4. Rhona Recce

I think it was great that Rhona’s race was on earlier in the day so that I could get an idea of what sort of spikes would be needed. Rhona ran in Dragonflys with 6mm spikes which she said were fine but with the continuous rain I was pretty sure that 9mm would be perfect by 2:35pm by which time a lot of rain and a lot of races would have torn up the course.

5. If Only I Had 9mm Spikes

I think that I was lucky that the box of spikes that said 9mm actually had 12mm spikes in it. I am slightly obsessed about spikes as they are very important. I was slightly worried that the Italians wouldn’t allow me run with 12mm spikes as some of the course was on the track so I got to the call area very early so that I would have time to change the spikes if a man deemed them too long. Luckily no one looked at my spikes so I had to stand in the call area for about 10 minutes waiting for everyone else to finish their elaborate technical warmups. I asked one of the On sponsored Burundian runners what spikes he had, he said 9mm which was probably the safest option given the sections on the track.

6. Penguins

I think that I should have gone further up towards the front of the start line. I was very cold after standing around in the call area so it was nice to be bunched together on the startline like a bunch of penguins sheltering from the cold. I was a bit worried about falling so I took it handy off the start which was a big mistake as the course was quite narrow so I ended up miles back after a few 100m.

7. 93rd

I think that I did well to recover from my slow start. The race was televised live on RAI as Italians don’t have GAA so this is the equivalent of the National League GAA matches. According to the TV coverage I was 93rd after the first of the ten kilometres which was quite near the back. It took me a while to figure out the twisty turny up and down course but after a lap I had it figured out and I started to make progress.

8. Habemus Grip

I think that it was only after a lap that I realised that all of the Italian runners had the wrong length spikes on. It was like in a Formula 1 race where one driver has wet tires on and everyone else has slicks. Any bit of muck and I would fly by the Italian fellas slipping and sliding while I was nailed to the ground in my 12mm spikes. It was great fun, I was passing what felt like the whole field, although when you are 93rd after a kilometre there are a lot of people to pass.

9. Fanclub

I think that it was great to have my own fanclub on the course. A group of Italians who were standing with Billy and Rhona started cheering for me every time I went passed which was a lot of times as the course looped back on itself a lot. I think they thought I was called Dada not Donal because of Billy but sure what harm.

10. Pointless

I think that I did very well to get from 93rd to 53rd by the end of the race. I was actually in 52nd just before the line but an Italian destroyed me in a sprint so I lost one of my hard earned places. I didn’t get lapped which was great but I didn’t get on the TV as much as I would have liked as they were doing the podium when I finished 5 minutes behind the Ethiopian winner Bekele. In addition to the nice cup of warm sweet tea in a branded squirrel dragon cup I also collected some world ranking points which have now put me 299th in the world athletics cross country rankings which is utterly pointless but for some reason makes me very happy.

Grange Fermoy 10K 2024

10 Things I Think About The Grange Fermoy 10k 2024

1. Glanworth

I think that it was nice to get to run a race in the town where my father is from. We didn’t get to run past the house as it is in the town but I jogged past it while I was rushing to collect the number and excellent t-shirt. Glanworth is a great place for a race, only 30 minutes from Glanmire with a nice bridge and castle. It was great to see it busy with all the runners when I arrived early 30 minutes before the race.

2. Sure You’re Only a Jogger

I think that Michael Herlihy must own Sixt rental cars in Cork. The poor Scirocco broke down the day after Clonmel so I had to go and get a rental car. When I went to collect it they have me a Dacia Jogger, I pleaded with them for anything else but they had nothing (apparently) so I was left to drive as a jogger to the race in my jogger.

3. French Grinds

I think that it is much better going to Clo’s farm to do a race rather than to do French grinds for the Leaving Cert like I did nearly 20 years ago. It seems mad that 20 years later there is a race starting right outside the farm you could even park in the farmyard if you needed to right by the start.

4. Gone with the Wind

I think that the wind was a big big factor in today’s race.I love a bit of weather in a race as it puts the PB and watch checking runners off kilter. I couldn’t care less what time we run so I led off into the wind like a fool. At least it was downhill so it kind of balanced out. I was surprised to be still in the lead when we turned right at the first kilometre marker.

5. The Pack

I think that a group of runners at the front of the race is like a pack of wild dogs. There is an unspoken known order of assumed greatness that should be established at least after a mile. This race was very usual, because of the wind no one could escape the bunch so the natural order was never established. Perhaps this was the day where the order of the dogs was going to change, perhaps the big hairy dog with tanned long legs wearing pink Vaporflys and yellow shorts would become the leader.

6. Perfect Pacing

I think that it was great to be still leading after 5k. After the race Michael McMahon gave out to me for being an idiot and said that I could have won if I was sensible and clever. I think that he was very wrong though as I prefer to be at the front as it is sort of like a hybrid car in that the battery is getting topped up by the act of leading the race and annoying the other people who feel they should be leading the race.

7. Every Dog Has His Day

I think that when I got to 6k still in the lead I started to think that perhaps Rhona had secretly given me a blood transfusion as my Christmas present. I was ahead of Sergiu even. This never happens, Conor McCauley was under pressure. Very usual, I didn’t even feel terrible. Every dog has his day perhaps.

8. Citizen Kane

I think that Kane Collins ruined my day. When we turned the corner out of the wind at 7km he took off and shook the bunch of dogs apart. Suddenly we were lined out one by one with gaps developing rapidly, Sergiu was second, Kris was third, Conor fourth, Nick fifth and me and Tadhg joint sixth with an actual proper journalist Brian Canty of Sticky Bottle fame right on our tail.

9. Remember When I Beat Hop

I think that today was my chance to beat Conor McCauley like I beat John O’Connell around this time of year many many years ago which was a great breakthrough moment in my running career. All I had to do was follow Kris, instead I got stuck in a battle with Nick O’Donoghue who took a while to shake off. The downhill with the wind run to the finish over the last 2k should have suited me perfectly but it seemed to suit everyone just as perfectly.

10. Shudda, Wudda, Cudda

I think that Michael McMahon was right and that I would have won the race if I wasn’t such a fool running into the wind. The new route for the race is wonderful, a great success, a route for racing, a route for a clever underdog. There were even prizes down to sixth place which is very unusual which I unfortunately couldn’t collect as I couldn’t wait to get back into my Dacia Jogger for the drive back to Glanmire.

photo: GRAHAM Meikle

Clonmel 4 Mile 2024

10 Things I Think About The Clonmel 4 Mile 2024

1. Christmas Racing

I think that Christmas racing is great, normally I like to do all of the Christmas races possible as it limits the potential for having to visit other people’s houses which is one of my least favourite activities in the world. This year because of last year’s stress fracture still being in my head I have limited myself to just Clonmel and Glanworth, two excellent towns well located for Billy minding.

2. Hello Lizzie

I think that Lizzie Lee was more excited than a child on Christmas morning in Clonmel. I parked just in front of Lizzie despite arriving probably an hour later than Lizzie. I waved at her and said “Hello Lizzie”, before I even had the chance to say “Happy Christmas” I was told, “I warmed up with Emily Sisson”.

3. Tipperary Efficiency

I think that I could be employed to test the efficiency of races. Clonmel was well able to cope with my genetic lateness. I parked up 100m from the registration 20 minutes before the 12 o’clock start time. Ran over to the registration with Rhona, collected numbers, ran back to the car for Vaporfly installation before jogging over to the start with enough time to take photos with Lizzie and her new best friend Emily.

4. Arm Band Heart Rate Monitor

I think that I was a little disappointed that no one asked me about my new arm band heart rate monitor. It is very excellent, I bought it after seeing Jakob Ingebrigtsen wearing one in the European XC. I didn’t buy the Coros one the influencers are hawking and instead went for the Polar version because websites said it was better and it came in black which matches my Leevale singlet. It is so much better than a chest strap as it doesn’t leave you looking as if you are suffering from stigmata and seems to be just as accurate.

