10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The All Ireland Senior Cross Country

1. Variation on a Theme

I think the course in Abbotstown is a small improvement on the previous course. It has a major problem with shortness. The grass is too short and the lap is too short. It could do with some water, a few jumps and some trees but other than that it’s fine. It has great potential, it just needs a bit more madness, a bit more imagination.

2. Breaking Abbotstown

I think that it would be interesting to conduct a breaking 2 like experiment on cross country running. There has to be an optimal spike pattern and spike length for every condition and type of mud. There’s no consistency in the running spikes being worn, they’re all different, no one even thinks of getting a pair that would be faster like they do with Vaporflys. The only unusual ones I saw were Sergiu’s Asics which had the Vaporfly beak on the back.

3. Nine Inch Nails

I think that Michael Herlihy should be disqualified for endangering the health of everyone in the race. His spikes were like nails, they were at least an inch long, ridiculous yokes. I didn’t think they’d work until I saw him engage them in the muck on the first big lap. It was like everyone else had slick tires and Mike had winter tyres with studs, more shoe doping.

4. I Really Shouldn’t Be Here

I think that even the good guys felt intimidated on the start line. There was serious quality on show. It’s great that everyone turns out, perhaps this is why they keep it in Dublin, not sure everyone would drag themselves to Carrigadrohid or Clarecastle in the November rain.

5. Carambolage

I think that there was a serious danger of an F1 style first corner accident. It was sort of like the first corner at Spa, a tight right hand with one line just 200m from the start. Just like when you watch an F1 race I was kind of hoping there’d be a big pile up with half the field eliminated by Michael Herlihy’s spikes and that I’d be like a Minardi scoring points because everyone else was retired. In the end I was far too slow to cause an accident and everyone safely snaked their way politely around the sweeping off camber bend, miraculous really. It could have been great.

6. The Mucky Lap

I think that the 1500m lap was deceptively hard. If you just stood at the finish line for the whole race you’d think that it was a grand fast course, what are they complaining about? What you couldn’t see was the ankle deep thick sticky muck around the back of the course. The muck in Abbotstown is unlike normal farmers field muck. It’s thick and viscous, it pulls you down with every step, turning stylish nimble runners into lumbering hunched over creatures like me, everyone suffers, no one looks good.

7. Muck

I think that I’m not very good at running in the muck. People seem to think I’m good at it because I like it but I’m actually very terrible at running in the muck. What I’m very excellent at is running fast after coming out of the muck. I understand the muck and don’t get demoralised so I can go again once it’s gone and the ground gets firm again. I need a 50% muck ratio, this was more like 75% muck, not ideal.

8. 5 Spikes Good 4 Spikes Bad

I think that I should have worn the new pair of spikes. The race in Carrigadrohid broke the thread in one of the spikes, which then fell out in Conna. I got a new pair of the Brooks Mach spikes just in time for the race but it was a new model and it looks far different so I was scared to wear them in case I’d get injured. For some reason I decided it was a good idea to remove the same spike from the non broken shoe to balance them out. This was a big mistake. The fifth spike was badly needed on the little hill out of the muck pit, I couldn’t get traction at all. Brooks clearly do some engineering when they design them, not quite Nike Next% level but some.

9. Seven

I think that seven laps is too many. I know it’s probably better for the spectators but it’s very hard on the head to run 7 laps and there is a serious risk of being lapped. To make it worse the muck slows it down to about marathon pace so seems like it’ll never end. 5 or 6 laps would be plenty. Surely they could find a mile lap, make it nice and simple.

10. Bewilderment

I think that my favourite thing about this race is that bewildered look on everyone’s face at the finish. It’s like everyone’s thinking “I won the Thomas the Tank Engine 5k four years in a row, how can I finish 83rd?, I’m a 15 minute 5ker”. That’s the great thing about cross country, it’s a total lottery, road times count for nothing and you’ve no idea whether you ran well or not.