10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About Running on a Black, Dark Wet and Cold Tuesday

1. John Meade’s Forecast

I think I should have unsubscribed from John Meade’s weather email when he gave us the chance for GDPR. Unlike John Meade’s stories it’s very accurate. Tonight’s had a big tall red bar chart for rain, lots of rain, dark black cold rain.

2. Twenty Minute Dwell Time

I think I didn’t do too bad with my twenty minute dwell time in the car contemplating not running, the Second Captains podcast on Aaron Hernandez became grippingly interesting the minute I stopped the car. I had a look through Instagram, Facebook, Strava and Garmin Connect to try and motivate myself, Alan O’Brien had a run titled “Misery”, this didn’t help.

3. Hop

I think meeting Hop as he was heading out the door made me realize that I was actually lucky to be going running in the dark cold rain. He asked if I wanted anything from the shop, I said I just wanted it to stop being wet, cold and dark. He continued on to the shop, I started my watch and turned on my headlamp, I don’t know which one of us was happier.

4. Terrible Ten Minutes

I think the first ten minutes of a black dark wet cold run in December are the worst. It’s really terrible, my teeth were chattering, my legs were cold and it was so dark and cold. Once the terrible ten minutes are over it becomes bearable, barely.

5. Reverse Route

I think it’s a good idea to keep a new route in reserve for a night like this. I couldn’t face running into Silversprings again like I normally do so I ran up Church Hill into the northside around the north ring road. It was just my normal route in reverse but it looked new and exciting to my wet cold brain.

6. Heron

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a heron in Cork before but I saw one tonight up near the Glen. He was crossing the road to Dunnes. We looked at each other for a few seconds and continued on our ways. I wish I’d had my phone to take a photo, herons are pretty, I may have been going mad.

7. Hops

I think that smell by the Heineken brewery is my favorite mid run smell. I think it’s better than the smell as you run past a chipper. It’s a kind of full sweet tasty smell, perfect for running. It reminded me of Heineken Zero Zero, I like Heineken Zero Zero.

8. Pale Waves

I think I was very lucky tonight with puddles, I never got splashed, I saw one poor woman get absolutely destroyed by a car and a big puddle out by Blackpool. Two seconds later and it would have been me. I don’t think I could have got any wetter anyway.

9. Roadworks

I think those guys doing the overnight roadworks on the way into town are heroes. I can’t imagine how miserable it is to stand there all night in that misery turning a stop go sign. They looked how I imagined I looked, cold, wet and miserable. One of the guys made a feeble effort to stop me and direct me to the other side of the road, he really didn’t care.

10. Euphoric Eighty

I think it’s essential to do at least eighty minutes on black dark cold wet night like this. It’s like a switch in your brain goes off at eighty minutes and it suddenly becomes enjoyable. Perhaps that’s why Alan O’Brien titled his run “Misery”, he only ran for seventy minutes, I did eighty, mine was “Magnificent”, actually no it was “Epically Shite”