5. Surprisingly Fourth

I think that I was very surprised to be in fourth position after only a few hundred meters of the race. Kane Collins, a Kilkenny fella and a fella wearing an American Nike T-shirt took off in the front group leaving me to drag the unusual combo of Viv and Emily Sisson into the wind for the first two miles. It is very interesting that both Viv and Emily Sisson are almost silent in their respective Nike and New Balance magic shoes, both pawing the ground gracefully. I made up for them by thumping my Vaporflys off the road. I wonder could you come up with some sort of machine that would identify running talent based on the sound of a persons stride.

6. Unusual Sport

I think that running is an unusual sport. It is probably the only sport in the world where punters like me get to compete against the best of the best, in this case the American marathon record holder and probably the holder of the fastest marathon time of all the people competing in the Clonmel 4 mile by about 5 minutes. It was very odd to be running over the bridge at two miles side by side with a 2:18 marathon runner and Viv.

7. Olympian vs Non-Olympians

I think that I was a little disappointed at the ease at which myself and Viv were dropped by Emily Sisson. Once the wind was no longer a factor 5:10 pace became 5:00 pace which was enough to filter the group into Olympian and not Olympians. So I switched focus from beating Emily Sisson to beating Viv which was probably more important anyway.

8. Minardi

I think that the last mile of this race was like a Formula 1 race from the 90s where nothing happened for the first 70 laps and then there is complete chaos, safety cars, red flags and a Minardi driver like me ends up on the podium. As we approached the final roundabout at around the three-mile mark I saw a steward over at the side of the road tending to someone, as myself and Viv got closer I saw the Kilkenny fella who had been a good bit ahead of us lying on the ground. Viv being the nicest man in the world peeled off and went to check on him. The Kilkenny fella was fine, and Viv was quickly back underway after the pit stop.

9. Guilt

I think that I felt very guilty for the last 400m of the race, the combination of the Kilkenny fella pulling out and the niceness of Viv meant that suddenly I had gone from 6th to 4th and from 5th man to 3rd man without doing anything to deserve it. I tried to slow up a bit to let Viv catch up and beat me in the sprint like he was probably going to do anyway but it was too late so I ended up crossing the line as the 3rd man and 4th overall. It is like there is some sort of greater force that means that I must finish fourth in all races in Clonmel. It is obviously a very powerful force as I was fourth in Kilsheelan 10 mile, Clonmel Half and Clonmel 4 mile this year alone. Consistency.

10. Luck vs Talent

I think that it was very bad form of me to miss the prizegiving. It was not intentional, it was Clonmel’s fault for having a lovely path along the river for warming down which meant that I ended up running for longer than I should have with Viv, Rhona and Clodagh. Luckily my agent Graham was on hand to collect the generous prize for 3rd. Viv got the age category prize, so I didn’t feel too bad about the moral dilemma, these things even out over time anyway, it’s always better to be lucky than talented.

PHoto: John D Kelly

Valencia Marathon 2024

10 Things I Think About The Valencia Marathon 2024

1. Not Important

I think that I was a bit conflicted about doing a marathon in Valencia so soon after the floods. The race starts less than 5k from Paiporta which was badly impacted. Arriving in Valencia the week before the only sign that there was anything going on was the men staying in the hotel with work boots caked in mud. I’m still not sure if it should have gone ahead but I suppose it was a good fundraising opportunity and brought back some tourism. Marathons are difficult to get your head around at the best of times.

2. Donal X Trevor Collab Shakeout Run

I think that Valencia has not been impacted by influencer culture as much as the major marathons. The park on Saturday morning before the race was so crowded with runners and almost free of influencers. Myself and Trevor were probably two of the biggest influencers in town so we agreed to collaborate and hold a shakeout run. We had Rhona, Ian and Eoin in attendance which was a great turnout. We were joined mid run by random Norwegians who we knew were Norwegian by being fluent in Norwegian after all the Ingebrigtsen documentaries.

3. Rice

I think that eating the days before a marathon is very difficult. I know I need to eat a lot but I also know that I need to be careful that I don’t end up with a bad belly. I’ve it pretty much dialled in now, white foods are king, white foods and sugary things. I did feel a bit odd turning up to dinner with Viv and Derek and only ordering white rice but it was nearly 8pm and the food window was rapidly closing.

4. Quiet Start

I think that the start of the race was rightly subdued. Valencia is never one for the razzmatazz but the organisers had rightly toned down the start area. It was limited to repeated short bursts of an instrumental version of “Blinding Lights”. There was a moments silence for the victims of the floods with the race getting away immediately after. I was in group 2 which starts on the left hand side of the bridge, I took it handy as there has never been a marathon where someone has gone off too slow for the first mile.

5. Sweaty

I think that it was surprising to have sweat pouring off my head and face after 5k of the race. It was cool, about 13 degrees, but it seemed to be incredibly humid. I thought that it might just have been the after effects of removing my quite significant beard the night before the race with only a mach 3 razor but from looking around it wasn’t just me that was sweating. This didn’t bode well but I felt ok and soon enough the average pace of the watch had dropped from 5:50 to 5:45, I just needed to nudge it down a bit more.

6. Nostradamus Tadhg

I think that messages the night before a marathon rarely contain anything of consequence other than valuable good luck. Tadhg’s message about latching onto the back of some French fella and hanging on proved prescient when after 10k I found myself being perfectly paced by a fella in a Bordeaux singlet who even looked like Tadhg. Perhaps Tadhg is some sort of modern day Nostradamus I thought.

7. Deccie

I think that Tadhg was very wrong about who I should have followed instead he should have replaced the French fella with a West Limerick fella. Declan Guinea jogged up beside me just after 10 miles, we had a brief chat in my best Limerick accent before we got mixed up in the group. Declan ran 2:29, I didn’t. It is reassuring that you can be from Limerick and be where I was at about 10 miles and still run 2:29.

8. Mohawk Trevor

I think that if it wasn’t for Trevor turning up at about 29k I would have been in big trouble. I had a bit of an existential crisis after 16 miles. I began to question the point of running another mid 2:30s marathon, time does not motivate me the same way as competition for some reason. Then a fella with a mohawk wearing Trevor’s green Nike singlet passed me, he reminded me of Trevor and then almost instantly actual Trevor with no mohawk went past. Suddenly I wasn’t in a marathon anymore, it was a 13k XC race. To make it even more like a XC race Trevor had his number in his hand Nick O’Donoghue style.

9. Cross Country Mode

I think that if I could find a way to be motivated for the whole lot of a marathon I could run an amazing time. I just can’t focus on the time for that long, my brain just can’t do it, it must be phones. The minute it turns into a race with someone it becomes so much easier. For the last 13k I just chased Trevor. He was hopping off the ground, his Nike Vaporfly 3s flicking off the ground like it was a 10k .We passed Pat Fitzgerald and Terry Shanley from Clane which was a new experience for me as I never pass people at the end of marathons. Then Trevor got a 10 second gap and my cross country mode began to dim but as long as I could still see him there was still a chance.

10. A Bad Man

I think that I am not a very nice man in races. If it was a nice movie with 800m to go when I caught up to Trevor we would have high fived and jogged across the line holding hands with the pictures and videos all over Instagram. Instead it was all out war once we hit the downhill blue mat. I sprinted with everything I had which probably wasn’t necessary and resulted in extremely bad quads the day after. I just about held off Trevor who was running a 2 minute P.B which meant he wasn’t too worried about my antics anyway. I really enjoyed the marathon being a race and not a time trial, I just need to persuade John Meade or Michael Herlihy to do a marathon.

Munster Masters Cross Country 2024

10 Things I Think About The Munster Masters XC 2024

1. Post Storm Cross Country

I think that there is nothing better than a good storm the day before a cross country race to make things a bit more interesting. We haven’t had a good muckfest in a while so I was hopeful that 50 mm of rain would turn the normally well drained field in Two Mile Borris into a field of victory over Michael Herlihy and the other brave masters runners of Munster.

2. Rough Schedule

I think that the great thing about the Munster Cross Country races is the guessing the game of when the race is going to start. This normally involves the fella who hasn’t experienced a Munster Cross Country race before messaging you the night before going “any idea roughly what time the race might start”. Unlike with most races there is no answer to this question. The answer is I will look at Strava and see what time it was on at before which gave an answer of somewhere between 1:30 and 3pm so be there for 12:30 and you’ll be grand.

