10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Kinsale 10 Mile

1. Windy Hilly Foggy

I think I didn’t get to see Kinsale properly today. It was hidden beneath a big grey blanket of cloud and wind. It was horribly grey very unsunny, impossible for sunglasses. All I saw in Kinsale was cloud, wind, hills and a surreal fancy Dinos.

2. Forgotten Pizza

I think I forgot to eat enough yesterday. Because today’s wasn’t really supposed to be a race I wasn’t sure if I should have the normal pre race pizza. I kind of forgot to have the pizza in the end. It’s just as well I had a few brunches. I didn’t feel racy this morning.

3. Elongated Warm Up

I think it isn’t a good idea to run 6 miles as your warm up for a race. I did 6 miles because I wanted to get 100 miles for the week which is very important because 100 is a big number and Stephen Scullion makes podcasts whinging about how hard running 90 miles a week is.

4. Irresistible

I think it doesn’t matter how tired I am I cannot resist trying to lead at the start of a road race. I led this one for about 100m, the start was downhill so it was inevitable. I’m very good at starting downhill. The rest of the course was like if you added the Shanagarry 5 and Ballycotton 5 together to make a 10 miler. Lumpy and windy.

5. Treacherous Foley

I think that Vivian Foley is a liar. A terrible liar, I will not trust him again. He’s like a property developer that promises to build footpaths in exchange for planning permission not to be trusted. We were supposed to do approximately marathon pace. During the long warm up Viv was barely confident of being able to run with his terrible injuries. I was not exactly surprised to see him disappear off up the road never to be seen again after 2 miles. Treacherous.

6. Training Hero

I think it’s a lot easier to just race than to try and run a set pace. I’m very bad at concentrating, I was getting very distracted and angry at the fog, wind, hills and liars. I didn’t do a very good job at running marathon pace, it was all over the place. I’d have been better off racing or just training at home.

7. Electrolyte Joe

I think Joe’s electrolytes were a lot nicer than the poisonous yellow electrolytes that Ken Devine gave me at 22 miles in Cork last year. I’m pretty sure it was the green high five zero ones, quite tolerable almost pleasant, I didn’t drink much of it but it distracted me from the wind for a while.

8. Confused

I think that using races as training is a very bad idea. It’s very confusing for your brain. If I had run the same pace and distance in training I’d be delighted, it’s almost like your brain doesn’t believe you that you actually weren’t racing. Perhaps I wasn’t, perhaps that’s all I had. I hate thinking. I wasn’t racing, honest.

9. Tarmac Track

I think a tarmac track is a great idea. It looks wonderful and it won’t get ripped to pieces like the Mardyke. Perhaps they should just tarmac the Mardyke. I’m not sure if the finish was on the right side of the track though. The Garmin read it a little long, although Garmins are often very wrong, everyone seems to trust the Garmins for some reason. Garmins are just as capable of lying.

10. Battle of Kinsale

I think that I will have to punish Vivian Foley for his treachery today. That wasn’t a battle in Kinsale, that was trickery. I will beat him very badly in Boston, extra badly.