10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Cursa D’Age 2018

1. John Meade

I think that someday I’ll beat John in a road race. I lost to him again today. I don’t like it. When I beat him, which I will because he will eventually get too old, I will remind him every day for a full year. I can’t wait. It will happen, eventually.

2. Croissants and Cakes

I think that it is very important to eat lots of food in Font Romeu. The thin air causes hunger, the only way to ensure sufficient calorific intake is to supplement with pain au raisins, croissants and custard tarts with berries on top. The tarts should be consumed from a nice box, preferably containing three tarts.

3. Perfect Conor

I think that it was very kind of Conor to be perfect Conor and do a perfect session with Michael rather than run the race. They would definitely have put me off the podium. I appreciated their dedication to perfect training. I wish that I was perfect.

4. Puigcerda

I think Puigcerda is my favorite bit of Font Romeu. Puigcerda is pronounced Poo-Cherr-Da. I learned this pronunciation from the mayor of Puigcerda who thanked us for coming to the race and being excellent at running. The Spanish hours are much better than French hours, it is nice to be able to eat after 9pm. France closes too early.

5. An Fear Garmiúil

I think that some one good always turns up to these races. On the line myself and John were very concerned by the professional looking Spaniard decked out in black Nike gear. He looked way better than us in our Edge and Leevale singlets, much more professional. At least I had my orange glasses. Myself and John communicated our concerns regarding the Spaniard to each other as gaeilge.

6. Put Them Under Pressure

I think the best approach when you don’t know who you’re racing is to try and run faster than them, or else just really annoy them by running faster than you appear you should be able to. I knew that John was just going to follow me and run away from me after 2 miles so I tried to get rid of the professional looking Spaniard for him. This kind of worked in that I made them both suffer but they were still there after two miles. I could hear that they were both suffering badly.

7. Dust and Mud

I think that I should have tried harder on the dirt road section. I kind of gave up when the two lads passed me. I was more worried about losing my precious podium place. The dirt road was very very very rutted and mucky. The lead car was kicking dust up which didn’t help, it was very hard to breathe. It’s still a great course, totally different to a road race at home.

8. Formula 1

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone pull over while winning a race with 1km to go. As we left the dirt road section, the professional looking Spaniard had gotten a slight gap on John, I could see that John’s muscly rounded shoulders had dropped indicating that he was giving up the fight. Then as I turned the corner back towards the finish I saw the poor Spaniard hunched over at the side of the road clutching his side. It was like a Formula 1 Race where the engine blows on the last lap. John and I continued on in 1st and 2nd. I tried to catch John and closed to within 10 seconds but couldn’t get any closer and had to watch him cross the line arms aloft like he does every time he wins.

9. 14 Times

I think it was rather sad that we denied the professional looking Spaniard a victory in his local race. Apparently he has being trying to win that race for 14 years without success. We found out that he is a physio from Barcelona called Oriol who has run sub 2:30 for the marathon. I’ll get to race him again in Berlin. I think that he will beat me badly then.

10. Podium

I think I will only run races with podiums from now on. Thankfully Andrew was there to take excellent photos of me which I will put on Instagram when I reach an area with WIFI again. I had to do the left right kissing on the cheek with the nice lady who gave me my medals, I think I did it right, the photos look excellent anyway. We got to go up onto the podium twice because we finished first and second in both the senior and absoluto categories. I appreciated this. I like podiums.

Medals taste good

The Podium