3. Fast Track Security

I think that I was very fortunate that like at airports there was a fast track parking system in operation for the cross country. I knew I was in trouble when I was leaving Anglesboro at 12:15 and saw a message from Rhona saying the women were going to be going off at 12:30. It was 45 minutes to Two Mile Borris so the maths didn’t look promising. I arrived into the Fast Track Parking area which was coated in a slippery layer of mud to facilitate a faster slide into the parking, grabbed my singlet and spikes from the boot and ran over to Andy who had kindly collected the numbers.

4. Chasing Numbers

I think that it is mad how even in the Diamond League they use safety pins, surely there is something better than safety pins for attaching numbers to a singlet. Normally putting on a number is a relaxing activity but add a bit of a shake from the adrenaline of being late and it becomes a complicated activity. My number installation was further complicated by a gust of wind blowing it away. Luckily Tony O’Brien was on hand to track it down. Then I found that there were no safety pins in the envelope so I had to ask Clo if I could steal some which she kindly did.

5. No Time for Studs

I think that the only problem that arose from the lateness other than my number blowing away in the wind was that I didn’t have time to change the spikes on my Dragonflys. I had picked the Dragonfly XC spikes because I thought I had the studs in them which are far better for the inevitable post storm muck but for some reason there were 6 mm spikes in them with the studs in a small bag. I briefly started to change them before realising that it was going to take all day and I was better off jogging over to the start.

6. Nicky no Number

I think that it was great that I wasn’t the latest person for the race. Nick O’Donoghue was way worse. Very close to missing the race completely in fact. We were just about to get underway when a similar creature to myself wearing a maroon singlet came running towards us with no number on. He was handed a number but no safety pins so he scrunched the number up in his hand and away we went.

7. Fethard

I think it is always worrying when a fella you haven’t seen before gets a good gap on the field after 400m. In this case it was a fella from Fethard. Behind the first corner was a bit of a mess with lots of excellent pushing and shoving. Someone tried to trip me but as there were no Cork Has One Track Club runners in the race it was probably just accidental. I was a little bit angry after the trip so I used the anger to track down the fella from Fethard who after some effort I caught by the end of the straight with the significant tailwind.

8. Duckworth Lewis Method

I think that it would have been great to beat Brian Murphy. I was hoping that I would have had Michael Herlihy to race but sickness put paid to that so I was left with only Brian. A victory over Brian would have meant that I could have used the Michael Herlihy method of calculating where you would have finished in races you didn’t run to claim a victory over Michael Herlihy. Unfortunately, the minute we encountered the inevitable quagmire on the far side of the field the Kerryman opened a decisive gap that was impossible to close and all hopes of both real and calculated victories were over.

9. Outside Line

I think that the great thing about cross country is that cleverness and course knowledge is very important. After the first pass of the quagmire on the far side of the course I had realised that my spikes were not suitable for the inside line as not only had Brian Murphy opened a decisive gap Nicky and Michael Harrington had flow by me too. Luckily I have run this course about 20 times so I knew that the ground was better closer to the ditch so I went over there the second and third time which meant that while I couldn’t catch Brian I was safe in second.

10. Best Moderately Old Man

I think that it is great to run races where there are medals. Because Brian Murphy is surprisingly over 40 second place was good enough to win the moderately old man category just ahead of Nicky who demonstrated the robustness of the MyRunResults chip timing system by registering a time even with the number scrunched up in his hand. After getting a nice shiny medal I made sure to get a good long warm down in as I had no warm up so I had to make up the miles so that coach me would be happy with the number of miles run for the day which was about 8 which is enough for a moderately old man running a marathon next week.

Cinque Mulini Cross Country 2024

10 Things I Think About The Cinque Mulini XC 2024

1. Northern Lakes

I think that I probably should have been a good Irishman and gone to the All-Ireland XC in Fermanagh instead of going to Milan for a cross country race. The truth is that I couldn’t face driving for 5 hours to Fermanagh, probably paying €250 a night for a hotel to finish around 100th when there were €25 flights to Milan the same weekend. Plus Rhona had always wanted to run Cinque Mulini and had never mentioned wanting to go to Fermanagh.

2. Hipster Running

I think that it is amazing to me that cross country races like Cinque Mulini are so easy to enter. I cannot understand how marathons sell out years in advance yet classic races that have been around for nearly 100 years can be entered a few days before. It’s pretty much the only type of racing that hasn’t been contaminated by influencers like me. I imagine that if you turned up at Cinque Mulini with a GoPro you would be met by a very cross Italian man saying “No”.

3. Hotel Poli

I think that if I was looking to establish a company doing trips to small races San Vittore Olona would be the perfect venue. It’s in Italy which is great, it’s 30 minutes from Milan and 30 minutes from Lake Como, it has the best cross-country race in the world, a great pizza restaurant (The Birra) and a wonderful reasonably priced hotel in Hotel Poli which is also where all the Kenyans, Ethiopians and Burundians stay so you can see that they eat the same breakfasts as the rest of us.

4. Masters Race

I think that the All Ireland XC misses a trick by not having separate master’s races on the same day. The master’s races at Cinque Mulini were very popular, so popular that we almost missed the start of Rhona’s race because we couldn’t get across the course with the constant stream of runners. I could have run in the master’s race too but it was much better for Billy minding if I did the senior race which was what I wanted to do anyway as I can only do it one more time as once you hit 40 it’s illegal.

5. Kenyans, Ethiopians and Burundians

I think that it is great to go to a cross country race and not know a single person in the race. There is great freedom in not having a clue how well or terrible you are running. The start line was very intimidating as it included at least 12 Kenyans, Ethiopians and Burundians with a lot of Diamond League calibre Italians. There didn’t seem to be too many of my type, I may have been the oldest person in the race which was an unwelcomed first.

6. Too Fast

I think that I will have to go back to lamping sessions around the farm chasing after Michael Herlihy if I’m going to make cross country my speciality again. I’m gone very slow from the marathon training. The start of Cinque Mulini was terrifying like, something from a nightmare where the whole field just runs away from you despite trying to run as fast as you can. I was very nearly last by the time we got to the first corner.

7. Don’t Get Lapped

I think that the minimum goal in a race like this is not to get lapped. The race was over the proper distance of 10k, none of the 7.5k nonsense which meant that I had to get to 8k in under the time the winner would run 10k so about 28 or 29 minutes which is harder than it sounds. I figured the best way of doing this was to stay ahead of as many Italians as I could. This was proving difficult as they all appeared to be excellent.

8. Through the Houses

I think that you must experience running the section through the houses to realise how wonderful it is. It is completely mad, whoever came up with the idea of the race is a genius. It looks great on TV but it’s even better in a race even if it is entirely unsuitable for someone as tall as me, the sound on the steps is my favourite thing. The only problem is that you only get to do it five times.

9. Not Going to be Lapped

I think that it was a great relief to get onto the fifth lap without being lapped. I think a lot of the Italians of my level had similar ideas as when we started the fifth and final lap I found myself passing quite a few of them. I had no idea what place I was in but I wasn’t last, and I wasn’t going to get lapped so I was happy. Unfortunately, the section where you run through the houses comes at the end of the lap like I had told Rhona and because I was abysmal at running through the houses, I got swamped by about 6 Italians just before the finish ending up 70th out of the 77 people who finished.

10. 263rd best Cross Country Runner in the World

I think that it is great that we have the Castlegar XC as part of the World Athletics XC tour as it is the perfect opportunity to collect world ranking points. Because of Castlegar and Cinque Mulini I am now ranked as the 263rd best cross-country runner in the world which is excellent and probably almost accurate. Anyway my main point is Cinque Mulini is better than any marathon, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, give me running through the houses in a pair of spikes trying to avoid being lapped by Kenyans any day.

Eyeries 5 Mile 2024

10 Things I Think About The Eyeries 5 Mile

1. No Races for a Month

I think that I did very well after Chicago not to run a race for nearly a full month. Many people have requested that I do this for a long time. I was very tempted to beat John Meade in Blarney but I resisted and made do with the Michael Herlihy method of calculating “where you would have finished in races you didn’t run” which means that in my world I was already after earning €350 before turning up in Eyeries for a shot at a potential €250.

2. The New Road

I think that there is no longer an excuse for people not to go to the races in West Cork because it is too far. With the new road to Killarney Eyeries is barely 2 hours from Glanmire and barely 90 minutes from Ballincollig. This is less time than most people spend sitting at Dunkettle every morning while I run by so there is no excuse. It is even a very nice road with a potential stop in Kenmare which is very nice.

3. Mark’s Magic Weather Machine

I think that Mark Gallagher has a magic weather machine. In my many races in West Cork it has only failed to work once. Saturday was a very dark day, a day on which Cillian Murphy would love to film a movie, very dark, no need for special cameras. Miraculously as we reached Eyeries the clouds cleared and it became almost bright, perfect for a 5 mile road race.

4. Donegal and Derry

I think that when you go to a race in Eyeries in deepest West Cork you wouldn’t expect your chief rivals for the €250 to be from Donegal and Derry. It was terrible to arrive in Eyeries and see Aidan Noone, fresh from a 2:35 in Dublin, that was bad enough but then Mark told me there was a fella from Derry called John Lenehan and that he was very good.

5. Rusty

I think that not racing for a month is very bad. I don’t understand why people don’t race more often. On the start line I felt almost nervous and unfamiliar with the whole thing especially as marathons aren’t races so it was nearly 5 weeks since I’d actually raced anyone. When we got underway it was like I had forgotten how to run, the Derry fella was gone before we reached the village and I had to work hard to get back up anywhere near Aidan. Maybe they’ve gone off too fast I hoped.

6. Derry Good

I think that it was terrible how good the fella from Derry was. He was wearing 5 year old AlphaFly1s which is a terrible sign as it means that he knows a lot about running and is extremely knowledgeable. It took until we passed the GAA club after about a mile for the hope I had of catching him to fade. The €250 was gone leaving myself and Aidan to battle it out for the still amazing €150 for second and €100 for third.

7. Non Shed

I think that it is very difficult to drop Aidan. There are some people that I have great difficulty in beating. John Meade, Barry Twohig and Aidan Noone would have similar statistics if local elite club Cork BHAA running was a computer game like FIFA. I tried everything I could to get rid of Aidan on the many uphills and downhills but it was completely impossible. He has every ability I have just a little bit better.

8. Mile 4

I think that mile 4 of Eyeries is the best mile of any road race in Ireland. It is so much fun to race someone on. The hills are vicious and unrelenting. I hadn’t run the race since my great victory over Anthony Mannix in 2023 so I had forgotten how many hills there are. I kept trying to drop Aidan by trying to run over the top of the hills but nothing worked and he stayed behind like he had probably been told to do by Kieran McKeown.

9. Sitting Duck

I think that once I hadn’t dropped Aidan by the time we reached the top of the final hill back where the race started I knew that the game was up and that I was going to finish third. I got to the sign for the village still in second but it was only a matter of time before Aidan unleashed a John Meade or Barry Twohig style finishing sprint. I tried to go after him but the gap just got bigger and bigger and bigger until I reached the popupraces gantry 8 seconds after Aidan.

10. Banners and Prizes.

I think that it was a great idea to get banners made up to celebrate past winners of the race like me. The banners were hung in the hall in Eyeries like how the NBA teams have their titles displayed on the wall of the stadium. Unfortunately, I still only have one triangular banner. I was lucky enough to collect the very generous third prize which when added to the €350 that I would have won in Blarney by beating John Meade brings my winnings to €450 in the dark months of October and November. The banners are probably better than the prize money though, no one remembers money.

Chicago Marathon 2024

10 Things I Think About The Chicago Marathon 2024

1. The Why

I think marathons are awful, they are far too long and it is impossible to be motivated by pure hatred for two and a half hours. The only reason that I am doing marathons is that it represents my best hope of having a PB faster than Michael Herlihy. I entered Chicago last year in a fit of envy, rage and jealousy after seeing Viv run very fast in idyllic conditions on a perfectly flat course. I’ll have some of that I thought. 

2. American Development 

I think that Chicago is the easiest of the Major marathons that I have been to. I was lucky enough to qualify for the American Development area which was sort of like how the elite runners for the Cork Marathon gather outside Elverys and are marched up to the start line except it was in Chicago with huge skyscrapers and in the dark. They were no queues, a million toilets and a nice loop to warmup in, stress free. 

3. Influencers

I think that I must have been the only influencer in Chicago who didn’t organise a shakeout run the day before the marathon. The path along the lakefront was thronged with huge groups of people following messiahs holding GoPros. It’s an unusual sport in that the most well know runners are far from the best runners, there were no Kenyans doing shakeout runs. 

4. GoPros and Nosestrips

I think that John Kinsella is the best running influencer in the world never mind Ireland. It was great to see the Limerick man in action in the warm up area. He needed a cameraman and I was delighted to volunteer after I had applied the nosestrip that Sean Doyle gave me to help with the headcold that I had failed to shake off. I may be offered a contract yet as chief videographer. 

5. B Goal 

I think that it was only right that I was on the front line of a major marathon. I didn’t even have to use my physical advantages to push my way to the front. When we were let into the start area after the playing of the Star Spangled Banner all the elites went to the right hand side of the dual carriageway leaving the left hand side free for people like me. It was great to be on the TV right from the start which is probably my B goal when running a major marathon. As the B goal had already been accomplished I decided to give it a good lash, nothing to lose. 

6. Running by Looking Around 

I think that for GPS watching running runners like myself Chicago is a terrible race. The first mile of the race is in a tunnel with a road surface similar to the first mile of the Ballintotis 4 mile. I had no idea how fast I was going as the GPS data was nonsense. I had to run by feel which is never good especially when you are sweating heavily after only a mile. I used the old method of judging how fast you are going which is look at the people around you and guess what time they look like they should run, it’s a surprisingly accurate method. 

7. The Dream is Over

I think that you can’t run a race with fitness you don’t have. After about 8 miles my GPS was telling me that I was well ahead of tormenting Michael Herlihy pace. I was extremely delighted with this. Unfortunately the clock at halfway told a different story than I was expecting, 1:15:06, an impossible task given that I was already horribly sweaty and being passed by an alarming number of runners. 

8. Four Five O Way to Go

I think that American supporters are the best. Boston and Chicago are definitely the two most atmospheric marathons I’ve runs. It makes it worth the ridiculous entry fee and hotel price. The support is constant from start to finish. I even got a personalised chant based on my number, 4 5 0 way to go. 

9. Random Poster

I think that I was a little disappointed about how early I gave up on tormenting Michael Herlihy pace. After about 16 miles I had resigned myself to getting home uninjured, I even started to notice the fantastic handmade posters, Random Poster was my favourite. Then a horrible little man barged through a gap clipping both me and another runner without saying sorry. I asked him to say sorry but he refused which made me very mad. For a brief two miles I was in full cross country mode, a man with a vendetta, but then he was gone and I was back to looking at posters and Chinatown. 

10. Perfect is the Enemy of Tormenting Michael Herlihy 

I think that the last few miles were a real struggle. As bad as I’ve ever felt in the last few miles of a marathon. The only consolation was that there were a lot worse than me. Fellas that had bombed past me earlier in the race were reduced to a slow walk, which didn’t make sense as there were no hills. I was miles off tormenting Michael Herlihy pace by the end. I should probably train properly for the next marathon but I really want to do sub 2:30 without perfect training because that will maximise the tormenting. That makes sense doesn’t it? Anyway, do Chicago, it’s great, possibly the best of the Majors. 

Cork County Senior XC 2024

10 Things I Think About The Cork County Senior Cross Country 2024

1. The Last Supper

I think that it is terrible that Lennox’s is closing. Rhona was a much bigger fan that I was so she insisted on standing in a monsoon on Saturday night for two hours for a bag of chips. The chips were better than I remembered as good as Kiely’s, great fuel for a XC race. 

2. In Anticipation of Precipitation 

I think that the rain that fell on Saturday was wonderful for XC. I was expecting wonderful muck and lots of it at the field in the absolute middle of nowhere somewhere between Rathcormac, Conna and Dungourney. I was so sure of muck that I swapped the 9mm spikes in my Dragonflys used for Galway for 12mm. 

3. Hiding in the Long Grass

I think that the farmer of the field at eircode P51 YX33 must be an excellent farmer. The monsoon on Saturday had almost no effect on the field aside from making the grass extra-long and thick with dew. I considered swapping back the spikes to 9mm but that takes ages, and it doesn’t really make a difference anyway when all you are trying to do is beat John Meade who doesn’t care that spikes come in different lengths. 

4. Inside Line

I think that I was very clever at the start. The starting area was very wide and not flattened out as the decision to equalise the distances men and women run for XC had had the same effect on participation as if the women’s 100m hurdles became the women’s 110m high hurdles. The only bit that was anyway smooth was the inside of the course, so I lined up there and had a nice smooth getaway. 

5. The Cabbage Patch

I think that the start of the race was very calm. There was no mad rush off the line mainly because everyone was terrified of the ground beneath them. It was all routine enough until after about 500m we turned sharp right into what to the unqualified eye looked like a cabbage patch. The cabbage patch had one line, step off it and you were taking your shoes into your own hands so it was single file.

6. Down the Hill

I think that in a XC race I rarely get worried if I end up a little bit back after a lap. There will always be some bit of a downhill where I can fly by people like John Meade who have gotten an advantage over the first few 100m. Sure enough on this course the last 300m of every lap were a lovely sweeping downhill left-hand bend that I ran as hard as I could every time flying by John Meade and making him incredibly angry. 

7. It’s Only a Tempo

I think that one of the great things about cross country races are the supporters on the course. Be it the “Well Done John Meades” or the “Up the Barrs” or the newest iteration today, “it’s only a tempo” from the Ben Smiths fans, they provide constant motivation to beat who ever they are directed at. As for me, I get no shouts or encouragement, possibly because I’m intimidating or unlikeable or both. 

8. There were Two Barrys

I think that it was great to have the two Barrys in the race to provide additional motivation. I spent most of the race chasing one of them. It took me two laps to pass the Cork has only one Track Club Barry. Once I had dispatched that Barry I set to work on catching Barry Twohig who would have been a major beating on a par with beating John Meade by at least thirty seconds. Surprisingly with a lap to go I found myself ahead of Barry Twohig but on the last hill out of the cabbage patch he powered by along with Tim O’Donoghue.

9. Vendettas and Old Scores

I think that XC races are very unusual events. Once you get outside the top 5 it is basically a collection of moderately old men settling old scores and rivalries from years of racing each other. It is completely pointless, there isn’t even a time or a PB like you get in the great ego fest that is the marathon. It’s just about pure hatred and beating whoever is in front of you. It’s wonderful stuff. 

10. Victory over John Meade 

I think that it was great to finally get my annual victory over John Meade. It has taken me until October to do so because he has had excellent form all year. It took a lot to beat him as he would have followed me regardless of whether we were 10th or 1st. Once I crossed the line after a vicious sprint where I ended up closer to Barry Twohig than John Meade was to me I threw myself on the ground after a small modest celebration before being handed a silver medal, not for beating John Meade but for coming second in the team to East Cork who are unbeatable and possibly the best cross country club ever. 

Castlegar International Cross Country 2024

10 Things I Think About The Castlegar International Cross Country

1. Cunning Plan

I think that when you lack any real talent for running like I do the only hope you have of getting to a World Athletics Championships is to switch allegiances to Gibraltar or to read the fine print on the qualification standards. A little-known way of qualifying for the 10,000m on the track in Tokyo is to finish in the top three athletes in the World Cross Country Tour not qualified through entry standards or other ways. Improbable yes, Impossible probably, but sure stranger things have happened. Luckily enough the first stop on the tour was in Galway.

2. Orange Weather Warning for XC

I think that my chances of making the 10,000m in Tokyo would have been helped if instead of brining the silver medal winning team from 1979 to Galway, Castlegar A.C had brought the weather from Limerick Racecourse in 1979. Unfortunately, it was a lovely day in Galway, almost unsuitable for cross country with a complete absence of rain, muck and wind. If there was a weather warning system for cross country it would have been an orange level alert, consider postponing for a wetter day.

3. World Childminding Championships

I think that if World Athletics are looking for an idea for a new relay event sort of like the mixed relay, they could have the World Cross-Country Childminding Relay. I think it would be a great event. I did the pilot version of the event in Galway, meeting Rhona at the finish line of the women’s race with Billy before running over to the start of the men’s race. Adrenaline is better than any warmup.

4. Race within the Race

I think it was great to have an international field for the race. There was almost two races, the race between Keelan Kilrehill and the foreign invaders from Denmark, Scotland and Ennis Track and then the race between me, Mark Walsh and Barry Donovan. I was a bit surprised that after one small lap and one big lap the two races came back together again before the international athletes detected our terribleness and quickly left us behind to fight amongst ourselves for the glory of first Corkman home in a World Cross Country Tour event.

5. A Thing of Beauty

I think that the course that we got to run on was wonderful. I almost forgot about the lack or rain and muck. It was the perfect course for someone like me with no talent as there was lots of bends and corners to slow up the fellas who beat me badly in road races and like doing 400m reps on things called athletics tracks that we don’t have in Cork. My favourite section of the course is the series of S bends before the long back straight which was great for testing if you’d being doing the stability exercises that the physio told you to do.

6. They are Jumping Like Horses

I think that the biggest fan of the course design was Billy, his favourite aspect of the course was the jumps made of hay bales which runners had to jump like horses. I was also a big fan of the jumps, they are wonderful. I would definitely make them bigger, at least up to my knee height. By the end of the race I was jumping them very elegantly, I was evening switching legs like a proper hurdler.

7. In The Modern World

I think that it is unfortunate that in this modern world people have no ethics. Shortcuts, that’s all people want, quick wins, no 10,000 hours of work, 4 weeks to a faster marathon etc. A perfect example of this was Mark Walsh going around the outside of each of the many hay bale jumps. I jumped everyone gleefully and honestly. I suppose at least he had to run a bit longer by not jumping them. I was only aware of his non jumping because of Rhona’s videos as I was in the unusual position of being ahead of Mark for most of the race and couldn’t see him skipping around the outside of the bales.

8. The Northside of Cork Doesn’t Have a Track Club

I think that it was great to have the Cork Track Club send an athlete up to try and beat me. This time they sent Barry Donovan who gave me an awful beating in the Charleville Half Marathon. Because of this beating I was very motivated to destroy him in the cross country. I was so focused on beating Barry that I almost forgot about beating Mark Walsh. It took me a full lap to pass Barry, once passed I made sure to open the gap as much as possible as Barry is a hard man to beat in the cross country being a former County Senior Champion whereas I only ever won the County Novice, did I ever mention that I once won the County Novice?

9. Racecraft

I think that I really should have beaten Mark Walsh. On the last lap I got to the end of the long back straight ahead of Mark which was very surprising as if it was a road race he would have been finished and having a cup of excellent free coffee from the van. I knew that Mark would wait for instruction from Donie to launch his attack and sure enough just as we passed Donie with about 200m to go he went for home. There wasn’t much I could do except hang on and hope that hanging onto Mark would get me home ahead of Barry which it did which means that I should actually have run 1:10 in Charleville and not 1:12 and means I will run sub 2:30 for the marathon which is the most important thing in running ever because it will mean that I am great.

10. Tokyo Here I Come

I think that it is great to be currently ranked as the 15th best cross-country runner in the world. I am only 13 places from qualifying for the 10,000m in the Tokyo World Championships which would be only right and would horrify Athletics Ireland. Unfortunately, most of the other events in the tour are in Spain and not in Galway which is terrible as Galway is much greater for cross country than Spain. Hopefully there will be more World Cross Country events in Galway, they’re very good at organizing cross country races. World Cross, European Cross would be no problem, hopefully they will keep a place for me if they do.

Charleville Half Marathon 2024

10 Things I Think About The Charleville Half Marathon 2024

1. National Championship

I think that it was about time that the Charleville Half Marathon became the national championship. The entry list was like the entry list for the time when it was the unofficial national championship back during the lockdown years when they were one of the only organisations willing to organise a race. I didn’t get to run it that time due to a madness induced stress fracture, so I was looking forward to the humbling experience that is running in a national championship.

2. Dunnes

I think that it was a pity that I was too late to get a car park space in Dunnes. Charleville has some of the best located race parking in the world. You can’t really be too far from the start because of how the English planned the town years ago. Because Dunnes was full I drove around to the main street and luckily enough found a spot even closer to the start near the lane that runs down by the Aldi.

3. Happy Mike

I think that it was great that Michael Herlihy was so happy on the start line. The quality and depth of the field was similar to the time it was the unofficial championship. I knew that a happy Mike might result in over exuberance from the start, so I made sure and stay calm for the first and only downhill mile where most people ruin their race. Sure enough as we turned right to exit the town Mike took off up the road.

4. The Usual Suspects

I think that when you run as many races as I do you get fed up of racing the same people over and over again. Most of our training is entirely ineffective and serves only to avoid getting worse due to getting old so we all end up around the same level all of the time. After about a mile it was clear that my company for the day would be John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan plus the Dublin versions of John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan because it was the national championships.

5. GOATs

I think that the shoe distribution in the race was unusual. The new Alphafly 3 and Vaporfly 3 appear to be very unpopular amongst the top 50. I think they are terrible shoes, especially the Alphafly 3 but it could just be nostalgia and familiarity with the Vaporfly 1 shoes that made us all so fast when they arrived in 2019. I have found a source of the old Vaporflys and to prove my point about the new shoes, everyone of John Meade, Viv and Mike Morgan were wearing Vaporfly 1s and 2s sourced by me.

6. Four Hours Study

I think that the section of the course from Charleville to Kilmallock is the most terrifying piece of road in road racing. I know there is a price to pay for having a fast course but my god is it bad. I can’t hack the road at all. It is beyond boring. When we passed the three-mile mark I felt like I used to sitting down to study for the leaving cert thinking how the hell am I going to get to 9pm. It is mind numbing, I know some boring runners will love it but I need distraction, it felt like it took about three hours to get to Kilmallock. The only distractions were catching Michael Herlihy and Aidan Noone along the way.

7. Fearful Viv

I think that Viv is absolutely terrified of running at the front of a group. It is like some sports scientist told him that he should never run without someone in front of him. By the time we got to Kilmallock I was pretty fed up with having Viv attached to my back. John Meade and Michael Morgan were very willing to go to the front but Viv just sat and sat and sat. I tried to wave him through in Kilmallock but instead John Meade thought I was saying it to him and put in that awful increase in pace that only John Meade can do which made everyone miserable.

8. Frightful Meade

I think that John Meade is an awful man to have to race. He is very hard to beat because he has so many little tricks from so many years of winning BHAA races. His favourite tricks are the accelerating out of the water stop and the accelerating out of the corner. Both tricks were executed to perfection during Charleville. Luckily, I was able to neutralize both tricks when they occurred because I was wise to them so our big group stayed together all the way to Mount Charleville.

9. Mount Charleville

I think that the race in Charleville always comes down to that mountain of a bridge just before 11 miles. It is a huge bridge that can be seen as soon as you turn back out onto that road. The reason the bridge is so important is because it is basically a short version of the last mile. Anyone who goes up the bridge well will go up the last mile well. On the bridge John Meade unveiled his newest trick the attack on the bridge and sure enough a gap opened, and he was gone. I was left with Aidan Noone, Viv and Mike Morgan to battle it out to the line up the hill.

10. Sprinting for Nothing

I think that it is interesting how motivated we all were for the sprint for the finish. In reality we were all running for nothing as we were miles off the front barely in the top 50. Despite this when we turned left after the speed bump I sprinted as fast as I ever have in a race possibly because it was a national championship. Unfortunately, it was only good enough to distance Mike Morgan in his fake Vaporfly 2s as Viv and Aidan Noone were way too fast. I ended up 42nd overall and 8th moderately old man which wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, there are no medals or prizes for those positions or for beating Michael Herlihy so I warmed down with Brian Murphy who was 6th in the nearly an old man category and went home. Hopefully the national championship will stay in Charleville, it’s a good home for it.

Allihies 5 Mile 2024

10 Things I Think About The Allihies 5 Mile 2024

1. Dingle vs Allihies

I think it is a great pity that the Allihies 5 Mile and Dingle Half Marathon are on the same day. It would have been great to have had John Meade to race around the hills of Allihies and equally it would have been great to turn up unexpected on the start line in Dingle to torment him, instead we both went our separate ways with no one tormented.

2. Long Road West

I think that the drive to Allihies is wonderful. It is the sort of drive that you could market to tourists who like to drive nice cars on bad roads with great views. We had the luck to encounter the inevitable red Toyota Corolla with faded paint on the only climbing lane on the route so we got there slightly ahead of schedule but still late by most runners standards.

3. Sunshine

I think that it is great that in Cork you can drive for two and a half hours and emerge from the car in a different climate. Glamire was grey, coolish and cloudy whereas in Allihies the sun was shining with temperatures in the low twenties, a great contrast to last year’s yellow weather warning when we had to shelter in the hall before and after the race.

4. Agent Graham

I think that Graham should get commission from the BHAA for distributing race prizes. He now not only does my race entries but collects my prize. It was nice to collect the envelope from the Amazon 5K in the lovely Tramore Valley Park in a nicer place like Allihies.

5. Green Paracetamol

I think that the only problem with a two and a half hour drive with a four year old with a limited repertoire of songs on Spotify is that it can result in a bad headache especially when combined with 20 degrees and high humidity. When we arrived I checked the glove compartment and found some paracetamol that expired in 2018 which was interesting. Knowing something about pharmaceuticals and degradants I decided not to chance it and ran down to the local shop for some green paracetamol which worked as well as it said it would on the box.

6. Leevale Singlet

I think that the Leevale singlet is a great singlet. It is a very intimidating singlet as it makes you look like a wasp and no one likes wasps. On the startline there were two Leevale singlets and a few other fellas in new magic shoes that I haven’t tried yet like the Asics Metaspeed Edge Paris and the Saucony Endorphin Pro 4 which was slightly worrying. I went off as hard as I could and found myself solo by the time we reached the left hand turn with the jaw dropping view of the ocean.

7. New Tarmac

I think that the new tarmac in the town has made the course slightly faster. I can’t remember if it was there last year or not as it was so wet, cold and windy last year that I don’t remember anything except that it was very wet. It was very nice to run up through the mountain that runs through the town. There were huge crowds sitting outside the pub who had their lunch interrupted by the sight of a large runner in a Leevale singlet running moderately fast for a moderately old man up a big hill.

8. Course Record

I think that my course record from the time when I put Michael McMahon on a poster is very good. Even with the new tarmac and lovely weather I couldn’t get within a minute of it on my own. I tried quite hard but it is very difficult to run fast without hatred, well for me it is anyway. I know not everyone is the same.

9. Some Finish

I think that no matter whether you are racing Michael McMahon or running on your own the finish of the race in Allihies is special. No other race will leave you as out of breath. It is definitely the steepest finish to a running race anywhere in the country. Utterly miserable and wonderful at the same time. Luckily Graham was there to capture my third victory this year on camera. I only need five more victories to make it the new fourth. It was also important to win after Rhona’s victory on Thursday night, otherwise I might be forgotten about.

10. Holding up the Whole Show

I think that Allihies is possibly the best place on earth for a warm down. It is much easier to appreciate the stunning beauty of the place at warm down pace. I was even going to do a fourth lap for the day, luckily, I had sense and turned back as Carol and Mark said I was holding up the prize giving which was very efficient and excellent. I got a nice bag with a bottle of wine and an envelope with money which was more than John Meade probably got for Dingle which was great.

Photo: mY aGENT gRAHAM

Greenway Half 2024

10 Things I Think About The Greenway Half 2024

1. Greenways are Great

I think that greenways are great. There couldn’t be enough of them. The one from Glanmire to Carrigtwohill has made running around Glanmire safe and almost nice. The one in Dungarvan is even better because it is fully safe and very nice. I had forgotten to enter the Greenway Half but luckily the very nice people in West Waterford A.C do “elite late entries” for moderately good elite BHAA road runners like me.

2. Dungarvan > Cork

I think that Cork City Council should be sent on a trip to Dungarvan to see what a town should look like. It is incredible, it reminded me of Paris during the Olympics, washed, cleaned and tidied like they were expecting very important visitors. The footpaths are so clean you could drop a piece of toast on the ground and consider eating it. It is very unlike Cork.

3. Car Pool Karaoke

I think that point to point races like the Greenway Half pose some additional logistical challenges. The organizers had helpfully provided buses to the start, but I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to psych out Viv in the car on the drive over to the start by carpooling with him. I parked in the field at the Railway Cottage ran over to Viv’s car and got driven to the start in Kilmacthomas where I collected my number from a white van in the car park.

4. Flapjack Factory

I think that the start of the race was very fast. The race starts about 2k east of the Coach House Café which is more or less the top of a small hill. We took off down the hill at a ridiculous pace for a half marathon led out by my opponent from Clonmel Dermot. It wasn’t long before we passed the nice bridge by the Flapjack Factory. I looked at my watch and saw that we were on about 68-minute pace so decided to go to the back of the group and hope everyone would blow up very soon.

5. Weeeee

I think that it took about 5k for the downhill momentum to run out. It would be fine if the downhill stopped and it was flat for a bit but instead it goes back up again for another 5k reversing all of the lost altitude. It was on this climb that I got into trouble. First the early pace setter Dermot dropped off, then I let a small gap develop between me and Viv who had hitched his wagon to the front group of three. I kept telling myself I was being sensible and the front four were mad but quickly switched to blaming the AlphaFlys when the gap started to grow.

6. Awful Alphas

I think that I will have to retire the AlphaFly 3s from racing. I have given them a good few goes now, I just don’t get on with them. They are very comfortable and great for doing a long run where pace isn’t important but trying to change pace in them is impossible. They are huge and heavy in my size UK 12, I notice every plodding step in them which is not what you want in a race shoe. I spent every mile of the race wishing that I had worn my Vaporflys so I could catch up to Viv who seems to work much better in AlphaFlys.

7. No Sense

I think that the last 10k of the race was a form of torture. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in front of me. Viv who I had administered the mother of all bad beatings to over 10k a few weeks ago was flying. He went through 10k faster than he ran for a 10k race. I know I motivate him because he loves beating me but this was ridiculous. I’m far better than any drug, stick me in a race with Viv and he is transformed.

8. Tunnel

I think that my favourite part of the course is the bit from the tunnel to the finish. The tunnel arrives at almost exactly 10 miles. Those 10 miles had been absolute torture as I could see the front group of four containing Viv, Pat Fitzgerald, Aidan Connell and Conor O’Brien just out of reach for everyone of the 10 miles. It is very dark in the tunnel and very silent, I used the darkness and silence of the tunnel to count the gap to Viv at the rear of the front group, 30 seconds, probably impossible over three miles.

9. Copper Coast

I think that the scenery that appears after the tunnel is as good as anywhere in the world. Turning the corner at 11 miles to see the sea on a sunny Saturday morning almost made the fact that Viv was 30 seconds up the road tolerable. I’ve seen the view a good few times now but it never gets old and was even nicer with a tailwind and not the usual headwind. At this point I gave up on catching Viv and resigned myself to fifth which luckily enough there was a prize for.

10. All Credit to Viv

I think that Viv might be the current greatest active Irish runner. Age adjusted his time would be 1:01 for the half marathon, I’m unsure if age adjusting accounts for a tailwind and a downhill course in magic shoes but it’s still far better than me and most runners in the country. I humbly accepted my beating, collected my prize for fifth which was great and drove Viv and Gavin back to their car in Kilmacthomas before cycling the greenway with Billy and Rhona for the afternoon which is what Greenways are also great for. A great day out aside from the bad beating.

Cork BHAA Amazon 5k 2024

10 Things I Think About The Amazon 5k

1. The Dump

I think that Tramore Valley Park is my least favourite place for a race in the world. It has no trees, this is my main issue, how can you have a park without trees. I doubt animals like it, a terrible place, so I was very motivated to go and run the BHAA race in the park with no trees.

2. Ungoablethroughable Tunnel

I think that 7.15pm on a Wednesday evening when some of the schools have gone back is a terrible time for a race. I had planned to go through the tunnel but I found out from Gruff that it was ungoablethroughable so I had to go over the Northside and down St Lukes which took ages. It would have been quicker to run from Glanmire to TVP.  

3. Agent Graham

I think that Graham is great, because of the traffic apocalypse I asked Rhona to message Graham to ask him if he would get our numbers as we were probably only going to arrive five minutes before the start. It would have been fine if people hadn’t started giving out about the BHAA races starting on time but now they start exactly on time so you can’t relax.

4. Not Even a Mile

I think that I didn’t get enough of a warmup because of the traffic apocalypse. My warmup consisted of running over to Graham to get the numbers, running back to the car then running back to the start. Sometimes this sort of warmup can work as adrenaline kicks in but this was a race in TVP a place that sucks motivation from the soul because of the lack of trees.

5. There’s No Michael Harty

I think that it was great to see Michael Harty back in action, it was just terrible that he chose a BHAA race around TVP to make his comeback. I had initially only seen the two Barrys so I wasn’t exactly delighted to find out that first place had already been decided, all I could hope for was that he hadn’t registered like one of the Barrys.

6. There Was Two of Them

I think that it would have been a great race between myself and the two Barrys (Twohig and Donovan) if Michael Harty wasn’t there. Instead after about 100m the race was over and Michael Harty was miles of barren treeless landscape ahead. I was left to battle the two Barrys for second and fourth place. My initial thought was that fourth place was highly likely.

7. Cork Has Only One Track Club

I think that the Cork Has Only One Track Club are a great supporter of BHAA races, they had two runners in the battle for second place Ruairi Manning paced myself and the two Barrys for the first lap of the treeless park. It was the perfect pace for me, not too fast and not too slow. I sat behind one of the two Barrys and accidentally clipped his heels twice which is fine because of Anthony Mannix.

8. Bowling Ball Barry

I think that I did well to avoid a collision on the last lap. With about a kilometer to go it was down to just me and the two Barrys for second place. I was sat on Barry Donovan’s left should as we turned right just after the exit for Douglas. Up ahead there were two people walking on the path, they drifted across the path from left to right as we approached. I assumed that Barry Donovan would go right around them but instead he ran straight through the middle of them like a bowling ball. I had already gone right to go around them but as Barry had split them the person on the outside hit my watch with their elbow and stopped my watch. I pressed go on the watch again and sprinted after Barry who had got a small gap.

9. Teddy Bear Mountain

I think that I probably did as well as I could versus the two Barrys. I caught back up to Cork Track Club Barry as we approached the outdoor gym. I decided to try and get away from them before the teddy bear hill but it was pointless and the two Barry monsters tore off up the hill at a ridiculous rate leaving me to run home in fourth as I’m well used to doing.

10. 8th Fourth Place

I think that I don’t finish fourth as often as people think. This was only my eight 4th place finish this year which isn’t too bad and to make it even better Cork Has Only One Track Club Barry wasn’t registered so I was actually 3rd BHAA runner which meant I got a prize. Unfortunately, I had to leave immediately after the race so my Agent Graham had to pick up my prize.

Clonmel Half Marathon 2024

10 Things I Think About The Clonmel Half Marathon

1. Hop’s Last Stand

I think that the Clonmel Half Marathon should invite back former champions for the 10-year anniversary of their victories. It is coming up on 10 years since the great day when Cullen’s finest runner John O’Connell won a great victory over Conor McCauley around the streets and hills of Clonmel. I would love to have beaten both of them badly but I wasn’t excellent enough at the time, all I can do now is try and beat the time, 1:12:18, which was good enough 8 years ago in the bad old days before magic shoes.

2. Early O’Clock

I think that early morning races just don’t suit me. There should probably be a ban on races before 11am to make it fair for sleepy people like me. The ideal time would be about 2pm like the half marathon in Den Haag which horrified John Meade and Viv. I had to get up at 6.30am to get ready for Clonmel. I was extraordinarily tired and considered not getting up at all. I wasn’t much better by the time I arrived in Clonmel at 9am where the weather was pleasant if a little windy.

3. Terrific Track

I think that the track in Clonmel is probably quicker to get to from Glanmire than MTU. It takes 49 minutes to get to the Clonmel track on the motorway. MTU at 5pm would probably take at least an hour and a half plus the track in Clonmel is far more magnificent. My favourite part of the track is not the track but the crushed beige gravel loop around the track. That crushed beige gravel should be everywhere. It is the best surface for running on.

4. 1,2,3,4

I think that I picked the wrong half marathon to do. There were very good prizes for first second and third place with nothing for fourth, this worried me greatly considering my innate ability to finish fourth. Willy Maunsell, Jake O’Regan and Sean Doyle was a bad combination to see on the starting line. Fourth was probably the best I could hope for, fourth would be victory especially if I could beat John O’Connell’s time and failing that Conor’s.

5. 68 or 69

I think that it was Tadhg O’Sullivan’s fault that I ended up doing the first kilometer with the proper elite athletes. He jokingly said to me before the start you are probably going for 68 or 69. The disrespect from the young fella made me so angry I decided I would try and run 69 and show him how great I am. Trying lasted about a kilometer, after which I looked at my watch saw 5:14 pace and decided that 69 is only possible in Spain in January.

6. Reverse

I think that I am a very sensible moderately old man athlete. After the huge failure to run with Willy Maunsell, Jake O’Regan and Sean Doyle I sensibly decided that I would wait for the second group containing Tadhg, Dermot Gorman and Ray O’Connell to catch me. I ran a handy second mile letting the Willy led group of elite’s drift off into the distance and sure enough I could soon hear the Alphaflys and Vaporflys clapping off the ground behind me indicating that it was time to get going again.

7. Marfield Hill

I think that it took about two minutes for me to regret slowing down to wait for the group. The noise of the Alphaflys and Vaporflys clapping off the ground seemed to be worse than normal. Then to make it worse I saw the huge hill at about 3 miles that looks like the hill from the Paris Olympic Marathon in that you can see it for a long time before you have to run up it. I’m pretty sure this hill wasn’t there in John O’Connell’s time.

8. Dermot and Donal

I think that once we got over the huge hill I started to feel good again. This was probably because we were running downhill with the wind behind us. The group reduced to just me and Dermot which also revealed that the noise was not coming from Tadhg’s Alphafly 3s as I had suspected and blamed but in fact from Dermot’s Vaporfly 3s. Myself and Dermot ran together nicely until the cone where we turned around and ran back towards Clonmel at which point I managed to get a gap on Dermot which didn’t make sense as I wasn’t really trying to drop him not wanting to run into the headwind home on my own.

9. Clonmel Clip

I think that there are very angry Sunday drivers in Clonmel. I had a nice solo run along by the nice river into the vicious headwind from mile 8 to 11. Then for the last two miles we ran up through Clonmel back to the track. Two cars, a Skoda with a RN reg and a Mercedes with a D reg did that thing they do to cyclists where they try to clip you with the wing mirror even though there is nothing on the other side of the road to prevent them moving out. When the Skoda stopped at the red light just after trying to clip me, I was so tempted to remove the wing mirror from the car but instead restrained myself to some Italian and Limerick style gesticulations which hopefully weren’t captured by any photographers.

10. Around the Track

I think that the cars trying to clip me greatly helped with the last two miles. I was so angry I ran quite well even though it was all quite uphill, anger is a great fuel. I was very happy to turn onto the lovely track for the last 350m with no one behind me as I am terrified of being caught and passed on a track particularly by John Meade. Dermot was about 50 seconds behind, so I was safe to enjoy my first lap on the closest track to Glanmire on my own. I was close enough to the historic time of John O’Connell and even closer to that of Conor McCauley, more importantly I was back to being fourth again which meant I could do more miles on the lovely beige crushed gravel loop without worrying about missing the prizegiving.

Rathcormac 4 Mile 2024

10 Things I Think About The Rathcormac 4 Mile

1. A Very, Very, Very Cunning Plan

I think that the most important part of being a local elite level club BHAA runner is that you learn from your mistakes. The second most important part is to pick the race the day after nearly everyone faster than you has run in the BHAA race. I really like the Stryker 4 mile route but I figured there was a good chance that the Wednesday race would be more popular given the weather forecast so I kept my race effort for Thursday in Rathcormac.

2. Cross Country Weather

I think that it was great to get a reminder of what the cross-country races will be like in a few month’s time. I hadn’t run a race in the wind and rain since the Kinsale 10 mile which was one of the coldest wettest, windiest races ever. Rathcormac in August is generally sunny and warm but this year it was wet and almost cold. Perfect weather for a fella that loves the misery of a cross country race in November. Not perfect weather for all the poor volunteers like Graham who had to stand around in the pouring rain.

3. Park Life

I think that Rathcormac has a great setup for a road race. If you were to design a place to hold a road race you couldn’t do much better. It has a lovely half a mile warm up loop a short jog from the start with lots of parking beside the warm up loop. I warmed up with Liam O’Connor who Kieran McKeown had sent to beat me and Chris from Norway who fixes all of the broken runners.

4. James McCarthy

I think that it was inevitable that someone from East Cork would show up in Rathcormac. It is in their territory so they’d have to send someone, thankfully that someone was James McCarthy and not Tony Forristal. I haven’t been anywhere near Tony in races but James has had to work hard to beat me so I wasn’t too horrified to see him on the startline. There was no John Meade.

5. My Lovely Horses

I think that the Rathcormac race should use the horses in the race for advertising. It is a very nice route with horses running alongside the course for the first few 100m. Once we had passed the nice horses I started to concentrate on beating James McCarthy. I figured that given the way the race in Churchtown South unfolded there was no point in running with him to the finish as he would destroy me if he was even within sight of me once the finish was visible. So I set to work trying to run as fast as I could for the whole 4 miles which is the point of the race in the first place I suppose.

6. Just the Two of Us

I think that it took a bit longer than I thought it would to get the race down to just me and James. Liam O’Connor and Keith Kelly were hard to shake off. It took until the right-hand turn in Castlelyons to be free of them. I was particularly worried about Liam as he has been running 16 flat for 5k and will probably beat Viv soon which means he will probably beat me too.

7. Never Beat Your Heroes.

I think that when I started running races about 16 years ago, I never thought that I would end up in a battle with James McCarthy in a road race. James used to win everything, especially in East Cork, he is miles and miles better than me, a different species of an athlete with a proper 5k PB on the track before magic spikes came along and made average runners like me reasonably annoyingly fast. John Meade tells a great long story short about the time he beat James in the Ballycotton 5, never did I think that I would get the opportunity to do the same albeit in Rathcormac about 10 years later.

8. The Sound of the Vaporflys

I think that the great thing about Vaporflys is that you don’t have to look behind you to tell if you are getting a gap on someone or not. With about a mile and a half to go I suddenly started to hear that the Vaporflys of James McCarthy were getting less loud. The sound started to get fainter and fainter, then with a little bit more effort there was no sound just my own Vaporflys splashing the water from the road. I couldn’t believe it. I dared not look behind for fear that my ears were deceiving me.

9. Fear and Loathing in Rathcormac

I think that leading a race is terrifying. It is possibly one of the worst feelings ever. A feeling of complete terror. On the very rare occasions that I’m leading a race close to the finish I have a large Michael Herlihy head on my shoulder laughing at me. I was utterly terrified for the last mile and a half. I ran in complete fear. I knew that I had to keep going all the way to the line as if I wasn’t at least 10 seconds ahead with 400m to go I was in trouble. As luck with have it Rhona and Billy were standing about 400m from the finish. They didn’t say anything about anyone behind so I relaxed a little. I didn’t look back because that’s not allowed.

10. Complete Stranger to Winning Races

I think that the guy calling out the names at the finish line gave me too much credit. A man who is no stranger to winning races is not how I would describe myself. A man who is no stranger to coming fourth would be much more accurate. Anyway, it was wonderful to finally win a race especially as I ran faster over the same distance than both Michael Herlihy and Viv did in the BHAA race so it was almost a double victory. After a warm down in the rain with James and Keith Kelly around the best warm up loop in the country it was back to the hall with the impressive spread to collect first and not fourth prize for once. It was a good plan.